Whether the Empyrean Heaven Was Created at the Same Time As Formless
Matter?
Objection 1: It would seem that the empyrean heaven was not created
at the same time as formless matter. For the empyrean, if it is
anything at all, must be a sensible body. But all sensible bodies are
movable, and the empyrean heaven is not movable. For if it were so,
its movement would be ascertained by the movement of some visible
body, which is not the case. The empyrean heaven, then, was not
created contemporaneously with formless matter.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 4) that "the lower
bodies are governed by the higher in a certain order." If, therefore,
the empyrean heaven is the highest of bodies, it must necessarily
exercise some influence on bodies below it. But this does not seem to
be the case, especially as it is presumed to be without movement; for
one body cannot move another unless itself also be moved. Therefore
the empyrean heaven was not created together with formless matter.
Obj. 3: Further, if it is held that the empyrean heaven is the place
of contemplation, and not ordained to natural effects; on the
contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. iv, 20): "In so far as we mentally
apprehend eternal things, so far are we not of this world"; from
which it is clear that contemplation lifts the mind above the things
of this world. Corporeal place, therefore, cannot be the seat of
contemplation.
Obj. 4: Further, among the heavenly bodies exists a body, partly
transparent and partly luminous, which we call the sidereal heaven.
There exists also a heaven wholly transparent, called by some the
aqueous or crystalline heaven. If, then, there exists a still higher
heaven, it must be wholly luminous. But this cannot be, for then the
air would be constantly illuminated, and there would be no night.
Therefore the empyrean heaven was not created together with formless
matter.
_On the contrary,_ Strabus says that in the passage, "In the
beginning God created heaven and earth," heaven denotes not the
visible firmament, but the empyrean or fiery heaven.
_I answer that,_ The empyrean heaven rests only on the authority of
Strabus and Bede, and also of Basil; all of whom agree in one respect,
namely, in holding it to be the place of the blessed. Strabus and Bede
say that as soon as created it was filled with angels; and Basil
[*Hom. ii. in Hexaem.] says: "Just as the lost are driven into the
lowest darkness, so the reward for worthy deeds is laid up in the
light beyond this world, where the just shall obtain the abode of
rest." But they differ in the reasons on which they base their
statement. Strabus and Bede teach that there is an empyrean heaven,
because the firmament, which they take to mean the sidereal heaven, is
said to have been made, not in the beginning, but on the second day:
whereas the reason given by Basil is that otherwise God would seem to
have made darkness His first work, as the Manicheans falsely assert,
when they call the God of the Old Testament the God of darkness. These
reasons, however, are not very cogent. For the question of the
firmament, said to have been made on the second day, is solved in one
way by Augustine, and in another by other holy writers. But the
question of the darkness is explained according to Augustine [*Gen. ad
lit. i; vii.], by supposing that formlessness, signified by darkness,
preceded form not by duration, but by origin. According to others,
however, since darkness is no creature, but a privation of light, it
is a proof of Divine wisdom, that the things it created from nothing
it produced first of all in an imperfect state, and afterwards brought
them to perfection. But a better reason can be drawn from the state of
glory itself. For in the reward to come a two-fold glory is looked
for, spiritual and corporeal, not only in the human body to be
glorified, but in the whole world which is to be made new. Now the
spiritual glory began with the beginning of the world, in the
blessedness of the angels, equality with whom is promised to the
saints. It was fitting, then, that even from the beginning, there
should be made some beginning of bodily glory in something corporeal,
free at the very outset from the servitude of corruption and change,
and wholly luminous, even as the whole bodily creation, after the
Resurrection, is expected to be. So, then, that heaven is called the
empyrean, i.e. fiery, not from its heat, but from its brightness. It
is to be noticed, however, that Augustine (De Civ. Dei x, 9, 27) says
that Porphyry sets the demons apart from the angels by supposing that
the former inhabit the air, the latter the ether, or empyrean. But
Porphyry, as a Platonist, held the heaven, known as sidereal, to be
fiery, and therefore called it empyrean or ethereal, taking ethereal
to denote the burning of flame, and not as Aristotle understands it,
swiftness of movement (De Coel. i, text. 22). This much has been said
to prevent anyone from supposing that Augustine maintained an empyrean
heaven in the sense understood by modern writers.
Reply Obj. 1: Sensible corporeal things are movable in the present
state of the world, for by the movement of corporeal creatures is
secured by the multiplication of the elements. But when glory is
finally consummated, the movement of bodies will cease. And such must
have been from the beginning the condition of the empyrean.
Reply Obj. 2: It is sufficiently probable, as some assert, that the
empyrean heaven, having the state of glory for its ordained end, does
not influence inferior bodies of another order--those, namely, that
are directed only to natural ends. Yet it seems still more probable
that it does influence bodies that are moved, though itself
motionless, just as angels of the highest rank, who assist [*Infra,
Q. 112, A. 3], influence those of lower degree who act as messengers,
though they themselves are not sent, as Dionysius teaches (Coel.
Hier. xii). For this reason it may be said that the influence of the
empyrean upon that which is called the first heaven, and is moved,
produces therein not something that comes and goes as a result of
movement, but something of a fixed and stable nature, as the power of
conservation or causation, or something of the kind pertaining to
dignity.
Reply Obj. 3: Corporeal place is assigned to contemplation, not as
necessary, but as congruous, that the splendor without may correspond
to that which is within. Hence Basil (Hom. ii in Hexaem.) says: "The
ministering spirit could not live in darkness, but made his habitual
dwelling in light and joy."
Reply Obj. 4: As Basil says (Hom. ii in Hexaem.): "It is certain that
the heaven was created spherical in shape, of dense body, and
sufficiently strong to separate what is outside it from what it
encloses. On this account it darkens the region external to it, the
light by which itself is lit up being shut out from that region." But
since the body of the firmament, though solid, is transparent, for
that it does not exclude light (as is clear from the fact that we can
see the stars through the intervening heavens), we may also say that
the empyrean has light, not condensed so as to emit rays, as the sun
does, but of a more subtle nature. Or it may have the brightness of
glory which differs from mere natural brightness.
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