荣福直观中的友爱与出离——阿奎那幸福论中的神秘主义维度

Friendship and Ecstasy in the Beatifific Vision:The Mystical Aspect of Aquinas’Theory of Happiness

在阿奎那的思想中,人最完满的幸福便是对上帝的直观(visio Dei,荣福直观),其核心是对上帝本质的把握和享受(frui)。而这一享受,无疑是对上帝之爱(caritas)的结果。^(①)而阿奎那不厌其烦地说,这种爱,从本质而言是一种友爱(amor amicitae)。^(②)但如果我们分析阿奎那幸福思想中对上帝之爱的完成,即作为完满幸福的荣福直观,则会发现它似乎更符合阿奎那对欲求之爱(amor concupiscientiae)的描述。

According to Aquinas’s theory of happiness,the perfect beatitude of human beings is the vision of God(visio Dei),which is the comprehension and enjoyment of God’s essence.On this account,the appetitive act,insofar as it aims at the realization of one’s proper nature,seems nothing but a concupiscent love(amor concupiscientiae).Aquinas,however,refers to this very relationship as“friendship”(amor amicitiae).To resolve this tension,the author firstly argues,based on relavent texts of Aquinas,that the term“friendship”is,for Aquinas,a substantial appetition,in which the lover departs from her essence and wills the good for the sake of the loved.In the perfect apprehensive act,namely,the vision of God,we also ascertain the same character of ecstasy(extasis):the human apprehensive capacity transcends its secular nature and apprehends God’s essence directly and thereby obtains its new,perfect nature.Meanwhile,the friendship between human beings and God grounds the possibility of the perfect and permanent ecstasy of a person’s apprehensive capacity.Therefore,in the sense of departing from one’s essence and embracing God’s,the vision of God turns out to be a friendship between human beings and God.This essay thus shows the importance of the mystical term“extasis”in our understanding of Aquinas’s account of beatitude.