Thomas Aquinas on the Beatific Vision: A Christological Deficit

This article argues Aquinas's doctrine of the beatific vision suffers from a twofold christological deficit: (1) Aquinas rarely alludes to an eternally continuing link (whether as cause or as means) between Christ's beatific vision and ours; and (2) for Aquinas the beatific vision is not t...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Boersma, Hans 1961- (Auteur)
Collaborateurs: Gaine, Simon Francis (Antécédent bibliographique)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: [2018]
Dans: TheoLogica
Année: 2018, Volume: 2, Numéro: 2, Pages: 129-147
Classifications IxTheo:KAE Moyen Âge central
KAH Époque moderne
NBC Dieu
NBF Christologie
NBQ Eschatologie
Sujets non-standardisés:B John Owen
B Beatific Vision
B Thomas Aquinas
B Eschatology
B Theophany
Accès en ligne: Volltext (doi)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Résumé:This article argues Aquinas's doctrine of the beatific vision suffers from a twofold christological deficit: (1) Aquinas rarely alludes to an eternally continuing link (whether as cause or as means) between Christ's beatific vision and ours; and (2) for Aquinas the beatific vision is not theophanic, that is to say, for Aquinas, Christ is not the object of the beatific vision; instead, he maintains the divine essence constitutes the object. Even if Aquinas were to have followed his "principle of the maximum" in the unfinished third part of the Summa and so had discussed Christ's own beatific vision as the cause of the saints' beatific vision, he would still have ended up with a christological deficit, inasmuch as Christ would still not be the means and the object of the saints' beatific vision. For a more christologically robust way forward, I draw on John Owen and several other Puritan theologians, who treat the beatific vision as the climactic theophany.
ISSN:2593-0265
Référence:Kritik in "Thomas Aquinas, the Beatific Vision and the Role of Christ (2018)"
Contient:Enthalten in: TheoLogica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.14428/thl.v2i2.14733