Aquinas the Augustinian

5. Imago Dei: A Test Case for St. Thomas’s Augustinianism

5 Imago Dei A Test Case for St. Thomas’s Augustinianism John P. O’Callaghan The topic of man as the imago Dei is a prominent theme in St. Thomas ’s major systematic works, including his Scriptum super libros sententarium Magistri Petri Lombardi (Commentary on the Sentences), the Quaestiones disputatae de veritate (De veritate) and the Summa theologiae (Summa). His theological approach to the theme is deeply informed by St. Augustine, in particular his De Trinitate. Thus, the topic presents a paradigm instance for considering St. Thomas as an Augustinian. In his exhaustive and excellent treatment of St. Thomas on the imago Dei, To the Image of the Trinity: A Study in the Development of St. Thomas’s Teaching, D. Juvenal Merriell has argued that in St. Thomas’s work there is a development in his treatment of the topic. He examines St. Thomas’s discussion in the Commentary on the Sentences, the Quaestiones disputatae de veritate, and the prima pars of the Summa theologiae.1 However, Merriell’s treatment presents the development in almost entirely theological terms, without much discussion of any philosophical development in the underpinnings of St. Thomas’s thought. I will argue here that St. Thomas’s theological discussion of the imago Dei 00 1. D. Juvenal Merriell, To the Image of the Trinity: A Study in the Development of St. Thomas’s Teaching (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990). shifts over time in important respects precisely because he more fully developed his own understanding of the Aristotelian philosophical resources available to him, and as he moved away from some of the philosophical claims made about human nature by St. Augustine in the De Trinitate.2 For brevity’s sake and the purposes of this paper, I am interested in St. Thomas’s discussions in question 10 of the Quaestiones disputatae de veritate, and the prima pars of the Summa theologiae. The Quaestiones disputatae de veritate were composed just after the Commentary on the Sentences, and the philosophical shift between the De veritate and the Summa theologiae is particularly sharp. My conclusion will be that the Aristotelian philosophical resources St. Thomas draws upon in the two discussions affect in different ways how he understands the central Augustinian thesis that a human being is an imago Dei in virtue of his or her rational nature. Thus, even as St. Thomas remains deeply committed to that theological thesis, his theological understanding of it evolves with the evolution of the underlying philosophical presuppositions. I will proceed as follows. First, I will provide a sketch of the way in which St. Augustine presents the mind (mens) as the imago Dei in his De Trinitate. Second, I will describe how St. Thomas integrates St. Augustine’s insights into his own discussion of the mind in question 10 of the Quaestiones disputatae de veritate. Third, I will note significant ways in which St. Thomas’s discussion of human nature in the prima pars of the Summa theologiae departs from, and even quietly rejects certain Augustinian features of his own earlier discussion. Finally, I will point out how those shifts change important features of St. Thomas’s theological discussion of man as the imago Dei. St. Augustine’s Imago Dei The central theme of St. Augustine’s De Trinitate is, of course, the divine Trinity, not the imago Dei. The imago Dei theme enters into the discussion much later in the second half of the work as St. Augustine searches for a created mirror within which he might catch a glimpse of the Trinity that he knows by faith, a mirror that may help him to understand that Trinity better. Pre2 . I am using the term “philosophical” here as characterizing a rational discourse that takes its starting point from a reflection upon the material world around us, including our activities in that world, and that proceeds argumentatively without relying upon premises that can only be known to be true as a result of the gift of supernatural faith in the Divine Trinity revealing them. This use does not exclude the possibility that various philosophical theses, in this narrow sense, may well be prompted psychologically and historically by the content of supernatural revelation. john p. o’callaghan 0 ceding the discussion of the imago Dei are systematic discussions of the doctrinal teaching of the Church on the divine Trinity that must be adhered to, as well as an extended scriptural analysis...