By knowledge & by love: charity and knowledge in the moral theology of St. Thomas Aquinas

Conclusion: By Knowledge and By Love

Conclusion By Knowledge and By Love At the outset of this study we noted that one of the reasons the theologians of moral motivation undertake their effort at renewal is their legitimate concern to offer a more adequate account of those who struggle with either moral blindness or moral weakness. Is the moral status of these individuals before God best understood in relation to their external actions, or is there something about their relationship with God that the standard manualist focus on acts fails to convey? This is an important and legitimate question. The results of our study of Thomas Aquinas’ theology of charity, however, suggest that the answer to this question will not be found by asserting the will’s radical autonomy from reason. Instead, the mature insights of St. Thomas’ theology suggest that any adequate portrayal of the moral life will respect the dynamic relationship between intellect and will, knowledge and love, in human action. Every human act, if it is truly a human act, is done from knowledge and with love. Far from implying intellectual or psychological determinism , love’s relationship to knowledge ensures that, even for the hardened sinner, moral growth is always possible. The dynamic relationship existing between the uniquely intellectual love and voluntary knowledge that are proper to human agency is precisely what enables us to overcome the psychological and social constraints (as well as our past sins) that limit our freedom. Our freedom may be deeply restricted and our knowledge may be profoundly limited. Yet, because our acts flow from the spiritual principles of intellect and will, these acts are always 239 the product of some measure of knowing freedom. Because of this, they offer the promise of growth. No matter how faulty our judgments, since we always act from the spiritual power of the intellect, our judgments can be corrected. No matter how disordered our loves, since we always act from the spiritual power of the will, our loves can be reordered . Nonetheless, social and psychological factors can limit or even remove a person’s freedom. These factors exist and are often devastating . Contemporary insights into the genetic, biochemical and environmental components of mental health far outstrip anything known to St. Thomas about the factors that can limit freedom. Even in the face of these new insights, however, a core Thomistic principle remains true: when grace elevates and heals wounded human nature, it does so in a way that respects that nature. If one is to attain mature moral freedom in Christ, it will be as a human being and not as an angel. It will be because the spiritual knowledge and love proper to the human person has—with the help of God’s grace and the support of a mentoring community —been able to permeate and rightly order the bodily and animal components of our nature. In other words, the mature moral freedom of charity is lived by knowledge and by love. 240 Conclusion ...