The Disinterested Love of God According to St. Thomas and some of his Modern Interpreters

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORs: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS OF THE PRoviNCE oF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington 17, D. C. VoL. XVI JULY, 1953 No.3 THE DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AND SOME OF HIS MODERN INTERPRETERS HE problem of how man can and should love God has always been one of great interest. It has been asked whether or not it is possible to love God more than self, or, in other words, if one can love God with a love which is not, in reality, a mere seeking of personal happiness. If a truly disinterested love for God is admitted as possible, what then, is the precise relation of such a love to the natural desire for happiness and perfection? For the Scholastics, admitting the possibility of a love of God above self, a difficulty arose from the acceptance of Aristotle's teaching that anything is loved insofar as it constitutes a "good" for the lover. In technical terms, the question was whether the pursuit of happiness, of one's "proper good," was the formal, or only the material motive of the love of God. St. Thomas affirmed the possibility 807 308 DOThi GREGORY STEVENS of a love of God above self, and devoted his attention to proving why this was so. In addition to this primary problem, there arises the question of the relation of the natural to the supernatural love for God. In the first place, St. Thomas held, as we shall attempt to show, that a fr~e, explicit act of love for God is possible in the natural order, without grace. But what, then, is the relation of supernatural charity to this natural love? The essential principle of the Thomistic response is that grace does not destroy, but rather perfects the natural orientation of the will to God. In considering these various problems we intend to present a study of the doctrine of St. Thomas himself, which will be introduced, however, by an examination of several modern interpretations of various aspects of this teaching. First there will be a discussion of different opinions on the principles of the Thomistic solution. This will be followed by a consideration of the natural love for God itself, seen as a free act or as a physical tendency. Finally will come a treatment of the of the natural to the supernatural love for God. The second part of this article will deal with the Thomistic doctrine itself, as well as its principles and consequences. I. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE THOMISTIC DocTRINE Pierre Rousselot, S. J. When, in Hl07, Pere Rousselot, S. J., published his study, Pour l'Histoire du Probleme de l'A.mow· au Moyen A.ge, he focused attention on the problem of the pure love of God in the Scholastics and gave the impetus for most of the modern treatments of this doctrine.1 For this reason, the positions taken by this author, both as to the existence in the Middle Ages of two " schools " of love-the " physical " and the " ecstatic "-and as to the proper understanding of the teaching of St. Thomas, form a necessary starting point for a discussion 1 P. Rousselot, S. ,J., "Pour I'Historie du Probleme de !'Amour au Moyen Age," Beitriige zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters (Munster, 1908), VI, 6. THE DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GOD 309 of the modern history of this question, As we are concerned only with St. Thomas, we may pass over the historical part of this work, and consider only the exposition given of the " physical " or " Greco-Thomist " theory. This theory seeks to reconcile egoistic love, the seeking of happiness, with a " pure " love for God, and claims that this latter, if properly understood, is not affected adversely by the legitimate seeking of what is the proper good of the lover. The Ecstatic Theory, on the other hand, asserted that a true love for God had to be a complete self-giving, to such a degree that any reference at all to the lover's own good would taint its purity. Fundamental in the Physical Theory is that, the object...