Abstract

Contemporary scholars routinely cast Aquinas’s imperfect happiness of this life as one of only acquired virtue, yet the Scholastics of the Late Renaissance all saw this happiness as one of acquired or infused virtue. This dispute goes unspoken today, as does the question it raises, namely, whether the infused virtues, rather than offer supernatural happiness only in the afterlife, offer it now even in this life. Further unsettled is why this question is even worth asking. I argue it is worth asking for several reasons: historical, doctrinal, and methodological. The problem has implications for Aquinas’s reception of the Nicomachean Ethics. It also bears, on the one hand, on two of Aquinas's doctrines on twofold beatitude and, on the other hand, on Aquinas's teaching on the relationship of philosophy and theology. Moreover, an answer could lend support to the use of Late Scholastic commentary in the interpretation of Aquinas. I first defend the importance of our question, illustrating in turn its historical, doctrinal, and methodological value. I then give some direction for a balanced study of the problem. Finally, I clarify the status of our question and propose some ideas for further discussion.