No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Divine Goodness, Predestination, and the Hypostatic Union: St. Thomas on the Temporal Realization of the Father's Eternal Plan in the Incarnate Son
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
This article considers Aquinas' doctrine of predestination as an eternal reality in God in light of its temporal realization in time by the incarnation of the eternal Son. In particular, Aquinas' repeated recourse to the ratio of the divine goodness as the motive of predestination is documented in conjunction with his teaching on the fittingness of the incarnation. In this light, the relation of the natural sonship of Christ to the grace of adoption is developed by Aquinas as the temporal realization of the eternal reality of predestination in God.
- Type
- Original Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2016 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Journet, Charles, The Meaning of Grace, trans. Littledale, A. V. (Princeton: Scepter Publishers, 1996), 47Google Scholar.
2 Spezzano, Daria, The Glory of God's Grace (Ave Maria, FL: Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, 2015), 46Google Scholar.
3 In addition to the biblical texts that commonly ground discourse about predestination, such as those in Paul's Letter to the Romans that discuss predestination and election in terms of the preordained plan for salvation of the elect, and in addition to Paul's teaching in Ephesians 1:5 that God “has predestined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ,” there is also a text affirming the predestination of Christ in the opening greeting of the letter to the Romans, where Paul affirms that the Son of God “was descended from David according to the flesh and predestined (Latin text) or destined Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness.” (1:4). The Greek word used in this text, όρισθέντος, does not have the preposition “pre” attached to it. The Vulgate renders this word as “praedestinatus.” It seems that Latin authors, for better or worse, from Jerome onwards did not perceive a substantial distinction between “destined” and “predestined.” For a helpful summary of the biblical doctrine of predestination, see Levering, Matthew, Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 13–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 See, for example, Lombard, Peter, The Sentences, book 3, On the Incarnation of the Word, trans. Silano, Giulio (Toronto: PIMS, 2008), 41Google Scholar [distinction X, Chapter 1 (29), 1]. As Lombard explains: “Whether Christ, according to his being a man, is a person or anything. It is also usual for some to ask whether Christ, according to his being a man, is a person, or even is anything.”
5 “If it is then asked,” Lombard wonders in reference to Paul's affirmation in Romans 1:4, “whether the predestination which the Apostle recalls is of the person or of the nature, it can truly be said that the person of the Son, which existed always, was predestined according to the human form taken, namely that the same person, being man, be the Son of God and the human nature was predestined that it be united personally to the Word of the Father.” Ibid., 44 [distinction X, Chapter 3 (31)].
6 For a helpful summary of the doctrine of predestination in the patristic period, with developed consideration of Augustine, see Levering, Predestination, 36–67.
7 St.Augustine, , “On the Predestination of the Saints,” in Four Anti‐Pelagian Writings, trans. Mourant, John and Collinge, William J., The Fathers of the Church, vol. 86 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1992), 254 [31]Google Scholar.
8 “These things,” Augustine notes, “God beyond all doubt foreknew that he would accomplish. This then is that predestination of the saints, which appeared most clearly in the saint of saints.” Ibid., 254. Likewise, Invoking Romans 1:4, Augustine reasons that the predestination of the human nature of Christ to union with the Word establishes “an elevation [of human nature] so great, so lofty, and so sublime that our nature could not be raised higher . . . just as that one man was predestined to be our head, so we, being many, are predestined to be his members.” Ibid., 255.
9 “Anyone who can discover in our head,” Augustine challenges, “the merits which have preceded his unique generation, let him seek in us his members those merits which preceded our multiple regeneration.” Ibid., 255. And the incarnation, Augustine cautions, “was not given to Christ as a recompense, but rather given, so that he should be born of the Spirit and the Virgin, apart from all the bond of sin.” Ibid.
10 It is well‐documented that Aquinas and Scotus differ on the motive of the incarnation. This difference is inextricably linked to the doctrine of predestination. For Aquinas, God's diffusion of goodness is ordered to the redemption of humanity from sin. Scotus, Richard Cross explains, “concludes that Christ would have become incarnate irrespective of the Fall of Adam.” This is so because “God predestines Christ's soul to glory,” which is prior to anything willed as a result of the Fall. See Cross, Duns Scotus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 128. Aquinas affirms the eternity of Christ's predestination, but rejects the notion that this eternal decree did not take sin into account. For example, in ST, III, 1, a. 3, ad 4, Aquinas grants the eternal predestination of the incarnation, while also affirming its redemptive character: “Predestination presupposes the foreknowledge of future things; and hence, as God predestines the salvation of anyone to be brought about by the prayers of others, so also He predestined the work of Incarnation to be the remedy of human sin.” Further, in ST, III, 24, a. 1, ad 3, on Christ's predestination, Aquinas argues: “If Christ were not to have been incarnate, God would have decreed men's salvation by other means. But since He decreed the Incarnation of Christ, He decreed at the same time that He should be the cause of our salvation.” What is at stake, ultimately, is whether Christ is predestined to glory (Scotus) or to the hypostatic union. For a helpful summary of these issues, with an expansive consideration of major thinkers on each side of this issue, see Pomplun, Trent, “The Immaculate World: Predestination and Passibility in Contemporary Scotism,” Modern Theology 30 (2014): 525–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Speaking of contingency and causation in relation to the use of 1 Timothy 2:4 by Albert, Thomas, and Scotus in their commentaries on Lombard's Sentences, Franklin T. Harkins notes, “Although much modern scholarship on these high medieval magistri in sacra pagina has emphasized the philosophical nature of their work in general and of their Sentences commentaries in particular, it has paid noticeably less attention to how their particular philosophical engagement informed their exegeses of Scripture and, conversely, how scriptural and theological questions gave rise to new philosophical insights.” See his, “Contingency and Causality in Predestination: 1 Tim. 2:4 in the Sentences Commentaries of Albert the Great, Aquinas, Thomas, and Scotus, John Duns,” Archa Verbi 11 (2014): 35–72, at 35Google Scholar.
12 In Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, Thomas affirms the parameters of Christological orthodoxy with the following interpretation: “predestination must be attributed to the very person of Christ. But because the person of Christ subsists in two natures, the human and the divine, something can be said of him with respect to either nature . . . It is in this way,” Thomas continues, “that he is said to be predestined according to his human nature. For although the person of Christ has always been the Son of God, nevertheless it was not always a fact that, while existing in human nature, he was the Son of God; rather, this was due to an ineffable grace.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (Lander, WY: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, 2012), 19 [cap. 1., lect. 3, #51]. The maintenance of the synthesis of the Council of Chalcedon, however, is not where Thomas concludes his treatment of Christ's predestination. In all of his works, including his commentary on Lombard's Sentences, he follows St. Augustine's lead and further develops his doctrine of predestination in light of the reality of Christ's. This broader articulation unfolds a ratio that Thomas introduces in his general doctrine of predestination and carries through to his discussion of Christ's predestination. It is this broader ratio that is the primary focus throughout the remainder of this paper. See, Boguslawski, Steven C. O.P., Thomas Aquinas on the Jews: Insights into his Commentary on Romans 9–11 (New York: Paulist Press, 2008), especially 8–11Google Scholar.
13 ST, I, 23, a. 1. Translations from the prima pars, with an occasional slight modification, are taken from Summa theologiae, Prima Pars 1–49, trans. Laurence Shapcote, O.P. and eds. John Mortensen and Enrique Alarcón (Lander, WY: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, 2012).
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Hütter, Reinhard, Dust Bound for Heaven: Explorations in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2012), 164Google Scholar.
19 In Summa contra gentiles 2, 46, Aquinas is even more explicit: “Ad productionem creaturarm nihil aliud movet Deum nisi sua bonitas, quam rebus aliis communicare voluit secundum modum assimilationis ad ipsum.”
20 See Paluch, Michal, La profondeur de l'amour divin: Evolution de la doctrine de la prédestination dans l’œuvre de Thomas d'Aquin. Bibliothèque thomiste vol. 55 (Paris: J. Vrin, 2004), 245Google Scholar.
21 ST, III, 24, a. 1. Translations from the tertia pars, with occasional slight modification, are taken from Summa theologiae, Tertia Pars 1–59, trans. Laurence Shapcote, O.P. and eds. John Mortensen and Enrique Alarcón (Lander, WY: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, 2012).
22 Following Paluch, ST, I, 23, a. 1 defines predestination as “…ratio… transmissionis creaturae rationalis in finem vitae aeternae . . .” Whereas ST, III, 24, a. 1 defines it as follows: “quaedam divina praeordinatio ad aeterno de his quae per gratiam Dei sunt fienda in tempore.”
23 Wawrykow, Joseph, “Grace,” in The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, eds. Van Nieuwenhove, Rik and Wawrykow, Joseph (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), 200Google Scholar.
24 For a presentation of Aquinas’ appropriation of the work of Dionysius in his treatment of the diffusion of divine goodness, see Fran O'Rourke, Pseudo‐Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), especially 225–74. See also, Blankenhorn, Bernhard OP, The Mystery of Union with God: Dionysian Mysticism in Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
25 For a helpful discussion of the predestination of Christ in Thomas’ work, see Levering, Predestination, 82–3.
26 ST, III, 1, a. 1.
27 For a helpful discussion of the ontology of the hypostatic union, see White, Thomas Joseph OP, The Incarnate Lord: A Thomistic Study in Christology (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015), 73–125CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
28 ST, III, 1, a. 1.
29 Ibid. John of St. Thomas likewise affirms the God‐centered basis for Thomas’ discussion of the incarnation. “Saint Thomas discusses the fittingness of the Incarnation from the side of God,” he observes, “which is that he might communicate himself to the creature in the fullest manner.” See, John of St. Thomas, Introduction to the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, trans. McInerny, Ralph (South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 2004), 154Google Scholar.
30 For a helpful exposition of Thomas’ purposes in this challenging question, see Wawrykow, Joseph, “Hypostatic Union,” in The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, op. cit., 233–37Google Scholar.
31 ST, III, 3, a. 8.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 St.Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (Lander, WY: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, 2012), 235 [cap. 8, lect. 6, #706]Google Scholar. Translation slightly modified.
35 ST, III, 23, a. 1.
36 ST, III, 24, a. 1.
37 See the preface to ST, III, 16.
38 ST, III, 24, a. 1.
39 ST, III, 24, a. 2.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 ST, III, 24, a. 3.
43 Ibid.
44 In Christ's Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, Thomas underscores the participatory nature of the predestination of his members: “Christ is the measure and rule of our life and therefore our predestination, because we are predestined to adoptive sonship, which is a participation and image of natural sonship.” St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, 17 [cap. 3, lect. 3, 48].
45 ST, III, 24, a. 3.
46 ST, III, 24, a. 4, ob. 1.
47 Ibid., corpus.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Scriptum super III Lib. Sententiarum, ed. Fabianus Moos, R. P. Maria O.P. (Paris, 1933,)Google Scholar dist. X, solutio III, #118 (p. 352). Our own translation.
51 Ibid. (p. 352–33).
52 Ibid., #117 (p. 353). “And therefore,” Thomas concludes, “the predestination of Christ and ours is not of one univocal ratio, but according to analogy.” Ibid. In ST, III, 8, a. 3, Thomas even locates the reprobate within the plan of Christ's predestination and headship over all: “Hence we must say that if we take the whole time of the world in general, Christ is the Head of all men, but diversely. For, first and principally, He is the Head of such as are united to Him by glory; secondly, of those who are actually united to Him by charity; thirdly, of those who are actually united to Him by faith; fourthly, of those who are united to Him merely in potentiality, which is not yet reduced to act, yet will be reduced to act according to Divine predestination; fifthly, of those who are united to Him in potentiality, which will never be reduced to act; such are those men existing in the world, who are not predestined, who, however, on their departure from this world, wholly cease to be members of Christ, as being no longer in potentiality to be united to Christ.” Emphasis added.
53 ST, III, 61, a. 1.
54 Ibid., ad 3.
55 Spezzano, The Glory of God's Grace, 340.