God of Order Human Nature and the Beatific Vision

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Issue:

Vol. 82 No. 1 (2023)

Published:

Apr 1, 2023
Section
Articles

Keywords:

Visio Dei, Beatific Vision, Reformed Scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Human Nature, Grace, Supernature

Main Article Content

Joshua Schendel
Saint Louis University
https://doi.org/10.53521/a342

Abstract

The doctrine of the beatifying vision of God may be derived not only from Sacred Scripture’s promise to the faithful that they shall ‘see God’ (Matt 5:8; 1 Cor 13:12; 1 John 3:2), but also (and perhaps more fundamentally) from Scripture’s testimony that God ‘is not the God of disorder but of peace’ (1 Cor 14:33). An analysis of the concepts of nature, on the part of humanity, and agency, on the part of divinity, within a broadly Aristotelian framework elucidates why early modern Reformed scholastics exposited the beatific vision as the ultimate end of humankind as a fitting implicate of the biblical testimony that God is a God of order. 

Article Details

How to Cite
Schendel, Joshua. “God of Order: Human Nature and the Beatific Vision”. Reformed Theological Review 82, no. 1 (April 1, 2023): 75–93. Accessed October 8, 2024. https://rtrjournal.org/index.php/RTR/article/view/342.

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Author Biography

Joshua Schendel, Saint Louis University

I am a PhD candidate in the Theological Studies Department at Saint Louis University; I am also a professor, teaching undergraduate theology courses.

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