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6 - The Nature of Human Beings

from Part II - Metaphysics and the Ultimate Foundation of Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2022

Eleonore Stump
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University, Missouri
Thomas Joseph White
Affiliation:
Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas
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Summary

On Aquinas’s view, a human being is a material object, a hylomorphic compound of prime matter and the substantial form of a human being. That form is capable of existing on its own, apart from matter; and it does so in the period between the death of a human being and the resurrection of his body, when that form configures matter again. The resurrection of the body is not a reassembly of bodily bits that had previously composed the body; it is more nearly a reconstitution of the substantial form with prime matter. Finally, after death some human beings go to heaven. In heaven, a human being is perfected, so that the true nature of a human being is revealed best in the condition of human beings in heaven. A human being in heaven sees God and is united in loving relationship with God and with all others who are also united to God. In this vision and union, she has the full perfection of her human nature and also her complete beatitude.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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