Posted by “In Summa Theologiae I, question 97, article 1, Aquinas argues that the indissolubility of the body of original humanity was not due to some intrinsic vigor of immortality that the body had, unlike the resurrection body, but ‘by reason of a supernatural force given by God to the soul…whereby it was enabled to preserve the body from all corruption so long as it remained itself subject to God.’ This is a very important point….The root cause of earthly paradise is, I would claim, the quasi-supernatural strength given by God to the soul as such. That is, to the nature of original humanity in the state of original justice, in virtue of the perfect submission of mind and will to God. A quasi-supernatural strength that would radiate through the whole human body-soul composite, and in this way, so to speak, constitute earthly paradise. To put it differently, the homo supernaturalis cannot walk out of paradise like out of a garden, rather wherever the homo supernaturalis is, there is paradise. The root, radix, of the state of paradise is the gift of iustitia originalis, and the loss of the latter, original justice, is identical with the loss of the former, the state of paradise, with all of its preternatural entailments.” —Prof. Reinhard Hütter
Humanity’s Original State | Prof. Reinhard Hütter (2023 Aquinas Lecture) – YouTube
