St Thomas Aquinas Conference

Nicholas Augimeri

In St Thomas, the Thomist tradition and the Carmelite mystical tradition, contemplation is a simple, intellectual, volitional and affective human act that is beyond the unaided power of man to effect. In this paper, with reference to St Thomas and these traditions, I explore the nature and characteristics of contemplation. I do so with respect both to contemplation which is in some sense natural and to contemplation which is in some sense supernatural.

Dr Jeremy Bell

There is a deep ambiguity in Aquinas’ account of the role of charity and moral virtue in the contemplative life. Charity and, concomitantly, moral virtue are said to be necessary to the contemplative life in that they supply its motive. God is the chief object of contemplation, and it is because one loves God (and, for His sake, one’s neighbour) that one desires to contemplate Him. Yet Aquinas also admits the possibility of a contemplative life whose motive is, not divine charity, but “love of knowledge itself.” Moral virtue, moreover, is said to make the contemplative life possible by curbing “the impetuosity of the passions,” but curbing the passions merely in order to think clearly is not the same as earnestly cultivating the moral virtues, let alone zealously striving for sanctity.

Aquinas thus seems to combine, or to oscillate between, two quite different conceptions of the contemplative life, one authentically Christian and the other virtually pagan. In this presentation I shall explore this ambiguity and suggest that it reflects a more fundamental ambiguity in Aquinas regarding man’s final end.

Robert van Gend

If the lay apostolate is to sanctify the temporal order (Apostolicam Actuositatem, ch.1 p.2), is it right or even possible for a lay person to engage in the contemplative life as conceived by Thomas Aquinas? This paper examines Aquinas’ view that contemplation is a non-discursive intellectual act, motivated by charity, whose object is the truth. Drawing on the insights of Josef Pieper, this paper argues that contemplation is something that lay persons should practice.

Andrew Wood

This paper explores the doctrine of the contemplative life in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, highlighting its primacy over the active life and its culmination in loving union with God. It then examines the doctrine of infused contemplation as articulated by Fr. Austin Woodbury, emphasising the role of the gifts of understanding and wisdom in producing a simple, affective, and supra-human knowledge of God. The paper argues that the contemplative life is not only essential to Christian holiness but urgently needed in the modern world, offering a path to interior renewal, peace, and authentic witness.