St. Thomas, Extasis, and Union with the Beloved

The Thomist 61 (1997): 587-603 ST. THOMAS, EXTASIS, AND UNION WITH THE BELOVED PETER A. KWASNIEWSKI The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. THOMAS AQUINAS devotes question 28 of the prima secundae of the Summa theologiae to an examination of "the effects of love." Having already established in question 27 that the cause of love is similitude with a known good, he then shows in question 28 the ways in which six effects-union, mutual indwelling, ecstasy, zeal or jealousy, vulnerability, and causality of all other actions-belong to the essence of love. The question as a whole is of exceptional interest from many angles, especially regarding the threefold nature of union (a. 1) and the radical dependency of all actions and passions on love, which is "a first cause" (a. 6). Not a small part of the interest lies in the fact that Thomas chooses to include discussions of certain effects that his predecessors, particularly Dionysius the Areopagite, had traditionally ascribed to love, even when at first glance these phenomena seem to bear little resemblance to the doctrine outlined in previous questions of the Summa. Three of these effects-mutual indwelling, ecstasy, and "passion that wounds the lover" (mutua inhaesio, extasis, passio laesiva amantis)-attract our attention by their very names, which seem to belong more in a treatise on erotic love or mystical prayer than in a summa of theology. We will focus on extasis in order to show its often overlooked place in Thomas's doctrine of love and friendship. 587 588 PETER A. KWASNIEWSKI I. EXTASIS IN THE APPREHENSIVE POWER Among Thomas's infrequent discussions of extasis,1 the most succinct definition of the term appears in STh I-II, q. 28, a. 3. "To suffer extasis means to be placed outside oneself [extra se ponitur]."2 Thomas then observes that such a removal from oneself can occur in two ways, either with respect to the apprehensive power (sensation and cognition), or with respect to the appetitive power (the tendency to a good). Regarding the former, Thomas makes a further distinction between elevation and debasement, or good and bad displacement from oneself. As to the apprehensive power, a man is said to be placed outside himself, when he is placed outside the knowledge proper to him. This may be due to his being raised to a higher knowledge; thus, a man is said to suffer extasis, inasmuch as he is placed outside the connatural apprehension of his sense and reason, when he is raised up so as to comprehend things that surpass sense and reason. Or it may be due to his being cast down into a state of debasement; thus a man may be said to suffer extasis, when he is overcome by violent passion or madness. (STh I-II, q. 28, a. 3)3 In the experience characteristic of the first type of extasis, a man is "placed outside connatural apprehension"; he is enabled, by whatever agent causes the state, to rise above the knowledge proper to him. It is unclear-perhaps intentionally-whether such super-natural knowledge is only to be attained through divinely inspired raptus, as the discussions in the commentary on Second Corinthians and in the De Veritate lead us to believe,4 or whether in fact all love, including human friendship at its most sublime, 1 The only discussions of any length are: III Sent. d. 27, q. 1, a. 1, ad 4; STh I-II, q. 28, a. 3; and De Div. Nam., c. 4, leer. 10, nn. 426-37. Thomas talks about extasis in connection with raptus in three places: De Verit., q. 13, a. 1; In II Car., c. 12, lect. 1, esp. nn. 447 and 452; STh II-II, q. 175, a. l; and STh q. 175, a. 2, ad 1. Lastly, he implicitly refers to extasis in In Gal., c. 2, lect. 6. 2 "extasim pati aliquis dicitur, cum extra se ponitur" (STh 1-11, q. 28, a. 3 [Milan: Edizioni Paoline, 1988]). Unless otherwise noted, translations are the author's. Some published translations quoted herein have been altered in light of the Latin original. Texts of the Summa theologiae are taken from the...