Modern Theology 33 (2017): 187–212.
The "Grand Medium": An Edwardsean Modification of Thomas Aquinas on the Beatific Vision
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Jonathan Edwards’s understanding of the beatific vision, which draws on Neoplatonist metaphysics, marks a modification of views that became dominant in the Western Church through the rise of Aristotelian anthropology as articulated in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. Edwards’s account treats the resurrection of the body as significant, even indispensable for the deifying vision of God. It is also an account that regards Christ—the “grand medium” of the visio dei—as the consummate theophanic appearance of God. And it is, finally, an account that takes seriously the infinite progress of the vision of God, beginning in this life, continuing in the intermediate state, and on into the eternity of the resurrection.
DownloadEdwards photo: Public Domain. Aquinas Photo by Carlo Crivelli; Public Domain.
