The light is in the word: teaching and illumination according to Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica discusses the act of teaching in the context of the mediated government of the world by God, who communicates his perfection by creating beings capable of communicating it. The article argues that the key to understanding the locus of that discussion, which is as relevant as the answer itself, is to conceive of the act of teaching as the human mode of illumination, which is realized through the communication of a verb that brings with it, in a participatory way, the light of the teacher’s agent intellect. Homo, verus et vere doctor dici potest, et veritatem docens, et mentem quidem illuminans, non quasi lumen rationi infundens, sed quasi lumen rationis coadiuvans ad scientiae perfectionem per ea quae exterius proponit.¹