Thomas Aquinas and the Immaculate Conception
| Latin | Sanctificatio Beatae Virginis in Summa theologiae III, q. 27 |
|---|---|
| Treatise | Summa theologiae III, question 27 |
| Controlling authority | Ineffabilis Deus; Catechism 490–493 |
| Doctrinal standing | The Immaculate Conception is defined dogma; Aquinas's sanctification-after-animation thesis is a historical theological opinion |
| School | Thomism |
| Branch | Mariology |
Thomas Aquinas and the Immaculate Conception names the historical relation between the Angelic Doctor's questions on Mary's sanctification and the dogma defined in 1854, which must be neither collapsed nor used as a weapon against the definition.
What Aquinas actually asked
Summa theologiae III, question 27, treats the sanctification of the Blessed Virgin. Article 1 holds that she was sanctified before birth from the womb, as Jeremiah and John the Baptist were, and more so. Article 2 denies that this sanctification was before animation. Sin is in a rational creature. Before the infusion of the rational soul there is no subject of sin, and a sanctification that prevented her ever contracting original sin would, in Thomas's then-current embryology and soteriology, seem to remove her from the need of Christ's redemption.[1]
He therefore placed her cleansing after animation and before birth, and taught that she never sinned thereafter and received a fullness of grace. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Immaculate Conception records this as the common reading of Thomas among later disputants. It is a school opinion about the moment of sanctification, not a denial of her unique holiness or of her need of Christ.[2]
The later defined dogma
Pius IX, in Ineffabilis Deus, defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first instant of her conception, was preserved immune from all stain of original sin, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 490–493, restates that dogma. The preservation is redemption, more sublime, not an exemption from the Redeemer.[3][4]
The definition settles the question Thomas asked with the tools of his century. It does not excommunicate him. Development of doctrine is not a trial of a saint for failing to write 1854 in 1273. The same Doctor taught her fullness of grace, her sinlessness after sanctification, and her unique place in the economy. Those teachings belong to the path by which the Church came to the definition.
Where the opinions differ
The difference is the first instant. Thomas, working with delayed animation, could not see how a rational subject could be preserved before it existed, and he feared a holiness that would not be from Christ. The dogma, working with the first instant of the person, teaches a preservative redemption that is from Christ. The fear is answered: she is more, not less, redeemed.
Scotists argued the possibility of preservative redemption more clearly in the medieval schools. Their argument is not the definition either. The definition is the Church's act. Medieval Thomists and Scotists are witnesses and disputants. They are not rival magisters.
How to speak of it
A Catholic may not use Thomas against Ineffabilis Deus. A Catholic may not pretend that question 27 is the 1854 formula. Honest history says: the Common Doctor taught in-womb sanctification after animation; the Church later defined preservation from the first instant; the later definition is the faith; the earlier questions remain a monument of a saint thinking with the tools he had, under the same faith in Mary's unique grace and in Christ's universal mediation.
The defined dogma and the Redeemer remain the measure. The medieval debate belongs to the history of development. A Doctor of the Church is neither a heretic nor a secret Ineffabilis Deus.
References
- Back to citation Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae III, question 27 — Primary questions on the sanctification of the Blessed Virgin, including sanctification in the womb after animation and her subsequent sinlessness.
- Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Immaculate Conception — Public-domain history of the doctrine, medieval debates including Aquinas, and the definition of 1854.
- Back to citation Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus — Apostolic constitution defining that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin in the first instant of her conception.
- Back to citation Catechism of the Catholic Church, 490–493 — Authoritative restatement of the defined dogma that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception.