Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the Natural Law in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas ...

327 Pages·2016·1.55 MB·English

Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the
Natural Law in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas
and Bernard Lonergan:
Transpositions from a Classical to a Modern Mindset

by

Wayne Harry Lott

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College
and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology
awarded by the University of St. Michael’s College.

© Copyright by Wayne Harry Lott 2016
Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the Natural Law in
the Thought of Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan:
Transpositions from a Classical to a Modern Mindset

Wayne Harry Lott
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology
University of St. Michael’s College
2016
Abstract
The aim of this study is to settle a question that arises from seeming divergences
between Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan on the nature of the natural law and its
participation in the eternal law. These divergences result from transpositions Lonergan
makes to Aquinas’s thought, who writes within the perspective of a medieval theoretical
horizon. Lonergan seeks to make many of Aquinas’s philosophical insights relevant for a
modern mindset, the horizon of which is one of interiority and human historicity. But do
these transpositions, when applied to the subject matter of the natural law and its
participation in the eternal law, result in substantially different or even contradictory
stances between Lonergan and Aquinas on how the natural law participates in the eternal
law? Can Lonergan and Aquinas be said to substantially share the same understanding of
human participation in the eternal law? Even if they do, are there still notable differences
that are relevant and worthy of further study in themselves?
In order to determine whether or not Lonergan’s and Aquinas’s respective positions
substantially agree or disagree, and if they agree to identify what fruitful new insights
Lonergan’s account might provide, this study sets out both Aquinas’s and Lonergan’s
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respective positions on the subject matter by way of comparison and contrast. Although
this study finds notable differences resulting from Lonergan’s transposing natural law into
the categories and concerns of the modern horizon of interiority, it also finds that Lonergan
does not substantially diverge from Aquinas. Lonergan’s transpositions of Aquinas do
nonetheless bring into relief at least two ways that humans participate in the eternal law
through the natural law that are not as obvious on Aquinas’s own account. These ways
feature Lonergan’s notions of human self-appropriation and authenticity as they take place
within and impact upon a dynamic world process.

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Acknowledgements
Great ideas are the typically the products of great minds, and for many years now I
have sought long and hard to understand two great thinkers – St. Thomas Aquinas and
Bernard Lonergan. I have learned much from these two thinkers and there is much more I
will continue to learn from them. It is my hope that those who read this dissertation will
likewise gather from Aquinas and Lonergan the many riches they offer to us, even if they do
not necessarily agree with my own presentation of their ideas on human participation in the
eternal law through the natural law.
In many different ways many different people have contributed to the writing and
completion of this project, and even more broadly to my being able to pursue a graduate
education in theological studies. I first of all want to thank my mother and father for their
support throughout my post-secondary educational pursuits. It can be said with absolute
certainty that without their support none of this would have been possible. I am also very
grateful to many friends in my home community in Stirling, Ontario, who offered both
financial and prayerful support throughout the years, and I am very much pleased to be
able to present to them in this project some of the fruits of their investment.
My thanks extend as well to my friends, fellow students, and co-workers at Regis
College. For some four years I have also worked part-time as a front desk assistant at the
college, and this has given me the enviable opportunity to get to know the student
community and many of the faculty and staff in a way that would not have possible
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otherwise. Every student at Regis, and most especially myself, owes a debt of gratitude to
Elaine Chu, whose tireless work keeps everything afloat.
I also wish to extend warm feelings of gratitude towards the members of my
doctoral committee, from all of whom I have learned much over the years – Robert
Sweetman, Fr. Gilles Mongeau, and Fr. Gordon Rixon. I could not have worked with a better
threesome. But without a doubt, I owe a huge debt of thanks to Fr. Rixon, who very
patiently and wisely shepherded me through the writing of this dissertation as my advisor. I
have learned many invaluable lessons from Fr. Rixon that go well beyond the merely
academic.
Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank my dear wife Rachel for her support
over the years. We both became doctoral students at roughly the same time, married in
the midst of our doctoral studies, and finished our dissertations in the same year. It has
been a wonderful thing to share my life together with a fellow student, and now from
henceforth with a fellow doctor.

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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1

Chapter Two: Thomas Aquinas on the Natural Law ............................................................... 30
2.1 Natural Reason, Natural Inclinations, and Naturally Known Judgments ......... 31
2.1.1 Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 90, a. 1: Whether Law is Something Pertaining to
Reason? ............................................................................................................. 32
2.1.2 Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 91, a. 2: Whether there is in us a Natural Law? ..... 38
2.1.3 Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 94, a. 2: The Natural Law and the Natural
Inclinations ........................................................................................................ 51
2.1.4 Summary ........................................................................................................... 60
2.2 Natural Law Precepts: The Primary Precepts ................................................... 61
2.2.1 Natural Knowledge of the First Principles of the Natural Law ......................... 61
2.3 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................... 79

Chapter Three: Thomas Aquinas on Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the
Natural Law .................................................................................................................. 81

3.1 Eternal Law and Participation ........................................................................... 83
3.1.1 Participation ...................................................................................................... 85
3.1.1.1 Aquinas’s Notion of Participation ..................................................................... 85
3.1.1.2 Ways of Participating in God: Efficient, Exemplary, and Final Causality .......... 88
3.1.1.2.1 First Perfections of Creatures and their Relations of Dependence upon
God ................................................................................................................. 94
3.1.1.2.2 Secondary Perfections and Their Cause ...................................................... 102
3.1.2 Summary: Participation and Eternal Law ....................................................... 112
3.2 The Notion of Participation in the Eternal Law .............................................. 113
3.2.1 Natural Law as Human Participation in the Eternal Law ................................ 115
3.2.2 Passive Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the Natural
Inclinations ...................................................................................................... 116
3.2.3 Active Human Participation in the Eternal Law through Knowledge ............. 118
3.2.3.1 The Light of the Agent Intellect ...................................................................... 119
3.2.3.2 Primary Precepts of the Natural Law .............................................................. 121
3.3 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................. 125

Chapter Four: Bernard Lonergan on the Natural Law........................................................... 127
4.1 Lonergan’s Three Senses of Nature ................................................................ 129
4.2 Bernard Lonergan and the Natural Law .......................................................... 131
4.2.1 De Verbo Incarnato Supplementum ................................................................ 132
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4.2.2 Transition from a Classicist Worldview to Historical-mindedness ................. 138
4.2.3 Natural Right and Historical Mindedness ....................................................... 143
4.2.4 Summary: What is the Natural Law? .............................................................. 148
4.3 Natural Inclinations as Intentional Feelings Intending Satisfactions or
Values .............................................................................................................. 150
4.4 Natural Law and Substantive Preceptive Judgments ..................................... 163
4.4.1 Natural Law, Self-Appropriation, and Conversion .......................................... 165
4.4.2 Natural law and Substantive Preceptive Judgments ...................................... 167
4.5 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................. 190

Chapter Five: Bernard Lonergan on Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the
Natural Law ................................................................................................................ 194

5.1 The Intentional Quest for Order: Law and Causality ...................................... 197
5.1.1 Developing World Order and Lonergan’s Notion of Finality .......................... 201
5.2 Eternal Law and Participation ......................................................................... 206
5.2.1 Lonergan on Participation ............................................................................... 207
5.2.2 Ways of Participating in God through Extrinsic Causation ............................. 209
5.2.2.1 First Perfection: Being ..................................................................................... 211
5.2.2.2 Secondary Perfection: Operation ................................................................... 222
5.2.3 Participation in the Eternal Law ...................................................................... 229
5.3 Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the Natural Law ................ 231
5.3.1 Participation as Moved and Governed by the Eternal Law:
Natural Inclinations ......................................................................................... 231
5.3.2 Cognitive Participation in the Eternal Law: Human Spirit and Knowledge .... 235
5.3.2.1 Participation through the Created Light of the Dynamism of the Human
Spirit…… .......................................................................................................... 236
5.3.2.2 Participation through Knowledge: Preceptive Judgments of the Natural
Law .................................................................................................................. 239
5.3.3 Summary: Human Participation in the Eternal Law through the Natural
Law .................................................................................................................. 244
5.4 The Turn to Interiority and Insights into Human Participation in the Eternal
Law .................................................................................................................. 246
5.5 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................. 256

Chapter Six: Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 257
6.1 Thesis Statement Revisited ............................................................................. 257
6.1.1 Lonergan’s Transpositions of Human Participation in the Eternal Law ......... 258
6.1.2 No Dialectical Opposition between Aquinas and Lonergan ........................... 262
6.1.3 New Ways of Understanding Human Participation in the Eternal Law .......... 267
6.2 Responses to Three Objections ...................................................................... 271
6.2.1 Certain or only Probable Knowledge of Moral Goods .................................... 272
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6.2.2 Dynamic World Process and Changing Natures ............................................. 281
6.2.3 Historical-mindedness and Preceptive Judgments of the Natural Law .......... 284
6.2.4 Summary of Conclusions ................................................................................. 289
6.3 Implications ..................................................................................................... 291

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 295

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Abbreviations
Works of Thomas Aquinas
De malo Quaestiones disputatae de malo
De pot. Quaestiones disputatae de potentia
De regno De regno, ad regem Cypri
De spir. creat. Quaestio disputata de spiritualibus creaturis
De sub. sep. De substantiis separatis
De ver. Quaestiones disputatae de Veritate
De virt. Quaestiones disputata de virtutibus in communi
In Cor. Super primam epistolam ad Corinthios lectura
In De anima Sentencia libri De anima
In De hebd. Expositio libri Boetti De ebdomadibus
In De Trin. Super Boetium De Trinitate
In Decem praec. Collationes in decem praeceptis
In De div. nom. In librum Beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositio
In Ethic. Sententia libri Ethicorum
In Gal. Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Galatas lectura
In Iob Expositio super Iob ad litteram
In Isaiam Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram
In Lib. de caus. Super librum de causis
In Meta. In duodecim libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis exposition
In Phys. In VIII libros Physicorum
In Polit. Sententia libri Politicorum
In Post. an. Expositio libri Posteriorum
In Ps. Postilla super Psalmos
In Rom. Super Epistolam S. Paulo Apostoli ad Romanos
ix
In Sent. Scriptum super libros Sententiarum magistri Petri Lombardi
Lect. super Ioan. Lectura super evangelium Ioannis
Quaes. disp. de an. Quaestiones disputatae de anima
Quod. Quaestiones quodlibetalis
S.C.G. Summa contra gentiles
S.T. Summa theologiae
Works of Bernard Lonergan
CWL Collected Works of Lonergan

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