Thursday, November 30, 2006

Q61 A1: Whether the angels have a cause of their existence?

Yes. It must be affirmed that angels and everything existing, except God, were made by God because God alone is His own existence (while in everything else the essence differs from the existence).

Q61: The production of the angels in the order of natural being

  1. Does the angel have a cause of his existence?
  2. Has he existed from eternity?
  3. Was he created before corporeal creatures?
  4. Were the angels created in the empyrean heaven?

Q60 A5: Whether an angel by natural love loves God more than he loves himself?

Yes. From natural love the angel loves God more than himself because since God is the universal good, and under this good both man and angel and all creatures are comprised (because every creature in regard to its entire being naturally belongs to God), it follows that from natural love angel and man alike love God before themselves and with a greater love.


Q60 A4: Whether an angel loves another with natural love as he loves himself?

Yes. It must be said that one angel loves another with natural affection, insofar as he is one with him in nature; but insofar as an angel has something else in common with another angel, or differs from him in other respects, he does not love him with natural love.

Q60 A3: Whether the angel loves himself with both natural love, and love of choice?

Yes. The angel does love himself both with natural love and a love of choice because love for others comes of love for oneself.

It is manifest that in things devoid of knowledge, everything naturally seeks to procure what is good for itself; as fire seeks to mount upwards. Consequently both angel and man naturally seek their own good and perfection. This is to love self.

Hence angel and man naturally love self, in so far as by natural appetite each desires what is good for self. On the other hand, each loves self with the love of choice, in so far as from choice he wishes for something which will benefit himself.

Q60 A2: Whether there is love of choice in the angels?

Yes. There exists in the angels a natural love, and a love of choice because their natural love is the principle of their love of choice.

Q60 A1: Whether there is natural love or dilection in an angel?

Yes. Because an angel is an intellectual nature, there must be a natural love in his will.

Now nature comes before intellect, because the nature of every subject is its essence. Consequently whatever belongs to nature must be preserved likewise in such subjects as have intellect.



Q60: The love or dilection of the angels

  1. Is there natural love in the angels?
  2. Is there in them love of choice?
  3. Does the angel love himself with natural love or with love of choice?
  4. Does one angel love another with natural love as he loves himself?
  5. Does the angel love God more than self with natural love?

Q59 A4: Whether there is an irascible and a concupiscible appetite in the angels?

No. There is no irascible and a concupiscible appetite in the angels because the intellective appetite is not divided into irascible and concupiscible; only the sensitive appetite is so divided.


Q59 A3: Whether there is free-will in the angels?

Yes. There is free-will in the angels because only an agent endowed with an intellect can act with a judgment which is free, in so far as it apprehends the common note of goodness (from which it can judge this or the other thing to be good).


Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Q59 A2: Whether in the angels the will differs from the intellect?

Yes. The will of the angels is distinct from their intellect because the will in the angels regards good things only, while their intellect regards both good and bad things, for they know both.






Q59 A1: Whether there is will in the angels?

Yes. We must necessarily place a will in the angels because, since the angels by their intellect know the universal aspect of goodness, it is manifest that there is a will in them.

Q59: The will of the angels

  1. Is there will in the angels?
  3. Is there free-will in the angels?

Q58 A7: Whether the morning and evening knowledge are one?

No. The evening knowledge cannot exist together with the morning knowledge because the angels know through a twofold medium, namely, by innate ideas, or by the forms of things existing in the Word.


If, therefore, it be called evening knowledge, insofar as when the angels behold the Word, they know the being which things have in their proper nature, then the morning and the evening knowledge are essentially one and the same, and only differ as to the things known.

If it be called evening knowledge, insofar as through innate ideas they know the being which things have in their own natures, then the morning and the evening knowledge differ.

Q58 A6: Whether there is a "morning" and an "evening" knowledge in the angels?

Yes. There is a "morning" and an "evening" knowledge in the angels because their knowledge of the primordial being of things is called morning knowledge; and this is according as things exist in the Word.



Q58 A5: Whether there can be falsehood in the intellect of an angel?

No. There can be neither deception nor falsehood in the in the angel's knowledge because owing to their upright will, from their knowing the nature of every creature, the good angels form no judgments as to the nature of the qualities therein, save under the Divine ordinance; hence there can be no error or falsehood in them.



Q58 A4: Whether the angels understand by composing and dividing?

No. The angel understands without composition or division because a simple intelligence is without composition and division.





Q58 A3: Whether an angel's knowledge is discursive?

No. There is no discursive process at all in angels because in the truths which they know naturally, they at once behold all things whatsoever that can be known in them.


Q58 A2: Whether an angel can understand many things at the same time?

Yes. As regards knowledge, angels know all things at once because they know all things under one intelligible species, which is the Divine essence.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Q58 A1: Whether the angel's intellect is sometimes in potentiality, sometimes in act?

No. The intellect of an angel is not in potentiality because an angel's intellect is never in potentiality with regard to the things to which his natural knowledge extends.




Q58: The mode of angelic knowledge

  1. Is the angel's intellect sometimes in potentiality, and sometimes in act?
  2. Can the angel understand many things at the same time?
  3. Is the angel's knowledge discursive?
  4. Does he understand by composing and dividing?
  5. Can there be error in the angel's intellect?
  6. Can his knowledge be styled as morning and evening?
  7. Are the morning and evening knowledge the same, or do they differ?

Monday, November 13, 2006

Q57 A5: Whether the angels know the mysteries of grace?

No. The angels do not know mysteries of grace because if an angel cannot learn the thoughts of another angel, which depend upon the will of such angel, much less can he ascertain what depends entirely upon God's will.

Q57 A4: Whether angels know secret thoughts?

No. Angels do not know the secrets of hearts because the rational creature is subject to God only, and He alone can work in it Who is its principal object and last end (Q63, A1; Q105, A5); consequently all that is in the will, and all things that depend only on the will, are known to God alone.

Q57 A3: Whether angels know the future?

No. The future as it is in itself cannot be known by any created intellect because the mind of an angel, and every created intellect, falls far short of God's eternity.

God's one glance is cast over all things which happen in all time as present before Him; and He beholds all things as they are in themselves.

Q57 A2: Whether an angel knows singulars?

Yes. As by His essence, by which He causes all things, God is the likeness of all things, and knows all things, not only as to their universal natures, but also as to their singularity, so through the species imparted to them do the angels know things, because they know things not only as to their universal nature, but likewise in their individual conditions, insofar as they are the manifold representations of that one simple essence.

As things proceed from God in order that they may subsist in their own natures, so likewise they proceed in order that they may exist in the angelic mind.

But administration, providence and movement are of singulars, as they are here and now existing.

Q57 A1: Whether the angels know material things?

Yes. As God knows material things by His essence, so do the angels know them, because they are in the angels by their intelligible species.

All material things pre-exist in the angels more simply and less materially even than in themselves, yet in a more manifold manner and less perfectly than in God.

Q57: The angel's knowledge of material things

  1. Do the angels know the natures of material things?
  2. Do they know single things?
  3. Do they know the future?
  4. Do they know secret thoughts?
  5. Do they know all mysteries of grace?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Q56 A3: Whether an angel knows God by his own natural principles?

Yes. The angels can have some knowledge of God by their own principles because since God's image is impressed on the very nature of the angel in his essence, the angel knows God in as much as he is the image of God.



Q56 A2: Whether one angel knows another?

Yes. In every angel there was impressed the form of his own species according to both its natural and its intelligible condition, so that he should subsist in the nature of his species, and understand himself by it; while the forms of other spiritual and corporeal natures were impressed in him only according to their intelligible natures, so that by such impressed species he might know corporeal and spiritual creatures because in the Word of God from eternity there existed not only the forms of corporeal things, but likewise the forms of all spiritual creatures, and in every one of these spiritual creatures, the forms of all things, both corporeal and spiritual, were impressed by the Word of God.



Q56 A1: Whether an angel knows himself?

Yes. The angel understands himself by his form, which is his substance because if in the order of intelligible beings there be any subsisting intelligible form, it will understand itself.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Q56: The angel's knowledge of immaterial things

  1. Does an angel know himself?
  2. Does one angel know another?
  3. Does the angel know God by his own natural principle?

Q55 A3: Whether the higher angels understand by more universal species than the lower angels?

Yes. The higher the angel is, by so much the fewer species will he be able to apprehend the whole mass of intelligible objects (and therefore his forms must be more universal; each one of them, as it were, extending to more things) because in God the whole plenitude of intellectual knowledge is contained in one thing, that is to say, in the Divine essence, by which God knows all things.

This plenitude of knowledge is found in created intellects in a lower manner, and less simply. Consequently it is necessary for the lower intelligences to know by many forms what God knows by one, and by so many forms the more according as the intellect is lower.

An example of this can in some measure be observed in ourselves. For some people there are who cannot grasp an intelligible truth, unless it be explained to them in every part and detail; this comes of their weakness of intellect: while there are others of stronger intellect, who can grasp many things from few.

Q55 A2: Whether the angels understand by species drawn from things?

No. In the higher spiritual substances--that is, the angels--the power of understanding is naturally complete by intelligible species because they have such species connatural to them, so as to understand all things which they can know naturally.

Q55 A1: Whether the angels know all things by their substance?

No. An angel cannot know all things by his essence and his intellect must be perfected by some species in order to know things because God alone knows all things by His essence.

The intellective power of the angel extends to understanding all things: because the object of the intellect is universal being or universal truth.

The angel's essence, however, does not comprise all things in itself, since it is an essence restricted to a genus and species. This is proper to the Divine essence, which is infinite, simply and perfectly to comprise all things in Itself.

Therefore God alone knows all things by His essence. But an angel cannot know all things by his essence; and his intellect must be perfected by some species in order to know things.

Q55: The medium of the angelic knowledge

  1. Do the angels know everything by their substance, or by some species?
  2. If by species, is it by connatural species, or is it by such as they have derived from things?
  3. Do the higher angels know by more universal species than the lower angels?

Q54 A5: Whether there is only intellectual knowledge in the angels?

Yes. Angels have only intellect and will because the angels have no bodies naturally joined to them (Q51, A1).

In our soul there are certain powers whose operations are exercised by corporeal organs; such powers are acts of sundry parts of the body, as sight of the eye, and hearing of the ear.

There are some other powers of the soul whose operations are not performed through bodily organs, as intellect and will: these are not acts of any parts of the body.

The separated substances (i.e., angels), however, are divided into intellect and will. And it is in keeping with the order of the universe for the highest intellectual creature to be entirely intelligent; and not in part, as is our soul. For this reason the angels are called "intellects" and "minds," (Q54, A3, ad 1).

Experience can be attributed to the angels according to the likeness of the things known, although not by likeness of the faculty knowing them. We have experience when we know single objects through the senses: the angels likewise know single objects, as we shall show (Q57, A2), yet not through the senses.

But memory can be allowed in the angels, according as Augustine (De Trin. x) puts it in the mind; although it cannot belong to them in so far as it is a part of the sensitive soul. In like fashion 'a perverted phantasy' is attributed to demons, since they have a false practical estimate of what is the true good; while deception in us comes properly from the phantasy, whereby we sometimes hold fast to images of things as to the things themselves, as is manifest in sleepers and lunatics.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Q54 A4: Whether there is an active and a passive intellect in an angel?

No. There cannot be an active and a passive intellect in angels except equivocally because they are neither sometimes understanding only in potentiality, with regard to such things as they naturally apprehend; nor, again, are they intelligible in potentiality, but they are actually such; for they first and principally understand immaterial things, as will appear later (Q84, A7; Q85, A1).

The distinction of active and passive intellect in us is in relation to the phantasms, which are compared to the passive intellect as colors to the sight; but to the active intellect as colors to the light, as is clear from De Anima iii, text. 18. But this is not so in the angel. Therefore there is no active and passive intellect in the angel.

The necessity for admitting a passive intellect in us is derived from the fact that we understand sometimes only in potentiality, and not actually. Hence there must exist some power, which, previous to the act of understanding, is in potentiality to intelligible things, but which becomes actuated in their regard when it apprehends them, and still more when it reflects upon them. This is the power which is denominated the passive intellect.

The necessity for admitting an active intellect is due to this--that the natures of the material things which we understand do not exist outside the soul, as immaterial and actually intelligible, but are only intelligible in potentiality so long as they are outside the soul. Consequently it is necessary that there should be some power capable of rendering such natures actually intelligible: and this power in us is called the active intellect.

But each of these necessities is absent from the angels.

Q54 A3: Whether an angel's power of intelligence is his essence?

No. The angel's essence is not his power of intelligence (nor is the essence of any creature its power of operation) because in every creature the essence differs from the existence, and is compared to it as potentiality is to act (Q44, A1).

An angel is called "intellect" and "mind," because all his knowledge is intellectual: whereas the knowledge of a soul is partly intellectual and partly sensitive.