What Happened to Joy? A Metastructural Examination of Joy in the Summa theologiae

Abstract: In Question 31 of the Summa theologiae, Prima secundae , Aquinas puts forward a distinction between bodily pleasure and joy, then argues for the superiority of the latter over the former. Given this, the reader expects an analysis of joy to follow, yet Aquinas does not devote a single question to its examination in his treatment of the passions. Indeed, scholars have long puzzled over Aquinas’s choice to instead focus the majority of his treatment on bodily pleasure. I contend that a close examination of questions 31–39 reveals the fittingness of Aquinas’s treatment of joy in his section on the passions. I argue that his careful usage of joy can be seen as an intentional didactic strategy that points the reader beyond the passions and towards the fruits of the Holy Spirit that spring from infused virtue. By causing the reader to hope for an examination of true joy in questions 31–39 of the Prima secundae , and subsequently delaying any examination of joy until question 28 of the Secunda secundae , Aquinas points to the subordination, though not the denigration, of the bodily passions and acquired virtues to the supernatural end of man.