Article 10 — Whether human bodies will remain after the heavenly movement has ceased

The tenth point of inquiry is whether human bodies will remain after the heavenly movement has ceased. (Parallel texts: In IV Sent. 43.2.4; 48.2.5; 50.2.3, qa. 2.)

Obj. 1: And it seems that they will not. For it is written, flesh and blood cannot possess the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). Now, the human body is composed of flesh and blood. Therefore, at the end of things, human bodies will not remain.

Obj. 2: All mixtures of the elements are caused by the movement of the heavens because alteration is required for the mixing. Now, the human body is a body mixed of elements. Therefore, when the heavens cease to be in motion, it cannot remain.

Obj. 3: The necessity that comes from matter is an absolute necessity, as is said in Physics 2. (Aristotle, Physics 2.7, 198a2–b4.) Now, in a body composed of contraries, there is necessity for corruption arising from the very matter. Therefore, it is impossible that such bodies not be corrupted; and so it is impossible for them to remain after the state of generation and corruption. Since, then, human bodies are of this sort, it follows that, at the end of things, they cannot possibly remain.

Obj. 4: Man together with beasts has a sensitive body. Now, the sensitive bodies of beasts will not remain at the end of the world. Neither, therefore, will human bodies remain.

Obj. 5: The end of man is perfect assimilation to God. Now, seeing that God has no body, the soul freed from the body is more like God than when united to the body. Therefore, in the state of final beatitude, souls will be freed from bodies.

Obj. 6: Man’s perfect beatitude requires the perfect activity of his intellect. Now, the intellectual soul’s activity is more perfect when the soul is freed from the body than when it is united to it, because (as is said in the book The Book of Causes) every united power is more infinite than a divided one. (The Book of Causes, Proposition 4.) Now, separate forms are united in themselves, whereas forms joined to matter are in a certain way diffused to many things. Therefore, in that perfect beatitude, souls will not be united to the body.

Obj. 7: The elements that are within a mixed body desire with a natural appetite their proper where. Now, a natural appetite cannot be pointless, for which reason that which is against nature cannot be everlasting. Consequently, the elements within a mixed body must of necessity tend to their own places at some time or other, and in this way the mixed body will be corrupted. Therefore, after the state of corruption, human bodies will not remain, since they are mixed.

Obj. 8: Every natural movement of any body whatsoever depends on the movement of the heavens. Now, the movement of the heart, without which there can be no life in a man’s body, is a natural movement. Therefore, it cannot continue when the heavens cease to be in motion; and thus, man’s body will not continue to live.

Obj. 9: The members of a man’s body for the most part are ordered to purposes befitting his animal life, as is clear in the veins, the stomach, and such, which are ordered to nourishment. Now, animal life will not remain in man in that beatitude. Therefore, neither will the members of his body remain (otherwise they would be useless), and consequently, neither will the human body remain.

On the contrary (1), it is written: this corruptible must put on incorruption (1 Cor 15:53). Now this corruptible signifies the body. Therefore, the body will remain, clothed in incorruption.

Furthermore (2), it is written: who will reform the body of our lowness made like to the body of his glory (Phil 3:21). But Christ never did and never will put aside the body, which once for all he reassumed in his resurrection, according to Romans 6:9: Christ having risen again from the dead, he dies no more. Therefore, the saints also will live forever with the bodies in which they will rise again; and thus, human bodies will remain after the end of the world.

I answer that, as Augustine states, Porphyry held that the human soul, in order to be perfectly happy, must avoid all bodies; thus, in his opinion, the soul cannot be united to the body in the state of perfect beatitude. (Augustine, City of God 22.26 (PL 41:794).) In On First Principles, Origen refers to this opinion when he says that some maintained that the saints would eventually lay aside the bodies resumed at the resurrection, so that being made like God, they might live in perfect beatitude. (Origen, On First Principles 2.10.)

This opinion, besides being contrary to faith (as may be gathered both from the authorities quoted and from many others), is also contrary to reason. For there can be no perfection of beatitude where the perfection of nature is absent. Now, since the union of soul and body is natural, and substantial, not accidental, the soul’s nature cannot be perfect unless it be joined to the body; therefore, the soul separated from the body cannot obtain the ultimate perfection of beatitude. For this reason also Augustine says, at the end of The Literal Interpretation of Genesis, that the souls of the saints, before the resurrection, do not as perfectly enjoy the vision of God as they will after; (Augustine, On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis 12.35 (PL 34:483–84).) therefore, human bodies will need to be united to souls in the ultimate perfection of beatitude.

Moreover, the abovementioned opinion is according to the opinion of those who hold that the soul is united to the body accidentally, as a sailor to his ship or a man to his clothes. For this reason Plato also, as Gregory of Nyssa relates, said that man is a soul clothed with a body. (Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul 10 (PG 46:45–52).)

But this cannot stand, for man would not be a being through himself, but accidentally, nor would he be in the genus of substance, but in the genus of an accident, as when I call something “clothed” or “shod.”

Moreover, it is evident that the arguments given above that refer to mixed bodies cannot apply to man, because man is ordered to the perfection of the universe as an essential part of it, since there is in him something that is not contained by power in the elements or the heavenly bodies, namely, the rational soul. Also, man’s body is ordered to man not only as to his animal life but also as to the perfection of his nature. And although man’s body is composed of contrary elements, it will nevertheless contain an incorruptible principle that without violence will be able to preserve it from corruption, since it is intrinsic to him. And it will be able to be a sufficient principle of movement when the heavenly movement ceases, since it does not depend on the latter.

Reply Obj. 1: “Flesh and blood” is understood as the corruption of flesh and blood; therefore, the text continues: neither shall corruption possess incorruption (1 Cor 15:50).

Reply Obj. 2: The movement is the cause of mixture as far as its coming to be, but its preservation is from the substantial form, and further, from principles higher than the heavens. This has been explained in previous articles.

Reply Obj. 3: By its perfect union with God, the rational soul will have complete victory over matter; thus, although matter left to itself is corruptible, it will acquire incorruption from the power of the soul.

Reply Obj. 4: In man the sensitive faculty derives from an incorruptible principle, namely, the rational soul, while in beasts it derives from a corruptible principle. Therefore, man’s sensitive body can last forever while that of the beasts cannot.

Reply Obj. 5: The soul is more like God when united to the body than when separated from it because it has its own nature more perfectly. For each thing is like God to the degree that it is perfect, although God’s perfection is not of the same mode as that of the creature.

Reply Obj. 6: The human soul united to the body is not multiplied in the mode of material forms, which can be divided if their subject be divided, but it remains in itself simple and one. Therefore, its activity will not be hindered by its union with the body when the body will be wholly subject to the soul. Now, however, it is hindered by its union with the body because the soul does not have perfect dominion in the body.

Reply Obj. 7: The elements’ natural appetite of tending to their proper places will be retained in the body through the dominion of the soul, lest a dissolution of the elements take place; for the elements will have being more perfectly in the human body than they would have in their own places.

Reply Obj. 8: The movement of the heart will be caused in man by the nature of the rational soul, which does not depend on the celestial movement; therefore, that motion will not cease when that of the heavens ceases.

Reply Obj. 9: All the body’s members will remain not for the purposes of the animal life but for the perfection of human nature.