Zur Hauptnavigation springen Zum Inhalt springen Zur Fußzeile springen
Wrocławski Przegląd Teologiczny

Bd. 33 Nr. 2 (2025): A Tribute to Thomas Aquinas

Philosophie

Thomas Aquinas and Contemplative Acts

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52097/wpt.10190  [Google Scholar]
Veröffentlicht: 2026-01-05

Abstract

That contemplation is an important concept in philosophy and theology seems hard to deny. There have been many debates concerning the nature and place of the contemplative life, for example. But not enough attention has been paid to the precise question of what contemplation is in the first place. It is clearly some sort of mental act, but what makes a mental act contemplative? Does it have a special type of object? This article discusses the views of Thomas Aquinas on the nature of contemplation, in part through engagement with the important recent work of Rik Van Nieuwenhowe. First, the article locates contemplation in the context of the foundational contrast between reasoning (ratio), on the one hand, and the grasp of truth by the intellect (intellectus), on the other. Second, the article asks whether Aquinas understands contemplation to be a special kind of act over and above the classic “three acts” of simple apprehension, judgement, and reasoning, or whether he includes it somewhere within that classic trio while distinguishing it in some other way. Third, after considering and rejecting the idea that what specifies contemplation is that its object is higher truth or highest truth, the article proposes a relational understanding of what makes a mental act contemplative: an act is contemplative or not depending on how it is related to other mental acts. Fourth, the article asks how contemplation can be simple. It then concludes with brief discussion of practical applications.

Literaturhinweise

  1. Blankenhorn, Bernhard. Review of Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation by Rik van Nieuwenhove. The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 87, no. 1 (2023): 153–57. https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2023.0004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2023.0004 [Google Scholar]
  2. Boersma, Gerald P. “Divine Contemplation as ‘Inchoate Beatitude’ in Aquinas.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 86, no. 3 (2022): 445–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/THO.2022.0028. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2022.0028 [Google Scholar]
  3. Brown, Christopher. “Thomas Aquinas.” In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed July 15, 2025. iep.utm.edu/aquinas. [Google Scholar]
  4. Celano, Anthony J. “The Concept of Worldly Beatitude in the Writings of Thomas Aquinas.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 25 (1987): 215–26. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.1987.0025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.1987.0025 [Google Scholar]
  5. Conticello, Carmello Giuseppe. “‘De Contemplatione’ (Angelicum, 1920): La Thèse Inédite de Doctorat Du P. M.-D. Chenu.” Revue de Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 75, no. 3 (1991): 363–422. [Google Scholar]
  6. Gallagher, David M. “Moral Virtue and Contemplation: A Note on the Unity of the Moral Life.” Sapientia 51 (1996): 385–92. [Google Scholar]
  7. Gutschke, Daniel. “Is the Individual Subordinate to the City? A Response through a Consideration of Contemplation.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 89, no. 1 (2025): 65–108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2025.a947192 [Google Scholar]
  8. O’Grady, Paul. “Aquinas on Wisdom.” New Blackfriars 104, no. 1114 (2023): 726–50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12864 [Google Scholar]
  9. Oliva, Adriano. “La Contemplation Des Philosophes Selon Thomas d’Aquin.” Revue Des Sciences philosophiques et théologiques 96, no. 4 (2012): 585–662. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rspt.964.0585 [Google Scholar]
  10. Sommers, Mary Catherine. “Contemplation and Action in Aristotle and Aquinas.” In Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology, edited by Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering , 167–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198749639.003.0008 [Google Scholar]
  11. St. Thomas Aquinas. Commentary on the Nicomachaean Ethics. Translated by C. I. Litzinger. 2 vols. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1964. [Google Scholar]
  12. St. Thomas Aquinas. De veritate. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  13. St. Thomas Aquinas. Scriptum super Sententiis. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  14. St. Thomas Aquinas. Sententia libri Ethicorum. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  15. St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa contra Gentiles. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  16. St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  17. St. Thomas Aquinas. Super Ioannem. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  18. St. Thomas Aquinas. Super Isaiam. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  19. St. Thomas Aquinas. Super Psalmos. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html. [Google Scholar]
  20. Van Nieuwenhove, Rik. Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation. Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192895295.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  21. White, Kevin. “Pleasure, a Supervenient End.” In Aquinas and the Nichomachean Ethics, edited by Kevin White and Tobias Hoffmann, 220–38. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511756313.013 [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Keine Nutzungsdaten vorhanden.

Ähnliche Artikel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 > >> 

Sie können auch eine erweiterte Ähnlichkeitssuche starten für diesen Artikel nutzen.