The Salvific Affectivity of Christ According to Alexander of Hales

The Thomist 71 (2007): 1-38 THE SALVIFIC AFFECTIVITY OF CHRIST ACCORDING TO ALEXANDER OF HALES BOYD TAYLOR COOLMAN Boston College Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURYflowering of Christological devotion, the roots of which extend back through the twelfth-century theological renewal1 and into the rich monastic culture of the late eleventh century, is oft-noted.2 This trend ripened into fruit as diverse as Francis of Assisi's Jesuscentered piety,3 Thomas Aquinas's Scholastic analysis of the whole of Christ's earthly life,4 and Mechthild of Magdeburg's erotically 1 On developments in twelfth-century theology, as part of the much larger epochal shift of the "twelfth-century renaissance," see especially Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Robert Benson and Giles Constable, with Carol D. Lanham (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982); Giles G. Constable, The Reformation ofthe Twelfth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1996); Marcia Colish, PeterLombard, 2 vols. (NewYork: E. J. Brill, 1994); and R. W. Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification ofEurope (Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell, 1995). 2 See R. W. Southern, The Making ofthe Middle Ages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953), 231: "The theme of tenderness and compassion for the sufferings and helplessness of the Saviour of the world was one which had a new birth in the monasteries of the eleventh century, and every century since then has paid tribute to the monastic inspiration of this century by some new development of this theme." See also Ellen M. Ross, The GriefofGod: Images ofthe SufferingJesus in LateMedieval England (NewYork: Oxford University, 1997). 3 See Lawrence S. Cunningham, Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2004); and Kenneth Baxter Wolf, The Poverty of Riches: St. Francis ofAssisi Reconsidered (New York: Oxford University, 2003). 4 See Paul Gondreau, The Passions ofChrist's Soul in the Theology ofSt. Thomas Aquinas, Beitriige zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, n.f., 61 (Munster: Aschendorff, 2002). As Gondreau demonstrates in his study, and Jean-Pierre Torrell underscores in his preface to the same, Thomas distinguished himself from his Scholastic contemporaries in the Tertia Pars of his Summa Theologiae by lavishing a great deal of 1 2 BOYD TAYLOR COOLMAN mystical encounters with Christ crucified.5 One aspect of Christ's humanity that attracted both devotional piety and theological scrutiny was the nature of his soul, prompting questions regarding the "movements" or passiones of Jesus' psyche.6 Medieval thinkers began to speculate on Christ's affectivity or the passibility of Christ's soul, his ability to experience such emotions as fear, jey, sadness, and anger.7 To be sure, interest in Christ's affectivity was not a medieval innovation. Earlier writers, including Hilary,8 Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and John of Damascus,9 had proffered various (and variously influential) opinions on the matter. But scholars have noted a certain reserve toward Christ's attention on the whole of Christ's earthly life and ministry. For the profound significance of Christ in the life and the thought of the medieval Dominicans, see Kent Emery, Jr., andJoseph P. Wawrykow, eds., Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations ofChrist in the Texts and Images ofthe Order ofPreachers (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1998). 5 See Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 1200-1350 (New York: Crossroad, 1998). 6 A 'passion,' in the words of Torrell, "begins with the slightest sense-impression and manifests itself as any kind of affective movement or as a feeling or emotion" Gean-Pierre Torrell, "Preface," in Goudreau, The Passions ofChrist's Soul, 7). 7 This investigation attempts to be a piece of historical theology: theological, in that it focuses directly on a set of explicitly Christological discussions that are judged to retain perduring theological interest; historical, in that it confines itself to a particular part of the Middle Ages in hopes of contributing to our understanding of this historical period, since "the way any particular age has depicted Jesus is often the key to the genius of that age" Oaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture [New Haven: Yale University, 1985]). 8 As Goudreau notes, Hilary of Poitiers...