Breviloquium

Part IV. On the Incarnation of the Word

131 PART IV PART IV ON THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD CHAPTER 1 THE REASON WHY THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD OF GOD WAS NECESSARY OR FITTING 1. Having said something about the Trinity of God, the creation of the world, and the corruption of sin, we now turn to a brief discussion of the Incarnation of the Word, for it was by the Word’s becoming flesh that the salvation and redemption of humankind was achieved.This was not because God could not have saved and liberated the human race by some other means, but because no other way would have been so fitting or so appropriate to the Redeemer , those redeemed, and the nature of redemption.1 2. The reason for this should be explained as follows. [We have seen that] the first creative principle of all things could not have been and should not have been anything less than God. Now it is surely no less important to restore created things as to give them existence, for the wellbeing of things is no less significant than for them simply to be. And so it was most fitting that the restorative principle of all things should be God Most High.2 Thus, just as 1 See In 3 Sent., 1. 2.1-3, 20.1.2, 20.1.6 (III, 19-31, 416-22, 430-32). 2 Augustine, Sermon 176, 5.5: “A saved human being is better than just a mere human being. . . .Nobody can recreate except the one who creates; nobody can make you new, but the one who made you in the first place” (PL 38: 952 [WSA, III/5: 275]). 131 PART IV PART IV ON THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD CHAPTER 1 THE REASON WHY THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD OF GOD WAS NECESSARY OR FITTING 1. Having said something about the Trinity of God, the creation of the world, and the corruption of sin, we now turn to a brief discussion of the Incarnation of the Word, for it was by the Word’s becoming flesh that the salvation and redemption of humankind was achieved.This was not because God could not have saved and liberated the human race by some other means, but because no other way would have been so fitting or so appropriate to the Redeemer , those redeemed, and the nature of redemption.1 2. The reason for this should be explained as follows. [We have seen that] the first creative principle of all things could not have been and should not have been anything less than God. Now it is surely no less important to restore created things as to give them existence, for the wellbeing of things is no less significant than for them simply to be. And so it was most fitting that the restorative principle of all things should be God Most High.2 Thus, just as 1 See In 3 Sent., 1. 2.1-3, 20.1.2, 20.1.6 (III, 19-31, 416-22, 430-32). 2 Augustine, Sermon 176, 5.5: “A saved human being is better than just a mere human being. . . .Nobody can recreate except the one who creates; nobody can make you new, but the one who made you in the first place” (PL 38: 952 [WSA, III/5: 275]). 132 ST. BONAVENTURE’S BREVILOQUIUM God [the Father] had created all things through the Uncreated Word, so he would restore all things through the Incarnate Word.3 Also, because God made everything with complete power, wisdom, and goodness or benevolence, it was fitting that God should so restore all things as to display that same power, wisdom, and benevolence.4 Now what is more powerful than to combine within a single person two natures so widely disparate?5 What is wiser and more fitting than to bring the entire universe to full perfection by uniting the first and last, that is, the Word of God, which is the origin of all things, and human nature, which was the last of all creatures?6 What is more benevolent than for the master to redeem the slave by taking the form of a 3 John 1:3, 14. See also Hexaëm., 3.2, Itin., 4,3 (V, 343, 306). Cf. Augustine, Enarrat. in Ps 142, 17 (PL 37: 1855); in Ps 45, 14 (PL 36: 524). 4 Bonaventure thus locates the primary reason for the Incarnation in...