Mindfulness and the Discernment of Passions: Insights from Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

Spiritus 14 (2014): 141–165 © 2014 by The Johns Hopkins University Pre s The general concept of mindfulness is an essential—if sometimes overlooked—aspect of Christian spirituality and morality. In a recent article, Aloysius Pieris, S.J., helps to rectify this by drawing attention to a rich biblical tradition of mindfulness understood as “recollection and recognition.” In this biblical paradigm, believers mindfully recall the acts of mercy that God has enacted on behalf of God’s people and recognize God’s continuing presence and promise of loving care, especially for the poor, now and into the future.1 In his defense of this biblical tradition, he suggests that the scholastic tradition is of little use for appreciating the role of mindfulness in Christian spirituality. In particular, he claims that “Thomism is deafeningly silent about the ancient practice of discernment, with its emphasis more on the virtue of prudence.”2 I want to suggest, however, that Thomas Aquinas’s richly descriptive account of the relationship between the passions and prudence implies a certain kind of awareness and capacity for mature discernment of one’s desires. Although Aquinas does not use the language of mindfulness in the way it is understood in contemporary spiritual practices, he should not be overlooked for the potential resources his approach to theology can provide for cultivating mindfulness. It is fair to claim that certain manifestations of scholasticism, in particular the neo-scholasticism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fixated on abstract analysis divorced from practical experience. One of the great insights, however, of more recent scholarship on Aquinas is that these scholars have highlighted the ways in which Aquinas was steeped in biblical theology, informed by the theology of the monastic and early church theologians, and concerned to address the practical and spiritual needs of his medieval context.3 Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., one of the preeminent living historians of Aquinas, writes the following: