David Albert Jones
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287154
- eISBN:
- 9780191713231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287154.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
In the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas develops Augustine's anthropology with the help of the rediscovered metaphysics of Aristotle. Thomas comes to stress that the power of understanding of the ...
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In the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas develops Augustine's anthropology with the help of the rediscovered metaphysics of Aristotle. Thomas comes to stress that the power of understanding of the ‘separated soul’ is very weak. Death is natural as regards matter (the destructible body) but not as regards form (the indestructible soul). Death in itself is always a bad thing and it is only incidentally (per accidens) that death is, for some, the beginning of heavenly bliss. Thus, homicide and suicide can be seen to be wrong because, in themselves, they are acts of destruction.Less
In the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas develops Augustine's anthropology with the help of the rediscovered metaphysics of Aristotle. Thomas comes to stress that the power of understanding of the ‘separated soul’ is very weak. Death is natural as regards matter (the destructible body) but not as regards form (the indestructible soul). Death in itself is always a bad thing and it is only incidentally (per accidens) that death is, for some, the beginning of heavenly bliss. Thus, homicide and suicide can be seen to be wrong because, in themselves, they are acts of destruction.
David Albert Jones
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287154
- eISBN:
- 9780191713231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287154.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Karl Rahner develops his own distinctive theological approach to death in Zur Theologie des Todes – On the Theology of Death published in 1958. For Rahner, death is an event that affects the human ...
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Karl Rahner develops his own distinctive theological approach to death in Zur Theologie des Todes – On the Theology of Death published in 1958. For Rahner, death is an event that affects the human being as a whole, not just the body, while leaving the immortal soul essentially unchanged. Understood as the conclusion of a personal life, death must itself be construed as an act. Rahner seems, like Ambrose, to interpret fulfilment as belonging to death as such. Nevertheless, as with Augustine, Rahner's thought continues to develop and his discussion of ‘the liberty of the sick’, while flawed, represents an important contribution to moral reflection on end of life issues.Less
Karl Rahner develops his own distinctive theological approach to death in Zur Theologie des Todes – On the Theology of Death published in 1958. For Rahner, death is an event that affects the human being as a whole, not just the body, while leaving the immortal soul essentially unchanged. Understood as the conclusion of a personal life, death must itself be construed as an act. Rahner seems, like Ambrose, to interpret fulfilment as belonging to death as such. Nevertheless, as with Augustine, Rahner's thought continues to develop and his discussion of ‘the liberty of the sick’, while flawed, represents an important contribution to moral reflection on end of life issues.
Christina Van Dyke
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198718468
- eISBN:
- 9780191788390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718468.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter addresses a difficulty facing Aquinas’s view of post-mortem identity that is posed by his account of the separated soul. Called the Two-Person Problem, the difficulty is that—although ...
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This chapter addresses a difficulty facing Aquinas’s view of post-mortem identity that is posed by his account of the separated soul. Called the Two-Person Problem, the difficulty is that—although Aquinas denies that the human soul is identical to either the human being or the human person—the disembodied soul has agency and self-reference in the period between death and bodily resurrection. If the soul is not identical to you, however, who is it? And how can you be brought back at the resurrection? This chapter considers two promising solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, neither of these proposals solves the Two-Person Problem. The chapter believes that Aquinas’s account of human nature does not, as it stands, possess the resources to overcome this difficulty; and so concludes that reconstructing a(n otherwise) Thomistic account that involves immediate bodily resurrection, though a radical approach, is best suited to preserve the most essential features of Aquinas’s theory.Less
This chapter addresses a difficulty facing Aquinas’s view of post-mortem identity that is posed by his account of the separated soul. Called the Two-Person Problem, the difficulty is that—although Aquinas denies that the human soul is identical to either the human being or the human person—the disembodied soul has agency and self-reference in the period between death and bodily resurrection. If the soul is not identical to you, however, who is it? And how can you be brought back at the resurrection? This chapter considers two promising solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, neither of these proposals solves the Two-Person Problem. The chapter believes that Aquinas’s account of human nature does not, as it stands, possess the resources to overcome this difficulty; and so concludes that reconstructing a(n otherwise) Thomistic account that involves immediate bodily resurrection, though a radical approach, is best suited to preserve the most essential features of Aquinas’s theory.
