Aquinas and Dante: Perfecting Human Reason

Julia Caldwell Professor Albrecht reading of Western Civilization 2, February, 2013 Aquinas and Dante Perfecting world Reason Aquinas and Dante Perfecting Human Reason Despite the fact that Dantes endorser doesnt chance on St. Thomas Aquinas within the Comedia until promised land, the beliefs and teachings of Aquinas are woven end-to-end the entirety of the famous poem. St. Thomas Aquinass cosmology and religion are used as the foundation for Dantes Comedia, and for this ground it is no surprise that the experiences of the Pilgrim symbolically reflect umteen of Aquinass teachings.The Pilgrims experiences on his journey with and finished the afterlife reflect what Aquinas called the, two-fold faithfulness concerning the divine being, one to which the inquiry of drive rotter take stake, the other which surpasses the wholly ability of homo rationalness (Summa Contra Gentiles, Handout I, 4). Dante also illustrates Aquinass end point that mans conclude tends toward the ancestry of ultimate true up enchantment mans go a look tends toward the ultimate good. The reader is able to see how Dantes will and tenability search for, and ultimately attain, fulfillment in the plenty of the master Essence.Both Aquinas and Dante emphasize the necessary union among human priming and divine faith as a means of attaining this fulfillment. As the instiller of these inclinations, totally perfection Himself can satisfy them. Aquinas demonstrates this idea through his explanation of the natural and the divine law as they pertain to the staring(a) law. Dante demonstrates this idea through the Pilgrims interactions with his guides and the culmination of his ascension in Paradise. beneficial as with body and soul, matter and form, there is a harmonious kinship between reason and faith yet the agents within these partnerships are not equal.Both Dante and Aquinas ack without delayledge that human reason can assist the separate in understanding perfection a nd coinciding ones will with His will, but they both conclude that this secular-based reasoning is subjugated by and thereof mustiness be perfected by theology. In Dantes Virgil the reader finds human reason personified. Being the shade of a ren experienceed and flip philosopher, Virgil is a perfect candidate to guide the Pilgrim through hell and purgatory. In his own lifetime Virgil lived as a pious man and therefore attained the imperfect Earthly joy that can be acquired through natural supplys.However, as Aquinas states, every knowledge that is according to the method of created substance, falls short of the dream of the Divine Essence, therefore Virgil is uneffective to reach fulfillment since he cannot ascend to Paradise (Summa Theologiae, Handout II, 12). Instead, like many of his pagan contemporaries, Virgil is doomed to spend eternity in the underworlds Limbo. He will forever yearn to know the ultimate happiness and the ultimate truth that are only found in immort al. As Virgil puts it himself, In this alone we suffer cut off from hope, we live in desire (Inferno, 20).Dante provides Virgil as a means of illustrating the incompleteness of human reason, whereby discover Aquinass warning. When describing the home of philosophers within Limbo Dante writes, we reached a place spread out and luminous (Inferno 22). It is fitting that this solid ground be characterized by lessen because as Aquinas states, natural reason is nothing else than an imprint on us of the Divine deject (Summa Theologiae, Handout II, 13). The knowledge possessed by the philosophers comes from matinee idol Himself, or the Eternal Law.Having never embraced the faith of God through the slaying of the theological virtues, however, Virgil is an imperfect soul. Much like Virgil, human reason is point by the light of the Eternal Law, but is unperfected without the divine law. It is this very spot of Virgils reputation that makes him the perfect guide for the initial stages o f Dantes journey. In Virgil Dante finds a guide capable of explicateing and illuminating the conceptual and rational worlds of crazy house and Purgatory, but also in Virgil Dante is able to see the limits of human reason without the theological virtues.With Virgil as his guide, the Pilgrim is guided by the light of natural reason (Summa Contra Gentiles, Handout I, 2). Along his journey, however, Virgil comes to realize that his wise guide is not all-powerful. When the orthodontic braces get tos at the gates of Dis in Canto 8, the Furies slam the gates of the city keep out despite Virgils pleas. It is only when a holy messenger from Paradise arrives that the Furies surrender to Gods will and allow Dante and Virgil to enter. Taking this payoff metaphorically, reason is unable to go on further without grace. As the copulate travel within the realm of Purgatory it becomes clear that Dantes uestions are get more of a challenge for Virgil. When Virgil is trying to explain why his shade casts no shadow, his reasoning can only goes as far as to say that his condition is, willed by that Power which wills its secret not to be revealed (Purgatory 207). Dante goes on to describe Virgils countenance as having anguished thoughts (Purgatory 207). Virgils struggle to explain the dynamics of the afterlife as the pair comes circumferent to Paradise reflects Aquinass conclusion that the human nous is not able to reach a comprehension of the divine substance through its natural power (Summa Contra Gentiles, Handout I, 3).Furthermore this instance exemplifies Aquinass conclusion that human reason is able to recognize effects but is unable to explain the Ultimate Cause of these effects without faith (Summa Contra Gentiles, Handout I, 9). Virgil can see that he has no shadow, but he cannot explain the source of the original cause. Since Virgil never recollectd in the faith of the divine mysteries while he was still on Earth, his intellect is unable to grasp an understandi ng of Gods will. In conclusion, because Virgil doesnt use faith to perfect his reason, his own will can never be aligned with the will of his Creator.Virgil specifically alludes to the fault in his faith when he distinguishes between pagan and Christian prayer. He admits that his own prayers, on with the prayers of all pagans, had no access to God (Purgatory, 225). Unlike pagan prayers, which according to Virgil in the Aeneid are powerless in a universe predestined by the Fates, Christian prayers are an cast of human participation with the true divine. By taking part in prayer, the individual takes part in the theological virtues that are infused by God alone and direct us aright to God (Summa Theologiae, Handout II, 11).It is only through the participation in these theological virtues that an individual can be guided toward God Himself. These virtues are the perfecting agents by which the human will and intellect are pushed toward their last act (Summa Theologiae, Handout II, 8). This last act is the learning of happiness in the vision of the Divine Essence. Rather than try to explain concepts beyond what his reason can grapple with, Virgil asks his pupil to wait for Beatrice to firmness his questions on this subject Do not try to resolve so deep a doubt wait until she shall make it clearershe, he light between truth and intelligence (Purgatory 225). In this statement Virgil admits that Beatrice, as the light, is more capable of illuminating matters of the divine than the poet. Once the pair reaches the blanket of mount Purgatory, Virgil tells his young friend, youve reached the place where my discernment now has reached its end (Purgatory 351). Virgil has taken the Pilgrim as far as reason can dictate now Dante requires a guide of theological proportions to guide him in a realm where reason is blinded.When Dante reaches the top of Mount Purgatory, he has been cleansed of every perversion of the will. The feelings of discernment he felt for Virgil inv olve been replaced by the intense love he feels for his bare-ass guide, Beatrice. He now desires conceptual knowledge less and kind of begins to explore understanding through his senses. This tradeoff is necessary in this new realm where observations may not be fitting to human concepts. This need is made clear when Beatrice beings to explain to Dante the divinely ordained distribution of power amongst the stars (Paradise Canto I).Before she lays out the complicated plan she warns Dante, even when the senses guide, reasons wingspan can sometimes be short (Paradise 399). This is a reminder to Dante that his experiences in Paradise will not be as easily digested and picked away as his experiences in Hell and Purgatory. In the former realms, human reason could essentially provide explanations without needing the aid of theology. This is also a cue to Dantes readers that they are not mentally capable of understanding the phenomena he is active to experience, so they must rely on fa ith.In a larger context, sympathy must rely on its faith in God to have any earthly understanding of what heaven is. Donning red, white, and green, Beatrice symbolically represents the theological virtues, including faith. Dante ab initio relies on the eyeball of Beatrice to reflect the heavenly bodies, since the brightness of Paradise overwhelms his eyes (Paradise 393). This can be metaphorically applied to the idea that humans must rely on the assistance of God, through belief and participation in the theological virtues, to begin to understand Gods mysteries.In the same way Dante initially owes his sight of Paradise to the eyes of Beatrice, humanity owes perfection of its reason to the theological virtues. As Aquinas chimes, the theological virtues direct man to occult arts happiness (Summa Theologiae, Handout II, 11). Through keeping faith in the mysteries while on Earth, a soul will be ready to discriminate them in the afterlife. In this way, both Dante and Aquinas emphasiz e how important it is for Christians to believe in the mysteries of the divine even when they transcend human reason.Even having beheld the beauty of the Divine himself, Dante is unable to relate the experience in words to his readers. Though he has seen the mysteries of God with his own eyes, the Divine Essences unparalleled nature transcends human explanation and human understanding. In this way Dante illustrates Aquinass conclusion that while on Earth we must rely on what we believe not what we actually see and understand. Aquinas says, although human reason cannot grasp fully the truths that are yet above itif it somehow holds these truths by faith, it acquires great perfection for itself (Summa Contra Gentiles, Handout I, 6).In this way Aquinas clarifies the relationship between faith and reason. Without faith, reason remains unperfected and vulnerable to falsehoods. With faith, however, reason aligns itself with truth and so aligns itself with the will of God. Individuals who perfect reason with faith are guided along the path towards salvation, just as Dante experiences. Following this path, one is able to arrive at the end toward which all humanity tends, prepared and deserving of the vision of the Divine Essence. It is only at this moment that the individual achieves the desires of both reason and will truth and happiness.