Folia Theologica 9. (1998)

Tibor Somlyói Tóth: "Habitu inventus ut homo"

FOLIA THEOLOGICA 9 (1998)

177

Tibor SOMLYÓI TÓTH

“HABITU INVENTUS UT HOMO”

— A Study of Thomas Aquinas’

Use of Philippians 2,6-7 —

1. The commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas on the sentences of Peter Lombard was written in Paris in the years 1252-56, sometime before his study of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. Not yet having examined Philippians 2,6-7 in detail, he seems, as we shall see, to have made use of the text only in the more obvious contexts, limiting his use of it mainly to distinctions between what is appropriate to the “form of God” or to the “form of servant”. The text is first used in a discussion on the third theory relating to the incarnation, where Lombard had made use of the exegesis of St. Augustine on this same passage. In the article inquiring into whether the union of the Word with human nature, was an accidental union the opening argument suggests that the word habitus, as a genus of accident, implies an accidental union. Thomas’ answer is based in part on Augustine’s presentation in De diversis quaestionibus 83. Human nature in Christ is indeed somewhat like an accident, since the actus essendi already pertains to the Divine person prior to the incarnation and habitus, and other such accidental qualities, are added to a complete nature. Furthermore, the human nature — although in itself a substance — came to the other as a garment comes to the wearer. Just as a garment is shaped according to the form of the wearer without changing his nature, so also the human nature assumed was raised to a new dignity by union with the Word, but did not change the divine nature of the Word. Hence, the union may be said to verge on the accidental, although it is not accidental. Thomas adds that some have said that “it degenerates into an accident, but this is not properly said, because human nature in Christ is not diminished but ennobled”.1 It seems, however, that Thomas, using the word degenerate in the sense of decline or diminution,

1 S. Thomae Aquinatis scriptum super Sententiis Magistri Petri Lombardi, ed. M.F.MOOS (Paris: Lethiellieux, 1933) In Sent. 3, dist. 6, q. 3, art. 2, vol. 3, pp. 245-247. “Ad Philipp. 2,7 Habitu inventus ut homo. Ergo cum habitus sit genus accidentis, videtur quod Deus fuerit homo accidentaliter.”