God's happiness
God's Happiness
One sentence summary
God is happy because happiness is something unique to intellectual beings which posses their perfect good. God is himself perfect and an intellectual being, so possessing himself he is happy.
Rough question breakdown
Some questions are mixed.
Q: Is God happy?
A: Yes, God is happy. The reason Thomas gives for God being happy is that God is both perfect and He is an intellectual nature. This is because Thomas defines happiness as 'the perfect good of an intellectual nature.
We need to be clear on what we mean when we say something is happy (which is the same thing as being blessed, according to Thomas's words). Being happy requires:
- Possessing something good.
- Knowing that you possess the good thing.
For example, you could have found some priceless jewel which you could sell for millions. But if you don't know about it, then you aren't going to be happy. So you need to have an intellectual nature to know the good you possess.
But what about non-intellectual natures which appear to be happy, for example a dog which is wagging its tail with joy? I think what Thomas would say is that the dog is experiencing the pleasure of its appetite being satisfied, and hence it wags its tail in this kind of joy. But what he is calling happiness or blessedness is something higher and greater than this. It is something that can only be achieved by an intellectual nature, because only an intellectual nature can - in a sense - 'receive all things' through knowledge.
Being perfectly happy or blessed therefore requires possessing perfection and also being a perfect intellectual nature. God meets both of these (because he is pure act and therefore perfect, and immaterial and therefore intellectual).
Q: Is God our happiness or blessedness?
A: No. What? Yes, you read that right, God himself is not our happiness according to Thomas Aquinas. The reason is that Thomas distinguishes between the object of blessedness and the act of blessedness.
- Object of beatitude: God is our object of beatitude. Only God is a great enough good that can cause the complete beatitude in an intellectual being. Yet this is different to the...
- Act of beatitude: Our act of 'being happy' or 'being blessed' is different from God. God is outside of us, but being happy is a real thing which we possess when we possess God. Therefore, strictly speaking God is not our happiness. Although he is the object of our happiness.
Q: Is all creaturely happiness included in God's?
A: Yes. God possesses:
- all wisdom by knowing himself,
- all power and active joy by ruling all things,
- all delight by enjoying himself,
- all dignity by governing all things,
- all riches be being entirely self-sufficient (which is the purpose of money),
- all honour by being loved by all creatures.