Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Grounds of Non-Catholic Freedom in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas
The philosophical tendency in the present century has been to temper the one-sided, extreme Hegelian idealism by an increasing adherence to the results of psychological science, with a consequent emphasis on the immediate content and function of consciousness, and with a corresponding relaxation of the effort to define conscious ness in terms of ultimate reality. On the one hand this tendency has resulted in a more modest conception of the individual as related to the Absolute, while on the other it has increased in large degree the conception of the relationship of the individual to a larger organ ism, society. Aside from the purely psychological inquiry as to the function and content of consciousness as such, philosophy has con tented itself with stating the functions of the individual, his capacity, norm of conduct, laws of development, as a member of the social whole. But the conception of freedom, of activity, progress, devel Opment, worked out by the Kantian and post-kantian systems is taken for granted as fundamental in the present-day conception of the individual.
Stated from the religious standpoint, however, the modern indi vidual is defined in quite different terms, or rather with added terms.
Theological science readily grants the assumption of philosophical psychology, that consciousness is dynamic, that the individual is functionally Related to the social whole; but as philosophy takes for its point of departure psycho-logical process, SO theology takes for its point of departure the psycho-religious activity of consciousness, and defines the individual accordingly. On one hand this results immediately in a richer conception of the Absolute, for the Absolute of theology is not only such as is demanded by the logical point of view of philosophy, but is also such as is demanded by the point of view of religious life, which includes the rich content of an imaginary world of perfect being, of emotional fellowship with kindred Spirits, and of communion with the Absolute Father.
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