Abstract

Is man capax Dei? Zofia J. Zdybicka answers this question drawing on the entire tradition of classical philosophy which culminates in St. Thomas Aquinas. She considers the problem from the perspective of: (1) man who transcends the precariousness of human nature by his specific capabilities (intellectual knowing, loving, ability to freedom and religion); (2) faculties of the human soul (reason and will) which condition man’s disposition to knowing and loving God; (3) the metaphisical necessity for God to exist as the Supreme Truth and Good. The article concludes with threefold thesis. First, man is capax Dei because—within his capabilities which make him go beyond the entire world of beings (cosmos)—he is open to the Supreme Truth and Supreme Good. Secondly, man is capax Dei because—through his soul’s faculties fittingly developed (recta ratio and recta voluntas)—he can succeed in cognizing and loving God. Thirdly, man is capax Dei because God (the Supreme Truth and Good)—as proven by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Forth Way in particular—really exists.