Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It seems that the essence of God can be seen by the corporeal eye. For it is written (Job 19:26): "In my flesh I shall see . . . God," and (Job 42:5), "With the hearing of the ear I have heard Thee, but now my eye seeth Thee."

Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxix, 29): "Those eyes" (namely the glorified) "will therefore have a greater power of sight, not so much to see more keenly, as some report of the sight of serpents or of eagles (for whatever acuteness of vision is possessed by these creatures, they can see only corporeal things) but to see even incorporeal things." Now whoever can see incorporeal things, can be raised up to see God. Therefore the glorified eye can see God.

Objection 3: Further, God can be seen by man through a vision of the imagination. For it is written: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne," etc. (Is. 6:1). But an imaginary vision originates from sense; for the imagination is moved by sense to act. Therefore God can be seen by a vision of sense.

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Vid. Deum, Ep. cxlvii): "No one has ever seen God either in this life, as He is, nor in the angelic life, as visible things are seen by corporeal vision."

I answer that, It is impossible for God to be seen by the sense of sight, or by any other sense, or faculty of the sensitive power. For every such kind of power is the act of a corporeal organ, as will be shown later (Question 78). Now act is proportional to the nature which possesses it. Hence no power of that kind can go beyond corporeal things. For God is incorporeal, as was shown above (Question 3, Article 1). Hence He cannot be seen by the sense or the imagination, but only by the intellect.

Reply to Objection 1: The words, "In my flesh I shall see God my Saviour," do not mean that God will be seen with the eye of the flesh, but that man existing in the flesh after the resurrection will see God. Likewise the words, "Now my eye seeth Thee," are to be understood of the mind's eye, as the Apostle says: "May He give unto you the spirit of wisdom . . . in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your heart" may be "enlightened" (Eph. 1:17,18).

Reply to Objection 2: Augustine speaks as one inquiring, and conditionally. This appears from what he says previously: "Therefore they will have an altogether different power (viz. the glorified eyes), if they shall see that incorporeal nature;" and afterwards he explains this, saying: "It is very credible, that we shall so see the mundane bodies of the new heaven and the new earth, as to see most clearly God everywhere present, governing all corporeal things, not as we now see the invisible things of God as understood by what is made; but as when we see men among whom we live, living and exercising the functions of human life, we do not believe they live, but see it." Hence it is evident how the glorified eyes will see God, as now our eyes see the life of another. But life is not seen with the corporeal eye, as a thing in itself visible, but as the indirect object of the sense; which indeed is not known by sense, but at once, together with sense, by some other cognitive power. But that the divine presence is known by the intellect immediately on the sight of, and through, corporeal things, happens from two causes---viz. from the perspicuity of the intellect, and from the refulgence of the divine glory infused into the body after its renovation.

Reply to Objection 3: The essence of God is not seen in a vision of the imagination; but the imagination receives some form representing God according to some mode of similitude; as in the divine Scripture divine things are metaphorically described by means of sensible things.

Articulus 3

Argumentum 1

Ad tertium sic proceditur. Videtur quod essentia dei videri possit oculo corporali.

Dicitur enim iob XIX, in carne mea videbo deum, etc.; et XLII, auditu auris audivi te, nunc autem oculus meus videt te.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, Augustinus dicit, ultimo de civitate dei, cap. XXIX, vis itaque praepollentior oculorum erit illorum (scilicet glorificatorum), non ut acutius videant quam quidam perhibentur videre serpentes vel aquilae (quantalibet enim acrimonia cernendi eadem animalia vigeant, nihil aliud possunt videre quam corpora), sed ut videant et incorporalia.

Quicumque autem potest videre incorporalia, potest elevari ad videndum deum. Ergo oculus glorificatus potest videre deum.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, deus potest videri ab homine visione imaginaria, dicitur enim Isaiae VI, vidi dominum sedentem super solium, etc..

Sed visio imaginaria a sensu originem habet, phantasia enim est motus factus a sensu secundum actum, ut dicitur in III de anima.

Ergo deus sensibili visione videri potest.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod dicit Augustinus, in libro de videndo deum ad Paulinam, deum nemo vidit unquam, vel in hac vita, sicut ipse est; vel in Angelorum vita, sicut visibilia ista quae corporali visione cernuntur.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod impossibile est deum videri sensu visus, vel quocumque alio sensu aut potentia sensitivae partis.

Omnis enim potentia huiusmodi est actus corporalis organi, ut infra dicetur.

Actus autem proportionatur ei cuius est actus.

Unde nulla huiusmodi potentia potest se extendere ultra corporalia. Deus autem incorporeus est, ut supra ostensum est.

Unde nec sensu nec imaginatione videri potest, sed solo intellectu.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, cum dicitur in carne mea videbo deum, salvatorem meum, non intelligitur quod oculo carnis sit deum visurus, sed quod in carne existens, post resurrectionem, visurus sit deum.

Similiter quod dicitur, nunc oculus meus videt te, intelligitur de oculo mentis, sicut Ephes. I dicit apostolus, det vobis spiritum sapientiae in agnitione eius, illuminatos oculos cordis vestri.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod Augustinus loquitur inquirendo in verbis illis, et sub conditione. Quod patet ex hoc quod praemittitur, longe itaque potentiae alterius erunt (scilicet oculi glorificati), si per eos videbitur incorporea illa natura.

Sed postmodum hoc determinat, dicens, valde credibile est sic nos visuros mundana tunc corpora caeli novi et terrae novae, ut deum ubique praesentem, et universa etiam corporalia gubernantem, clarissima perspicuitate videamus; non sicut nunc invisibilia dei per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur; sed sicut homines, inter quos viventes motusque vitales exerentes vivimus, mox ut aspicimus, non credimus vivere, sed videmus.

Ex quo patet quod hoc modo intelligit oculos glorificatos deum visuros, sicut nunc oculi nostri vident alicuius vitam.

Vita autem non videtur oculo corporali, sicut per se visibile, sed sicut sensibile per accidens, quod quidem a sensu non cognoscitur, sed statim cum sensu ab aliqua alia virtute cognoscitiva. Quod autem statim, visis corporibus, divina praesentia ex eis cognoscatur per intellectum, ex duobus contingit, scilicet ex perspicacitate intellectus; et ex refulgentia divinae claritatis in corporibus innovatis.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod in visione imaginaria non videtur dei essentia, sed aliqua forma in imaginatione formatur, repraesentans deum secundum aliquem modum similitudinis, prout in Scripturis divinis divina per res sensibiles metaphorice describuntur.