reflexivity and spiritual exercises in Thomas Aquinas

299 Pages·2014·1.4 MB·English

The freedom of the mind for God:
reflexivity and spiritual exercises in
Thomas Aquinas
Author: Matthew Carl Kruger
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3792
This work is posted on eScholarship@BC,
Boston College University Libraries.
Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2014
Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
Boston College

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Department of Theology

THE FREEDOM OF THE MIND FOR GOD: REFLEXIVITY AND SPIRITUAL
EXERCISES IN THOMAS AQUINAS

a dissertation by

MATTHEW C. KRUGER

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

May 2014
© Copyright by MATTHEW CARL KRUGER 2013
Abstract

The Freedom of the Mind for God: Reflexivity and Spiritual Exercises in Thomas Aquinas

By Matthew C. Kruger

Directed by Stephen F. Brown

The study of Thomas Aquinas generally focuses on theological questions in his work, and
ignores certain aspects of what might be called his “spiritual life.” Though there are exceptions
to this rule, there are numerous themes in the writings of Thomas Aquinas which have not been
given their due. In light of this fact, this dissertation seeks to provide an extended treatment of
two components of the work of Thomas Aquinas which receive little attention: the role of
spiritual exercises in his writing, and the form of reflexivity—one’s understanding of and
relation to one’s self—he recommends. As a way of approaching these issues, I draw from the
work of two historical philosophers, Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault, using the methodological
questions they employ in their writings on the classical world.
Both Hadot and Foucault argued that there was something different about the way
philosophy was accomplished in the antique world, something which was lost as philosophy
shifted in the modern period. Hadot’s work focuses, in particular, on the use of spiritual
exercises in the formation of the person—that is, how a person becomes the ideal form they
ought to be. Foucault, on the other hand, focused on the alternative form of reflexivity as found
in the work of classical philosophers, and used it for fruitful comparison and critique of the
contemporary forms of reflexivity found in the modern world. Both of these thinkers, however,
never included in their study the medieval period, or at least not in an extended and meaningful
way. Their questions, however, are particularly relevant to the work of Thomas Aquinas, as he
offers both an extended treatment of spiritual exercises, as well as a form of reflexivity similar in
many ways to classical forms.
As a way of highlighting these two topics in Thomas Aquinas, I first provide an overview
of the work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault as it relates to these topics. I then move onto a
discussion of the current state of scholarship on “spirituality” in Thomas Aquinas, and suggest
the ways in which this dissertation can improve on this current state. In the subsequent chapters,
I begin a discussion of the concept of virtue as found in Thomas Aquinas, and its relation to both
spiritual exercises and reflexivity, the description of which in Thomas forms the basis for the
next two chapters. Finally, I turn to an in depth application of these methodological questions by
turning to two different works of Thomas; first, I turn to his De perfectione spiritualis vitae, a
short and rarely read work in which Thomas explains the practices which accompany the
formation of a person in charity. Second, I turn to the Summa Theologiae and the cardinal
virtues, drawing attention to the presence of spiritual exercises in a work typically treated as
merely expositional.
i

Chapter 1 - Survey of Literature , Method and Argument ........................................................... 1-1
Hadot and Philosophy .............................................................................................................. 1-2
The development of Hadot’s thought ...................................................................................... 1-7
Philosophy as a way of life ...................................................................................................... 1-9
Spiritual Exercises ................................................................................................................. 1-11
The development of Michel Foucault’s thought .................................................................... 1-15
Michel Foucault: the arts of living ......................................................................................... 1-18
Practices of the self ................................................................................................................ 1-22
The self and the subject in Hadot and Foucault ..................................................................... 1-25
Further differences between Foucault and Hadot .................................................................. 1-29
Scholarship on the Spiritual Life of Thomas Aquinas ........................................................... 1-33
Torrell .................................................................................................................................... 1-35
Academic formation in Aquinas ............................................................................................ 1-39
Poverty and other virtues in Aquinas ..................................................................................... 1-41
Work on Thomas and Hadot .................................................................................................. 1-42
Defining important terms ....................................................................................................... 1-45
The Argument ........................................................................................................................ 1-48
Towards a composite picture of the spirituality of Thomas Aquinas .................................... 1-52
Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................................ 1-54
Chapter 2 - Progress, Virtue, and Spiritual Exercises ................................................................ 2-57
The Argument ........................................................................................................................ 2-61
Virtue ..................................................................................................................................... 2-62
a) The virtues one must acquire ...................................................................................... 2-63
b) How one acquires these virtues, natural and supernatural .......................................... 2-66
How one acquires these virtues: Spiritual Exercises ............................................................. 2-71
Spiritual exercises for the preservation or improvement of the reason ................................. 2-78
Spiritual exercises for the will ............................................................................................... 2-88
How one acquires these virtues: The Religious Life ............................................................. 2-90
How one acquires these virtues: Contemplation and intellectual growth .............................. 2-98
c) What the ideal person looks like ................................................................................... 2-103
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 2-107
ii

Chapter 3 - Reflexivity............................................................................................................. 3-109
Know Thyself....................................................................................................................... 3-114
What is Reflexivity? ............................................................................................................ 3-115
Reflexivity and models of the person .................................................................................. 3-118
Foucault’s explanation of Christian reflexivity and self-knowledge ................................... 3-120
Self-Knowledge in Aquinas – The soul’s knowledge of itself ............................................ 3-123
Self Knowledge and Spiritual Exercises .............................................................................. 3-130
Be Watchful ......................................................................................................................... 3-132
Old and New Man ................................................................................................................ 3-139
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 3-153
Chapter 4 - On the vows and the perfection of the spiritual life .............................................. 4-155
Argument ............................................................................................................................. 4-158
The Perfection of the Spiritual Life ..................................................................................... 4-160
The End of the Spiritual Life ............................................................................................... 4-163
The Summae on Perfection .................................................................................................. 4-166
The Means of Perfection ...................................................................................................... 4-171
The Means of Perfection: Poverty ....................................................................................... 4-172
The Observance of Poverty .................................................................................................. 4-173
The Means of Perfection: Chastity ...................................................................................... 4-178
Example of Christ’s Chastity ............................................................................................... 4-182
Means of Perfection: What is Chastity?............................................................................... 4-183
Means to Perfection: Hindrances to chastity ....................................................................... 4-189
The means of perfection: Aids to the preservation of chastity ............................................ 4-194
Aid 1: Prayer, contemplation, and meditation ..................................................................... 4-195
Aid 2: Study of the Scriptures .............................................................................................. 4-198
Aid 3: Occupying the mind with good thoughts .................................................................. 4-200
Aid 4: Toil ............................................................................................................................ 4-206
Aid 5: Mental disquietude .................................................................................................... 4-210
Aid 6: Extrinsic circumstances ............................................................................................ 4-213
Aid 7: Fasting, vigils, and bodily labor................................................................................ 4-214
The Means of Perfection: Obedience ................................................................................... 4-216
Obedience in the De perfectione .......................................................................................... 4-218
Obedience in the Summae ................................................................................................... 4-223
iii

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 4-226
Chapter 5 - Virtues, Exercises, and Reflexivity ....................................................................... 5-228
Virtues and Perfecting Virtues ............................................................................................. 5-231
The problematic passions ..................................................................................................... 5-239
Moderation of passions by means other than Reason .......................................................... 5-244
Prudence – memory and command ...................................................................................... 5-245
Prudence and Reflexivity ..................................................................................................... 5-248
Prudence and Memory ......................................................................................................... 5-249
Justice ................................................................................................................................... 5-253
Justice as Orientation ........................................................................................................... 5-254
Fortitude – premeditatione malorum and the fear of bodily death ...................................... 5-257
Fortitude and the fear of death ............................................................................................. 5-259
Fortitude and premeditatione malorum ................................................................................ 5-262
Temperance – Bridle of the soul .......................................................................................... 5-264
Temperance and the inner child ........................................................................................... 5-268
Chapter 6 – Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 6-272
Thomas on Reflexivity ......................................................................................................... 6-274
Thomas on Spiritual Exercises............................................................................................. 6-276
Contemporary ethics and reflexivity .................................................................................... 6-278
Select Bibliography. ................................................................................................................. 6-285
1-1

Chapter 1 - Survey of Literature, Method and Argument

This is a dissertation on the work of Thomas Aquinas, one which intends to
supplement the understanding of his spirituality. Though there are studies of the spiritual
life in Thomas, the methodology of this study will be different. In particular, through
engagement with the work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault, I hope to bring to light
aspects of the work of Aquinas previously uninvestigated. The principal interests of
Hadot and Foucault’s later work is on the nature of ancient philosophy, and in particular
the spiritual exercises and reflexive notion of the self that accompanied these
philosophies. The work of Foucault and Hadot, though it has been applied to figures
from early Christianity, has yet to be applied in a full length study to medieval thinkers.
This provides the rationale for this dissertation, to study Thomas Aquinas’s spiritual
exercises and his understanding of the relationship of self to self.
For those not familiar with the entirety of Thomas’s oeuvre, it may be surprising to
discover that Thomas wrote on anything other than academic questions. Aquinas is,
however, concerned with the entire range of the spiritual life, which can be seen in his
short work De perfectione spiritualis vitae. This text, written in response to negative
judgments of the religious orders from secular clergy, explains how a Christian can
pursue perfection as far as possible in this life, and the practices that aid in attaining this
perfection.
Before moving on to the particulars of my argument, it will be helpful to first provide
an overview of the work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault, and to briefly describe
how their work will influence this study of Aquinas. I will then provide an overview of
1-2

the literature on Aquinas, and the few instances where the study of Hadot and Aquinas
has overlapped.
Hadot and Philosophy
The work of the French historical philosopher Pierre Hadot identified a component
missing from the world of modern philosophy. His great innovation came in the
identification of philosophy as a “way of life,” and the accompaniment of this way of life
by certain “spiritual exercises,” an insight derived from his study of ancient philosophy.
In this understanding, only when a person lived their philosophy could they properly be
called a philosopher. One of his most repeated quotations comes from Henry David
Thoreau’s book Walden: “Nowadays, there are philosophy professors, but no
philosophers.”1 Thoreau’s point, which is one Hadot heartily endorses, is that there is a
difference between thinking and living, and in the modern world the great majority of our
philosophical undertakings are concerned only with speculative knowledge or theoretical
matters, and not with changing one’s way of life. Hadot argues that, in the ancient world,
while knowledge is important to the philosopher, it is only a part of a far more important
project: the task of total self-cultivation. In this project, the philosopher is deeply
concerned with working on his self, and only along with the conversion into something
different can that philosopher come to “know” something about the universe.
Hadot, therefore, draws a sharp contrast between two types of thought. One, he will
suggest, can properly be called philosophy, while the other, drawing from the Stoics, is

1 Epigraph of What is Ancient Philosophy. Hadot, Pierre. 2002. What is Ancient Philosophy? [Qu'est-ce que
la philosophie antique?]. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.