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Full Idea
In order that the bliss of the saints may be more delightful for them, and they may render more copious thanks to God for it, it is given to them to see perfectly the punishment of the damned.
Gist of Idea
Those in bliss have their happiness increased by seeing the damned punished
Source
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], III Supp Q94,1), quoted by Friedrich Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morals I.§15
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'On the Genealogy of Morals/ Ecce Homo', ed/tr. Kaufmann,Walter [Vintage 1969], p.49
A Reaction
This has probably been repudiated by the Church of England. Justice should be seen to be done. Presumably you mustn't gloat, or you join them.
| 13 | Is the supreme reward for virtue to be drunk for eternity? [Plato] |
| 7908 | At the end of a saint, he is not located in space, but just ceases to be disturbed [Ashvaghosha] |
| 6820 | The righteous shall dwell on couches in gardens, wedded to dark-eyed houris [Mohammed] |
| 6812 | Heaven will be reclining on couches, eating fruit, attended by virgins [Mohammed] |
| 4412 | Those in bliss have their happiness increased by seeing the damned punished [Aquinas] |
| 7203 | In heaven all the interesting men are missing [Nietzsche] |
| 18318 | People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one [Nietzsche] |
| 18288 | Heaven was invented by the sick and the dying [Nietzsche] |
| 18306 | We don't want heaven; now that we are men, we want the kingdom of earth [Nietzsche] |
| 21520 | That our heaven is a dull place reflects the misery of excessive work in life [Russell] |
| 23063 | The first man obviously found paradise unendurable [Cioran] |
| 20699 | Paradise would not contain some virtues, such as courage [Davies,B] |
| 7356 | Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library [Johnson,P] |