[lbo-talk] Re: Atheistic religions

[C. G. Estabrook]

This is as sloppy (to borrow Carroll's word) in summary as in reference.
There are four Question 94s in the Summa theologiae (not Theologica), and
the one Rosenbaum refers to is not by Aquinas. (He died while writing the
Summa, and it was completed by others.)

In 94.3 of the supplement, the question is posed, "whether the blessed
will rejoice in the punishments of the wicked," and it's answered that
they will not do so as such -- "and so the saints will not rejoice in the
punishment of the wicked" -- but only "by considering the order of divine
justice and their own liberation, about which they will rejoice."

Pretty far from recreational sadism.  --CGE

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005, Carl Remick wrote:


> [...Ron Rosenbaum has an interesting NY Observer column on theodicy
> this week...:]
> 
> ... A God who encourages watching torture—as in the theology of
> Aquinas, who imagined that one of the pleasures that God would offer
> the souls He saved would be gazing down from Heaven upon the cruel and
> prolonged tortures of the damned in Hell. Recreational sadism from
> Heaven’s luxury skyboxes (Summa Theologica, Question 94)...
> 
> <http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage3.asp>