Thomas Aquinas on Christ’s Unity: Revisiting the De Unione Debate

2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-507
Author(s):  
Roger W. Nutt
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
In Christ

AbstractThe claim that article four of Thomas Aquinas’s De unione verbi incarnati is a reversal of his consistently held single esse position is challenged in this paper. The article argues that reading all five articles of the De unione as a single-structured argument discloses a single esse understanding of the Incarnate Word. The very nature of the radically hypostatic union between God and man in Christ is at stake in this dispute. According to Thomas, positing a second esse in Christ not only contradicts the tradition, especially of the Christian East, that he appropriates, but it would also compromise the reality of the hypostatic union itself.

scholarly journals What does Ramon Llull mean when he says «[el resclús] se maravellá com podia esser que Deus no exoya la natura humana de Jesucrist, qui pregava per son poble la natura divina», (Fèlix o Llibre de meravelles, Ch. 105, «De la oració»)?

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Robert Desmond Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Ramon Llull

The proto-novel Fèlix, o Llibre de meravelles contains many unsettling «meravelles» or «wonders». One such consists in an observation made by a «recluse»—rather than by a professional theologian—concerning the prayers of Christ and of Mary and the angels, etc., to the effect that their prayers have been unable to call forth any response from God. The efficacy of such prayers is thus brought into question, as is the readiness of God’s mercy and grace. By contextualising such matters within medieval currents of Neoplatonism, particularly the doctrine of causality, I argue that Llull presents a causally conceived theorisation of the hypostatic union. I identify Biblical and medieval precedents for and contrasts with Llull’s position on prayer and relate this latter to the sometimes fluid notions of orthodoxy as regards Christological matters among medieval writers, pausing to focus in particular on Llull’s use of the soul-body analogy for the union of natures in Christ. I examine the apparent contradiction present in Llull’s construal of the efficacy of Christ’s prayer—in this context, implicitly conceived as a prayer of petition—and attempt to resolve this contradiction in a way which indicates clearly Ramon Llull’s relation to orthodoxy at least during the period 1274-89.

Reprobation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Feenstra
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
In Christ

Reprobation is an eternal decision by God that results in everlasting death and punishment for some persons. The doctrine of reprobation typically takes one of three forms: (1) that God from eternity decreed to elect some without regard to faith or works and to reprobate others without regard to sin or unbelief, both to display his glory and for reasons we do not know (sometimes called double predestination); (2) that God from eternity decreed to elect some, despite their sin, and to abandon the rest, with the cause of their reprobation being sin and unbelief; or (3) that God from eternity elected those he foreknew would believe in Christ and reprobated those he foreknew would persist in sin and unbelief. Reprobation doctrine was developed by Augustine and appears in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther and John Calvin, who were deeply indebted to Augustine’s thought. Although some Lutheran and Roman Catholic theologians have defended reprobation doctrine since the sixteenth century, Reformed theologians have stressed it and made it the occasion of controversy.

scholarly journals Deification in the Baptist Tradition: Christification of the Human Nature Through Adopted and Participatory Sonship Without Becoming Another Christ

Perichoresis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-73
Author(s):  
Dongsun Cho
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
The Real ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
Attributes Of God ◽  
In Christ

Abstract Some contemporary Baptists (Medley and Kharlamov) argue that the conservative Baptists in North America need to incorporate the concept of deification into their traditional soteriology because they failed to present the continual and transforming nature of salvation. However, many leading conservative Baptist systematicians (Garrett, Erickson, Demarest, and Keathley) demonstrate their concern about a possible pantheistic connotation of the doctrine of deification. Unlike the conservative Baptists, I argue for the necessity of working with the concept of deification in the traditional Baptist soteriology. The concept of deification is not something foreign to the Baptist tradition because Keach, Gill, Spurgeon, and Maclaren already demonstrated the patristic exchange formula ‘God became man so that man may become like God’. They considered the hypostatic union of two natures in Christ as the source and model of becoming like God or Christ, the true Image of God. Christians are called to be united with the glorified humanity of Christ by their adopted sonship and participation in the divine nature. Christification speaks of the real transformation of Christians in terms of a change in the mode of existence, not in nature. The four Baptists taught that Christian could participate in the communicable attributes of God, but not in the essence or incommunicable attributes of God. Therefore, Christification never produces another God-Man. Conservative Baptists do not have to compromise their traditional commitment to sola scriptura and the forensic nature of justification in their employment of the theme of deification. This paper concludes with four suggestions for contemporary Baptist discussions on deification.

Virtue and Grace in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin M. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas

‘Counsel, Comfort, and Conscience’ in More’s Letters to Fellow Prisoner Nicholas Wilson

Moreana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (Number 176) (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
John F. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Tower Of London

This is a study of the two letters of Thomas More to Nicholas Wilson writ-ten while the two men were imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation illuminates the role of comfort and counsel in the two letters. An article of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae is used to probe More’s understanding of conscience in the letters.

The Ethics of Natural Law according to Thomas Aquinas

Verbum ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-368
Author(s):  
Dalia Marija Stancienė
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Thomas Aquinas
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