Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Beatific vision

The direct, unmediated 'seeing' of God enjoyed by the redeemed in the final state — the soul's highest end and the substance of heaven's blessedness.

Latin visio beatifica, 'the vision that makes blessed'.

Psalm 17:15; Matthew 5:8 ('the pure in heart … shall see God'); 1 Corinthians 13:12 ('then face to face'); 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 22:4.

Aquinas (Summa I q. 12; I–II q. 3): the intellect's natural desire is satisfied only by seeing God's essence, a supernatural gift. Defined by Benedictus Deus (1336). The East speaks apophatically of ever-deepening participation in the divine energies (the essence remaining unknowable) — Gregory of Nyssa's epektasis, endless progress into God. Reformed theology (Westminster Larger Catechism 90) affirms 'the immediate vision and fruition of God'; recently retrieved for Protestant theology (Boersma, Allen) after long neglect.

The vision is transforming ('we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is'), embodied (in resurrection bodies), and social — enjoyed within the communion of the redeemed.

Seeing the divine essence (Western) vs. participating in the energies (Eastern); how a finite creature can 'see' the infinite God; whether it is static contemplation or dynamic progress.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.