The Theology of Thomas Aquinas

Chapter Eleven: The Humanity of Christ, the Incarnate Word

  Eleven The Humanity of Christ, the Incarnate Word    “The good theologian,” St.Thomas writes in his commentary on John’s Gospel,“professes the true faith in both the humanity of Christ and the divinity of Christ.”1 In this statement Aquinas affirms the Chalcedonian definition of Christ as true God and true man, the divine Person of the Word substantially united to a human nature and a divine nature. Many scholars, even Thomist ones, have often failed to appreciate the fact that a resolute anti-docetism is interwoven with Aquinas’ adherence to the Chalcedonian conception of Christ.2 St. Thomas has a genuine and, I would insist, unparalleled esteem for the full humanity of Christ. For the Master from Aquino, the doctrine of the Incarnation means that God has become man in the most fully human way possible. This understanding shines forth vibrantly in all of Aquinas’ writings but especially in the Christological section of the Summa Theologiae (the Tertia Pars). The Christological treasures contained in this part of the Summa disclose a thinker who could not better qualify as the “good theologian” Aquinas himself describes in the Super Ioannem. Not all share this view of Aquinas, however. Many contend that when it comes to the humanity of Christ, St. Thomas is hardly the model of a “good theologian.” They insist that his “high Christology,” a Christology that gives preference to Christ as the divine Person of the Word, cheapens if not eclipses Christ’s full humanity. Some have  even dismissed Aquinas, when he writes on Christ, as nothing more than a “glorified Hilary of Poitiers” (in his defense of Christ’s divinity against Arianism, Hilary left little room for a human Jesus who, following Hebrews :, “had to be made like his brethren in every respect”).3 Admittedly, Aquinas’ deference to the mystery of the Incarnation causes him at times to hesitate in probing the human nature assumed by the Word as deeply as he probes other areas of inquiry. Nonetheless , Aquinas’ opponents fail to render justice to what amounts to a lifelong defense of Christ’s full and integral humanity. Aquinas’ incessant endeavor to counter the glorified Christology of the same Hilary of Poitiers is one example of this. In many respects, this defense remains unsurpassed to this day. A profound anti-docetism at all times informs St. Thomas’s Christology. Aquinas’ “High Christology” and the Integrity of Christ’s Humanity In reality, it is Aquinas’ adherence to the divine Personhood of Christ—his high Christology—that accounts for his defense of the realism of the humanity assumed by the Word. With Aquinas we are far removed from the logic inherent in the “low Christologies” that dominate today’s theological climate.These Christologies often assume that affirming Christ’s full humanity is incommensurate, if not outright incompatible, with affirming his divinity or divine Personhood. For Aquinas, however, only the “bad” theologian considers a confession of Christ’s divinity as a threat to an avowal of his full humanity.This is so because of the demands of the “true faith” concerning Christ. And the “true faith” always marks the point of departure, as well as the point of arrival, of any proper method of theo logical inquiry. The good theologian knows that his discipline is a divinely orchestrated one, for which reason he works at all times within the framework of this “true faith.” This framework, demarcated by the datum of divine revelation, is founded first and foremost on the incontrovertible source of revelation: sacred Scripture.4 Aquinas’ scriptural commentaries alone are proof that his reading of the “sacred page,” as the medievals called the Bible, led him to confess a Christ who is both fully human and fully divine (his gloss on John’s prologue in the Super Ioannem testifies to this especially). Aquinas’ reading of Scripture is also informed by the witness of the early church councils. Since it is the same God who authors Scripture and who guides the decisions of the ecumenical councils, the formulated doctrine of these councils offers the normative interpretation of the sacred page. Chalcedon, with its The Humanity of Christ, the Incarnate Word  definition of the hypostatic union in , emerges as the most influential of the early councils in the formation of Aquinas’ Christology. No less important is the celebrated defense of Christ’s divinity at Nicaea in . The decrees affirming the integrity of Christ...