Instrumentality and Incarnational Reality (series 1, pt. 3)

Thomas frames the gifts of the Spirit within a larger theological scheme of what he calls instrumentality. It is a concrete, non-theological term that identifies God’s chosen modus operandi, his usual way of working in the world. Instrumentality means that God acts in and through physical, created things, or instruments. At the heart of this doctrine is the Incarnation and it is the basis of his doctrine of the Sacraments. Thomas scholar, John Yocum explains the connection between the incarnation and the sacraments:

The divine saving work is effected ‘from the inside’, as it were, of humanity. These human historical acts are effective precisely because the divine redeemer has entered human history in order to act from within for the accomplishment of redemption. Thomas’ sacramental theology is an implication of a soteriology that is much more ‘Greek’ than has often been perceived .... The sacraments, then, are an extension of the effects of the Incarnation. In the sacraments, God continues to act in and among human beings through the organ of Christ’s humanity to bring human beings to life in Christ, and to nourish, sustain and perfect the life in conformity with Christ.[1]

However, in Thomas the implications of the Incarnation extend beyond just the efficacy of the sacraments. It is also the cornerstone of his teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It could be said that the sacraments and the gifts are a matched pair; neither is complete without the other. Even as common bread and wine become instruments of grace by virtue of the Incarnation, so also members of the body of Christ, the church, become instruments of grace as the gifts of the Spirit operate in and through them. Contemporary author, Leanne Payne, captures the same idea in her term Incarnational Reality[2]. For both writers, the Incarnation is at the heart of divine reality.  In sum, the gifts of the spirit are a part of God’s instrumental or Incarnational pattern of loving and redeeming the world.

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[1] John Yocum. “Sacraments in Aquinas”. In Aquinas on Doctrine: A critical introduction. Thomas Weinandy, Daniel Keating and John Yocum, ed. New York, NY: T.T. Clark, Ltd., 2004, 172.

[2] Leanne Payne. Real Presence. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1979); Leanne Payne. Healing Presence. Grand Rapids, MI: 1995 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1989).

Gratuitous grace (series 1, pt. 2)

It is difficult to arrive at a satisfying translation of the Latin phrase gratias gratis datas. “Gratuitous gifts” is the term used most frequently. But it might also be translated “gracious grace gifts” or “gifts of graces”[1]. Moreover, confusion arises because the phrase “gifts of the Holy Spirit” is used in connection with both the seven sanctifying gifts of the Spirit (from Isaiah 11:2) and with the nine gratuitous gifts of the Holy Spirit (from 1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Marie-Dominique Chenu notes that the language of the Old Testament is “the spirits of” rather than “the gifts of” wisdom, understanding, council and so forth.[2] His remark underscores how unalike the two lists are from a Biblical standpoint. However, it is obvious that for Thomas both clusters are appropriately named “gifts of the Spirit”. In fact the easy confusion of the two gift-clusters underscores their similarities. Both are aspects of Holy Spirit’s direct agency, and both are necessary for humans to achieve their supernatural ends. The gifts, sanctifying and gratuitous alike, are the nuts and bolts of grace; they are primary points of contact between God and his people. In Thomas’s schema the two uniquely work together. As he states in the Summa, “the (sanctifying) gifts of the Holy Ghost are habitual dispositions of the soul, rendering it amenable to the motions (or charisms) of the Holy Ghost.” [3]

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[1] Fabian Larcher, O.P. uses this term in his translation of Thomas’s Commentary on 1 Corinthians.

[2] M-D Chenu. Aquinas and His Role in Theology. Paul Philibert, trans. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002; St Thomas d’Aquin et la theologie. Editions de Seuil: 1959.

[3] Summa, 2.2.121.4. Almost identical wording of the same statement can be found in 1.68.6., 2.2.8.5, 2.2.19.9, and 2.2.52.1. The parenthetical additions are my own.

Thomas and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (series 1, pt. 1)

For Roman Catholics Thomas Aquinas is a doctor of the church. His teachings, therefore, have a timeless quality and his opinions are authoritative even in contemporary theological debate. In Protestant circles his works have slowly emerged from Reformation suspicions and now enjoy a well-deserved place of honor. However, some aspects of his teaching have been noticeably neglected. His extensive reflections on angels, for example, are not of interest to most theologians, Protestant or Catholic. More broadly, Thomas’s whole pneumatology seems neglected. Why? Perhaps because his highly rational approach to other doctrines appeals to modern sensibilities, whereas hierarchies of angels, prophecy, miracles and the like seem to belong to an earlier age. This series of blog entries will examine one aspect of Thomas’s pneumatology: his teaching on the charisms of the Holy Spirit, what he calls the gratuitous gifts. It is not a speculative or extraneous subject for Thomas. Rather, the charisms of the Holy Spirit are a component part of grace itself, an integral aspect of one of Christianity’s central doctrines. Thomas makes important contributions to the on-going theological understanding of grace. Above all he helps to rescue grace from unnecessary abstraction by personalizing it. For in Thomas’s thought there is a real sense in which grace is the Holy Spirit.