The Theological Ingredients of Peace

THE THEOLOGICAL INGREDIENTS OF PEACE By J. C. OsBOURN, 0. P. j\NY peace pact among men which relies solely upon the£"\.. enlightenment of philosophies is doomed to ultimate failure. The ~ebulous metaphysic of the idealist philosophies at one extreme has constantly elaborated over-pretentious dreams about the spiritual side of man only to see these dissolved and cancelled out by the opposite trend of materialist or romanticist naturalism which has always endeavored to compress the nature of man within the narrow and stuffy confines of matter. Between these two extreme and dehumanizing viewpoints stands the mean, the perennial philosophy of the Aristotelians; but this, too, is frequently forced to a frank avowal of its incompetency to gauge adequately the total dimensions of man's nature. There are realities and potentialities , vitalities and wells of energy hidden in the nature of man which escape the finest insights of mere philosophy. Among such realities it would be altogether fitting and proper to enumerate peace, since it is the mature fruit of truly human living, the connatural result, as we shall see, of a fuller evolution and understanding of human nature. On account ·of philosophy's inability to do full justice to the stature of. human nature, it has failed and will consistently fail to prescribe the satisfactory formula for a lasting peace among men. Human peace, like human nature, thrusts its roots deep down below the surface realities of philosophy and draws its nourishment from sources which can be successfully tapped and analyzed only with the more precisioned tools of theology. From a theological standpoint, however, the most significant account of man's moral, mental, and even physiological dimensions is unmistakably set down in Genesis to the effect that man was created to the image and likeness of God; 1 whereas 1 Goo., i, ~6-~7. 28 J. C. OSBOURN the theological conception of peace as the tranquillity of order 2 has undeniably close affinities with the Gospel message, " Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will." 3 What are the tangible connections between these two Biblical statements? What bearing has the aforesaid theological evaluation of human nature upon the problem of peace conceived in terms of order and good will? What are the chances of a workable peace formula based upon such a comparative analysis? Can it be said-indeed, must it be saidthat the essential conditions, the truly theological ingredients of peace among men, are to be distilled from just such premises as these? These vital questions will be examined in the following pages from the theological viewpoint in which they were invariably conceived and pondered by St. Thomas and his disciples . Our aim, therefore, can be accomplished only through a clear statement of St. Thomas's position on the following points of doctrine. I. The doctrine of divine likeness in man. II. The divine exemplar at work in the world. III. The influence of the divine exemplar upon divine likeness . I. THE DocTRINE oF DIVINE LIKENEss IN MAN As to the general prerequisites for an image, St. Thomas is brief and to the point. To be truly the image of another, he tells us, a thing must proceed from that other according to a likeness in species, that is, in nature or at least according to some likeness which signifies the other's nature.4 Two essential conditions, therefore, must be realized in an image. First, it must be a similitude derived from or expressed from its prototype . Secondly, there must also be found in the image, not just any kind of likeness, but a similitude in nature or in some sign, especially the figure/ proper to that nature. Unless these two conditions be realized a thing cannot be properly called an image. • Summa Theol., II-II, q. !'l9, a. 1, ad 1. 3 Luke, ii, 14. • Summa Theol:, I, q. 85, a. 1, c. • Ibid., I, q. 98, a. 2, c. THE THEOLOGICAL INGREDIENTS OF PEACE fl5 The first condition, then, involves a matter of origin. This procession or origin from its prototype which is demanded of an image may take place in two ways. First, generation offers the most...