The most serious of the difficulties to overcome within Thomistic studies is the rediscovery of the problems specific to St. Thomas Aquinas. What problems, exactly, did he propose to resolve? Because we do not know, we interpret his responses in terms of more or less different problems and, in the end, we impose on him doctrines that he has not professed, while those that he has professed are denied or fade from view and finally are forgotten.¹

The damage is inevitable. We do not approach St. Thomas himself directly. Between him and us is interposed, first of all, religious orthodoxy, whose language is not always identical to that of St. Thomas. The least difference between formulas leads to a revision for which, of course, the language of St. Thomas pays the price. We speak here of orthodoxy in order to simplify, because theologians, even those who consider themselves Thomists, are capable of mistaking what is the orthodoxy of the Church and what is only theirs. We have seen some of them combine arbitrary and dogmatic intransigence with a surprising naivety. The theological schools, whether favorable or hostile to Thomism, not to mention the countless historical works and commentaries published on his doctrine, fit like so many veils between the thought of St. Thomas and ours. Our own thought, finally, burdened with the memory of so many efforts to understand his doctrine accumulated since we first opened one of his works, becomes somewhat blind. Each particular text read, re-read, copied, and meditated upon obstructs the doctrinal perspectives outside of which its meaning changes. In the end, there is great need for simplification.

This is particularly the case with regard to the problem of the beatific vision. It is a central problem and in every sense crucial since what is at stake is the very notion of Christian salvation, with all the conditions required for the great work of Redemption to be accomplished. Heavenly beatitude is man’s ultimate end; the entire study of man is at stake, beyond the knowledge of his nature, to the question of the why of his existence. Inasmuch as man is the purpose of creation, the whole of creation is interested in the problem. Summarizing it with a view to the whole,

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