The Passions of Christ's Soul in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas

252 Pages·2009·16.57 MB·English

by  Paul Gondreau

THE PASSIONS OF CHRlST'S SOUL
IN THE THEOLOGY OF
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
1 wish to express my gratitude to Professor Fr., Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., and
to the second reader, Professor Fr. Gilles Emery, O:P., both ofw hom kindly
and generously guided me throughout this work. Without their expertise in
the field ofm edieval theology in general and the thought ofA quinas in par
ticular, the quality oft his work would not be what it is.
1 also wish to thank Professor Dr. LudWig Hodl and Professor Dr. h.c. multo
Wolfgang Kluxen for accepting this book in the Baeumker-Beitriige series. 1
thank as well the Gorres-Gesellschafl and the Director ofA schendorff, Dr. Paul Gondreau
Dirk Passmann, for their assistance in the printing oft his manuscript.
Finally, 1 wish to dedicate this book to my lovely wlfe Christiana, without
whose tireless self-sacrifices and cheeifitl encouragement this work would
not have seen the light ofd ay.
University of Scranton Press
Scranton and London
CONTENTS
© 2009 University of Scranton Press
PREFACE BY JEAN-PIERRE TORRELL, O.P
7
All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
17
A Note on Terminology
30
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chapter I. THE CHRISTOLOGICAL SOURCES OF AQUINAS' THEOLOGY OF
Gondreau, Paul. CHRIST'S HUMAN PASSIONS 35
The passions of Christ's soul in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas / Paul
A. Scriptural Sources
35
Gondreau.
1. The Use oftbe Gospels in the Account of Christ's Passions 36
p.cm. 2. The Use of the Old Testament in Thomas' Account of
Previously published: Miinster : Aschendorff, c2002. Christ's Passions 39
ISBN 978-1-58966-170-7 (pbk.) 3, The Synthesis of Revelation and Reason in Aquinas' Theology
I. Jesus Christ--Humanity. 2. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. 3. of Christ's Human Affectivity 44
B. Patristic Sources 47
Jesus Christ--Passion. I. Title.
I. Hilary of Poi tiers and the Debate over the Psychosomatic Reality of
BT218.G662009 Christ's Suffering and PaiD 48
232' .8--dc22 2. Augustine
51
2008049072 a. The De civitate Dei 53
h. The De diversis Quaestionibus 83, 55
3. John Damascene 58
a. The Impact of the De fide orthodoxa on Aquinas' Theology
Distribution:
of Christ's Passions
58
University of Scranton Press h. Christ's Human Affectivity in the Thought of Damascene 60
Chicago Distribution Center 4. Other Patristic auctoritates 66
11 030 S. Langley C. The Pre-13th-Century Medieval and Scholastic Sources 71
Chicago, IL 60628 1. The Early Medieval Sources: Bede and Alcuin 71
2. Hugh ofSt. Victor 73
3. The Sentences of Peter Lombard 76
a. The Impact of the Sentences on Aquinas'
Theology of Christ's Passions 76
b. Christ's Human Affectivity in the Thought of Lombard 80
D. . The 13th-Century Sources
88
1. The Commentaries on Lombard's Sentences 88
2. The Summa theologiae and Quaestiones disputatae
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 'antequam esse! /rater' of Alexander of Hales 89
3. The De incarnatione ofA lbert the Great 94
4. The Christologicai Writings of Bonaventure 96
2 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 3
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
2. The Relationship between Christ's Sinlessness and His Human
E. Recapitulation and Conclusion 98
Affectivity 158
Chapter 2. THE ANTIlROPOWGICAL SOURCES OF AQUINAS' THEOWGY 3. Christ's Metaphysical Human Consubstantiality 164
OF CHRIST'S HUMAN PASSIONS 101
D. The Principle of Economy and Christ's Coassumed Defects and
A. The Treatise on the Passions (Summa theologiae I-II, qq. 22-48) 102 Perfections 166
1. The Originality of the Treatise on the Passions 102 I. The Principle of Economy and the coassumpta 166
2. The Role of the Passions in the Proper Telos of Ruman Life 107 2. The Tension between Christ's Coassumed Perfections and Defects
3. The Historical Achievement of the Treatise on the Passions 109 in the Arena ofRis Human Affectivity 169
4. Damascene's De fide orthodoxa as the Methodological Source for 3. Christ's Coassumed Defects: His Passions 170
Aquinas' Theology of Christ's Passions in the Summa III a. For Purposes of Expediency in Satisfaction 172
B. Aristotle 113 b. For Purposes ofCredibiJity in the Incarnation 174
I. The Use of Aristotle in Aquinas' Theology of Christ's Human Affectivity 113 4. Christ's Coassumed Perfections: The Fullness of Grace 176
2. The Role of Aristotle in Thomas' Treatise on the Passions 116 a. The Grace of Union 177
3. Aquinas' Transfonnation of Aristotle's View on the Role of Passion b. The Personal Grace 178
in the Moral Life 119 c. The Capital Grace 179
C. John Damascene and Nemesius ofEmesa 120 d. The Perfection of Grace as the Foundation
D'. Albert the Great 123 for the Moral Quality of Christ's Life 180
E. Augustine 127 E. The "Fittingness" (conveniens) of Christ's Human Wealmesses 181
F. Others 128 I. ' The Argument of Fittingness in Aquinas' Christology 181
1. Marginal Sources 128 2. Understanding Christ's Passions as Fitting (or Optional) Features
2. Peter Lombard and the "Affective Spark to Sin" (fames peccati) 130 of the Incarnation 183
3. Excluded Sources 132 F. Recapitulation and Conclusion 188
G. Recapitulation and Conclusion 134 Chapter 4. THE ONTOLOGICAL REALISM OF THE INCARNATION: CHRIST'S
Chapter 3. THE FOUNDATIONAL CHRISTOLOGlCAL PRINCIPLES OF POSSESSION OF A PASSIBLE SOUL 191
AQUINAS' THEOWGY OF CHRIST'S PASSIONS 137
A. Christ's Sensate Human Nature 192
A. The Hypostatic Union and the Divine Dignity of Christ 137 I. The "Animal" Side of Christ's Humanity: His Possession of a
B. The Full Integrity of the Humanity of Christ 141 Sensitive Appetite 192
I. A Matter of Faith 141 2. Christ's Possession of a Concupiscible and Irascible Appetite 199
2. Aquinas' Anti-Docetism: The FuJI Realism of B. The Passibility of the Human Soul 202
Christ's Human Nature 142 I. Passion as a Movement of the Sensitive Appetite 204
3. The Truth of Christ's Human Nature "in All Its Singular Parts": a. The Passions in General 204
b. The Specific Movements of the Sensitive Appetite:
The Case of Christ's Male Sexuality 145
4. Aquinas' Anti-Monophysitism and His "Existential Christology" 150 The Eleven Types of Passion 211
5. The Instrumentality of Christ's Humanity and the Role of the 2. Passion as a Defect ofthe Soul 219
Soteriological Principle 152 a. Affective Suffering Signifies the Proper Meaning of Passion 221
C. Christ's Absolute Sinlessness 157 b. Pass~on as a Consequence of the Natural Corruptibility of the Body 225
l. A Matter of Faith 158 c. PaSSIon as a Consequence of Sin 227
4 THE PASSrONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 5
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
C. The Passibility of Christ's Human Soul (Utrum anima Christi foerit passibUis) 233 3. The Effects ofChrist's Passions: Jesus' Affective Movements Never
1. The Placement of the Treatise on Christ's Passions in the Impeded the Use of Reason 362
Structural Design of the Tertia Pars 236 a. The Obscuring Influence of Passion 364
2. The "Passion of the Body" (passio corporalis) in Christ 245 b. Christ's "Propassions" 366
3. The "Passion of the Soul" (passio animalis) in Christ 252 D. Recapitulation and Conclusion 372
D. Recapitulation and Conclusion 257
Chapter 6. AQUINAS ON THE SPECIFIC PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL: THE
Chapter 5. "THE PASSIONS WERE IN CHRIST OTHERWISE THAN IN US": THE CASE OF JESUS' SENSmLE PAIN, SORROW, FEAR, WONDER,
MORAL QUALITY OF JESUS' HUMAN AFFECTMTY 261 ANGER, AND THE VISIO DEI 375
A. The Role of the Passions in the Moral Life 264 "A. Christ's Experience of Sensible Pain 380
1. The Passions as the First Step towards Attaining Hwnan Happiness 264 I. Sensible Pain as a Passion of the Soul 380
2. The Passions as the Proper "Matter" of Moral Virtue 267 2. The Christological Impact: The Reply to Hilary of Poi tiers 384
3. The Commanding Role of Reason in the Moral Life 269 B. Christ's Experience of Sorrow 388
4. The Metaphysical Basis for the Role of the Passions in the Life of Virtue 271
1. The Human Passion of Sorrow 390
5. Reason's "Limited" or "Political Rule" (principatus politicus) over the
2. Utrum in Christo foeri! tristitia 394
Sensitive Appetite 273
6. "Virtuous Passions": Moral Virtue Resides in the Sense Appetite 276 C. Christ's Experience of Fear 403
7. The Moral Neutrality of the Passions: Aquinas Replies to the Stoics 281 1. The Human Passion of Fear 404
B. The Relationship Between Christ's Passions and His Virtue 286 2. Utrum in Christojuerit timor 408
1. Christ's Immunity to the Effects of Original Sin on Human Affectivity 288 D. Christ's Affective Experience of Wonder 414
a. The Theological Method of Aquinas 288 1. Wonder or Amazement (admiratio) as a Passion of the Soul 416
b. The Affective Integrity of Prelapsarian Man 291 2. Utrum in Christo fuerit admiratio 418
c. The Consequences of Original Sin on Human Affectivity 294 E. Christ's Experience ofA nger 427
d. "Christ Received Hwnan Nature in the Purity that It
1. The Human Passion of Anger 429
Possessed in the State ofInnocence" 301
2. Utrum in Christo foerit ira 434
e. Christ's Spontaneous Appetitive Inclinations: Voluntas ut natura and
voluntas sensualitatis 309 F. Christ's Passions and His Enjoyment of the Vision of God 441
2. Christ's Passions as Integral to His Consummate Virtue 317 G. Recapitulation and Conclusion 453
3. The Soteriological Significance of Christ's Perfection in Virtue 324
a. The Need for Satisfaction 325 GENERAL CONCLUSION 457
b. "In Order to Give Us an Example" 326
C. The Threefold Distinction in the Morality of Christ's Passions 333 BmLIOGRAPHY 461
I. The Object of Christ's Passions: Jesus' Affective Tendency to Lawful 1. Primary Sources 461
Sense Objects 334
2. Translations 466
2. The Principle of Christ's Passions: Jesus' Affective Movements Never
3. Works onAquinas' Theology of Christ's Human Affectivity 469
Preceded the Judgment of Reason 335
4. Works on Aquinas' Thought "On Genem1 Human Affectivity 470
a. Antecedent Passions and Consequent Passions 337
5. Complementary Works 477
b. The Absence of the "Affective Spark to Sin"
(fomes peccatij in Christ 342
INDEX OF THEMES AND PRINCIPAL TERMS 499
c. Christ's Temptations 350
INDEX OF NAMES 504
ABBREVIATIONS SIS
PREFACE
lly JEAN-PmRRE TORRELL, O.P.
The image of Christ presented by Christians throughout the course of the centuries has gone
through considerable change. From that of the Pantocrator Christ of the Byzantine mosaics
to the image of the machine-gun armed warrior Jesus of the I 960s, from the figure of the
majestic Christ of the Gothic cathedrals or of the Man ofs uffering so frequently represented
at the end of the Middles Ages to the image of Jesus inspired by feminist ~eology, the
choice is divergent and infinite. At the risk of surprising the reader, it should be acknowl
edged that an analogous divergence 'characterizes the theological reflection on Christ
throughout the same course of centuries. Certainly. all Christian authors of committed be
lief adhere to the profession offaith of the first Councils and confess the one Christ God and
man, yet many are divided still today along the two great lines that havetraditionaIly de
marcated christological thought: the one that turns Christ into a hieratic or timeless idea
who remains closer to the divine than' to the human, or the other, undoubtedly more popu
lar, which accentuates his humanity sometimes to the point of obscuring his divinity. The
difficult balance that must be maintained, so that neither his divinity nor his humanity is sac
rificed, requires careful and multiple nuances.
Without surrendering Christ's divinity in any way, Thomas Aquinas certainly ranks as
the one medieval author who paid the greatest heed to the demands ofthe Incarnation and
who did more than anyone to shed light on the human face of God. To verify this, all one
need do is page through his treatise on the "mysteries" ofChrisfs life to see the kind of at
tention he gives to the historical reality of Jesus. Or all one need do is look at his study on
Christ's passions. We are hardly used to seeing the tenn "passion" associated with the name
of Jesus, yet we must understand that for Aquinas the tenn passion does not shoulder the
pejorative sense it does for us today. Whereas for us passion calls to mind notions of ex
cess and fits of extreme, for Thomas it refers simply to a movement of sensibility. A pas:...
sion begins with the slightest sense impression and manifests itself as any kind ofa ffective
movement or as a feeling or emotion. To speak of the passions of the soul is in fact to con
sider human affectivity in all its degrees. Acutely attuned moralist, the Master from Aquino
examined this topic with great care and devoted the most extensive part of his moral the
ology to it. His treatise on the passions, found in the Prima Secundae Pars of the Summa
theologiae, is today the object of several studies, seminar discussions, and pUblications,
yet the application Thomas made of it to the spe~ial case of Christ has yet to garner the at-
8 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 9
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
tention it rightly deseIVes. By choosing the treatise on Christ's passions as the object of his a passion that remains under the control of reason. Thomas employs medievru SOlU'Ces as
research so that an image of Christ accessible to believers of today might be retrieved, Paul well (from Peter Lombard to Alexander of Hales to Albert the Great to Bonaventure), yet
Gondreau shows a timely perspicacity which offers the occasion for the accomplishment here he proves himself more selective, as he forges little by little his conviction that a doc
of a truly new work. trine on the passions must presuppose a hylemorphic conception of human nature, since
there is no passion that does not at the same time involve a bodily modification. It is on this
point especially that Aquinas distances himself from Bonaventure, for whom the existence
* * * of Christ's soul is postulated more by faith than by a hylemorphic necessity.
Standing alongside tbese directly christological considerations are Thomas' "anthropo
logical" sources, or the writings of ancient moralists. The treatise on the passions, which
One can read this work from three angles. The first considers it from the point of view of forms a structural_ element in the fundamental moral theology of Thomas Aquinas, owes
the history of theology, whereby it pinpoints the precise manner in which Thomas, no mat much to these writings, even if this treatise marks a profoundly personal and original work.
ter his unique achievements, proves himself the heir of a process of christological and an From the two basic tendencies to the good-to savor or to subdue-and near the end of an
thropological reflection that began long before his time, and where one sees at work a analysis that is as subtle as it is detailed, Aquinas constructs an edifice of eleven passions
remarkable convergence of Eastern and Western traditions. At the ropt source of this process that belongs to him alone and which many specialists consider to be without parallel in both
is of course the witness of the Gospels, which speaks profusely of Jesus' feelings or emo ancient and Christian literature. His method gladly underscores the psychosomatic side of
tions: tears, wonder, joy, desire, love, fear or dread, compassion, disgust, sorrow, anger the passions and the interaction that results from this: the passions proceed not only from a
(more frequently mentioned than any other emotion). bodily alteration to an internal perception (pass;o corporalis); they can also follow the op
The Fathers of the Churcb also have their input. Though it is true that the general posite path by arising in the sensible part of the soul and ending in a bodily reaction (pas
influence of Stoic philosophy, with its estimation of the passions as sicknesses of the soul, sio animalis). By placing this study at the beginning of his ethical analysis, Thomas wishes
offered little encouragement to Christian thinkers to pause and reflect on Christ's human to send the message that the virtuous life does not stand independent of human sensibility,
feelings, Augustine reverses this course. By his rejection of the Stoic position, he adopts in and that the construction of man's moral life involves the integration of the passions or af-
fact a decidedly pro-peripatetic attitude, and one that Aquinas will find quite congenial; fectivity, in the virtues. '
among other things, Thomas will receive from Augustine the understanding that the neu In this last sense, Thomas shows himself to be a true disciple of Aristotle, even if the
tral character of the passions allows the Word to assume them in his human nature without philosopber provided him only with a rudimentary definition of passion and with various
in any way jeopardizing his absolute sinlessness. The influence of John Damascene goes moral maxims and psychological observations that hardly amount to a structured treatise.
deeper still: in him Thomas encounters not only an Aristotelian inspiration but also and es If Aquinas was able to erect a much more elaborate exposition, it is due in large part to
peciallya distinctly anti-docetic resolve, as well as a structured doctrine on the passions (due Nemesius of Emesa, the author of the first Christian anthropological work that was trans
in large part to the influence of Nemes ius of Emesa'sDe natura hominis, attributed in the mitted by John Damascene. If Thomas cites Aristotle more often in his treatise on the pas
Middle Ages to Gregory of Nyssa) and an invaluable elaboration on the distinction between sions, it does not change the fact that Nemesius and Damascene playa more influential
the sensitive appetite and the will (where one detects the influence of Maximus the Con role, in addition to Albert the Great, who holds decidedly to a hylemorphism and thus to an
fessor). It goes without saying that for these latter authors as for Augustine, Christ pos integration of passion in the work of virtue. Betraying an impressive array of document a
sessed only "irreproachable" passions that remained compatible with his perfect holiness; tion, Aquinas uses a number of other sources, though in a more marginal manner. The ab
between his intellectual will and his passions there reigned, as in Adam in the state of orig sence of certain authors is thus quite significant: Bonaventure, whose rational psychology
inal justice, a total harmony.
As for his other patristic sources, Thomas mentions in passing Ambrose, pseudo-Diony
sius, Leo the Great, and Jerome, from whom he borrows the term "propassion" to signify
10 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 11
THEOLOGY OF ST. mOMAS AQUINAS
stands in marked opposition to Thomas' position; the Augustinian apocryphal work De spir Incarnation, viz" the accomplishment of Christ's mission: a sinner Christ can'in no way ei
itu et anima,' the early Dominican manuals of moral theology that are so gravely devoid of ther alleviate the reality 'of sin or be an example ofj ustice and holiness.
speculative ambition, The fourth principle, which the author terms the ''principle of economy" (in the sense
of the economy ofs alvation), detennines the Word's assumption-ofwhatAquinas calls the
"coassumed" realities. This principle is itself governed by the preceding one: on the one
* * * hand, Christ must be supremely perfected to accomplish his mission, whereby, at least from
this perspective, his defects give way to his holiness (it is in this sense that authors speak
of the ''principle of perfection"); on the other hand, his participation in our common hu
A second possible reading of this book consists in taking note of the foundational princi manitymust be taken to be so real that it is not doubted (this allows one to speak ofa kind
ples that underlie Thomas' Christology. These five themes, so fully operative in the treatise of "principle of credibility").
on Christ's passions, are rarely enumerated by Aquinas himself and are even more rarely no All this converges into a fifth foundational theme: the "principle of fittingness." In his
ticed' as a group by his readers, yet they play an entirely essential role. The first should be contemplation oftbe plan of God such as it is accomplished in Jesus, the theologian must
fairly obvious: given the very nature of the hypostatic union, one can never dissociate the acknowledge that, strictly speaking, there is no necessary explanation either for the mys
humanity of Jesus from the Person of the Word: though verus homo, he is not purus homo, tery of the Incamation itself or for the passibility of Christ; in the domain of the pure gen
What results from this is a certain reluctance to push the analysis of Christ's passions as far erosity of the good will of God, the theologian can do his best merely to discover the secret
as the modem reader would like; a light for theological reflection, defined dogma can also logic of this will, which one may term a "fittingness," Such an understanding requires that
at times exercise a restraining role. any theological endeavor be grounded in a radical humility.
The full integrity of the humanity of Christ is the second of these principles that Thomas
employs in the name of the faith; this principle translates not only into certain anti-docetic
affrrmations and anti-Monophysitic statements, but also into an appreciation of the mascu * * *
line character of Christ: this does not mean that the Word could not have been a woman, but
only that the realism of his humanity requires that he be either a man or a woman. With these preceding remarks in mind, we now pass to a consideration of the delights of
The absolute sinlessness of Christ, listed as the third principle, takes on a foundational the third way of reading this work-which will be the most obvious to the theologian-and
role as well, as seen in the fact that Thomas begins his consideration of Christ's passions attempt to follow Thomas Aquinas in his reflection on the realism of the Incarnation, On
with this tenet. There results from this a clearly perceptible tension-which runs through the most general level, the passions stand out above all as consequences of the ontological
out his entire analysis-between two givens that are difficult to reconcile with each other: constitution of the humanity of Christ: since his soul exercises diverse functions like all
by his holiness, Christ participates in the integrity of the original nature of Adam, even other human souls, its sensible part is endowed with an "appetite" in which are rooted those
though the truth of the Incarnation requires that he possess a passible nature like OW'S in powers that account for the soul's inclination to the good in itself (the concupiscible) or to
everything, Echoing the standard practice of his predecessors, Aquinas is subsequently led the difficult good (the irascible). That said, it would seem that Thomas should have exam
to refine his analysis and distinguish, on the one hand, between the metaphysical dc::finition ined the passibility of Christ's soul among the consequences' of the hypostatic union,
of the specific human nature (which does not include sin) and the historical or existential whereby the passions are seen to belong to human nature since its very creation. Instead,
condition of man (which is marked by the consequences of sin), and, on the other, between Aquinas preferred to treat Christ's passions among what he calls the Word's "coassumed"
those passions that are compatible with holiness (bodily passibility, for example) and those realities (grace, knowledge, etc.), whereby the passions are looked upon as defects of the
that are incompatible with it (inclination to sin, concupiscence), The criterion that allows
for this distinction is the way in which these elements either favor or subvert the goal of the
12 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 13
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
soul that more properly belong to the condition of human nature after sin. The reasons for sions inclined only to goods in confonnity with reason and will; as for their source, Jesus'
this decision are somewhat pedagogical, but especially historical, as they result from a per movements of affectivity were always in perfect hannony with his fullness of grace; with
spective inherited from the received theological tradition. This leads to a narrow approach, respect to their effects, Jesus' passions never obstructed his reason or overcame it to the
inasmuch as Thomas passes up a more neutral presentation of Christ's passions-which point of blinding it. Ifwe keep in mind the aforementioned remarks on the consummate har
would have comprised an analysis of all Christ's passions (including those relating to the mony of Jesus' moral being, we can understand how Thomas remains convinced that Jesus'
good: love, joy, desire)-and instead focuses almost exclusively on those passions that in sensibility lost out on nothing and preserved its entire authenticity. This does not mean,
volve suffering and a reaction to evil. Though the modem reader might regret this deci however, that all difficulties vanish, since it remains unclear how a sensibility so intimately
sion, this present work, with its scrupulous attention to detail, nonetheless shows how penetrated by a grace-filled reason can retain its spontaneity, a spontaneity clearly expressed
Aquinas' position progressed in some noteworthy ways: whereas in the commentary on the in the scene of Jesus' agony. Even so, such an observation should in no way derogate from
Sentences Thomas was unable to affirm passions originating in Christ's soul ("animal" pas the following twofold conclusion: first, no other,author treated this issue as fully as Aquinas;
sions [from the Latin anima for "soul"], to use his terminology), since the joy of the blessed and, second, Thomasj positive regard for the passions is intimately bound to his conception
vision would have excluded them, in the Summa he would henceforth admit of such pas of the substantial unity of the human being, a unity that attains the very domain of sensi-
sions. This view of the mature Aquinas was unique in the writings of his time, as under bility. .
scored by the fact that his master Albert the Great flatly refused to affinn the same. If we proceed to a co~sideration of the way in which Aquinas treats the five passions
Driving the analysis deeper, one will take note of the manner in which Christ's pas he retains in Christ-sensible pain, sorrow, fear, wonder (admiratio), and anger-we see the
sions are much different from our own, as they remain in total compatibility with his per rather clear results of his method. Concerning sensible pain, the reader can detect a distinct
fect moral quality., Such a view can only be understood if one recalls Thomas' heralded evolution in Thomas' thought by comparing the Sentences to the Summa: whereas in the for
view that the exercise of virtue consists not in a forced submission of the passions to rea mer work the author rese:rves sensible pain to the body alone, in the latter he affirms that
son from without, but in evangelizing them from within on account of the synergy between sensible pain involves internal repercUSsions at the level of the soul. As the mature Aquinas
reason and sensibility; such a synergy results from the progressive penetration of reason and was well aware, ifhe did not maintain this latter position, he would have found himself in
will, assisted by grace, into the domain of the sensible appetite to the extent that this appetite the camp of Hilary of Poi tiers, according to whom Christ felt only the impact of his wounds
is empowered to assist the work of virtue through its own acts. Applying this understand without their concomitant pain. As for sorrow, Thomas followed an analogous path: he de
ing to the case of Christ, it becomes immediately clear that his experience was much more fines it as an "animal" passion (that is, as a passion originating internally with the mind or
hannonious than our own: since he Was free of original sin, he evaded its effects, most no with the imagination), and whereas he initially had trouble recognizing its presence in Christ
tably the disordered inclination to the most immediate good (concupiscence). In point of on account of the blessed vision he possessed, the Master from Aquino would later affirm
fact, Christ found hhnself in the same situation as Adam before the Fall, whereby the sen it outright and qualify sorrow as a praiseworthy passion under certain circumstances. The
sitive appetite, fortified by original grace, subnutted perfectly to reason and will to the very fact that it was a propassion only in Christ gives Thomas the opportunity to correct the Stoic
point that man lived in supreme hannony both with himself and with God. Yet, such per view that the wise man never allows himself to be troubled by sorrow, since the propassion
fect moral integrity in no way undermined Christ'S ontological constitution, since from the of sorrow failed to reach the point of perturbing or disrupting Jesus' spirit. Curiously,
moment he assumed our nature in its cWTent condition, he participated in its passibility and Aquinas never speaks of compassion or pity with respect to Christ, even though he clearly
mortality; in this way Christ shares in the condition of Adam after the fall. defines it as a kind ofs orrow over an evil that befalls another. After sorrow, fear is the pas
A synthetic consideration of the status of the passions in Christ yields the realization that sion that best captures the meaning of passion: whereas sorrow concerns a present evil that
his differed from our own in three essential ways: with respect to their object, Christ's pas- cannot be avoided, fear arises in the soul when it encounters an impending evil that is yet
14 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE PAUL GONDREAU 15
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
to come. Thomas is careful not to confuse fear with a spontaneous aversion to death (which dounded onto the sensible powers and even onto the body was confined to the highest part
instead arises from a fundamental movement of the will), and, here too, he underscores of Cln'ist's soul, in such a way as to impede neither the natural passibility of Jesus' hu
more and more the internal origin of fear as well as its status as a propassion in Jesus: as manity nor the nonnal workings of his sensible powers. Thouih recognizing the internal ra
with all his other passions, Jesus takes on fear voluntarily, and so gives it soteriological tional coherence of this solution, -Paul Gondreau does not hide his misgivings; he even
value, especially on account of his moral and ontological exemplarity. offers an argument that would appear to represent a new objection against Thomas' posi
Aquinas was alone in addressing wonder (admiratio) in Christ; if wonder is strictly tion, as he holds that it was precisely Aquinas' adherence to Christ's_ poss~ssion of the be
speaking not a passion, it can still be related to fear (whence the reason for its placement in atific vision that prevented him from transposing to Christ's case the whole group of eleven
this series of queries). Still, not every experience of wonder is a species offear nor even a passions, as well as from pushing his analysis of the passions that he does attribute to Christ
sensible passion; Thomas also takes it to signify a kind of intellectual passion in order to to nearly the extent he readily left open to himself. .
prove, contrary to Apollinarius of Laodicea, that Christ possessed not only a sensible soul
(psyche) but also an intellectual soul (nails, mens). This point is all the more worthy of * * *
mention, since, believing (according to his theories) that Jesus could be ignorant ofnoth
ing, Thomas is unmistakably ill at ease with the experience of wonder in Jesus. It is also As the foregoing swmnary should have made clear, this work of historical and critical the
noteworthy to remark that the Dominican speaks of Christ's admiratio only in the Summa; ology is of great interest ,and sheds considerable new light on several issues. Its very sub
if it comes here, it is because he was finally led to conclude to the existence of acquired ject matter, the human passions of Christ, has been examined not even once; one could even
lmowledge in Christ: without ceasing to lmow all things by his infused lmowledge, he could say that it has been purposely avoided. Tackling this issue head-on, and in an extensive
also learn new things through his growth in empirical knowledge. As most know, this po manner, the author of this book has thus filled a great void and has offered an ·original con
sition remains fairly problematic; however, it remains no less true that if Thomas was the tribution to Thomist studies. This work goes far in cOIlfInning Aquinas' positive esteem for
only one to attempt to explain this given of the Gospel witness, it is because he alone dared the full human reality of Christ, an esteem enhanced by Thomas' celebrated position on the
to speak of a real experimental knowledge in Christ. Despite a certain resistance from the substantial unity oftbe human being; in this way, he can appraise the many aspects oftra
theological tradition which viewed anger as a capital vice, Aquinas did not hesitate to re ditional Christian thought that have taken too long to be examined. The Alexandrine her
gard it as a passion and, hence, as neutral in its soW'Ce, and thus worthy of consideration with itage which some have so often recently denounced in Aquinas' thought is thus, at least on
respect to Christ (the Gospels are too explicit in this regard for him to have ignored it). De this issue, considerably tempered by the influence of the Antiochene heritage.
fined as the appetite for a restoration ofj ustice, anger can take on a certain kind of nobility This work is remarkable on several other particular points as well. I have in mind es
that relates typically to an act of reason. In Christ this passion never blinded his reason and pecially the manner in which Thomas Aquinas should be read and studied today-at least
was wholly praiseworthy. if one wishes to take into account the progress in medieval and theological research in the
Final attention is given to the way in which Thomas reconciles the foregoing analysis twentieth century. The author of this present work excels both in an internal analysis of the
with the presence of the blessed vision that he opines Christ enjoyed during his earthly life. texts and in an appeal to parallel passages; he accordingly is able to shed light on some
All his contemporaries share this view, yet Thomas offers a more refined explanation, since rather elliptical passages and to spot evidence of a progression in Thomas' thought; he
he alone understands the full import of the passions, given the unparalleled attention he knows how to highlight the evolution of Aquinas' position, thanks to the perspective he
gives them. Without entering into the matter in full detail (as this would mark the beginning gives to the texts and to the evidence he supplies in each case for the most plausible rea
point of a whole other work), the present author succinctly recapitulates Aquinas' position: sons for such an internal evolution. The most prominent case centers on the evidence given
by a special disposition of divine wisdom, the glory of the vision which should have re-
16 THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST'S SOUL IN THE
THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
INTRODUCTION
in the development of the notion ofp assio anima/is, the type of passion that originates in
the sensible soul: this passion, Thomas is finally led to conclude, can cause the soul to be "Nihil enim mirabilius excogitari potest divinitus factum quam quod verus Deus, Dei Fil
saddened on its own without anything bodily provoking it. This advance is comparable to ius, fieret homo verus" - "Nothing more wonderful can be considered than the divine
the one that brings Aquinas to the full and unadulterated recognition of an acquired knowl achievement of true God, the Son ofGod,-becoming true man."1 With these words from the
edge in Christ, and this is not just by chance. These two positions ~e1ong to !h0~~s alon~, Summa contra Gentiles, Thomas Aquinas betrays his supreme regard for the_ realism of the
and their originality is all the more impressive when comparing them to the mabihty of his Incarnation. In his recent worl< on Aquinas' Christology, the French scholar J.-P. Torrell
contemporaries to admit of these same possibilities. notes that Thomas' regard for Christ's full humanity is thoroughly permeated by a distinctly
The constant effort to place Aquinas among his contemporaries is in fact another char anti-docetic spirit.' Torrell's claim can be readily verified by turning to that area of Thomas'
acteristic of this work. The present author is not content simply to repeat what Thomas says, thought to which this present study is consecrated: his theology of Christ's human passions
but perfonns a careful study when the context demands it. At the same time-and this is in (or Christ's human affectivity). St. Thomas writes on Christ's human affectivity throughout
no way the least remarkable feature-he offers a critically informed reading of Aquinas the whole of his career: first in his commentary on the Sentences, afterward in the De ver
which the thought of the Dominican Master deserves; that is, the author highlights Thomas' itate, later in the Compendium theologiae and in his various scriptural commentaries, and,
originality (which is vast) when called for, but he also does not hesitate to point out Aquinas' fmally, in the treatise on Christ's passions in question 15 of the Tertia Pars of the Summa
limits. The most striking of these limits concerns a kind of diffident approach due to cer
theologiae, which brings this element of his Christology to full fruition.' An undeniable
. tain factors well identified in this work: the weight of the patristic heritage, a theological
jewel in his christological thought, Aquin?S' theology of Jesus' human affectivity works
context that is little favorable to the subject matter, the beatific vision, and the difficulty of from the recognition that the tenet of the Incarnation, or the doctrine of God become man,
conceiving how this vision does not impede the normal workings-of Christ's passions. These cannot be left in the abstract, but must yield a theological appreciation of its concrete im
are real difficulties, but the author evades them not in the least. Enlightened disciple of
plications, which extends totbe arena of the assumed human passions; as Thomas succinct-
Thomas Aquinas, Paul Gondreau does not hide his fundamental devotion to the thought of
the Master, yet he knows how to take a certain critical distance when necessary to do so.
From this point of view as well, this work is exemplary.
1. CG IV, ch. 27. Aquinas offers almost the identical phrase in his commentary on John's Gospel
{Lectura super loannem}, ch. 2, Ject. 3: "Nothing more marvelous could be accomplished than that
God became man" (Nihil enim mirabiliusfieri potuit quam quod Deus factus est homo). Later in ch.
6, lect. 4, Thomas repeats this: "nothing is more a source ofw onder than the Son of God made man"
(nihil est admirabiJius quam Filius Dei homo factus) .
2. l-P. Torrell, Le Christ en ses mysteres. La vie et I'oeuvre de Jesus selon saint Thomas d'Aquin,
vol. 1 (paris: Desclee, 1999), pp. 89, 173, 197, and 272. and especially 118, where Torrell writes:
"chaque fois qu'it croit pouvoir Ie faire, Thomas tient a faire du Christ un homme pleinement soumis
aux lois de l'humanite." Cf. as weB G. Lafont. Structures et methode dans la "Somme theologique"
de saint Thomas d'Aquin (paris: Les Editions du Cerf. 1996), p. 349.
3. III Sent, d. 15, q. 2, a. I, qc. 3; a. 2, qc. 1-3 (when citing Thomas' commentary on Bk. HI of the
Sentences, I will be using the provisional texts of the critical Leonine edition that the editor J.F. Hin
nebusch has kindly provided for me); De ver. q. 26, aa. 8-10; Compo theol. cbs. 226-8 and 230-3; and
STill. q. 15. aa. 1-2, and 4-10 (in teIDlS of structure, the analysis of Cbrist's passions in the Summa
most resembles that of the commentary on the Sentences). For Aqufuas' remarks on Christ's passions
in his scriptural commentaries; cf. Lect. super loan .• ch. 11, lects. 5-6; ch. 12, lect. 5; ch. 13, lect. 4;
Lectura super Mattheum. ch. 26, lect. 5; and Expositio super lob ad litteram, on 3: I. Thomas also of
fers passing remarks on Christ's human affectivity in CG IV, chs. 32-3; and De malo q. 12, a. I,sed
contra 4.