Chapter XXIX. Question 55

THe MEANS oF ANGELIC COGNITION

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First ARTICLE

WHETHER THE ANGELS KNOW ALL THINGS BY THEIR ESSENCE AS GOD DOES

The reply is in the negative, because only the essence of God as infinite comprehends all things in itself. Only God, in knowing Himself, knows all possible and actual things because this is the same as knowing what He is able to do and what He has done and does. The angel cannot do all things, and therefore its intelligence must be perfected by some species or representative likenesses of things.

WHETHER THE ANGELS UNDERSTAND THROUGH SPECIES TAKEN FROM THINGS

St. Thomas invokes the authority of St. Augustine, who taught that sensible creatures were first produced by God as intelligible beings in the mind of the angels and then in the nature of things. St. Augustine came to this conclusion because of his Platonic philosophy, in which even our ideas are derived from a supersensible divine illumination.

St. Thomas shows why this innatism should be admitted in the case of the angels but not in man. His reasoning: operation follows being, and the mode of operation follows the mode of being. But the angel’s mode of being is absolutely immaterial and independent of the body. Therefore the angel’s mode of operation and of understanding is also without any acceptance from a body; it is by an intelligible influx 541 from God the author of nature. On the other hand, the intellective soul would be united to a body without any reason if the soul did not obtain its intellective perfection from the body.’ Thus the imagination is the highest point of the lowest order of sensible knowledge, and our intellect is the lowest point of the highest order of intelligence. Hence the adage: the highest of the lower order touches on the lowest of the higher order, even though, absolutely speaking, there is a vast difference between the two. Here we see the subordination of beings and we conclude that man, a rational animal, is not a genus but a determined species, in the sense that there cannot be many species of rational animals. Rational animal implies the meeting point of the highest in the lowest order and the lowest in the highest order.

Objection. If from the instant of their creation the angels receive from God ideas of things, including those of individuals, the angels naturally know future contingents, which is against the opinion commonly held.

Reply. Actually these ideas represent only existences and they are suited to represent futures inasmuch as these futures are derived from the divine ideas and when they will be according to the divine will. Even God Himself does not know from eternity future contingents except as they are dependent on the decree of His will.

WHETHER THE HIGHER ANGELS KNOW BY MORE UNIVERSAL SPECIES THAN THE LOWER ANGELS

In other words: Does the perfection of the angel’s knowledge depend on its universality? St. Thomas replies affirmatively.

He derives his first proof from the authority of Dionysius: “That which is divisively in inferior beings is united in superior beings.” ?

Proof from reason a priori. The superior beings are those that are closer to and more like God. But God knows all things by one eternal intuitive act in His essence. Therefore among the superior intellects those are the higher which know by means of fewer and more universal species.”

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The a posteriori proof is confirmed in the saying: just a few words for the one who knows, that is, the man who knows does not need many words.

First objection. The universal is obtained by abstraction. But the angels do not abstract from things.

Reply. I distinguish the major: if the knowledge is obtained from individual things, I concede; if it is obtained from the divine ideas, I deny.

Second objection. Universal knowledge is confused. But the higher angels do not have the more confused knowledge.

Reply. I distinguish the major: universal knowledge on the part of the thing known, I concede; universal knowledge on the part of the means, I deny. That is, by these more universal and fewer ideas the higher angels know many things very distinctly and without confusion.

Scotus says that the perfection of the higher angels’ knowledge consists in its clarity.

Reply. I distinguish: in an empiric and material clarity, I deny; in the clarity that comes from the higher and more universal principles, I concede.

Corollary. In the sciences the following principle of economy is to be observed: matters should be explained by few principles. That is, principles should not be multiplied without reason. Thus St. Thomas explains the principal questions about predestination with this principle: Since the love of God is the cause of the goodness of things, no one thing would be better than another if it were not loved more by

God.

FourtH ARTICLE

WHETHER THE ANGELS NATURALLY KNOW FUTURE CONTINGENT BEINGS AND THE SECRETS OF HEARTS

The reply to the first question is in the negative. This is the common opinion and seems to be of faith because of the testimony of Sacred Scripture and of the Fathers.” Special reference is made to the words, “Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall¹²³ know that you are gods.” * Thus prophecy is the proper sign of divinity and a motive of credibility, “amply demonstrating the infinite knowledge of God,” just as a miracle “demonstrates His omnipotence,” in the words of the Vatican Council.”

Proof from reason. Future contingent beings cannot be known certainly by the angels either in their causes or in themselves; not in the created causes because these are contingent and indifferent; not in the uncreated cause, that is, in God’s free decree, which is naturally inaccessible to every created intellect; not in themselves, for in this way future contingents are known only by God inasmuch as God’s knowledge alone is measured by eternity, which embraces all time.® Hence the angels cannot naturally know future contingent beings; unless at the most they may have some conjectural knowledge.

The reply to the second question is also in the negative because of the testimony of the Scriptures.” The reason is that such secrets of the heart are not parts of the universe. As free they are not necessarily connected with our wills, and as immanent they are not connected with exterior beings. They have therefore no connection with the parts of the universe and thus are not properly parts of the universe. They belong to a higher order known only to God and if they are sacred secrets they belong properly to the kingdom of God. Such is the privileged character of the interior life, “hidden with Christ in God,” which the angels cannot know naturally. St. John of the Cross emphasizes this point in his teaching that the demons cannot know the secrets of our hearts.

8 Summa theol., Ia, q.14, a.13. ® III Kings 8:39; Jer. 17:10; cf. Journel, Joc. cit.

Footnotes

1. De cael. hier., chap. 12. ↩

2. It should be noted that the divine ideas are neither infused nor acquired species; they are the divine essence as imitable by creatures and as the terminus of the relation of imitability of creatures to the divine essence. Cf. Summa theol., la, q.15, a.2. ↩

3. Ibid., q.20, 2.3. 5 Cf. Rouet de Journel, Ench. patrist., Index theologicus, no. 202. ↩