|
This question is about the terms employed in speaking of the mystery of
the Incarnation.
We are concerned here with what is technically called the communication
of idioms. "Idiom" is derived from the Greek and means the same as
property in Latin. Hence communication of idioms is communication of
properties. In other words, although the two natures in Christ are
really distinct and inconfused, as defined against Eutyches, yet by
reason of the hypostatic union the properties of the divine nature can
be predicated of this man Jesus, and human attributes of God. Hence
the communication of idioms is usually defined as the mutual predication
and interchange in themselves of the two natures, the divine and the
human, and their properties, by reason of the hypostatic union. The
foundation for this communication of idioms in Christ is the hypostatic
union itself, by reason of which one and the same suppositum has two
natures, the divine nature and the human nature.
It must be observed concerning this communication that concrete names,
such as God, man, in opposition to abstract names, such as
Godhead, humanity, signify directly the suppositum, and indirectly
the nature. For "God, ' signifies the suppositum that has the
divinity, and "man" signifies the suppositum that has the humanity.
If, therefore, the suppositum is the same for the two natures, then
it is true to say: "God is man, " although it is false to say:
"The Godhead is the humanity." Thus we shall see[1364] that
the generally accepted rule, namely, concrete words of concrete
subjects, both of natures and properties, generally speaking, can of
themselves be predicated of either; but abstract words of abstract
subjects cannot of themselves formally be predicated of either. Thus
we shall see that we cannot say the Godhead is the humanity or that
God is the humanity, or that the humanity is God.[1365]
Therefore we must take great care to distinguish between abstract terms
and concrete terms. The abstract term signifies the nature separated
from the subject, for example, humanity. The concrete term signifies
the nature as existing in the subject, for example, man. Hence this
distinction between concrete and abstract term is of great importance in
distinguishing between the nature and the suppositum, since the nature
is an essential part of the suppositum. There is the same distinction
between "being" as a noun and "being" as a participle, or between
the reality and the real itself.
The principal definitions of the Church about the communication of
idioms are to be found in the fourth and tenth canons of the Council of
Ephesus,[1366] and in the tenth and twelfth canons of the
Second Council of Constantinople.[1367]
|
|
