Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
in Summa Theologiae
Glenn Parco
Apostolic Vicariate of Purto Princesa
Outline of the Report
Part I:
Sources, Composition, and the
Situation of the Treatise on Beatitude
Part II:
The Question of True Beatitude
The Sources, Composition,
and the Situation of
the Treatise on Beatitude
The sources of the five questions on beatitude,
as indicated and quoted by St. Thomas himself, are:
citations
Scripture60x Scripture
Augustine-42 citations
Augustine
Commentaries of the Church Dionysius the Areopagite
Fathers61x 11Dionysius
citations the Areopagite
Ambrose and Gregory the
Great3 citations
Ambrose and Gregory the
Great
Theological sources
Aristotle66 times
Boethius13 times
Liber de Causis
2 references
philosophical sources
In conformity with the lectio (i.e the first stage of the Scholastic
method, the reading of works known for their intellectual
caliber, these citations indicate authorities in the order of
erudition (sophistication/learning), all of which are accepted
sources of enlightenment and knowledge.
2. The ultimate beatitude can lie only in the vision of the Divine
essence, according to the Divine promise: When he appears we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1Jn 3:2 (RSV)
cited in ST I-II 3:8)
Thus in the light of the Gospel and with the help of
philosophy, Thomas traces for us, beginning with the
desire of beatitude: