Analyzing the Role of Divine Illumination in Human Knowledge Theory

This essay explores the doctrine of divine illumination, focusing on its perceived necessity for human knowledge and examining the perspectives of philosophers such as Augustine, Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and Duns Scotus. The essay discusses Augustine's initial propagation of the theory, which posits that humans require divine assistance for cognitive activities. It contrasts Aquinas's shift towards an Aristotelian framework, Ghent's revival of the Augustinian theory alongside Aristotelian thought, and Scotus's philosophical alternative that emphasizes the human mind's capacity for grasping knowledge independently. The analysis shows how divine illumination is both embraced and refuted by various thinkers, leading to a nuanced understanding of its role in epistemology. The conclusion emphasizes that while divine illumination can guide, it should not overshadow the importance of human senses and innate cognitive abilities, subtly guided by divinity.

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Divine illumination is the earliest and the most influential substitute for naturalism
that concentrated in the areas of mind as well as knowledge. The doctrine states that humans
require separate divine assistance while they do their cognitive activities (Steiger, 2019). It
was a doctrine that was propagated by the philosopher Augustine and his disciples. It
originated in ancient times and now has been transformed, keeping in mind the changes that
take place today. The essay aims to discuss how divine illumination is necessary for human
knowledge and how at times the same doctrine misleads an individual concerning
philosophers like Aquinas, Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus.
The divine illumination theory is conceived as Christian, medieval as well as
Augustinian. The theory states that the mind of humans often relies on supernatural assistance
to complete their regular activity. However, it is not clear as to who provides the divine
illumination (Moisuc, 2016). It was the philosopher Augustine who stressed on the
importance of divine light that is necessary for all human beings. People, however, disagreed
with Augustine and said that divine illumination is just an influence that an individual
receives in their life. He said that it is God who illuminates the human mind to see the truth
and grasp knowledge. It is God who offers justification. He further states that it is God who
alone can teach and guide humans towards truth (SHAHRAEENI & GHAZI 2016). In the
medieval ages, this theory of illumination was divided into two parts- priori knowledge and
concept formation. He also said that it is through divine illumination that humans can share
knowledge which cannot be possible with the sense of perception. According to him, this
divine and universal orientation were necessary for the human mind. It also helps the mind to
make judgments about ideas as well as standards (Brown, 2019). Thomas Aquinas was a
philosopher that had ended the divine illumination theory. In the “Treatise on Human
Nature,” Aquinas moves from an Augustinian view to an Aristotelian framework where he
disagrees with Aquinas that truth should not be gained from the senses present in the human

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body (Colberg, 2016). It is said that Aquinas replaced the figure of Augustine with that of
Aristotle and further replaced the former’s illumination with the latter’s abstraction (Pasnau,
2016).
Aquinas stated that the intellective soul cognises with the real things in the eternal
reasons. He does reject certain concepts of the divine illumination like all humans get the
divine light while doing cognitive activities and that the former is sufficient on its own and
does not need the sense. He further denied the fact that there is a unique ongoing illumination
of divinity that is essential for the working of the intellect (Culbreath, 2017). Aquinas argues
that humans have the necessary capacity of thought and that they do not require any divine
illumination on their existing natural illumination. It should be noted that Aquinas does not
reject the presence of God. He agrees that the intellect needs God to move ahead. The light of
intellect is no doubt offered to humans by God. He further agrees with his contemporaries
that the intellective cognition cannot be achieved without the assistance of the supernatural.
He only argues that this insight should be given all at once rather than in bits and pieces
(Inglis, 2017). His opponents, on the other hand, is of the view that divine illumination is an
ongoing process. Aquinas thinks illumination to be already present within the human mind,
whereas his Franciscans contemporaries believed that illumination comes slowly with time.
On the one hand, Aquinas defends a specific concept of divine illumination, and on
the other, he weakens the theory by stating it as an innate gift instead of ongoing patronage.
By making the intellect as central in his theory of cognition, he gives little importance to
illumination. Henry of Ghent, on the other hand, defended the cognitive philosophy of
Aristotle and at the same time revived the Augustinian theory of divine illumination (DeHart,
2017). According to Ghent to grasp the knowledge of truth was to understand the
understanding of nature. It is only the knowledge of life where one gets to know about the
unchanging reality of the materialistic world. His views are entirely different from that of

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Augustine and Franciscan disciples (DeHart, 2017). They completely dismissed the existence
of the physical world as it was ever-changing and therefore not fit for human knowledge. On
the other hand, Ghent argues that proper truth, as well as knowledge, can be grasped from the
physical world if humans are capable of understanding the true essence of all things. He
further states that since the above statement cannot be achieved on its own, the humans will
need divine illumination to go beyond the sensory appearances so that one has a genuine
knowledge regarding reality (Cross, 2019). At this point, Ghent offers a critique of the agent
of intellect. He refuses to give the latter the kind of efficacy as it has been derived from
Aquinas and other Aristotelian thinkers in the medieval ages. Ghent tries to revive the
tradition of the thirteenth century, where God is referred to as an agent intellect (Cross,
2019). What he tries to do is identify the incomplete aspects of Aristotle and then
supplementing it with the Augustinian theory of illumination that is necessary.
It was, however, Duns Scotus who had put an end to the divine illumination theory. In
the thirteenth century, many authors and philosophers were rejecting the idea of divine
illumination. He came up with a philosophical alternative that was extensive as well as
impressive to the illumination theory (Dunaway 2018). According to him, the human mind
tries to cooperate with the divine light to achieve the knowledge required to understand the
truth. He emphatically states that if the thought of humans was absolutely incapable of
grasping specific knowledge, then the divine illumination too will be incapable of saving it.
He believes that the human mind is mature enough to understand the experience on its own.
He makes a difference between four types of knowledge- self-evident, subjective, sensory
and inductive. He tried to show that the sensory experience was dependent on inductive
knowledge, and the latter rests on the expertise of self-evidence (Dunaway 2018). However,
it should be noted that he does not discard the Augustinian illumination; therefore, he came
up with four senses where human intellect sees the infallible truth in the divine light. He says

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that when the human mind grasps the reality of self-evidence because it is intelligible in its
own and does not require any divine illumination (Gordon, 2017). He states that when one
perceives a knowledge, it is not because of divinity and that the mind is not something
unusual. Therefore, according to the above philosophers, divine illumination can be at times
misleading for the humans. Though none rejects the existence of God, they also do not agree
with Augustine that divine light is solely responsible for helping the individuals to grasp
knowledge.
Thus to conclude, it must be noted that divine illumination both leads and mislead
humans. People should understand that the divine illumination does not occur suddenly;
instead, it is a gradual process that is inhibited in mind from the very beginning and that
individuals take time to acknowledge this divine illumination. One gets a clear understanding
of this illumination when they are confronted by a difficult situation. It is at this moment that
the individuals make use of their illumination to solve the problem and get a clear picture of
reality. Therefore, one must not entirely depend on the divine light instead first make use of
their senses that is indirectly guided by divinity.

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