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Aquinas on Human Nature and the Possibility of Bodiless Existence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
Aquinas contends that we are soul/body composites, and that one's death brings about the dissolution of this union. Although he also contends that our souls will exist during the interim period between our death and the General Resurrection, it is not clear whether he thinks that we will continue exist during this period. While his considered opinion appears to be that as soul/body composites we cannot exist apart from our bodies, in his Commentary on the Apostles' Creed he implies that we will exist for a time as disembodied souls. In this paper I argue that Aquinas can consistently uphold the continued existence of the faithful departed. In particular, I argue that he can consistently affirm both (i) that Peter is not his soul, and (ii) that Peter can exist for a time as a soul.
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- © 2011 The Author. New Blackfriars © 2011 The Dominican Council
References
1 Summa Theologica (ST) I, Q. 75, art. 1, body.
2 Disputed Questions on the Soul. Quoted from Aquinas: Selected Philosophical Writings (SPW), edited by McDermott, Timothy (Oxford: OUP, 1993), 186Google Scholar, following Aristotle's De Anima II.1 (412a27–28).
3 De Anima II.1 (412a 23–29).
4 De Anima II.1 (412b 19–22).
5 ST I, Q. 75, art. 2, body. See also ST I, Q. 75, art. 5, body. For loosely parallel arguments in Aristotle, see On the Soul III.4–8. I say “loosely parallel” because Aristotle does not conclude that the entire soul is both incorporeal and subsistent; this is at best true of the intellectual part of the soul.
6 ST I, Q. 75, art. 4, body.
7 SPW, 188.
8 ST I, Q. 75, art. 6, reply 1 (quoting Ecclesiastes 12.7).
9 SPW, 192.
10 The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Joseph B. Collins, 1939. Published online by the Catholic Primer, 2004 [http://www.hismercy.ca/content/ebooks/St.Thomas%20Aquinas-The%20Catechetical%20Instructions.pdf].
11 Ibid., (quoting Sirach 24.45).
12 Ibid.
13 Cf Compendium of Theology, I.178.
14 The first of these passages comes from his commentary on 1 Corinthians (SPW, 192). The second comes from ST III, Supplement, Q. 75, art. 1, reply 2. The third comes from his Disputed Questions on the Soul (SPW, 188).
15 ST II-II, Q. 83, art. 11, obj. 5.
16 ST II-II, Q. 83, art. 11, repl. 5.
17 Stump, Thus Eleonore, Aquinas (New York: Routledge, 2003), 211Google Scholar.
18 ST I, Q. 75, art. 4, repl. 1.
19 2 Cor. 4.16.
20 2 Cor. 5.6–10.
21 2 Cor. 5.10.
22 2 Cor. 4.17–18.
23 See above, n. 14.
24 Here, in chronological order, is a list of authoritative statements to this effect. References are to the seventh edition of Neuner, and Dupuis, ’The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church (New York: Alba House, 2001)Google Scholar, and cross-listed with parallel passages in Denzinger's and Schönmetzer's Enchiridion Symbolarum. 1. Council of Rome (Tome of Pope Damasus) (382): ND 603/7: 219; DS 159. 2. Second Letter of Cyril of Alexandria to Nestorius (430): ND 604: 221; DS 250. 3. The Tome of St. Leo (449): ND 604–605: 221; DS 250–251. 4. Council of Chalcedon (451): ND 614: 227; DS 301. 5. The Faith of Damasus (late fifth century): ND 15: 11; DS 72. 6. Athanasian Creed (late fifth century): ND 17: 13; DS 76. 7. Second Council of Constantinople (553): ND 620/4: 232–233; DS 424. 8. Fourth Lateran Council (1215): ND 20: 15–16; DS 801. 9. Second General Council of Lyons (The Profession of Faith of Michael Paleologus) (1274): ND 22: 18; DS 852.