Book contents
- The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
- Copyright page
- For our teachers
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- A Select List of Aquinas’s Works
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Metaphysics and the Ultimate Foundation of Reality
- 2 First Principles
- 3 Essence and Existence, God’s Simplicity and Trinity
- 4 Goodness and Being, Transcendentals, Participation
- 5 The Metaphysics of Creation
- 6 The Nature of Human Beings
- Part III Epistemology
- Part IV Ethics
- Part V Philosophical Theology
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
6 - The Nature of Human Beings
from Part II - Metaphysics and the Ultimate Foundation of Reality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2022
- The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
- Copyright page
- For our teachers
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- A Select List of Aquinas’s Works
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Metaphysics and the Ultimate Foundation of Reality
- 2 First Principles
- 3 Essence and Existence, God’s Simplicity and Trinity
- 4 Goodness and Being, Transcendentals, Participation
- 5 The Metaphysics of Creation
- 6 The Nature of Human Beings
- Part III Epistemology
- Part IV Ethics
- Part V Philosophical Theology
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from page ii)
Summary
On Aquinas’s view, a human being is a material object, a hylomorphic compound of prime matter and the substantial form of a human being. That form is capable of existing on its own, apart from matter; and it does so in the period between the death of a human being and the resurrection of his body, when that form configures matter again. The resurrection of the body is not a reassembly of bodily bits that had previously composed the body; it is more nearly a reconstitution of the substantial form with prime matter. Finally, after death some human beings go to heaven. In heaven, a human being is perfected, so that the true nature of a human being is revealed best in the condition of human beings in heaven. A human being in heaven sees God and is united in loving relationship with God and with all others who are also united to God. In this vision and union, she has the full perfection of her human nature and also her complete beatitude.
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- The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas , pp. 126 - 150Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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