Love of God for His own sake and love of beatitude: Heavenly charity according to Thomas Aquinas (Saint)

This dissertation investigates Thomas Aquinas's thought on heavenly charity as it pertains to his understanding of the relationship between love of beatitude and love of God. Aquinas perceives a mutually enriching, yet hierarchically ordered, relationship between these loves. Because charity is the greatest of loves, Thomas explores this relationship most thoroughly in his treatises on charity. The harmonious relationship between charity and love of beatitude has three chief aspects: the reception of charity is rooted in the love of beatitude based upon self-love; by charity, one loves God above all things and for His own sake; and charity begets an ecstatic attraction to beatitude—the vision of God—that impels God's lovers to gaze upon Him precisely because they love Him for His own sake. This harmonious relationship reaches its fulfillment in heavenly life, wherein a saint's whole mind is borne towards God and wherein he enjoys the greatest bliss in the sight of God. Since the nature of a changeable thing is most discernible in that thing's maturity, the relationship between these loves is best discovered by a consideration of heavenly life. The scant knowledge one can attain of this mystery is more valuable than extensive knowledge of the earthly experience of grace.; We first demonstrate a lacuna in literature on heavenly charity in Aquinas and then expound his thought as found in the Summa theologiae, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum, and In Librum Beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus. Investigations on the passions and rational love provide the basis for the discussion of charity. Thomas's many disparate passages on heavenly charity call for speculative comparisons of passages in order to discern his precise views. Attention is given to knowledge as a cause of love, since the transition from earthly to heavenly charity pivots upon the movement from faith to glory. In sum, we praise Thomas for avoiding the extremes of “disinterested” love and egocentricism, but we criticize him for neglecting, in his treatises on happiness, to attend to charity's delight in God's own possession of beatitude as distinct from the delight, based upon self-love, in one's share in God's beatitude.