Medieval Scholasticism, the Incomprehensible God, and Supernatural Grace

Beginning in the eleventh century, Christianity in the West experienced a revival that set the course for the rest of the Middle Ages up to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. It began in the monasteries and led to the creation of the Dominican and Franciscan mendicant orders, papal reforms, the construction of cathedrals, and the establishment of the world’s first universities.

During this time of renewal, debate raged in the monasteries regarding the proper method to resolve theological conflicts. They were concerned about how they should resolve situations in which verses of scripture appeared to conflict with other scriptures or entrenched traditions created by councils and papal decreesThe concept that God orders specific things to occur. This concept is influential in Calvinist theology which maintains that everything that happens is ordained to happen due to an eternal resolution of God’s will, even if it is to permit... more. On one extreme were the traditionalists, who argued they should just rely on the authority of the scriptures and traditions as they existed and accept them without question. These monks took their Platonist interpretation of scripture to a mystical extreme and relied on their traditions, even when it did not make any sense. They were primarily concerned about anything or anybody who would weaken or undermine the authority of the church.

At the other extreme were the rationalists, who believed in the authority of scripture and the church but also believed that because God gave humans a mind and the ability to reason, God expected them to use these gifts to reconcile apparent contradictions. When they encountered friction between various verses of scriptures or traditions, they argued they should use their God-given power of reason to find a solution to the apparent conflict. They sought clarityis a term derived from the Latin word for “bright” that refers to a glorified resurrected bodies ability to shine with glorious light emanating from their souls. See also agility, impassibility, and subtlety for other qualities of resurrected beings. See... more. They believed that the tension was the result of poor use of language, so they made a concerted effort to examine the word usage, definitions and logic to solve these theological puzzles. They believed that God was logical, so the scriptures and traditions had to make sense or there was an error that needed to be discovered and rejected. Berengar of Tours was the monk who championed this position. He met resistance from the traditionalists who accused him of arrogance and disregarding established dogmas.

Between these two extremes was the influential Benedictine monk Lanfranc from the Bec monastery in Normandy, who became the archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc held that we should use both reason and the authority of scripture and traditionThis word comes from a Latin term meaning “to hand down,” that originally referred to the teaching of the apostles as handed down in the churches they founded, which led to these churches gaining authority of other locations due to... more to resolve difficult doctrinal issues. He said we use our reason to compare and weigh the evidence to determine the truth, but reason could never usurp doctrineis derived from the Latin word for teaching, doctrina, and is an important aspect of Christianity more so than other world religions because Christianity focuses on the teachings and nature of Christ. more that is clearly supported by scripture. Anselm(c. 1033–1109 A.D.) Monk, then abbot of Bec in Normandy, then archbishop of Canterbury (1093–1109); the first great medieval theologian of the West who is famous for his account of how Christ’s death made satisfaction for human sin in the... more followed in Lanfranc’s footsteps and succeeded him as the archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm(c. 1033–1109 A.D.) Monk, then abbot of Bec in Normandy, then archbishop of Canterbury (1093–1109); the first great medieval theologian of the West who is famous for his account of how Christ’s death made satisfaction for human sin in the... more echoed Lanfranc’s position and coined the famous phrase “I believe in order to understand.” He taught that belief was the foundation of understanding, but it was incumbent on us to use the tools of reason and logic to understand the truth.

Anselm(c. 1033–1109 A.D.) Monk, then abbot of Bec in Normandy, then archbishop of Canterbury (1093–1109); the first great medieval theologian of the West who is famous for his account of how Christ’s death made satisfaction for human sin in the... more was instrumental in establishing the systematic approach called disputationInitially was an academic debate conducted in a university in the high and late middle ages, but later grew to include formal public theological debates sponsored by town councils. These disputations played an important role during the reformation. more or the scholastic method to address doctrinal issues. It utilized the dialectic approach used by BoethiusAnicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (A.D. 477–524) was a Roman statesman and theologian who came into public service under the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. Boethius composed several philosophical handbooks and translated some of Aristotle’s works, all of which greatly influenced the early... more in his masterpiece, The Consolation of PhilosophyDerived from the Greek term “philosophia”, the term literally means “love of wisdom”. Philosophy usually involves questioning, critical discussion, and rational argument. Greek philosophy laid the intellectual groundwork for Christian theology, and the concerns of the two areas of inquiry... more, which he borrowed from Plato’s writings and Aristotle’s tools of logic. The scholastic method consisted of laying out a position on any given question and listing all the objections to this position. Then the proponent of the position would reply to each of the objections. This dialectic back and forth―objection and reply―was the format used extensively throughout the Middle Ages to address theological issues.

This traditionThis word comes from a Latin term meaning “to hand down,” that originally referred to the teaching of the apostles as handed down in the churches they founded, which led to these churches gaining authority of other locations due to... more continues to this day in many arenas, such as in the legal profession. A hierarchyComes from a Greek word that literally means “rule by priests,” and is used to identify churches with strong top down organization or episcopal polity such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches whereas as opposed to Baptist and... more of the authority of sources was also established in which scripture and the creeds were deemed infallible; followed by rulings of councils, synods, and various levels of papal pronouncements; then other scholarly works, particularly Augustine(A.D. 354-430) Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, the most influential theologian of the West, known especially for his doctrine of grace, including related doctrines of original sin and predestination. more; and ultimately reasonable assertions made by pagans such as AristotleAristotle (384–322 B.C.) was a greek philosopher, founder of the sciences of logic, physics, and biology, whose writings were a major conceptual resource for medieval scholastic theologians, especially Aquinas. He studied under Plato, and in turn educated Alexander the Great.... more. This approach has continued in the legal profession where constitutional provisions trump statutes that are otherwise binding; supreme court and appellate court decisions interpret the laws, creating authority for other courts to follow; and nonbinding treatises from scholars may be used as persuasive material.

Scholasticism began with a more mystical approach to knowledge as exemplified by Saint Bonaventure’s account of the human mind’s journey to God. He based his theses on Isaiah’s vision of heaven in which he saw seraphim with six wings above the throne of God; two covering the face, two covering the feet, and two used to fly.1 With this allegorical approach to understand scripture, Bonaventure taught that the first pair of wings covering the feet represents the vestiges of God in our material world (below) which serve as a portal for us to see God’s presence in sensible things. The second set of wings represent human intellect, the image of God within us. And the last pair represent God Himself above us and contemplating His goodness. Bonaventure’s approach relied on both reason and revelationThe divine disclosure to humans of future events, God’s will or his nature. more.2

In the middle of the thirteenth century, while engaged in this debate regarding faithIn word for belief and faith is the same in Latin and most European languages, but in English faith often denotes an active believe, one that inspires action based on a belief. For Luther, faith and belief generally meant the... more and reason, the West rediscovered the full corpus of Aristotle’s works, along with those of other influential Greek thinkers from the classical period that had been lost to them for a long time. This came about through trade with the Islamic communities in current-day Spain and Cicily. Muslim scholars had translated and preserved much of Aristotle’s work and contributed to Aristotelian philosophy with commentaries of their own. Additionally, the West’s crusadeswere a series of wars instigated or approved of by the pope in the Middle Ages principally directed against the Muslim empire that controlled the Holy Land. more passed through the Byzantine Empire, which had always maintained AristotleAristotle (384–322 B.C.) was a greek philosopher, founder of the sciences of logic, physics, and biology, whose writings were a major conceptual resource for medieval scholastic theologians, especially Aquinas. He studied under Plato, and in turn educated Alexander the Great.... more in high regard, and this interaction also contributed to the West’s exposure to Aristotle’s teachings.

The West’s medieval scholars fell in loveIn a theological discussion “love” refers to one’s love for God and neighbor and is often referred to as “charity” or the pure love of God. It does not mean giving alms to the poor. more with Aristotle’s ideas and his comprehensive philosophy. Previously, they had only access to some of Aristotle’s works regarding logic and categories that had been translated into Latin by BoethiusAnicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (A.D. 477–524) was a Roman statesman and theologian who came into public service under the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. Boethius composed several philosophical handbooks and translated some of Aristotle’s works, all of which greatly influenced the early... more. This newly discovered material expanded his dissertation regarding logic and addressed its fallacies. It also introduced his theories regarding scientific knowledge, the metaphysical realm, ethics and politics. Medieval scholars were mesmerized by Aristotle’s systematic approach establishing foundational principles that applied across multiple disciplines along with the hierarchical organization of his ideas, supported by rigorous argument instead of mystical concepts.

This discovery coincided with the development of the first universities, providing an arena for these new exciting ideas to be examined and debated. However, there was a problem. Some of Aristotle’s ideas contradicted established Christian doctrineis derived from the Latin word for teaching, doctrina, and is an important aspect of Christianity more so than other world religions because Christianity focuses on the teachings and nature of Christ. more. AristotleAristotle (384–322 B.C.) was a greek philosopher, founder of the sciences of logic, physics, and biology, whose writings were a major conceptual resource for medieval scholastic theologians, especially Aquinas. He studied under Plato, and in turn educated Alexander the Great.... more taught that matter had always existed and that the concept of the creation of a temporalIs a technical term used in theology referring to this mortal physical existence in time as opposed to eternal divine existence outside of time. more existence with a beginning was incoherent. His teachings were based on the physical reality of nature and excluded the possibility of supernaturalIs a theological concept developed in Roman Catholic theology primarily by Thomas Aquinas that maintains that God dispenses his grace in at various times and places in ways that not only assist the natural world including human nature, but also... more activity or divine revelationThe divine disclosure to humans of future events, God’s will or his nature. more. He denied the immortality of the individual human soul, and his theory on ethics was based on individual self-fulfillment.

At first, these Christian universities banned the study of Aristotle’s works, but that effort was futile. Aristotle’s ideas were too stimulating to be ignored. Saint Bonaventure, a senior professor on the theology faculty of the University of Paris, began to use some of Aristotle’s ideas and techniques but warned against excessive enthusiasmwas originally used as a pejorative term applied to those who believed in personal revelation from God, primarily Quakers, indicating self-delusion due to religious fanaticism. more for his ideas. Albert the Great later made AristotleAristotle (384–322 B.C.) was a greek philosopher, founder of the sciences of logic, physics, and biology, whose writings were a major conceptual resource for medieval scholastic theologians, especially Aquinas. He studied under Plato, and in turn educated Alexander the Great.... more respectable by using his principles to systemize Christian theology, and his student Thomas Aquinas(c. A.D. 1225-1274) Dominican friar, teacher at the University of Paris, central figure of medieval scholasticism, and the most authoritative theologian of the Roman Catholic tradition; known for his use of Aristotelian philosophy and his conception of supernatural grace. more fully utilized the Aristotelian approach in his theology and wrote extensive commentaries on Aristotle’s works.3

Aristotle’s writings became a significant influence in the scholastic movement. Indeed, one of the major objectives of scholars was to reconcile the classical writing of ancient philosophers with the Christian theology of their age. Thomas Aquinas(c. A.D. 1225-1274) Dominican friar, teacher at the University of Paris, central figure of medieval scholasticism, and the most authoritative theologian of the Roman Catholic tradition; known for his use of Aristotelian philosophy and his conception of supernatural grace. more wrote that even though faithIn word for belief and faith is the same in Latin and most European languages, but in English faith often denotes an active believe, one that inspires action based on a belief. For Luther, faith and belief generally meant the... more surpassed reason, it couldn’t contradict it. God is the source of all truth, and God cannot contradict himself. So what appears to be a conflict between faithIn word for belief and faith is the same in Latin and most European languages, but in English faith often denotes an active believe, one that inspires action based on a belief. For Luther, faith and belief generally meant the... more and reason is simply our inability to fully understand the truth or is a mistake in our assumptions or reasoning. Reconciling these apparent contradictions between faithIn word for belief and faith is the same in Latin and most European languages, but in English faith often denotes an active believe, one that inspires action based on a belief. For Luther, faith and belief generally meant the... more and reason became the task of the theologians during the high Middle Ages, also known as the scholastic period.

Medieval scholasticism reached its pinnacle of intellectual achievement in the late thirteenth century with the works of Thomas Aquinas. Several popes throughout the ages have declared that his philosophy represents orthodox Roman Catholic theology.3 We will explore just one of his many dissertations that contributed to the evolution of Roman Catholic theology—his writings regarding the incomprehensible God and created/supernatural grace.

With the adoption of the Trinitarian doctrine of God, the church basically adopted the core of Plotinus’s philosophical concept of creation and the creator. The Divine had three levels: the One, the Mind, and the Soul. The One (corresponding to God the Father according to Christian scholars) was the highest level and was incomprehensible because he was above intelligence. The One was simple because he had no body, parts, or passions. The One was above being, even above the essence of existence, yet it was the source of all existence, which emanated from the One. The One was Being itself, so everything had being by participation in God’s Being. All the divine attributes like justice, wisdom, and beauty were actually the same thing because God was justice, God was wisdom, and God was beauty. So, these were not distinct independent attributes ascribed to God, but simply different expressions of God himself.

The Mind was eternally generated by the One and corresponded to God the Son according to Christian scholars. It had no beginning and would have no end. The Mind was intelligence itself. There was no thought, idea, or truth that was not contained in this pure intelligence, the Mind, which was the source of all understanding. The concept of a Divine Soul as the essence and source of all life was not adopted by Christian theologians.

Trinitarian theologians had to decide whether God was commensurate with Plotinus’s incomprehensible concept of the One, or if the Trinity corresponded to the intelligible Mind. The Eastern Orthodox tradition adopted Pseudo-Dionysius’s assertion that the Trinity was the simple incomprehensible One, without body, parts, or passions that diffused itself to create all existence. In the West, however, Augustine taught that the essence of God could be viewed with our mind’s eye once it had been healed by God’s grace. Everyone agreed that no one could see God with their natural eyes, but they also believed that our ultimate joy and fulfillment came from our beatific vision of God. They also, however, believed that God was invisible and incomprehensible. To complicate matters, the twelfth-century scholar Peter Lombard taught that the Holy Spirit was God’s grace, and the love we feel for God is this same grace. Therefore, grace cannot be created because the Holy Spirit is divine and has always existed. Yet Christians generally want to own their love for God, even though it may be a gift from God.4

This is a perfect example of the type of theological conflicts that scholars of the Middle Ages tried to reconcile through study, parsing words, and the use of reason and logic. Thomas Aquinas resolved these contradictions by inventing the new concept of created supernatural grace, which has become central to Roman Catholic doctrine. Aquinas taught that in addition to the natural material order that philosophers examined with reason, there was also a supernatural order beyond human comprehension. He taught that the supernatural did not supersede the natural order but simply enabled it to realize greater fulfillment. Consequently, there was natural happiness that the pagan philosophers were able to properly elucidate by their teachings about natural law and its virtues such as temperance, justice and wisdom. But there was also supernatural happiness which was realized through development of the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity, which one receives as a gift from God.5

This new concept of the supernatural was based on the Greek philosophical concept of forms. For example, we all know what an automobile is when we see one, even though they may vary greatly in attributes and in the materials from which they are created. They have bodies in which one or more persons may sit, wheels and motors to make them move on their own power. This concept of an automobile is its form. Plato taught that this form was an eternal essence in the mind of the First Principle, the originator of all things, which Plotinus referred to as the One. Aristotle taught that this form was the essence of the thing itself. It was what determined the object’s nature, not the substance from which it was made.

Thomas Aquinas, like most medieval scholars, was an Aristotelian. He taught that God created supernatural grace which was a form in the human soul. This special type of grace was a gift from God, but it was not the uncreated essence of God that was in all things. So God could select those he wished to save, and bless them with this separate gift of supernatural grace that saves them. There were three different forms of this created grace: 1) the light of glory which enabled us to see the essence of God referred to as the beatific vision, 2) the sanctifying grace which could make us acceptable to dwell with God, and 3) righteousness or original justice because it could place us back in the state of innocence as Adam and Eve before they partook of the forbidden fruit.

This sanctifying grace became the source of the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity (love), which were essential for a person to have and to develop in order to be saved. Only Christians received supernatural grace and had these saving virtues. Only Christians had faith in Christ. Only Christians had hope based on Christ’s atonement. Only Christians had charity, or God’s type of love. These virtues transformed and converted the recipient into a new creature in Christ. The essence of the individual changed with the form of this supernatural grace in their soul, predisposing them to live a morally good life. Aquinas called them theological virtues:

[F]irst, because their object is God, inasmuch as they direct us aright to God: secondly, because they are infusedA term used in Catholic theology that is derived from the Latin word for “poured in” referring to the grace (love) of God that he pours into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (see Romans 5:5). This term is used... more in us by God alone: thirdly, because these virtues are not made known to us, save by Divine revelationThe divine disclosure to humans of future events, God’s will or his nature. more, contained in Holy Writ.6

People consist of the substance of a human body, but that is not what determines what someone is. The form inside an object or a personDerived from the Latin term persona and the Greek term prosopon. It is a technical term in Christian theology for the concept that the Trinity consist of three separate persons united as one essence with one of the persons (the... more is the essencethe English word generally used for the Greek term ousia, that is also translated as “being” or “substance” and refers to that which makes something what it is such as human nature is the essence of a human being. This... more of that thing or personDerived from the Latin term persona and the Greek term prosopon. It is a technical term in Christian theology for the concept that the Trinity consist of three separate persons united as one essence with one of the persons (the... more. This created graceAn Augustinian concept that certain forms of grace are an inherent quality or habit of the soul, as opposed to uncreated grace, which is grace obtained solely through the action of the Holy Spirit. (See sanctifying grace.) more is a form inside the individual that instills these transformative theological virtues. These virtues are like skills that can grow or diminish over time depending on the level of effort and attention one gives them. So, just as a personDerived from the Latin term persona and the Greek term prosopon. It is a technical term in Christian theology for the concept that the Trinity consist of three separate persons united as one essence with one of the persons (the... more needs to learn how to drive a car and some individuals can exert the extra effort required to become a successful racecar driver, an individual can likewise develop these saving virtues of faithIn word for belief and faith is the same in Latin and most European languages, but in English faith often denotes an active believe, one that inspires action based on a belief. For Luther, faith and belief generally meant the... more, hope and charitycomes from the Latin word “caritus” that was a translation of the Greek term “agape.”, which refers to a pure love of god and neighbor. It should not be confused with the modern usage of this term which is equivalent... more.

These virtues, like skills and habits, become part of us, even when we are not using them. We have them whether we are asleep or intensely engaged in an activity utilizing them. These virtues inform our life. An honest, loving personDerived from the Latin term persona and the Greek term prosopon. It is a technical term in Christian theology for the concept that the Trinity consist of three separate persons united as one essence with one of the persons (the... more thinks differently than a narcissistic crook. So we need to use our free will and make a determined effort to develop these virtues so they become habits that inform our very being. These ideas articulated by Thomas Aquinas(c. A.D. 1225-1274) Dominican friar, teacher at the University of Paris, central figure of medieval scholasticism, and the most authoritative theologian of the Roman Catholic tradition; known for his use of Aristotelian philosophy and his conception of supernatural grace. more became the essencethe English word generally used for the Greek term ousia, that is also translated as “being” or “substance” and refers to that which makes something what it is such as human nature is the essence of a human being. This... more of the Roman Catholic doctrineis derived from the Latin word for teaching, doctrina, and is an important aspect of Christianity more so than other world religions because Christianity focuses on the teachings and nature of Christ. more of graceIs a term used to identify unmerited assistance by God primarily to redeem and transform human beings. In the early and medieval church it also referred to God’s influence throughout existence. Redemptive grace is important to Augustinian theology which has... more. 7

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