VII. Missions and Appropriations
INTRODUCTION
should exist any created gifts whatever unless there were first the eternal Gift of the Spirit who is the ratio donandi.
The title can be understood also in terms of causality.144° When causality is taken simply and with no further qualifications, the three persons are not distinguished since all gifts are given by all three equally. When causality is understood together with relations among the persons particularly with respect to subauthority, the Spirit is distinguished from the Father, but not from the Son, since the Father confers all gifts through the Son and through the Spirit. When causality is seen together with subauthority and exemplarity, the proper application to the Spirit emerges; as the first gift, He is the exemplary basis of all proper and free giving.!4
It is with the spiration of the Holy Spirit that the trinitarian circle of divine life is completed. Less than three persons would be inadequate for the divine perfection, and more than three persons would be superfluous. If there were to be more than three, there would have to be more than two perfect modes of emanation. Bonaventure rejects that possibility on the authority of Aristotle. The only other possibility would be to say that there are more than one person proceeding from each of the modes of emanation. But this would be the same as saying that the products of the divine emanations are not perfect and adequate to the divine reality in every way; and that therefore the acts of production are imperfect. This would violate the basic concept of God as most perfect and fully actual being. But if the productive act is perfect, then the product of that act is the full and adequate expression of divine reality in one person.
There can be, therefore, only two perfect modes of emanation and hence only two emanating persons. Any duplication is unnecessary and superfluous.!42 The circle of divine life is closed.
VII. MISSIONS AND APPROPRIATIONS
It is in the trinitarian doctrine that conceives of God as supremely communicative being that Christian theology made a major departure from the metaphysical understanding of antiquity. While for Plato and for Aristotle, the first principle was never conceived as a creator in the strict sense of the word, it is precisely this that concerns
140 Loc, cit. (I, 324).
141 [bid. m2 J Sent. d. 10, a. 1, q. 1, ad 4 (1, 196); Brevi. 1, 3 (V, 211); Og. Da. q. 4, a. 2, resp. (V, 85). Also, I Sent. d. 2, a.u., q. 4 (I, 56 ff.) for the specific arguments which have already been discussed.
BONAVENTURE'S TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY
Christian theology. Because theology conceived of God as immensely rich and communicative being within Himself, it could readily move to the further, free communication of being which takes the form of the doctrine of creation, or the communication ad extra.
Viewed in this way, the mystery of the created world appears as an external and free expression of the inner, spiritual fecundity of the divine being. For Bonaventure, as we have seen, this includes the convinction that the world reflects not only the divine nature as one, but the divine nature as trinitarian also. In its unity and in its rich diversity, the world is a symbol of that being in whom unity and multiplicity are united in a most perfect way. Though, in general terms, the whole of creation bears a relation to the trinity, there are particular points in the history of the world at which the inner divine emanations become manifest with a peculiar clarity. This is the question of the divine missions in history.
The divine missions must be understood within the broader context of the Scholastic doctrine of God's presence to the world
"'by essence, power, and presence.''43
Bonaventure, like his contemporaries generally, distinguishes various modes of divine presence. Of particular importance here is the distinction between God's universal presence to all of creation as its creative, sustaining, and perfecting cause, and the presence by means of indwelling which refers specifically to spiritual creatures. Indwelling designates a spiritual effect in the rational creature together with the creature's acceptance of it, the result of which is the indwelling of the trinity as a personal presence in the human person and the corresponding transformation of the human person into an ever more perfect similitude of the trinity present to it.
Such an understanding of the indwelling of God directs our attention no longer to the structure of the created world as such, but more specifically to the history of grace which, for Bonaventure, also reveals a trinitarian structure; for through this history, the mystery of the eternal emanations is made known to humankind in a particularly express way.144 The technical term mission is used to USS] Sertad, S7,1p1, 4. 3 q. 2, resp. (I, 648); Brevis) 1,5 (V,) 213-214).
144 The relation between the trinity and the theology of history raises the question of yet another influence on Bonaventure's thought which was not treated above in the discussion of historical influences. It is the very complex and as yet unresolved question of the work of Joachim of Fiore. This issue was not mentioned above because it does not ente: into the basic trinitarian issues discussed there. But our understanding of the present issue must remain fragmentary until the as yet unresolved question of the influence of Joachim on Bonaventure has been studied more thoroughly. Ratzinger has singled out a number of points in which Bonaventure seems clearly under Joachim's influence even though he rejected the Joachimite concept of the age of the Holy Spirit which
INTRODUCTION
designate the salvific activity of the trinity whereby the distinction of persons is made known.
The word mission involves two elements: emanation and manifestation.4
Emanation refers to the eternal procession while manifestation designates some historical effect generally perceptible to the senses and having an explicit revelatory meaning. Derived as it is from the Latin verb mittere, the substantive form mission may have either an active or a passive meaning. Its usage at this level reflects the active and passive dimensions of the eternal emanations, so that there is a positive correspondence between the emanations and the historical manifestations. Thus, we can move from the historical mission of one who is sent as Son to an awareness of the eternal procession of the Son from the Father in which the possibility of the historical mission is grounded. Similarly, when the Spirit is known as the one sent by the Father and by the Son, we can move to an awareness of the eternal emanation of the Spirit from both the Father and the Son as described above. The most proper usage of the term mission is seen at this level where the person producing is said to send the person produced. In a less proper though possible sense, One can say that the persons send themselves in as far as all possess the divine nature. But since the passive sense of mission always involves a passive emanation, it is theologically incorrect to say that either the Father or the whole of the trinity sends itself.14¢
Mission, therefore, means that an eternal emanation has a temporal effect by which it becomes known in history. In the case of the Son, the entire doctrine of the incarnation is nothing but an extended treatment of the visible mission of the Son; and the visible mission of the Spirit from the Father and the Son is seen in the sending of the Spirit on the Church in the form of a dove or in tongues of fire. In both cases, the spatial imagery of descent is used, not to say that these persons leave heaven and come down to earth in a spatial stood in sharp contrast with Bonaventure's own Christo-centric vision. Cf. Ratzinger, Theology of History... p. 104 ff.; 117 ff.; W. Schachten, "Die Trinitatslehre
Bonaventuras als Explikation der Offenbarung vom personalen Gott," in: Franxiskanische Studien 56 (1974) 2/4, p. 191-214.
BASS Sent. d. old; pemd enact, qs 3) (er 263)e revised ony a clo-ataye Me T Sent. d. 15, p. 1, a.u., q. 3 & q. 4 (I, 263-266). This is based on the general principle that the direct meaning of mission is the historical manifestation while its connotation is the eternal emanation. Whether in the active or passive form, the term implies some relation to a principle or source. Hence, it is used most properly when that relation is most clearly expressed. To say that the "Father sends the Son" is equivalent to saying that He manifests the emanation of the Son; to say that "the Son is sent" is equivalent to saying that in an historical effect it is made known that the Son emanates from another. Since the term mission always implies an emanation, it should never be applied to the Father nor to the trinity as such, for neither of these can be said to emanate.
BONAVENTURE'S TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY
sense, but to say that — while the emanations are eternal — the visible mission has a beginning in time.147 The goal of the visible missions is the internal mission, or the presence of God to the created spirit. This is developed theologically in the doctrine of grace.148
We find in Bonaventure's understanding of mission a consistent, logical expression of economic trinitarianism. God communicates
Himself in history as He is in Himself. There is, then a positive correspondence between the economy of grace and the trinitarian structure of God because of which it is possible to come to a knowledge of the distinction of the persons from the history of grace.
The economy of a trinitarian history is grounded ontologically in the immanent trinitarian mystery of God Himself.
Bonaventure's understanding of appropriation reveals from yet another perspective the same perception of the trinity. Appropriation is a mode of predication whereby something which is common to all three persons is predicated of one in particular. However, as Bonaventure warns, this should not be done in a haphazard way or it will lose all significance and will ultimately confuse the entire question of the trinity.
The primary purpose of appropriation is to facilitate our awareness of the individual divine person in His personal mode of being. It can do this only if sufficient care is taken to search out and to clarify the particular relation between the essential attribute under consideration and the property of the particular person to whom it is appropriated. This basic principle can be seen clearly in the three most basic appropriations :149
1) Power is appropriated to the Father. In itself power is not a personal property but an essential attribute of the divine nature and, hence, common to the three persons. Yet, it has a particular affinity with the property of the Father as sourceless Source. Therefore it can shed some light on the property of the Father.
2) Wisdom is appropriated to the Son. Scriptural evidence for such an appropriation is ambiguous, since 1 Cor. 12, 8 ff. seems to warrant an appropriation of wisdom to the Spirit. On the other hand, the liturgical tradition seems to attribute it commonly to the Word.
For Bonaventure, the appropriation will be exclusively to the Word 147 Brevi], 1, 5 (V, 213-214).
148 Brevil. 4, 1-10 (V, 241-252).
149 T Sent. d. 34, a.u., q. 3, fund. 1-2; and resp. (I, 592). "Si autem loquamur quantum ad ordinem vel originem, quem connotant, sic appropriantur a parte tei propter convenientiam cum propriis personarum."
St. Bonaventure, Disputed Questions
INTRODUCTION
since, in a preeminent sense, He is divine truth. As the Father has expressed Himself perfectly in His Word, the Word may be called the "expressed Wisdom of God." Since He contains in His personal reality the intelligibility of all things, the term w7sdom is fittingly appropriated to Him.1° 3) Goodness is appropriated to the Spirit. This is based on Bonaventure's understanding of the emanation of the Spirit by liberality; this is the selfcommunication of God precisely as divine charity. But the charity by which the Father and Son breathe forth the Spirit is not essentially different from the love whereby God confers on creatures the gift of existence as well as the further gift of sharing in God's own love and beatitude. If both our existence as such and our graced-existence as well are gift and goodness, is it not fitting to appropriate this to the one who is the uncreated Gift that proceeds from infinite Goodness ?
These three cases indicate clearly the inner logic of appropriations as seen by Bonaventure. Beyond these, he draws up a more extensive series of appropriations which may be less clear, but still reflect the order of origin of the persons.1%1 Father Son Spirit Unity Truth Goodness Eternity Beauty Delight Principle Exemplar End Efficiency Exemplarity Finality Power Wisdom Goodness Such appropriations are important for Bonaventure since he is convinced that all creatures exist, are sustained, and are brought to their completion by the three-fold action of the trinity. The search for such appropriations is the fitting response of the finite spirit to the mystery of the divine self-communication to the world.
150 IT Sent, d. 27, p. 2, a.u., q. 2, resp. (I, 485).
151 Brevil, 1, 6 (V, 214-215); Sermo de Trin. (IX, 351-357).