Bibliotheca Catholicaa library of libraries
Support
Summa Theologiae · Suppl., q. 98, a. 5

Whether the damned hate God?

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplement, question 98, Of the Will and Intellect of the Damned, article 5. About 2 min.

Read in the reading room → This article at New Advent

From the Supplement, compiled after Aquinas’s death from his Commentary on the Sentences and transcribed here from the 1917 to 1922 printings. About the Supplement.

Text: Summa Theologiae, Supplement to the Third Part (Supplementum Tertiae Partis), transcribed from Internet Archive scans, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. The Supplement, compiled after Aquinas’s death from his earlier Commentary on the Sentences, in the same English Dominican translation as the Gutenberg Parts. Transcribed by Bibliotheca Catholica from the OCR of four Internet Archive scans of the pre-1931 printings (Questions 1 to 33 from the 1917 Washbourne and Benziger volume, 34 to 68 from the 1922 volume, 69 to 86 from the 1921 volume, and 87 to 99 from the 1922 Benziger volume), with OCR errors corrected and doubtful passages marked, not rewritten. 99 questions and 446 articles. The two appendices printed after Question 99 are not included. Sources, SHA-256 of each OCR file, and the method are in the source record. Rights: Public domain (US)

The Supplement is not a Project Gutenberg text. It is Bibliotheca Catholica’s transcription of public-domain scans at the Internet Archive; obvious OCR errors were corrected, and passages marked “OCR uncertain” could not be confidently corrected, so check them against the linked scan page.

Objection 1: It would seem that the damned do not hate God. For, according to Dionysius (Div. Nom. i.), the beautiful and good that is the cause of all goodness and beauty is beloved of all. But this is God. Therefore God cannot be the object of anyone's hate.

Obj. 2: Further, No one can hate goodness itself, as neither can one will badness itself, since evil is altogether involuntary, as Dionysius asserts (Div. Nom. iv.). Now God is goodness itself. Therefore no one can hate Him.

On the contrary, It is written (Ps. xxiii. 23): The pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually.

I answer that, The appetite is moved by good or evil apprehended. Now God is apprehended in two ways, namely in Himself, as by the blessed, who see Him in His essence; and in His effects, as by us and by the damned. Since, then, He is goodness by His essence, He cannot in Himself be displeasing to any will; wherefore whoever sees Him in His essence cannot hate Him. On the other hand, some of His effects are displeasing to the will in so far as they are opposed to any one: and accordingly a person may hate God not in Himself, but by reason of His effects. Therefore the damned, perceiving God in His punishment, which is the effect of His justice, hate Him, even as they hate the punishment inflicted on them.*

Reply Obj. 1: The saying of Dionysius refers to the natural appetite; and even this is rendered perverse in the damned, by that which is added thereto by their deliberate will, as stated above (A. 1.)t

Reply Obj. 2: This argument would prove if the damned saw God in Himself, as being in His essence.

[*Cf. Q. XC., A. 3, ad 2, and Il.-Il., Q. XC V 5 ees ¢ Cf. IL-Il., Q. XXXIV., A. 1, ad 1, where S. Thomas gives another answer.]

_______________________

Also online, linked only: the same translation at New Advent and the Latin text at Corpus Thomisticum. Neither is copied here.

Source: Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Supplement to the Third Part. Internet Archive scans: Third Part, Fourth Number (QQ. LXXXIV to Suppl. XXXIII), 1917, Third Part (Supplement), QQ. XXXIV to LXVIII, 1922, Third Part (Supplement), QQ. LXIX to LXXXVI, 1921, and Third Part (Supplement), QQ. LXXXVII to XCIX and Appendices, 1922; two curled pages of the 1921 volume are read from another scan of the same printing. Public domain in the USA. Printed in 1917, 1921, and 1922, before 1931. Outside the U.S., check local copyright rules. Transcription, OCR file checksums, and method: source record.