The Faith of Adam in Paradise. Imagining Original Justice with Aquinas

Lecture Seven in The Origin of Life and Nature Before Sin, with Fr Piotr Roszak, PhD, Professor, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland, ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, Editor-in-Chief of 'Scientia et Fides', member of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

The description of paradise in Aquinas's theology is based on the category of rectitudo, which points to the state of a man living in what is called “original justice” in a realistic, not merely symbolic, way. Due to its temporality and non-definitive nature, Paradise is a time that assumed the necessity of final salvation. Therefore, the Adam's faith in Paradise is necessary as a manner of reaching heaven. His sin changes the way or circumstances the human being reaches it, but not the goal itself. In this context, Aquinas looks at the relationship between the natural and moral order and Adam's perfection before the Fall, which is relational (perfection at a given stage of development), not absolute. The paper will present Aquinas’s description of Adam's way of knowing God in Paradise (which was not the beatific vision), the nature of his faith before the Fall, and its relationship to emotions and virtues. It will also refer to Aquinas’s thoughts on why the "old creation" was needed at all, rather than the "new" being established immediately. Finally, a question will be asked about the aspects of the Thomisitic description of Paradise that may be still attractive to contemporary theologians, in reference to modern science.