2. Пневматологическая антропология Фомы Аквинского

2.1. The doctrine of Thomas Aquinas about the dwelling of God in man Thomas Aquinas says that God is present in every thing by his creative action, his essence and his power. No thing is hidden from the Divine presence. But this presence in a rational creature, by which Thomas understands man and angels, can take on a new character - the presence of habitation. It is accomplished so that our mind and our will can perceive God through knowledge and love. He is present as the known in the knower and as the beloved in the lover. He dwells in us as in His church. “Above the ordinary and general image, according to which God is present in all things by his essence, his power and his presence, as the cause in actions, there is another, special presence, inherent only in rational beings, in which God, being as a knowable and loved object, is a being who knows and loves ... No other action than sanctifying grace can be the cause of this image of the presence of the Divine Person. ...together with grace we receive the Holy Spirit, which is given and dwells in man" 16 . According to Thomas, the bestowal of the Divine Person implies the special presence of the Divine in a rational creature (man, angels), which receives the Divine Person. This presence is different from the presence by which God is present in all creatures. God dwells in man in a special way. He is present in it not simply through His action as an agent or as an efficient cause, but this presence can be characterized as the presence of a friend, a Guest. This is a new image of presence, which does not exclude the presence of other Divine Persons, and does not introduce any changes into God Himself. This presence must change the person himself, who through this presence knows God and becomes “God by grace,” an adopted child of God. This image of the presence of God presupposes a change in creation, the establishment of a new principle of relation, in view of which the creation enters into a relationship with God, not simply as an effect and a cause, where God is the cause of the existence of created things, which preserves and maintains the existence of creatures, but as the owner and object, which becomes the property of man and the object of his enjoyment. God makes man able to enter into fellowship with Him. The fruit of this union of man with God is the possession of that in whom man has his purpose and true happiness. It is in God that a person must find the ultimate goal of his Christian path and true happiness, which ultimately will consist in the fact that a person, possessing God, will be in the closest communication, unity with God the Trinity, which will give him true bliss. Thomas states that to “possess” means to “have something at our disposal” to use and enjoy the thing as we desire. According to Thomas, only a rational creation united with God can possess the Divine Face. It is through the action of knowledge and love that the beloved and knowable reality is present in the person who knows and loves. It is in the action of knowledge and love that human beings come to know the Holy Trinity with which each of them is united. God the Trinity dwells in man as in his church. The Triune God is present in a person who is connected with him through knowledge, through living faith, and through vision. He dwells in man as known in the knower and loved in the lover. Through the dwelling of God in his soul, a person has the opportunity to love God, who loves him immeasurably, and also to know Him, being involved in Him. In turn, God Himself knows man, gradually improving him. God Himself is given to the soul, and the soul becomes truly Divine. She, however, is not made God and does not turn into God, she does not merge with the Divine Person. But the Three Divine Persons are present in Her as in their church. God enters into a relationship of belonging and possession with the soul. He becomes a friend of man, an object of knowledge and love. This new relationship which is established between the soul and God is nothing other than sanctifying grace. Only sanctifying grace can be the cause of a new image of the presence of the Divine Person. It is through love that God dwells in the human soul and through it He unites us with Himself. The Holy Spirit produces grace in us, making our souls His dwelling place. His presence in us is measured by the gift of Christ, and it is proportionate to the purpose that God has determined for man. This goal is for a person to communicate with God, to know Him and to love Him. In an effort to explain the meaning of man's unity with God, Thomas introduces a legal relationship between man and God. He says that man possesses God in order to enjoy Him. This is referred to by Thomas as the relationship of belonging and possession. This designation of relationships, in our opinion, is not correct, since it transfers to God the relationships that exist between people. And speaking about the relationship between man and God, we must remember that between us and God there is a relationship of a loving Father and children rather than a relationship of possession and enjoyment. We can never say that we have God, because this in a sense degrades God, reduces Him to the level of some kind of thing about which we can have some legal relationship. It is also wrong to talk about God as a kind of Guest who visits our soul. God is the Lord and Master of our lives, for our lives depend entirely on Him. It is He who maintains our life through His Providence. 2.2. Thomas Aquinas's teaching on "habitual" grace Thomas Aquinas speaks of “habitual” grace (from the Latin verb habeo – to have, to possess) when he addresses the question of God’s dwelling in the souls of the righteous. “Sanctifying (or habitual) grace is that which prepares our soul to receive the Divine Face. Sanctifying grace disposes the soul to possess the Divine Person” 17. Grace makes a person capable of receiving the Divine Face. For a person it is a condition for the possibility of receiving Divine Persons. Due to sanctifying grace, an invisible Economy occurs, as a result of which we receive the Divine Face Itself. Thomas designates the Holy Spirit as the Person who possesses man in the gift of sanctifying grace. Grace is assimilated to the Holy Spirit due to the relationship it has with the personal property of the Holy Spirit, such as the Love and Gift of the Father and the Son. According to Thomas Aquinas, the Holy Spirit is Uncreated Grace, which is given to man as the gift of sanctifying grace. The gift of sanctifying grace is created. He comes from the Holy Spirit. Created grace, according to the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, is not something standing between the Uncreated Person of the Holy Spirit and the created personality of man in which the Holy Spirit dwells. She is the link that unites man with God. Through it, man lives in God, and God dwells in him. It is necessary in order to establish relationships between man and the Divine Persons, in order to elevate the human soul so that it becomes capable of comprehending God Himself and is deified. The gift of sanctifying grace perfects man to bring him to a state where he can enjoy the presence of the Divine Person himself. It is the Divine Person who gives this grace, since the Divine Person is the ultimate goal of this grace. Which is for a person to become the abode of the Holy Trinity, which would dwell in him as in its church. Through created sanctifying grace, a person must receive Divine Persons who descend into the soul and dwell in it. Thomas considers the teaching that the Holy Spirit is not given, but only His gift of grace, to be an error. Cardinal Charles Journet, explaining the theology of Thomas Aquinas, writes: “It is the Holy Spirit, and not only His grace, that is given to us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are churches of God, temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us so that when we love Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to us with the Father and the Son. In the very gift of sanctifying grace, namely the Holy Spirit, precisely the Uncreated gift, it is the Three Divine Persons that the soul possesses” 18. Thomas thinks that this teaching to some extent belittles the dignity of the Holy Spirit Himself, who, being a Divine Person, is also bestowed on the human person. According to Thomas, one can have a relationship with a person only through the person. In a sense, this approach of Thomas Aquinas can be called personalistic, because in this case we can clearly see the interaction of individuals who enter into relationships. However, this personalism is, in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, a consequence of the lack of distinction between the Incomprehensible Essence and the Uncreated Divine Energy. Essence and Energy (action) are identified with him. And therefore, Thomas is forced to speak about the Holy Spirit as Uncreated Grace, which a person receives along with created Grace, which is a kind of preparation for receiving the Personality of the Holy Spirit. From the point of view of Orthodox theology, it is unlawful to say that the Holy Spirit is Uncreated Grace. Uncreated Grace, according to Orthodox theology, is Uncreated Divine Energy, which is common to the Three Divine Persons. Energy “is not only a way to name nature, but the possibility of empirical knowledge, which comes from personal participation in essence, or nature, from participation in them, which does not mean identity with nature. Divine energies call for the experience of participation in the non-participating Divine. Knowledge is the experience of participation, and participation is possible thanks to Divine energies. A person gains the opportunity to know God only insofar as he accepts the Divine call addressed to him” 19. She cannot be identified with any of the Persons, just as we cannot identify any of the Persons of the Holy Trinity with the Divine Essence, for this would mean depersonalization, humiliation of the Divine Person. We can only say that Divine Persons possess the fullness of the Divine essence and the fullness of Divine Energies. But in no case can we identify Divine Persons with them. As we have already seen above, according to the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, we are given Divine Energies, and not the Holy Spirit himself. He distinguishes the Holy Spirit from His gifts. But at the same time, he insists that the gifts, the energies of the Holy Spirit, are inseparable from the Holy Spirit Himself. The Holy Spirit cannot give us energy without giving Himself. Thomas Aquinas says that not only Grace, but also the Person of the Holy Spirit Himself dwells in us. For Thomas, this is a logical conclusion from his teaching that the Holy Spirit, being a gift, the love with which the Father and the Son love each other and which They give to each other, is sent by them into the human soul and dwells in it personally. However, this teaching is alien to Orthodox teaching, which says that God unites with man through His Uncreated Divine Energies. “Each person, being a person, an image of the Divine Personality, is called to perceive, assimilate or hypostasis the Uncreated Divine Energies. It is in this sense that one has become a participant in the Divine nature, having become deified” 20. According to this teaching, a person cannot unite with the Divine Hypostasis directly for the following reason. The Divine Hypostasis contains the Divine nature in its entirety. Nature finds its real existence in hypostasis. If we assume that the Divine Person can directly unite with the human personality, then we must assume that through this personality he is united with the Divine nature, which is unknowable and incommunicable, and this is impossible, because if a person could unite with the Divine nature, then he would become God himself. The teaching of Thomas Aquinas about sanctifying Grace as created is alien to Orthodox theology. Thomas views the gifts of the Holy Spirit as created, while St. Gregory Palamas insists that these gifts are uncreated. However, Thomas says that the main gifts of the Holy Spirit are uncreated: His own person, to which He joins us by indwelling us, and the Uncreated nature of the Holy Trinity, in which we participate through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For Thomas Aquinas, the Person of the Holy Spirit is the Uncreated Gift, Uncreated Grace. Created grace, according to Thomas Aquinas, is a necessary consequence of Uncreated grace. Saint Gregory Palamas admits that the gifts of the Holy Spirit include the created consequences of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of the Uncreated Energies, and not the Energies themselves. However, it is not Divine energy that is created, but the action and product of energy. For St. Gregory Palamas does not distinguish between created and uncreated grace, as in Thomas Aquinas. For Saint Gregory, there is only one Grace, and it is uncreated. 2.3. The Doctrine of Thomas Aquinas on the Houses of Divine Persons God dwells in rational creatures through the dispensations of the Son and the Holy Spirit. By the Economy of the Holy Spirit, Thomas Aquinas understands the coming into this world of the Son and the Holy Spirit to accomplish the salvation of man, created in the image and likeness of God, as well as Their presence in this world, and Their participation in the destinies of this world. In the Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas speaks of two types of dispensations: the visible and the invisible. Visible Economy is the visible and tangible coming of the Son and the Holy Spirit into this world, what people could feel during the coming of the Son and the Holy Spirit into the world. The Invisible Economy, as defined by Thomas Aquinas, is that Divine Persons come to this world in an invisible and intangible way, being present in every creature. Thomas says that we can only talk about the Economy of the Son and the Holy Spirit due to the fact that the Son and the Holy Spirit have their origin within the Trinity: the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; The Holy Spirit, being the mutual gift of love with which the Father and the Son love each other, proceeds eternally from both of them. It is precisely because the Son is born from the Father that He is sent by the Father into this world. And due to the fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds, according to the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, from the Father and the Son, He is sent by the Father and the Son into this world. As for the Father, due to his incommunicability, He is not sent into this world. God the Father does not have an Economy due to the fact that He does not have a reason for his origin: He is not born from anyone, and does not proceed from anyone, and, therefore, according to the logic of Thomas Aquinas, He cannot be sent into this world by anyone, unlike the Son and the Holy Spirit. For Thomas Aquinas, the economy of the Persons of the Holy Trinity is a continuation of Their eternal origin in the womb of the Holy Trinity. For this reason, in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, there is a strict dependence between the hypostatic properties of the Divine Persons who exist in the bosom of the Holy Trinity, and Their Households, as a manifestation of the Divine Persons, Their action in this world. Thomas, unlike St. Gregory Palamas and the Eastern Fathers, does not distinguish between the area of ​​“theology,” which is understood as the doctrine of God in Himself, His essential properties and Hypostatic properties, and the area of ​​“oikonomia,” economy, which considers the question of how God manifests Himself in this world. The Divine Economy implies two things: firstly, the coming into this world, according to the image in which the Divine Person occurs in the womb of the Holy Trinity (the Son is born from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son); secondly, in order for there to be an Economy, it is also necessary that the Divine Person begin to be present in a new way where She is sent. Thus, when the Son of God was sent into the world to accomplish the work of redemption, He did not leave the bosom of the Father to come into our midst. He was already in the world as the reason for the creation of this world, in order to preserve what He originally created. But God the Son comes into this world, clothed in our flesh. The Holy Spirit, who also participated in the creation of the world and inspired the prophets in the Old Testament, comes after the Ascension of Christ in the form of tongues of fire and thus becomes visible. However, it is important to note that, according to the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, the Economy of the Persons of the Holy Trinity occurs differently in the work of habitation: the entire Holy Trinity participates in it, since habitation presupposes a new way of presence. This new image of presence is that the Persons of the Holy Trinity are present in man as an object that is knowable and cognizant, loving and loved. And therefore man is able to know and love God. Knowledge and love enable us to comprehend God Himself. In knowledge, love, and ultimately the beatific vision, God is not simply perceived as the cause manifesting in His actions, but it concerns His own being, as the end of the pure and simple. The dwelling of God in man occurs through the action of sanctifying grace. In terms of the action of grace, the entire Holy Trinity sends the Divine Person for the invisible Economy of habitation. As for God the Father, He is present due to the interpenetration (perichoresis) of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, due to Their mutual communication. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have the same essence, They perform one action together. Since the Father is everywhere where the Son and the Holy Spirit are, They all enter the human soul together due to a new mode of presence. Where one Person is present, there will always be two others present, and what one Person does, two other Persons do together with Him. “The Divine Economy consists neither in displacement nor in separation. God, being everywhere, cannot return to where He no longer exists, and the sent person is not separated from the one who sent Her, since the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity, being consubstantial, are inseparable due to interpenetration” 21. All Three Divine Persons participate in the work of dwelling, but in terms of assimilation this action, according to Thomas Aquinas, relates especially to the Holy Spirit. Assimilation is a theological method whereby a trait belonging to the Divine nature, common to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, is attributed to one of the Divine Persons. Thomas defines the term assimilation as follows: “To assimilate in Trinitarian theology means to attribute to the Divine Person a quality, action, or relation to creation that is common to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity” 22 . This method is a consequence of the doctrine of perechoresis: since the essence of the Persons of the Holy Trinity is common, then any essential property, as well as any action that is common to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, we can attribute to any of the Persons, keeping in mind that the other two Persons also participate in this action, and the two other Persons have the same essential properties as this Person. Regarding indwelling, Thomas says that “the whole Trinity dwells in us through grace, but indwelling can be appropriated to one Person by reason of a special gift, which has a special likeness to that person, for which reason She is sent” 23 . This Person is the Holy Spirit, who is given to the human soul and who dwells in it, making man a son of God by grace. The Holy Spirit occurs within the Holy Trinity in a special way, in the way of love: The Holy Spirit is the gift of love with which the Father and the Son love each other, and it is this gift of love that They bestow on man. He is thus, according to the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, that Person who is given to man in sanctifying grace and dwells in man, but the Father and the Son dwell with Him, since dwelling is a single action of the Three Divine Persons. “There is a special role of the Holy Spirit that is assigned to Him in the work of sanctification. Two things are certain: the Holy Spirit does not come into the soul of the righteous without other Divine Persons dwelling with Him. The Savior Himself says that if someone loves Him, he will be loved by the Father, and that Three Persons will come and make an abode in him” 24. The Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father, and not only of God the Son, but both. Therefore, He gives us common love, with which the Father and the Son love each other. Also the Holy Spirit is a Gift, a gift par excellence. There is no gift greater than the gift of love, therefore without it other gifts are nothing, the Holy Spirit is love. The Father loves the Son whom he begets with an infinite love. The Son loves the Father with equal love, the goal of this mutual love is the Face of the Holy Spirit himself, hypostatic love. Without the Holy Spirit, hypostatic Love, neither the Father nor the Son can love us. Their love would not exist, since it would be devoid of an essential goal. For this reason, only in the Holy Spirit do we comprehend the Father and the Son. This is what is meant when it is said that the Father and the Son dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a great Gift from God to us. The Holy Spirit is the bond that in and through Christ unites us to the Father. The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in a rational creature is the invisible Economy of the Holy Spirit. It is intended for the sanctification of rational creatures. It takes place in every increase of sanctifying grace. It makes us capable of comprehending and mastering the Highest Good through knowledge and love. The invisible dispensation occurs when the one who receives it can enjoy not only the created gift of sanctifying grace, but also the Divine Person Himself, which is bestowed along with the gift of sanctifying grace. The gift given to us in the Economy is not limited to created sanctifying grace, but extends to the Uncreated Divine Person. The Divine Person itself is bestowed in the gift of sanctifying grace. This Divine Person is the Holy Spirit, with whom the Father and Son dwell in man, as in a church. When sanctifying grace is bestowed, the Holy Spirit Himself is possessed and indwells the person, so that He Himself is given and sent. When the Holy Spirit is sent as a gift of sanctifying grace, He is actually bestowed upon the person who possesses Him. The person who receives the Holy Spirit enjoys His person. We can well agree with Thomas Aquinas, who says that our unity with God occurs through the Economy of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son is the performer of our salvation, who brings the sacrifice of Atonement for the salvation of the human race, and the Holy Spirit comes into this world at the intercession of the Son in order to assimilate to us the fruits of the Redemptive feat that the Son of God accomplished for the sake of our salvation. Orthodox theology does not divide the House-building of the Persons of the Holy Trinity into visible and invisible; for it, visible and invisible House-building is one and the same act through which the Persons of the Holy Trinity come to us in order to unite with us and thus accomplish our salvation. As for the position that the House of the Persons of the Holy Trinity is a continuation of the relationships that exist between the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the following can be said here. Orthodox theologians have always talked about the fundamental difference between the Eternal origin of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, which is, according to the teachings of St. John of Damascus, a work of nature, the very existence of the Holy Trinity Itself, and the Economy of the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is a work of the will common to all Three Hypostases. Within the Holy Trinity, the Son and the Holy Spirit have a single source of origin - the Father. Whereas in the area of ​​the Economy, the Son is sent to earth in time by the Father, and the Holy Spirit is sent by the Son. For Thomas, there is a strict connection between the Houses of the Divine Persons and the hypostatic properties of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. In our opinion, this is again a consequence of the fact that Thomas does not distinguish between the Unknowable and incommunicable Divine Essence and the knowable and comprehensible Divine Energies. For Thomas, these are identical concepts, and from here the conclusion is drawn that just as within the Holy Trinity the Son is born from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so in the area of ​​the Economy the same thing happens, since the Economy is a continuation of what happens inside the Holy Trinity. In addition, the doctrine of the Filioque is clearly visible in this teaching. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the Holy Spirit as a Gift, as the mutual love of the Son and the Father, with which They love each other and with which They love man. The economy of the Holy Spirit is explained by the fact that since the Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity comes from the Father and the Son, He is sent to earth by both of them. In our opinion, it is inappropriate to call the Holy Spirit Love, or Gift, since this belittles and even to some extent depersonalizes the Holy Spirit. Love is a common essential property that is inherent in the entire Holy Trinity by nature. It is impossible to identify any of the Persons of the Holy Trinity with Essence or Energy, since this would depersonalize God, and, therefore, it would be impossible to have any personal relationship with God and address Him as a person in our prayers. 2.4. Deification according to Thomas Aquinas The purpose of human life, according to the teachings of Thomas, is bliss, which occurs when we unite with God, become “gods by grace,” adopted children of God. Deification, according to Thomas Aquinas, consists in our receiving the Divine Persons themselves: in the presence of the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are sent to us, and in the presence of the Father, who dwells in the hearts of His children, along with the Son and the Holy Spirit, whom He sends. The Holy Spirit produces in us the life of grace. This is done in the order of the Mystic Body. As the breath of the Holy Spirit touches only those members who are united to the Head, so the Holy Spirit touches only those who are united to Christ. Through grace and love, creation becomes like the Son of God in the unity that the Father has with the Son. This union, compared in the Holy Scriptures to the union of the bride and groom, is designated by mystics as a spiritual union. The union is immediate, deep, surpassing the union that exists between a man and a woman, since nature is only a shadow of grace. On the one hand, there is only the bringing together of bodies, and on the other hand, there is the mutual penetration of the soul by God. Bound by God's love, the righteous soul becomes the same spirit with Him. Having begun on earth, this union ends in heaven. The holy soul is betrothed to Christ. Being the bride of the Holy Spirit, who gives her faith as a betrothal symbol of their union, clothes her with grace and love, like a gilded robe, adorns her with gifts and virtues like precious stones, and He bestows himself, albeit in an incomprehensible way, as a guarantee of eternal bliss. The divine bridegroom accomplishes his work and bestows on her the gift of vision, understanding and fruitfulness: a vision that is to become the successor of faith. The presence of the Holy Spirit indicates our belonging to Christ. Without Him we are not members of the Body of Christ. He makes us living members, for the Holy Spirit is the life principle of the Body of Christ. Commenting on Rom. 8:3, Thomas insists on the image of the body of Christ with Christ at the head, which is used by the Apostle Paul. From this image it becomes clear that each member is connected with the Head of the Body in the vitality received from the Holy Spirit. Already in this life we ​​begin to comprehend our ultimate goal when the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us as Their mutual gift. Through this presence of the Holy Spirit we come to know God the Trinity, whose vision will be available to us after our transition into eternity. The Holy Spirit gives Himself and this grace to us for the sake of participation in the Divine nature. By receiving this nature, we are reborn, becoming children of God. By pouring out the gift of the Holy Spirit into the soul of a Christian, which purifies him, justifies him, makes him a new creation, God only prepares Him for some higher gift, for some more perfect deification. Deification is accomplished through baptism and constitutes true regeneration, having as its goal true birth. This birth is incomparably higher than the first birth, because instead of natural and human life, it gives us supernatural and Divine life. This birth makes us a new person, created by God in truth and holiness. Thomas perceives the concept of adoption, which the Apostle Paul uses in his epistles, as helping to understand that the Holy Spirit makes us partakers of the Divine nature. Grace realizes all the conditions of true adoption, since through it those who were once alien to God are introduced into the family of God and become His heirs. Our adoption occurs through love and has the purpose of extending this adoption to all other beings. The moment we receive grace, a profound change occurs in us. From the slaves that we were by virtue of creation, we become children of God. From the sons of the first Adam, the heirs of his nature and his sin, we become the brethren of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. God imparts to us a new being, a new life, a new nature. This is not a matter of natural adoption, just as the Second Person is the Son by nature. We do not become “God,” but we become deified through grace, because we actually and mystically participate in the nature of God Himself. Our adoption as sons is the adoption of grace. Thomas asserts that from this life in the saints there is a certain imperfect beginning of future blessedness. The grace of God, in the state of which we are in this life, is eternal life in its germ here. In the next century it will be in perfect condition. Grace is nothing other than the dwelling in us of future glory. Consequently, in embryo we already possess what will one day in the future constitute our bliss. Since formal beatitude consists in the action by which the rational creature takes possession of the Supreme Being and enjoys It, it is necessary that, from this life, the righteous also Himself comprehend through His actions the Divine essence, so that He comes into contact with it through knowledge and love and begins to enjoy God. Bliss consists in the participation of life in those who own this blessed life. This blissful life is owned by the Three Divine Persons. Therefore, one must be involved in these Divine Persons. We can be partakers of the Divine Persons only when the Holy Spirit dwells in us, together with which the other Two Persons will dwell. The Holy Spirit needs to be united with them as a friend, a groom; so that He dwells in the heart as in a living church, where He receives veneration and where He becomes the object of their enjoyment. From now on, we possess Him through grace, but not perfectly. The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in us is only the beginning of that blessed vision that we will have in the next century. In grace, as in glory, we possess the Holy Spirit, but in grace the possession is imperfect, but in glory this possession is perfect. The Divine Glory that we hope to see in the next age will not, in reality, be a state essentially different from the state of grace. It will only be the apogee of what our whole life has been directed towards. But starting from this life, our deification begins, and we possess the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our bliss. It is at the moment when God appears in all His glory, so that we are completely like Him, because we see Him as He is, that we will live His life. We will share in His beatitude, for the life of God is to know ourselves and love ourselves, and beatitude is to enjoy the presence of God in us. Having become partakers of the Divine nature through sanctifying grace, we are raised to the incomparable dignity of sons of God, with the right of paternal inheritance. Thus, deification, according to Thomas, consists of participation in the Divine Persons. These Persons are given to us through sanctifying grace. As noted above, the doctrine of participation in Divine Persons poses a certain problem. Therefore, in our opinion, it would be best to talk about participation in the Uncreated Divine Energies. The concepts of pleasure and possession in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, in our opinion, introduce a certain sensual, carnal character. They are some kind of anthropomorphisms that are transferred to the realm of the Divine. 2.5. Thomas Aquinas's teaching on the beatific vision According to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, the beatific vision is a vision of God face to face, when the soul knows God not secretly, but as He is, as He knows Himself by nature. The divine essence is directly united with the created mind of the blessed in heaven in order to be with it the joint principle of the beatific vision. Our mind connects with the Divine essence, is enlightened by It, and thus the soul receives complete knowledge of God. The elect in heaven see God face to face, openly, clearly, directly as He is in the unity of His essence and trinity of Persons. It is in this clear vision and in the pleasure that accompanies it that the crown of the promised truth lies, as a reward for our well-deserved deeds. The Divine Essence is the goal and object of the beatific vision, since it is the very essence that the righteous should see. The vision of the Divine essence belongs to the future age, when the soul, having separated from the body, will appear before God. At the present moment, knowledge of God is an object of faith. Eternal life consists of knowing the one true God. Not in this mediocre, abstract, dark knowledge that is given to us in this life and which we draw from the works of God, but in direct and immediate vision, in a clear vision of the Divine essence, in the possession and enjoyment of the Highest Good; it consists in the real and essential presence of God in the spirit and heart of the blessed, as the immediate object of knowledge and love. This gift of God in glory begins in this world through grace. Love follows knowledge, and union with God is the ultimate goal of love. The final union will be our eternal bliss. A fruitful union is a union through action, and therefore the human soul is incapable of perfect union without the gift of habitual grace, which is the principle of this blessed union. The doctrine of the beatific vision is the logical conclusion of the doctrine that the Holy Spirit as a Person dwells in the human soul. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of this beatific vision. When the Holy Spirit personally dwells in a person, the person already knows the essence of God in his unity with the Holy Spirit, since the Person of the Holy Spirit contains this essence in its entirety. But while a person remains in the body, this essence is only partially comprehensible to him. He sees her only through a dull glass, darkly. When will he move beyond this life? His mind will contemplate the essence of God. The doctrine of the beatific vision of Thomas Aquinas completely contradicts the Orthodox doctrine of the knowledge of God. Completely unfounded, Thomas Aquinas claims that in the next century we will be able to see the Essence of God. The essence of God is completely unknowable to man and to angels. We cannot know it either in the present or in the future century. Knowledge of the essence would mean equality with God for a person. But man will never be able to comprehend the essence of God, although he is created in the image and likeness of God. Image and likeness provide some knowledge of God, but the Divine essence remains incomprehensible. The Holy Scripture tells us that we will see God Face to Face, but this does not mean at all that we will comprehend the Divine Essence. We will see God abiding in glory. The glory of God in which God dwells will be revealed more clearly to us. However, the essence of God will still remain hidden to us. In addition, the idea that the soul, separated from the body, will see God is completely contrary to Orthodox teaching. From this thought it follows that the body will not participate at all in future bliss. Orthodox teaching emphasizes the idea that man was originally created as a single whole, but through the Fall, death entered the world, which became the reason that the soul is separated from the body. Christ restores this integrity in man through His death and Resurrection. As a guarantee that we will receive this integrity, we are given the grace of the Holy Spirit, deifying us. This deification concerns not only the soul, but also the body. At the second and terrible coming of Christ we will gain this integrity, when the dead are resurrected in a new body, and the living will change, also receiving a new body. In this teaching one can see the influence of Platonism, which considers the body and soul separately. Meanwhile, the separation of body and soul can have dangerous consequences: as a result of such a vision, one can come to the conclusion that the body has absolutely no meaning for us, and we have no need to care about it. But the body, along with the soul, is important: it leads us to the Kingdom of God. And each person will give an answer to God according to what he did while living in the flesh. This teaching is another consequence of Thomas’s failure to distinguish between the Uncreated Divine Energy and the Divine Essence. Such a conclusion could be made as a result of rationalizing the mystery of the union of man with God. This teaching places emphasis not so much on the mystical unity of man and God, but rather on the rational comprehension of God. It is reason that plays an important role in the teaching of Thomas, while the very mystery of our deification is completely ignored. Saint Thomas d'Aquin Somme de la théologie.1,43,3 Paris 1999. P. 447. Cyprian (Kern), archimandrite. Anthropology of St. Gregory Palamas. M. 1997. P. 82. Journet C. La grace divine. Freibourg, 1998. P. 45. HussyE.M, The structure of the Person-Energy in the theology of Gregory Palama // Saint Vladimir’s quarterly. NewYork. 1997, No. 7, P. 78. Yannaras H. Favorites: Personality and Eros. M., 2005. P. 156. Saint Thomas d'Aquin Somme de la théologie.1,43,3 Paris 1999. P. 485. Saint Thomas d'Aquin Somme de la théologie.1,43,3 Paris 1999. P. 490.