II
MAN
AND THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD
I
n the second
address [p. 65] Rudolf Steiner shows how the most supreme
problem, the “relationship of the universals to
individual things,” can only be understood if we realize
its connexion with the tradition, founded by the Areopagite,
Plotinus, Augustine and Erigena, of the reality of an
“intellectual world” permeated by
“immaterial intellectual beings.” This background
of spiritual history showing the struggle over the problem of
the universal forms of being and knowing is made wonderfully
clear in the quoted Commentary, especially in the 4th Chapter
(on the Good, on Light, on the Beautiful, on Love, on
Transports, and on Zeal) in the seventh section of which the
question is examined: “What are the movements of Angels
and of souls?” Thomas develops not only a
knowledge-theory, but also a knowledge-Eurythmy, which, when
one has once been caught up in its fanciful play, gleam also
through the most abstract, theoretical thought-processes of the
“Summa Theologica” or the Commentary on Aristotle.
This movement playing on the understanding makes not only clear
but also capable of experience how the controversy over the
universals is for Thomas a problem of drawing the line between
the “intellectual world” of the “immaterial,
intellectual beings,” which let their lowest margins, as
it were, shine down so that the human soul can experience them,
and the kingdom of the human soul, bound to matter, and
assigned to the “straight” understanding [p. 66].
(The universals, which in the intellectual world are circular
and curve-movements, become visible to human thinking only in
straight-lined projections.) There is, unfortunately no space
to dwell on this knowledge-Eurythmy, with its effects of Gothic
window tracery.
Instead we shall give you an exposition of the
“intellectual world,” in which Thomas sees the
immaterial intellectual beings, which he calls the Angels [p.
65]. This has an important historical significance, because in
it purely earthly-logical concepts of the understanding are
built up to contain the knowledge of a world the contents of
which were formerly revealed to supernatural vision. As
evidence of this really “Gothic” strife, a few
passages are given from the “Compendium
Theologiae,” which Thomas wrote for his fellow-monk
Reginald.
It
belongs to divine goodness that it bestows its own likeness on
creatures ... to complete divine goodness it is fitting now not
only that God is in himself good but that he leads back the
other beings to goodness. God therefore imparts both qualities
to the creature, that it should be in itself good and that one
should lead the other to the good. Thus he brings creatures to
the good the one through the other. The first are necessarily
the higher creatures: for that which receives from a creator
the likeness of form and creative power is more perfect than
the other which receives the likeness of form, but not the
creative power. Just as the moon receives the sun's light more
completely — because it not only receives but itself
gives light — than the shadowed bodies, which receive but
give no light. Thus God guides the lower creatures through the
higher ... (Chap. 124).
Because the intellectual creatures are placed over the others,
it is obvious that the latter are guided by God through the
former. And since among the intellectual creatures some are
placed over others, the lower are guided by God through the
higher. Thus it comes about that man, who has the lowest
position in the order of Nature among the intellectual
substances, is led through higher spirits, who because they
bring divine messages to man, are therefore called Angeli, that
is, Messengers. And also among the Angels the lower are
governed by the higher according to the circumstance that among
them various Hierarchies, that is, sacred dignities, and among
the separate Hierarchies various ranks, are distinguished
(Chap. 125).
And
because every operation of an intellectual substance as such
proceeds from the intellect, the variety of the operation,
among the intellectual substances, the variety of behaviour,
and the variety of rank, must be considered as resting on
various types of intelligence. But the more sublime and serene
the intellect is the higher and more universal is the reason
which it perceives for its functionings. We speak of
“higher” because the higher intellect has more
universal intelligible species.
The
first manner of using the intellect which intellectual
substances attain derives from the fact that they have a share,
in the first Cause itself, namely, in God, of the functional
reasons, and consequently of its works, since God ordains the
smaller activities through his reasons. And this is
characteristic of the First Hierarchy, which is divided
into three Orders, according to the three types of being,
through which every active art shows itself: first the End,
which excludes the reasons of the works; secondly, the reasons
of the works, in so far as they exist in the Artist's spirit;
and thirdly, the adapting of the works to the effects. Now it
behoves the highest Order, in the highest good itself, which is
the ultimate object of things, to be instructed in the effects;
therefore, they are called “Seraphim,” from the
warmth of love, for they glow at the same time, or burn: and
the object of love is the good. It behoves the second Order to
contemplate the effects of God's acts in his own intelligible
reasons, in so far as they are in God; wherefore they are
called “Cherubim,” after the fullness of knowledge.
It behoves the third Order in God himself to consider how
creatures share the intelligible reasons as applied to the
effects, wherefore they are called “Thrones,” from
having God in themselves.
The
second manner of using the intellect consists in considering
the reasons of the effects, so far as they lie in universal
causes; and this is characteristic of the Second
Hierarchy, which is also divided into three Orders
according to the three types of being, which belong to the
universal causes, preferably if they function according to the
intellect. Of these it behoves the first to pre-ordain what is
to be performed, wherefore among the active artists the highest
arts are those that are thus pre-arranged, and these are called
the architectonic arts; and so the first Order of this
Hierarchy are named “Dominations,” for it becomes
the lord to organize and ordain. The second type of the
universal reasons is a Something, which gives the first urge to
the work, and so has the first place in carrying it out; and
therefore the second Order of this Hierarchy is called
“Principalities,” according to Gregory, or
“Virtues” according to Dionysius, so that they may
be known as “Virtues” because the first step of a
performance or operation is the most virtuous. The third, which
is found in the universal causes, is something which overcomes
the difficulties of performance, wherefore the third Order of
this Hierarchy is that of the “Powers” whose office
is to overpower everything which could stand in the way of the
execution of the divine command, and for this reason we ascribe
to them also the task of restraining daemons.
The
third manner of using the intellect consists in studying the
reasons of the effects in the effects themselves. And this is
the property of the Third Hierarchy, which is placed
just above us human beings, who are forced to receive our
knowledge of the effects from the effects themselves. This
Hierarchy also contains three Orders, of which the lowest are
called “Angels,” because they bring to man as a
message whatever pertains to their guidance; wherefore they are
also called the guardian-angels of men. Above them is the Order
of “Archangels,” who bring to men as a message
whatever surpasses the human reason, such as the mysteries of
faith. The highest Order of this Hierarchy is called, according
to Gregory, “Virtues,” because they perform works
which surpass Nature, thus substantiating the message which
comes to us as super-rational; wherefore miracle-working is
attributed to the “Virtues” But according to
Dionysius the highest Order of this Hierarchy is named
“Principalities,” so that they may be known as
Princes who stand at the head of separate peoples, the Angels
known as guides of individual men, and the Archangels as the
Spirits who bring to individual men as a message whatever
concerns the common welfare.
And
because a lower power performs its work in virtue of a higher,
the lower rank carries out the requirements of the upper, in so
far as it derives its virtue for the work from the upper; and
the higher ranks have the qualities of the lower, but in a
greater degree. For this reason, everything in them is, as it
were, communal; but they receive their particular names in
accordance with the functions of each order. The lowest Order
has reserved to it the common name, as it functions by virtue
of all the others. And because it is the business of the higher
Orders to act on the lower, and the intellectual function is
one of instruction or teaching, it is said of the higher
angels, in so far as they instruct the lower, that they purify
these, illumine and perfect them. Purify, in so far as they
abolish nescience; illumine, in so far as they strengthen with
their light the intellects of the lower Angels, so that they
can comprehend higher things; and perfect, since they lead the
lower Angels to the perfection of higher knowledge. For these
three things belong to the acquisition of knowledge, as
Dionysius says. But thereby is nothing lessened that enables
all Angels, even the lowest, from looking upon the divine
Essence. For when each of the holy Spirits looks upon God
according to his own essence, one sees him more perfectly than
another, — as can be understood from what has been said.
And by how much more perfect a cause is seen to be by so much
richer are seen to be its effects. The higher Angels in God
thus instruct the lower in the divine effects, which they
recognize first, but not in the Essence itself, which all look
upon without mediation (Chap. 126).
The
subtle thought which is employed in constructing this faultless
logical column has provided in this treatise an example of what
Rudolf Steiner calls “the highest flowering of logical
judgment,” the “highest flowering of logical
technique” [p. 51]. This “Gothic”
thought-technique illustrates — looking into the past
— that “it remained an article of faith with
Thomas, that in higher regions was to be found the revelation
of these abstract concepts,” for to look into an
“open Heaven” did not require such Gothic arches.
But looking into the future, there is revealed in this
tremendous struggle of thought the urge of the question —
reached but not solved by Scholasticism — “How can
human thought develop itself upward to a vision of the
spiritual world? ... How can thought be made Christian?
...” [p. 76.]
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