연구논문 : 토마스 아퀴나스의 인간과 구원에 대한 이해

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Why does human being need salvation? What is salvation intended for? What should we do to receive salvation? In human salvation, how should we understand relations of good works, merits, with God``s grace? What role does God``s grace play in human salvation? Exploring Thomas Aquinas`` thoughts about these matters is this paper``s concern. Thomas Aquinas understood human being as a unity of body and soul. Even though he stuck to soul``s priority over body, he didn``t forget the fact that human beings are a unity of body and soul and all their functions are operated by unified activities of both entities. He had a realistic view of human being. According to him, human nature and their abilities are not changed into completely different beings before and after the Fall and salvation, although there is difference in levels. Human beings still remain as beings that should receive salvation from God before and after the Fall. Salvation means not only recovery from the fallen state, but also being blessed with eternity pleased with His goodness beyond the originally created state. Then, how can we get salvation? Thomas Aquinas discusses the issue under the premises that all created beings cannot excel their own nature and God does not make men righteous by force against their free will. He thought we need God,s grace for our salvation. He didn``t think that grace couldn``t be obtained by our efforts. Rather, he developed a logic that God``s grace first arranges a foundation where it can accumulate merits inside men, men come to strive for merits owing to the grace. In this sense the merits enables us to get salvation.