A Study Of The Will Of Man In Aquinas' Theology

This article is based on Thomas Aquinas’ theory of human being’s will in Summa Theologicae. It compares the will with free will, the appetite of intellect with the appetite of reason, and tries to find the system which the concept of the will in. Furthermore, this article also reveals the close relationship between the will and the love of God, for the will’s theological virtue charity.In Aquinas’ theory, the will is the intellectual appetite following with the intellectual apprehension. The subject of the intellectual apprehension is particular soul, and the act of the intellectual apprehension is abstraction. For the particular soul is rational, the will is also free will, which works through free judgment and rational choice. However, the principle of free will voluntary is limited by violence and invincible ignorance.Faced up with this situation, revelation is the way to solve the problem. It is to say, supernatural charity in the will is beyond rational judgment in free will. Moreover, theological virtue charity attains immediately God Himself and rests in the friendship with God. In this level, Love is higher than Word, the will is higher than the intellect, the limit of reason and free will is overstepped in charity of the will.