Faith as a Means to Union and Knowledge of God According to the Wojtylan Analysis of St. John of the Cross
In the 1940s, Pope John Paul II, as a young priest, went to Rome to pursue a doctoral degree. For his dissertation he wrote a work analyzing the idea of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross, the great 16th century Spanish Carmelite mystic. His work is entitled Faith According to St. John of the Cross. In this work, he tries to systematically lay out the role and understanding of faith in St. John’s mystical works. Building on the traditional formulation of faith, this paper seeks to understand Wojtyla’s analysis of faith as a means to union with God through two aspects: First, that of faith as the ontological presence which brings assent to revealed truths; and second, of faith which under the influence of the virtue of charity and the Holy Spirit is led to even a kind of special knowledge of God that in some way helps to fill in the missing “intentional species,” or direct unmediated experience of God, which is not possible in this life.
Traditional Scholastic Understanding of Faith
Before examining the notion of faith in St. John of the Cross, it can be helpful to have a basic understanding of what faith is according to the Church. Vatican II presents the act of faith in someone as a free assent of the whole person to those truths which God has revealed. “‘The ‘obedience of faith’ must be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which one entrusts (committit) one’s whole self freely to God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals’, and freely assents to the revelation given by him’” (Dulles 185/186). Vatican I emphasizes that revealed truth is believable because God is God, incapable or deceit or error, and therefore he is 100 percent trustworthy. But one only attains to this trust and belief in revealed truths under the gift of God’s grace because these truths are not confirmable through reason (Dulles 186). So, under the influence of grace, one is able to commit their whole selves to God in belief of revealed truth.
It seems that St. John of the Cross’s teaching about faith, as analyzed by Karol Wojtyla, can be summarized or seen in this quote: “Faith is treated by St. John of the Cross as the means of union of the soul with God; more precisely, as the means proper to the intellect for uniting the soul with God in love” (Wojtyla 237). This statement must be further explained and plumbed of course to more fully understand St. John’s notion of faith. In Wojtyla’s analysis of faith in St. John, it seems that there are two main steps to transcendence of the soul or union with God that faith brings. Both are characterized by union and some type of knowledge. The first one is the proportion of the soul to divinity and a knowledge of revealed truths. The second one is a union more characterized by faith being perfected by charity and the Holy Spirit which brings with it a dark more connatural knowledge of the beloved. Now let us see this.
“First Transcendence” - Understanding Faith as a Lifting Union of the Intellect With God. Difficulties in the Natural World for Union with God.
To start, Wojtyla identifies two essential principles for St. John that must be understood, as they underlie his understanding of faith (Wojtyla 238). First, God is infinitely greater and above any created thing, no creature possesses this infinite type of essence. Therefore, “… by reason of its essence or nature, no creature can serve as a proportionate means of union with God, because it lacks the proportion of likeness that is absolutely necessary for union with God” (Wojtyla 238). So man, in a sense, has no ability to bring himself to God in supernatural union by the natural world or natural means.
Following upon this, St. John of the Cross basically holds a Thomistic understanding of man’s mode or process of knowledge. And so, also, in the earthy state of human beings, humans cannot have a direct experience and concept of God, what is called “intentional species” of God, because God is spiritual, not able to be experienced in the senses, and all man’s knowledge comes first through the senses. This presents a problem for the human person because while this is the first stage of how man knows the world, through the senses, man’s knowledge as a spiritual faculty of intellect is actually be ordered to knowing the spiritual, the infinite, and the divine. Man’s intellect spiritualizes the material world he receives first in his senses. The thing that is spiritualized and known is called both the “intentional species” and also the “‘substance as understood’” (Wojtyla 242/243). So, in Thomistic thought, while man has the capacity potentially to know God directly, because of his state on earth, he cannot, everything is mediated through the material. Man can develop some natural concept about who God is, but it is from created effects, and still not a direct experience. Man, secondly, can know revealed truths about God, but they are still expressed in concepts from the natural world, and not direct experience of God; and also man cannot assent to these truths on his own because they cannot be seen through reason. So, again, as Wojtyla says, there is no intentional species of God while man is on earth.
Thus, this is where the supernatural faith comes in for St. John. It has just been shown the difficulties in the natural world of man’s union with God. So, faith is a means to bridging this separation and bringing about a union of the intellect with God. Faith, St. John says, has proportion to divinity (Wojtyla 239) and brings man up to God (Wojtyla 240). “…faith is substantially supernatural; by reason of its proportion of likeness, faith is the proportionate means of union with God” (Wojtyla 239). So, when the intellect receives faith, it is brought up to be a sharer in divinity, something which it could not naturally attain before. “…the intellect is proportioned to God through the virtue of faith, through the essential likeness to God that faith has by its very nature” (Wojtyla 240).
The first way that union and proportion of the intellect to God happen through faith deals with the intentional species of knowledge, which is the natural means of proportion or union of the intellect with a thing (Wojtyla 240). In Thomsitic thought, truth can be defined as “adequatio intellectus et rei” or the conformity of the intellect with the thing. The intellect is united to a thing through forming a spiritual concept of it and knowing it according to this spiritual mode (Wojtyla 240/241). And so, for St. John of the Cross, the most perfect union of the intellect with God is in the beatific vision when the intellect is able to have this direct experience of God and be united with Him (Wojtyla 240). But, as was said above, on this earth man has no intentional species of God’s essence directly.
So, union or proportion is the first sense, happens according to man’s natural condition of knowledge on earth. “We stated above that in this life the intellect is essentially proportioned to divinity through the virtue of faith, but precisely because it is a virtue of the intellect in this life, the proportion is restricted by the natural function of the intellect” (Wojtyla 242). So, union as “intentional species” or “‘substance as understood’” (Wojtyla 245) can be understood not as knowledge of God’s essence directly, but knowledge of revealed truths about God (Wojtyla 244). “And so the divine essence is presented to the intellect in this life by means of the revealed truths, wherein it is united to the intellect through the concepts expressed in words” (Wojtyla 245). So there is some type of union there in that there is some conformity between the intellect and God’s essence, but not directly, rather through the revealed truths.
This knowledge of revealed truths, though, [because of the analogy of being] only give one knowledge of God in an obscure way, it is lacking direct experience of God. “As a result, the agent intellect lacks material or sense species on which it can focus, so that the revealed truths seem doomed to remain only words or meaningless names of an unknown object” (Wojtyla 245). This is where the supernatural faith comes in. Even a pagan can know revealed truths about God, but only the man with faith can assent to them. Faith brings an “excessive light” whereby the intellect is “attracted to” and brought to assent to the revealed truths as being true (Wojtyla 245). This “excessive light” is “…the light of divine knowledge…” (Wojtyla 245). It is an “infused light whereby ‘God manifests himself to the soul’” (Wojtyla 246). This is the first idea of union or proportion of the intellect to God through faith. The natural concept of God is improved, but not direct or perfected. This will have to come in the beatific vision. But there is more knowledge to come, let us continue.
It seems that there is a second means of union spoken of, which is of the intellect with God through faith, through the divine presence given in the “excessive light”. “Faith is the means of union for the intellect in this life as vision is the means in glory because faith contains essential elements similar to those of vision, namely, the infused divine light and the divine object intimately united with the intellect through the infused light” (Wojtyla 241). “We likewise stated that this union [faith] is primarily of the ontological order…” (Wojtyla 250). Wojtyla and St. John seem to suggest that when the “excessive light” is given to the soul with the gift of faith that the intellect is united to God ontologically. The two become one on the level of being. Wojtyla says: With this we have explained the first transcendence attributed to faith so that it can unite the intellect with God. Thereby we have also explained the first function of faith, namely, to make the intellect essentially proportioned to God by reason of the ontological transcendence that is based on faith’s ‘essential likeness’ to divinity. Thus faith is able to unite the intellect to God. (Wojtyla 247) St. John of the Cross calls faith in these two senses an “‘…obscure habit of union’” (Wojtyla 247). Wojtyla says that faith is understood as a habit because there is a “constant assent” to the truth; “…insofar as the divine essence is possessed by the intellect and the intellect is united to the divine essence in faith” (Wojtyla 247). It is obscure because, again as was said, there is not direct or intentional species for the intellect.
“Second Transcendence” - Missing Intentional Species of God in Some Way Supplied Through Faith, Charity, and the Holy Spirit.
Now it has been shown how the supernatural virtue of faith helps to bring man to overcome the separation between him and God through union. But one is still left with the problem of the lack of direct knowledge of God. Faith, though, with charity has another role to play. While there is darkness because of the lack of an intentional species, St. John says that with the help of the other virtues, another certain kind of knowledge for God can be developed. But this knowledge is still a “… ‘confused, general and dark knowledge’…” (Wojtyla 248). St. John says that this is the real end or purpose of faith, to lead to union in love. “… for St. John of the Cross the virtue of faith is the proximate and proportionate means in the intellect so that the soul can attain to the divine union of love…” (Wojtyla 249). Faith is not supposed to be just alone by itself, it must lead to love. “Nowhere in the works of the Mystical Doctor do we find a treatment of ‘unformed’ faith taken in itself… It is always a question of faith vivified by charity and, indeed, of faith as the means of divine union by reason of its ordination to charity” (Wojtyla 237). How exactly does charity and faith further this union and produce some kind of dark knowledge of God?
Charity has its own “essential likeness” which it brings between God and the soul. Love causes a “… likeness between the lover and the beloved” (Wojtyla 249). Wojtyla says that charity is centered in the faculty of the will in the soul, “… it likewise extends its influence to the other faculties, on which it impresses the psychological likeness of the Beloved” (Wojtyla 249). For the intellect, by “psychological likeness,” Wojtyla could seem to mean a type of direct experience in place of where an intentional species would be of God (Wojtyla 249). “Its primary operation is centered in the will, in which charity is rooted, but it likewise extends its influence to the other faculties, on which it impresses the psychological likeness of the Beloved” (Wojtyla 249). The will especially seeks to do this with the intellect because it is first through the intellect that God comes to the will; God has to come to one through some type of knowledge (Wojtyla 250).
Charity causes a likeness because in making the beloved like the lover, the dissimilarities in the beloved from the lover are cast out. And love seeks to become more perfect and united. So, “such is the way in which St. John of the Cross understands the power of love to create likeness between lover and beloved in the psychological sense” (Wojtyla 249/250). Because God is, as was said in the beginning, of infinite and divine essence so much above all created things that created things are cast out as objects of knowledge “… lest they remain as objects of love, and also that God may be loved more and more” (Wojtyla 250). This is the idea behind the dark nights of St. John. The created objects of one’s knowledge are cast out so that God, who is united with one in charity can make even the object of one’s intellect more and more conformed to God (Wojtyla 250). When the intellect is full of other natural concepts it is not able to be totally one with God, as love desires (Wojtyla 251). So, in other words, because love desires to become one with the beloved and like the beloved, charity wants to clear the intellect of everything but God. But because there is no direct knowledge of God, this purging leads to a type of darkness.
“The Mystical Doctor asserts that in this life God is known more by not knowing than by knowing according to the natural mode of knowledge. That is why he insists on the rejection of the clear and particular knowledge of revealed truths, whether naturally acquired or supernatural in origin” (Wojtyla 264). And so, this development of some form of an obscure and dark knowledge of God through charity working through faith Wojtyla says St. John calls this the “active night of the spirit” (Wojtyla 252). Again, in the active night of the spirit, there is the “… abnegation of the intellect; that is, the rejection of all natural, clear, distinct and particular intentional species” (Wojtyla 252).
It seems that this type of dark knowledge that is formed is from the union and presence of God and experience of this union in the soul which is attuned to no one but God. “The proportion thus constituted is something truly psychological and capable of a definite activity in the intellect, as we saw in … the active night of the spirit” (Wojtyla 264/264). There is an article written by Jacques Maritain in which he explains different types of connatural knowledge. It seems that it would also make sense that the presence of the beloved in the soul which is purged of all else would lead to a connatural experience and knowledge of God. Jacques Maritain, in his article entitled The Natural Mystical Experience, treats of different types of “connatural” knowledge. One of the types of connatural knowledge he treats is that of “…connaturality with reality as non-conceptualizable…” (Maritain 263). This type of knowledge while not being conceptualizable is recognized as “… the ultimate goal of the act of knowing in its perfect immanence, an interiorized goal in which knowledge has its fulfillment…”or in other words, the “…goal of objective union” (Maritain 263). Maritain calls it a “…possession-giving not-knowing” (Maritain 263). Maritain says that this type of connatural knowledge can be separated into two types, that of intellectual and that of affective (Maritain 264). Intellectual connatural knowledge of non-conceptualizable reality. Maritain seems to say that this type of connatural knowledge comes out of a total union between the knower and the thing known. “Objective union is the very consummation of the unity between the knowing and the known, according as the latter is the goal in which the knowing flowers forth in its own specific actuality, and rests therein” (Maritain 265).
The other type is that of Affective connatural knowledge of non-conceptualizable reality is mystical experience of God through a union of love. This union brings with it a certain knowledge of the beloved, but the beloved (God) is still being incapable of direct conceptualization. “…the union of love… and of a specific resonance in the subject itself, becomes an instrument of knowing, attains as its object the divine reality, of itself inexpressible in any created word” (Maritain 264). This seems to relate to the dark knowledge that St. John is referring to. And so… “…this proves that in the obscure proportion to divinity there is contained some psychological reality—not an intentional species of the divine object, but some ‘form’ emanating from the intellect’s intimate union with God and produced by the power of faith, by characterized by obscurity” (Wojtyla 264). To me personally, this seems to refer to the direct, yet mediated, experience of God that we have inside us because we are united to God in charity and faith, in our intellect and will. And when we empty our minds of all the noise and created objects that distract us, our relation to the beloved will manifest itself and we will experience God acting in and on us.
Another aspect of the second transcendence is when the Holy Spirit brings the virtue of faith and love to another level. In the road to contemplation, Wojtyla says that it is the Holy Spirit which provides the “abnegation of the intellect”. “Now the intellect is purged of those natural forms and species by another power, which is that of the Holy Spirit, working through contemplation in the soul that is passive and receptive” (Wojtyla 257).
The Holy Spirit finds in the intellect that “excessive divine light” which is the gift of faith and which makes the person to “participate (s) in (the) divine knowledge” by assent to revealed truths and increases this participation so much so that “… the intellect knows no longer by its own light but with the participated light of divine knowledge” (Wojtyla 258). “… the intellect is actually introduced into that divine but obscure knowledge that is contemplation” (Wojtyla 258). The excessive light can be so increased that St. John teaches that one’s participation in divine knowledge can increase into the beatific vision. “Moreover it is because of this that the soul can attain to the vision in glory, for St. John of the Cross teaches that under the motion of the Holy Spirit the participation in divine knowledge through faith and in the obscurity of faith can increase even to the beatific vision” (Wojtyla 259). And so contemplation is part of the way to the “transforming union” (Wojtyla 259).
This union can increase one’s likeness with God “…ultimately to the point of a participated transformation in God” (Wojtyla 250). “The second transcendence pertains to the subject of faith—the intellect—and is therefore a psychological transcendence that requires a change in the intellect’s natural mode of knowledge so that it can put aside the particular species received through the senses and open its spiritual capacity to the infinite form” (Wojtyla 244). This aspect of union “…evolves successively throughout the entire path to union, preparing for the beatific vision of God…” (Wojtyla 244). This is why it is also part of the “second transcendence” because this union lifts one to the divine by opening up the intellect to receive the “form of the divine” on earth “…increase[ing] the supernatural union of likeness…”(Wojtyla 250) and preparing for the perfect reception in the beatific vision. “All things considered, it seems that rather than the virtue that causes union, faith, by reason of its intimate nature as a participation in the divine, functions as an infused power from which union with God and contemplation derive” (Wojtyla 267/8). He seems to be saying that this knowledge by the Holy Spirit’s work in contemplation is a closer knowledge to the beatific vision, but it does not seem to be the full form that will be in Heaven. “Thus the union of the intellect with God through contemplation is now possible and the ‘intentional proportion’ or likeness between the intellect and the divine object is more perfectly and deeply rooted, thus preparing for the ultimate reception of the divine form” (Wojtyla 266).
Conclusion
This paper has examined the idea of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross as analyzed by Karol Wojtyla after building on the traditional notion of faith. Faith for St. John of the Cross is seen as the way in which one comes into supernatural union in love with God which is not naturally attainable. Faith bridges the gap between the natural and supernatural by giving to one the “excessive light” which is divine knowledge. This light unites the person ontologically with God and then allows one to assent to revealed truths. But because there is not direct experience of God on earth though, the proper object of man’s intellect, the intentional species or concept, is left empty. But then charity acting with faith brings one to become more like the beloved by purging and quieting the intellect so that it can, it seems, have a direct but mediated experience of God who is united to them in love. This provides some knowledge for which the intellect in the way of some type of “psychological likeness” or “form”. Lastly, the Holy Spirit increasing that “excessive light” that was given in faith can bring the soul into new levels of knowledge of God that were not before open. Could this even refer to some kind of infused knowledge of God? The Holy Spirit gives divine knowledge to the soul in such a way that it brings the soul into contemplation and “transforming union” with the divine which prepares the way for the beatific vision. Thus one can see that faith for St. John of the Cross is very important and is a type of gateway for union with God.
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| St. John of the Cross |
Traditional Scholastic Understanding of Faith
Before examining the notion of faith in St. John of the Cross, it can be helpful to have a basic understanding of what faith is according to the Church. Vatican II presents the act of faith in someone as a free assent of the whole person to those truths which God has revealed. “‘The ‘obedience of faith’ must be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which one entrusts (committit) one’s whole self freely to God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals’, and freely assents to the revelation given by him’” (Dulles 185/186). Vatican I emphasizes that revealed truth is believable because God is God, incapable or deceit or error, and therefore he is 100 percent trustworthy. But one only attains to this trust and belief in revealed truths under the gift of God’s grace because these truths are not confirmable through reason (Dulles 186). So, under the influence of grace, one is able to commit their whole selves to God in belief of revealed truth.
It seems that St. John of the Cross’s teaching about faith, as analyzed by Karol Wojtyla, can be summarized or seen in this quote: “Faith is treated by St. John of the Cross as the means of union of the soul with God; more precisely, as the means proper to the intellect for uniting the soul with God in love” (Wojtyla 237). This statement must be further explained and plumbed of course to more fully understand St. John’s notion of faith. In Wojtyla’s analysis of faith in St. John, it seems that there are two main steps to transcendence of the soul or union with God that faith brings. Both are characterized by union and some type of knowledge. The first one is the proportion of the soul to divinity and a knowledge of revealed truths. The second one is a union more characterized by faith being perfected by charity and the Holy Spirit which brings with it a dark more connatural knowledge of the beloved. Now let us see this.
“First Transcendence” - Understanding Faith as a Lifting Union of the Intellect With God. Difficulties in the Natural World for Union with God.
To start, Wojtyla identifies two essential principles for St. John that must be understood, as they underlie his understanding of faith (Wojtyla 238). First, God is infinitely greater and above any created thing, no creature possesses this infinite type of essence. Therefore, “… by reason of its essence or nature, no creature can serve as a proportionate means of union with God, because it lacks the proportion of likeness that is absolutely necessary for union with God” (Wojtyla 238). So man, in a sense, has no ability to bring himself to God in supernatural union by the natural world or natural means.
Following upon this, St. John of the Cross basically holds a Thomistic understanding of man’s mode or process of knowledge. And so, also, in the earthy state of human beings, humans cannot have a direct experience and concept of God, what is called “intentional species” of God, because God is spiritual, not able to be experienced in the senses, and all man’s knowledge comes first through the senses. This presents a problem for the human person because while this is the first stage of how man knows the world, through the senses, man’s knowledge as a spiritual faculty of intellect is actually be ordered to knowing the spiritual, the infinite, and the divine. Man’s intellect spiritualizes the material world he receives first in his senses. The thing that is spiritualized and known is called both the “intentional species” and also the “‘substance as understood’” (Wojtyla 242/243). So, in Thomistic thought, while man has the capacity potentially to know God directly, because of his state on earth, he cannot, everything is mediated through the material. Man can develop some natural concept about who God is, but it is from created effects, and still not a direct experience. Man, secondly, can know revealed truths about God, but they are still expressed in concepts from the natural world, and not direct experience of God; and also man cannot assent to these truths on his own because they cannot be seen through reason. So, again, as Wojtyla says, there is no intentional species of God while man is on earth.
Thus, this is where the supernatural faith comes in for St. John. It has just been shown the difficulties in the natural world of man’s union with God. So, faith is a means to bridging this separation and bringing about a union of the intellect with God. Faith, St. John says, has proportion to divinity (Wojtyla 239) and brings man up to God (Wojtyla 240). “…faith is substantially supernatural; by reason of its proportion of likeness, faith is the proportionate means of union with God” (Wojtyla 239). So, when the intellect receives faith, it is brought up to be a sharer in divinity, something which it could not naturally attain before. “…the intellect is proportioned to God through the virtue of faith, through the essential likeness to God that faith has by its very nature” (Wojtyla 240).
The first way that union and proportion of the intellect to God happen through faith deals with the intentional species of knowledge, which is the natural means of proportion or union of the intellect with a thing (Wojtyla 240). In Thomsitic thought, truth can be defined as “adequatio intellectus et rei” or the conformity of the intellect with the thing. The intellect is united to a thing through forming a spiritual concept of it and knowing it according to this spiritual mode (Wojtyla 240/241). And so, for St. John of the Cross, the most perfect union of the intellect with God is in the beatific vision when the intellect is able to have this direct experience of God and be united with Him (Wojtyla 240). But, as was said above, on this earth man has no intentional species of God’s essence directly.
So, union or proportion is the first sense, happens according to man’s natural condition of knowledge on earth. “We stated above that in this life the intellect is essentially proportioned to divinity through the virtue of faith, but precisely because it is a virtue of the intellect in this life, the proportion is restricted by the natural function of the intellect” (Wojtyla 242). So, union as “intentional species” or “‘substance as understood’” (Wojtyla 245) can be understood not as knowledge of God’s essence directly, but knowledge of revealed truths about God (Wojtyla 244). “And so the divine essence is presented to the intellect in this life by means of the revealed truths, wherein it is united to the intellect through the concepts expressed in words” (Wojtyla 245). So there is some type of union there in that there is some conformity between the intellect and God’s essence, but not directly, rather through the revealed truths.
This knowledge of revealed truths, though, [because of the analogy of being] only give one knowledge of God in an obscure way, it is lacking direct experience of God. “As a result, the agent intellect lacks material or sense species on which it can focus, so that the revealed truths seem doomed to remain only words or meaningless names of an unknown object” (Wojtyla 245). This is where the supernatural faith comes in. Even a pagan can know revealed truths about God, but only the man with faith can assent to them. Faith brings an “excessive light” whereby the intellect is “attracted to” and brought to assent to the revealed truths as being true (Wojtyla 245). This “excessive light” is “…the light of divine knowledge…” (Wojtyla 245). It is an “infused light whereby ‘God manifests himself to the soul’” (Wojtyla 246). This is the first idea of union or proportion of the intellect to God through faith. The natural concept of God is improved, but not direct or perfected. This will have to come in the beatific vision. But there is more knowledge to come, let us continue.
It seems that there is a second means of union spoken of, which is of the intellect with God through faith, through the divine presence given in the “excessive light”. “Faith is the means of union for the intellect in this life as vision is the means in glory because faith contains essential elements similar to those of vision, namely, the infused divine light and the divine object intimately united with the intellect through the infused light” (Wojtyla 241). “We likewise stated that this union [faith] is primarily of the ontological order…” (Wojtyla 250). Wojtyla and St. John seem to suggest that when the “excessive light” is given to the soul with the gift of faith that the intellect is united to God ontologically. The two become one on the level of being. Wojtyla says: With this we have explained the first transcendence attributed to faith so that it can unite the intellect with God. Thereby we have also explained the first function of faith, namely, to make the intellect essentially proportioned to God by reason of the ontological transcendence that is based on faith’s ‘essential likeness’ to divinity. Thus faith is able to unite the intellect to God. (Wojtyla 247) St. John of the Cross calls faith in these two senses an “‘…obscure habit of union’” (Wojtyla 247). Wojtyla says that faith is understood as a habit because there is a “constant assent” to the truth; “…insofar as the divine essence is possessed by the intellect and the intellect is united to the divine essence in faith” (Wojtyla 247). It is obscure because, again as was said, there is not direct or intentional species for the intellect.
“Second Transcendence” - Missing Intentional Species of God in Some Way Supplied Through Faith, Charity, and the Holy Spirit.
Now it has been shown how the supernatural virtue of faith helps to bring man to overcome the separation between him and God through union. But one is still left with the problem of the lack of direct knowledge of God. Faith, though, with charity has another role to play. While there is darkness because of the lack of an intentional species, St. John says that with the help of the other virtues, another certain kind of knowledge for God can be developed. But this knowledge is still a “… ‘confused, general and dark knowledge’…” (Wojtyla 248). St. John says that this is the real end or purpose of faith, to lead to union in love. “… for St. John of the Cross the virtue of faith is the proximate and proportionate means in the intellect so that the soul can attain to the divine union of love…” (Wojtyla 249). Faith is not supposed to be just alone by itself, it must lead to love. “Nowhere in the works of the Mystical Doctor do we find a treatment of ‘unformed’ faith taken in itself… It is always a question of faith vivified by charity and, indeed, of faith as the means of divine union by reason of its ordination to charity” (Wojtyla 237). How exactly does charity and faith further this union and produce some kind of dark knowledge of God?
Charity has its own “essential likeness” which it brings between God and the soul. Love causes a “… likeness between the lover and the beloved” (Wojtyla 249). Wojtyla says that charity is centered in the faculty of the will in the soul, “… it likewise extends its influence to the other faculties, on which it impresses the psychological likeness of the Beloved” (Wojtyla 249). For the intellect, by “psychological likeness,” Wojtyla could seem to mean a type of direct experience in place of where an intentional species would be of God (Wojtyla 249). “Its primary operation is centered in the will, in which charity is rooted, but it likewise extends its influence to the other faculties, on which it impresses the psychological likeness of the Beloved” (Wojtyla 249). The will especially seeks to do this with the intellect because it is first through the intellect that God comes to the will; God has to come to one through some type of knowledge (Wojtyla 250).
Charity causes a likeness because in making the beloved like the lover, the dissimilarities in the beloved from the lover are cast out. And love seeks to become more perfect and united. So, “such is the way in which St. John of the Cross understands the power of love to create likeness between lover and beloved in the psychological sense” (Wojtyla 249/250). Because God is, as was said in the beginning, of infinite and divine essence so much above all created things that created things are cast out as objects of knowledge “… lest they remain as objects of love, and also that God may be loved more and more” (Wojtyla 250). This is the idea behind the dark nights of St. John. The created objects of one’s knowledge are cast out so that God, who is united with one in charity can make even the object of one’s intellect more and more conformed to God (Wojtyla 250). When the intellect is full of other natural concepts it is not able to be totally one with God, as love desires (Wojtyla 251). So, in other words, because love desires to become one with the beloved and like the beloved, charity wants to clear the intellect of everything but God. But because there is no direct knowledge of God, this purging leads to a type of darkness.
“The Mystical Doctor asserts that in this life God is known more by not knowing than by knowing according to the natural mode of knowledge. That is why he insists on the rejection of the clear and particular knowledge of revealed truths, whether naturally acquired or supernatural in origin” (Wojtyla 264). And so, this development of some form of an obscure and dark knowledge of God through charity working through faith Wojtyla says St. John calls this the “active night of the spirit” (Wojtyla 252). Again, in the active night of the spirit, there is the “… abnegation of the intellect; that is, the rejection of all natural, clear, distinct and particular intentional species” (Wojtyla 252).
It seems that this type of dark knowledge that is formed is from the union and presence of God and experience of this union in the soul which is attuned to no one but God. “The proportion thus constituted is something truly psychological and capable of a definite activity in the intellect, as we saw in … the active night of the spirit” (Wojtyla 264/264). There is an article written by Jacques Maritain in which he explains different types of connatural knowledge. It seems that it would also make sense that the presence of the beloved in the soul which is purged of all else would lead to a connatural experience and knowledge of God. Jacques Maritain, in his article entitled The Natural Mystical Experience, treats of different types of “connatural” knowledge. One of the types of connatural knowledge he treats is that of “…connaturality with reality as non-conceptualizable…” (Maritain 263). This type of knowledge while not being conceptualizable is recognized as “… the ultimate goal of the act of knowing in its perfect immanence, an interiorized goal in which knowledge has its fulfillment…”or in other words, the “…goal of objective union” (Maritain 263). Maritain calls it a “…possession-giving not-knowing” (Maritain 263). Maritain says that this type of connatural knowledge can be separated into two types, that of intellectual and that of affective (Maritain 264). Intellectual connatural knowledge of non-conceptualizable reality. Maritain seems to say that this type of connatural knowledge comes out of a total union between the knower and the thing known. “Objective union is the very consummation of the unity between the knowing and the known, according as the latter is the goal in which the knowing flowers forth in its own specific actuality, and rests therein” (Maritain 265).
The other type is that of Affective connatural knowledge of non-conceptualizable reality is mystical experience of God through a union of love. This union brings with it a certain knowledge of the beloved, but the beloved (God) is still being incapable of direct conceptualization. “…the union of love… and of a specific resonance in the subject itself, becomes an instrument of knowing, attains as its object the divine reality, of itself inexpressible in any created word” (Maritain 264). This seems to relate to the dark knowledge that St. John is referring to. And so… “…this proves that in the obscure proportion to divinity there is contained some psychological reality—not an intentional species of the divine object, but some ‘form’ emanating from the intellect’s intimate union with God and produced by the power of faith, by characterized by obscurity” (Wojtyla 264). To me personally, this seems to refer to the direct, yet mediated, experience of God that we have inside us because we are united to God in charity and faith, in our intellect and will. And when we empty our minds of all the noise and created objects that distract us, our relation to the beloved will manifest itself and we will experience God acting in and on us.
Another aspect of the second transcendence is when the Holy Spirit brings the virtue of faith and love to another level. In the road to contemplation, Wojtyla says that it is the Holy Spirit which provides the “abnegation of the intellect”. “Now the intellect is purged of those natural forms and species by another power, which is that of the Holy Spirit, working through contemplation in the soul that is passive and receptive” (Wojtyla 257).
The Holy Spirit finds in the intellect that “excessive divine light” which is the gift of faith and which makes the person to “participate (s) in (the) divine knowledge” by assent to revealed truths and increases this participation so much so that “… the intellect knows no longer by its own light but with the participated light of divine knowledge” (Wojtyla 258). “… the intellect is actually introduced into that divine but obscure knowledge that is contemplation” (Wojtyla 258). The excessive light can be so increased that St. John teaches that one’s participation in divine knowledge can increase into the beatific vision. “Moreover it is because of this that the soul can attain to the vision in glory, for St. John of the Cross teaches that under the motion of the Holy Spirit the participation in divine knowledge through faith and in the obscurity of faith can increase even to the beatific vision” (Wojtyla 259). And so contemplation is part of the way to the “transforming union” (Wojtyla 259).
This union can increase one’s likeness with God “…ultimately to the point of a participated transformation in God” (Wojtyla 250). “The second transcendence pertains to the subject of faith—the intellect—and is therefore a psychological transcendence that requires a change in the intellect’s natural mode of knowledge so that it can put aside the particular species received through the senses and open its spiritual capacity to the infinite form” (Wojtyla 244). This aspect of union “…evolves successively throughout the entire path to union, preparing for the beatific vision of God…” (Wojtyla 244). This is why it is also part of the “second transcendence” because this union lifts one to the divine by opening up the intellect to receive the “form of the divine” on earth “…increase[ing] the supernatural union of likeness…”(Wojtyla 250) and preparing for the perfect reception in the beatific vision. “All things considered, it seems that rather than the virtue that causes union, faith, by reason of its intimate nature as a participation in the divine, functions as an infused power from which union with God and contemplation derive” (Wojtyla 267/8). He seems to be saying that this knowledge by the Holy Spirit’s work in contemplation is a closer knowledge to the beatific vision, but it does not seem to be the full form that will be in Heaven. “Thus the union of the intellect with God through contemplation is now possible and the ‘intentional proportion’ or likeness between the intellect and the divine object is more perfectly and deeply rooted, thus preparing for the ultimate reception of the divine form” (Wojtyla 266).
Conclusion
This paper has examined the idea of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross as analyzed by Karol Wojtyla after building on the traditional notion of faith. Faith for St. John of the Cross is seen as the way in which one comes into supernatural union in love with God which is not naturally attainable. Faith bridges the gap between the natural and supernatural by giving to one the “excessive light” which is divine knowledge. This light unites the person ontologically with God and then allows one to assent to revealed truths. But because there is not direct experience of God on earth though, the proper object of man’s intellect, the intentional species or concept, is left empty. But then charity acting with faith brings one to become more like the beloved by purging and quieting the intellect so that it can, it seems, have a direct but mediated experience of God who is united to them in love. This provides some knowledge for which the intellect in the way of some type of “psychological likeness” or “form”. Lastly, the Holy Spirit increasing that “excessive light” that was given in faith can bring the soul into new levels of knowledge of God that were not before open. Could this even refer to some kind of infused knowledge of God? The Holy Spirit gives divine knowledge to the soul in such a way that it brings the soul into contemplation and “transforming union” with the divine which prepares the way for the beatific vision. Thus one can see that faith for St. John of the Cross is very important and is a type of gateway for union with God.
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Dulles, Avery. The Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.
Maritain, Jacques. Ransoming the Time. New York: Gordian, 1972. Print.
Wojtyla, Karol. Faith According to St. John of the Cross. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1981. Print.
Dulles, Avery. The Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.
Maritain, Jacques. Ransoming the Time. New York: Gordian, 1972. Print.
Wojtyla, Karol. Faith According to St. John of the Cross. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1981. Print.
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