And just as marriage does not consists of unceasing sexual intercourse—however much sex is the rightful consummation of marriage—so too our final redemption does not consist of unceasing unmediated beatific vision—however much the unmediated beatific vision may be the rightful consummation of redemption. © 2020 Theopolis Institute. For it is hard to say that the saints shall then have such bodies that they shall not be able to shut and open their eyes as they please; while it is harder still to say that every one who shuts his eyes shall lose the vision of God. The problem is really just nineteenth-century dispensational escapism. Wright and Middleton work hard to show that the bible does not predict the annihilation of the material world, but rather its redemption. Reformed theologian Michael Allen isn’t buying it. B. Eerdmans, 2018. Irenaeus’ mediated beatific vision reminds us that God’s glory shines through all that he has made. While it was true that the body will be part of the resurrected humanity, the best he could say about it (anticipating Thomas) was that it would “offer no hindrance to the soul’s contemplation of God” (Civ. And so, when I am asked how the saints shall be employed in that spiritual body, I do not say what I see, but I say what I believe, according to that which I read in the psalm, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." [1685] 2 Corinthians 3:18. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609109.003.0008, APPENDIX: List of Augustine's works cited by Donne, Donne's Augustine: Renaissance Cultures of Interpretation. [1679] But that God shall be seen with these eyes no Christian doubts who believingly accepts what our God and Master says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." [1673] 1 John 3:2. It is the ultimate and final human experience, resulting in a perfect and permanent happiness. In particular, Allen points to Augustine, and especially Aquinas as model exemplars. This basic framework sees creation as a barrier to the vision of God. So philosophically considered, we don’t need the body for beatitude. So the beatific vision is a natural consequence of such a nature, and not absolutely supernatural. His dissertation, which will soon be published by Brill, is titled “Ascending Toward the Beatific Vision: Heaven as the Climax of Anselm’s Proslogion” and focuses on St. Anselm’s doctrine of heaven in the Proslogion. [1678] Job 42:5, 6. Yet in his syncretistic Christian Platonism he had a hard time articulating a positive vision for the resurrected body in the eternal state. FAQs Irenaeus is careful to insist (much like Barth) that the only way we can know God is through the embodied man Jesus Christ. Wherefore it may very well be, and it is thoroughly credible, that we shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall see Him, not as now we understand the invisible things of God, by the things which are made, [1688] and see Him darkly, as in a mirror, and in part, and rather by faith than by bodily vision of material appearances, but by means of the bodies we shall wear and which we shall see wherever we turn our eyes. But biblically considered, we do need the body. We must ascend beyond creation, leave our mortality and bodies behind, and only then we will be truly and eternally happy. Thomas and Augustine on the Resurrection of the Body. He will dwell with embodied humans here on earth, rather than disembodied souls dwelling with him there in heaven. Visions of an eternal disembodied existence in heaven, we are told, are really just a hang-over from our Platonic past. Eschatology, beatific vision, materialism, Platonism, sermons, rhetoric. As, therefore, it is agreed that bodies are seen by the spirit, what if the power of the spiritual body shall be so great that spirit also is seen by the body? In particular, the influence of Platonism (and Greek thought more generally) can be seen in how Augustine and Thomas viewed the resurrection of the body. [1688] Romans 1:20. Then the apostle's expression, "face to face," [1684] does not oblige us to believe that we shall see God by the bodily face in which are the eyes of the body, for we shall see Him without intermission in spirit. This is slicing the bologna pretty thin (as my old professor used to say). If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian. Our soul does not ascend upward to spend eternity in heaven with God, as the Platonic tradition proclaims, but God himself comes to earth and restores and renews all things. , and if you can't find the answer there, please The beatific vision is understood as the ultimate end of human nature. The book or sermon written by St. Augustine in which he did not mention the beatific vision is the exception, for the saint was absorbed in the mystery of the Trinity and on fire with the desire to contemplate God face to face. He blogs at www.pastortheologians.com. Irenaeus, on the other hand, has a category for deified creation—not just of Christ’s humanity, but of the whole cosmos—and thus he does not need to have a beatific vision that side steps creation. 512 pages. Yet Augustine’s frequent descriptions of his divine encounters are quite compelling, and I don’t want to dismiss them out of hand. For Irenaeus, the incarnation is a perpetual reminder that God is always and eternally mediated to us by his creation. If our eternal happiness consists of beholding the glory of God (as the beatific vision claims, and as Irenaeus affirms), must this “beholding” be unmediated by creation in order for it to be eternal and beatific? … We need to be wary of falling into an eschatological naturalism that speaks of God instrumentally (as a means to, or instigator of, an end) but fails to confess communion with God as our one true end (in whom alone any other things are to be enjoyed.) But this claim pushed his soteriology in an unbiblical direction regarding the resurrection of the body. For example, commenting on the first word of the entire book, namely “vision,” he explores the nature of prophecy in general and how a prophetic “vision” relates to the broader category of “visions,” including the “beatific vision.” So maybe Irenaeus and Augustine were both right, after all. It means seeing God face to face. And He certainly was seen in the body, and shall be seen in the body when He judges quick and dead. [1686] Psalm 34:5. But this basically Platonic commitment created a bit of a challenge for him when he argued against the Platonists in favor of the resurrection of the body. [1687] Wisd. Here Augustine’s preference for the immaterial over the material is clearly seen. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. Contra his Gnostic opponents, Irenaeus insisted that all matter—not just human bodies—would be saved. [1674] I say, then, they shall in the body see God; but whether they shall see Him by means of the body, as now we see the sun, moon, stars, sea, earth, and all that is in it, that is a difficult question. And that Christ is the salvation of God, many other passages of Scripture witness, but especially the words of the venerable Simeon, who, when he had received into his hands the infant Christ, said, "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Donne's reflections on the sight of God mark the end point of his engagement with Augustinian hermeneutics: in the beatific vision, reading, communication, and interpretation are superseded by a completely new mode of cognition—the intuitive, unmediated apprehension of divine reality. He offset this claim by nonetheless affirming the resurrection of the body. Allen suggests Wright and Middleton are wrongly assuming that disembodied eschatology is part of the larger catholic tradition. But this reasoning is exploded both by true reason and by prophetic authority. . Of the Beatific vision. And yet Irenaeus, nearly a thousand years earlier, had already started us down a path that avoided the Platonic errors of Augustine and Thomas as well the crass instrumentalizing of God that Allen claims can be found in Wright and Middleton. God is not known in abstraction or merely by the intellect. 14. St. Irenaeus, the Beatific Vision, and the Instrumentalization of Creation, Liturgy & Our Labors (New Series! In particular, I’ve been gripped by the way that Irenaeus consistently resisted the anti-body emphasis that emerged in later Christian theology. Vers. ), with Alastair Roberts, Man: Honoring the Image, with Peter Leithart, Man: Made for Communion, with Peter Leithart, Man: Made in God's Image, with Peter Leithart. [1686] For it is by faith we draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit, not of the body. [1681] Luke 3:6. [1685] In the same sense we understand what the Psalmist sings, "Draw near unto Him, and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed." - 4 - An author of the 17th Century, Ripalda by name considered it possible for God to create a supernatural creature capable of possessing the beatific vision. to task. City of God — St. Augustine. All Rights Reserved. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every place. And if the apostle had not referred to the face of the inner man, he would not have said, "But we, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." Analysis. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter. This chapter concentrates on the dominant aspect of Donne's Augustinian thought in the final years of his ministry: eschatology, and more specifically the identification of eternal bliss with the beatific vision. Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service.
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