Whether an Angel Is Altogether Incorporeal?
Objection 1: It would seem that an angel is not entirely incorporeal.
For what is incorporeal only as regards ourselves, and not in relation
to God, is not absolutely incorporeal. But Damascene says (De Fide
Orth. ii) that "an angel is said to be incorporeal and immaterial as
regards us; but compared to God it is corporeal and material.
Therefore he is not simply incorporeal."
Obj. 2: Further, nothing is moved except a body, as the Philosopher
says (Phys. vi, text 32). But Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii) that
"an angel is an ever movable intellectual substance." Therefore an
angel is a corporeal substance.
Obj. 3: Further, Ambrose says (De Spir. Sanct. i, 7): "Every creature
is limited within its own nature." But to be limited belongs to
bodies. Therefore, every creature is corporeal. Now angels are God's
creatures, as appears from Ps. 148:2: "Praise ye" the Lord, "all His
angels"; and, farther on (verse 4), "For He spoke, and they were
made; He commanded, and they were created." Therefore angels are
corporeal.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Ps. 103:4): "Who makes His angels
spirits."
_I answer that,_ There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what
is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this
consists in assimilation to God Himself. And the perfect assimilation
of an effect to a cause is accomplished when the effect imitates the
cause according to that whereby the cause produces the effect; as
heat makes heat. Now, God produces the creature by His intellect and
will (Q. 14, A. 8; Q. 19, A. 4). Hence the perfection of the universe
requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now
intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal
faculty; for every body is limited to "here" and "now." Hence the
perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal
creature.
The ancients, however, not properly realizing the force of
intelligence, and failing to make a proper distinction between sense
and intellect, thought that nothing existed in the world but what
could be apprehended by sense and imagination. And because bodies
alone fall under imagination, they supposed that no being existed
except bodies, as the Philosopher observes (Phys. iv, text 52,57).
Thence came the error of the Sadducees, who said there was no spirit
(Acts 23:8).
But the very fact that intellect is above sense is a reasonable proof
that there are some incorporeal things comprehensible by the intellect
alone.
Reply Obj. 1: Incorporeal substances rank between God and corporeal
creatures. Now the medium compared to one extreme appears to be the
other extreme, as what is tepid compared to heat seems to be cold;
and thus it is said that angels, compared to God, are material and
corporeal, not, however, as if anything corporeal existed in them.
Reply Obj. 2: Movement is there taken in the sense in which it is
applied to intelligence and will. Therefore an angel is called an
ever mobile substance, because he is ever actually intelligent, and
not as if he were sometimes actually and sometimes potentially, as we
are. Hence it is clear that the objection rests on an equivocation.
Reply Obj. 3: To be circumscribed by local limits belongs to bodies
only; whereas to be circumscribed by essential limits belongs to all
creatures, both corporeal and spiritual. Hence Ambrose says (De Spir.
Sanct. i, 7) that "although some things are not contained in
corporeal place, still they are none the less circumscribed by their
substance."
_______________________