A study of contemporary concepts of Jesus' human knowledge

The question of the knowledge of Jesus is one of the most vividly debated issues in Christology today. The dynamics of this debate is caused by the lack of dogmatic declarations, the modern discoveries of human sciences and critical approach to the concept of omniscience resulting from the beatific vision (visio beatifica) of Jesus, which for many centuries was adopted almost on a par with dogma. The article compares contemporary theories of Jesus' knowledge cross-sectional, points to theologians' mutual inspirations, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the most important concepts. The primary role in the article is played by the historical-critical method, which makes it possible to show and analyse the changes in the ideas of Jesus' knowledge, which gradually abandoned the attribution of omniscience to Him. The theologians of the Reformed Churches, who were the first to recognise the paradoxes of Christ's omniscience as part of kenotic considerations, had a particular share in these developments. They wondered why, if the Incarnate God renounces His divine attributes, He would not also relinquish omniscience. Their reflections and the progressive development of the human sciences were an inspiration for many Catholic theologians, who in the 20th century also gradually began to notice the limitations of Thomas Aquinas' theory ascribing omniscience to Jesus. They have developed new ideas drawing on recent anthropology, philosophy, psychology and the human sciences. The most interesting of the theories are the hypotheses based on the mystical experiences of Jesus, which, without undermining the dogmas of His fully human nature, try to explain how He was able to contact the Father and gain knowledge of His mission. The development of new theories of Christ's knowledge by Catholic theologians, on the one hand, made it possible to approximate positions on this issue with the theologians of the Reformed Churches. On the other hand, it paradoxically opens up prospects for dialogue with some defenders of the visio beatifica concept, who allow its reinterpretation through the category of mystical experience.

“And We Shall See Him Face to Face”: A Trinitarian Analysis of the Beatific Vision

A traditional account of the beatific vision has focused attention on our vision of the divine essence. However, little attention has been paid to the trinitarian aspects of the vision. This article proposes a trinitarian account of the beatific vision drawing on the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran and the so-called four-point hypothesis. It concludes that, so conceived, the beatific vision is analogous to an exchange of wedding vows.

Die Capella Speciosa in Klosterneuburg 2. Teil: Vergleichende Studien zur Pfalzkapelle Herzog Leopolds VI. von Österreich

The Capella Speciosa has to be seen as an exportation of the type of Gothic architecture that characterised the architecture of the royal court in France at the time. As the work of French architects, the chapel occupies a unique position within the medieval architecture of Austria. The close similarities to the choir chapels of the cathedral at Reims and the details found in the cathedral at Auxerre enable a precise dating. If we trace the development of chapels in France, we see that there was a distinct intensification of architectural narratives at that time. The veneration of relics in private devotion went from being a mere testament to scholasticism to being a mystical experience. The Capella Speciosa thus has to be understood in the same way as the French Saintes-Chapelles. Its refined structures, like the walkway in which relics were displayed, the exquisite nature of the building materials and the quality of the architectural sculptures combined to facilitate a more spiritual form of veneration within an all-encompassing work of art. For Duke Leopold VI, the Capella Speciosa was not only a magnificent shrine in which to house his collection of relics but was also a place in which he experienced a mystical beatific vision. In the second part of this book, French works of architecture built near the royal court in Hungary are presented, in which High Gothic forms can be discerned from as early as around 1220. Is there a connection between these central European works of architecture? What historical circumstances led to them being built? What do we know about the people who commissioned the buildings and the master builders? What do the connections between the structural elements and the details reveal? And what does the mysterious figure of Villard de Honnecort and his momentous journey to Hungary have to do with all of this? Tibor Rostás explores the subject in nine chapters, taking a variety of approaches. The appendix to the book contains a summary of the results of research into red marble.

REACHING OF JESUS VIS-À-VIS LASSWELIAN THEORYG

Mediation is generally a terrestrial element. In heaven, we will see God face to face through the beatific vision. There will be no mediation because we will be there face to face with God. However, in our present life, it has pleased God to reveal himself to us in a mediated way. He has done this through different means which we call medium of God’s communication to the human person. This mediation happens in the context of the world – in the existential categories of life. Mediation takes place in this world – in our daily experiences. This agrees very much with the existentialism of Heidegger but without neglecting the transcendental categories of Kant.

‘The More we Wonder’: Union with God, Distance from God, and the Vexing Question of ‘Necessary Reasons’ in Aquinas’s Trinitarian Theology

Scholars have long noted that there is a tension between the strength of Thomas’s arguments for the Trinity and the limits he places on natural reason. Very few, however, have noted a curious pattern: it is often within the same passage that Thomas both seems to prove the Trinity and rules out the possibility of any such proof. This paper begins by drawing out this pattern. It then proposes that this tension in Thomas’s thought might be a reflection of, and an education into, a deeper tension: the tension between union with God and distance from God that structures the beatific vision into which Thomas’s Trinitarian theology hopes to initiate us.

Beatitude and the Goodness of Truth

By exploring four analogical acts of knowledge, we can discern the significant role of the divine ideas in the journey of creation into a beatific participation in God’s own knowing of Godself. The primordial ground for all acts of knowing truth lies within the Trinitarian knowing of Godself, and Aquinas among others already interprets this infinite knowing of truth as God’s own beatitude. Exponents of the divine ideas tradition highlight aspects of the human act of knowing truth as already participating in a limited way in the beatific knowing of God. Within our world, the death and resurrection of Christ re-establishes the possibility of the human encounter with divine knowing and loving that is at the ground of all truth. The beatific vision draws rational creatures into God’s knowing of Godself and therein to a vision of all creatures in God.

Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation

Contemplation, according to Thomas Aquinas, is the central goal of our life; yet a scholarly study on this topic has not appeared for over seventy years. This book fills that obvious gap. From an interdisciplinary perspective this study considers the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of the contemplative act; the nature of the active and contemplative lives in light of Aquinas’s Dominican calling; the role of faith, charity, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in contemplation; and contemplation and the beatific vision. Key questions addressed are: What is contemplation? What is truth? How can we know God? How do faith and reason relate to one another? How does Aquinas envisage the relations between theology and philosophy? What role does charity play in contemplation? Throughout this book the author argues that Aquinas espouses a profoundly intellective notion of contemplation in the strictly speculative sense, which culminates in a non-discursive moment of insight (intuitus simplex). In marked contrast to his contemporaries Aquinas therefore rejects a sapiential or affective brand of theology. He also employs a broader notion of contemplation, which can be enjoyed by all Christians, in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are of central importance. This book should appeal to all those who are interested in this key aspect of Aquinas’s thought. It provides a lucid account of central aspects of Aquinas’s metaphysics, epistemology, theology, and spirituality. It also offers new insights into the nature of the theological discipline as Aquinas sees it, and how theology relates to philosophy.