Compendium Theologiae Dogmaticae Tomus I: De Christo Legato Divino, De Ecclesia Christi, De Fontibus Theologicis
Christian Pesch S.J. (1853–1925)
Compendium theologiae dogmaticae. Tomus I: De Christo legato divino — De Ecclesia Christi — De fontibus theologicis
First published 1913
Christian Pesch’s first volume of Compendium theologiae dogmaticae (Freiburg im Breisgau: B. Herder, 1913), complete: the Prooemium, the Prolegomena, the Institutiones propaedeuticae with the preliminary inquiry into religion and revelation, Pars I De Iesu Christo legato divino, Pars II De ecclesia Christi and Pars III De fontibus theologicis, transcribed from the scan.
Proem
Prolegomena
§ 1. What theology is
§ 2. What the divisions of theology are
§ 3. What the system of dogmatic theology is
8. For theology, understood in the objective sense, to be one science, all its parts of doctrine must belong to one common subject. That subject is God. Therefore, it must be shown how everything in theology is referred to God. Since this is a moral organism, not a physical one, the connection among its individual parts is not so invariable that various questions cannot be treated in different places. Nevertheless, everything is subsumed under certain headings, which are these:
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On God himself, one in nature and three in persons;
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On God the Creator;
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On God as the last end;
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On God the Redeemer;
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On God the Sanctifier;
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On God as the Consummator.
It is clear how, in this system, everything is referred to God as its subject. It remains only to explain this arrangement briefly.
9. This system was not devised a priori but drawn from the sources of revelation. For God revealed certain things about himself and certain things about his works. Of what he revealed about himself, some things pertain to the unity of the divine nature, others to the Trinity of persons. Therefore, since theology considers God with respect to himself, while it considers other truths according to their relation to God, theology begins with the treatise on the one and triune God.
The first relation of created things to God consists in their having proceeded from God as the first efficient cause. Hence the treatise on God himself is followed by the treatise On God the Creator, which treats 1. creation in general, 2. the making of the world, 3. the human being, 4. the angels. But since rational creatures were not produced in a purely natural order but raised to the supernatural order, the treatise also treats, 5. God as the one who elevates, or the state of original justice. Since human beings soon lost this state through sin, a treatise on original sin is added.
The other principal relation of creatures is to God as the last end, because God is not only the efficient cause but also the final cause of all things. And since lower things were made proximately for the sake of the human being, while the human being was made immediately for the sake of God, God must be considered especially as the last end of the human being, toward which end the human being tends through human acts; hence the treatise on human acts is closely connected with the treatise on God as the last end.
Yet after committing sin, the human being could no longer attain his last end unless God mercifully rescued him from the state of sin. God did this by sending Jesus Christ the Redeemer, who is the second person of the most holy Trinity. Hence we must treat God the Redeemer. This treatise has two parts: a) the Redeemer himself, which part is called Christology; b) the work of redemption, which part is called soteriology (in Greek soteria, in Latin redemption).
The fruit of redemption is applied to individual human beings through sanctifying grace, by which a human being is joined to God supernaturally, or sanctified. Hence we must treat God the Sanctifier. Certain accompaniments of grace are the virtues infused supernaturally and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Hence there are two treatises, on grace and on the virtues. A treatise is added on what is opposed to the virtues, that is, vices and sins, by which a human being is separated from God.
God, in turn, infuses grace and virtues through certain rites instituted by Christ, which are called sacraments. Therefore, the treatise on the sacraments also belongs to the treatise on God the Sanctifier.
Finally, the course in theology ends with the treatise On God the Consummator, which considers the consummation of individual human beings and the consummation of the whole world. This treatise is also called eschatology (ἔσχατα = last things).
10. St. Thomas divides the Summa theologiae into three parts: the first treats the one and triune God and God the Creator; the second is divided into two parts, one of which treats the last end and virtues and vices in general, law, and grace, while the other treats virtues and vices in particular; in the third part (which he did not finish), he treats God the Redeemer, the sacraments, and God the Consummator.
This division almost coincides with the one we proposed above. But in the Summa St. Thomas has many questions that are now assigned either to philosophy or to moral theology. He joins the treatise on original sin not to the treatise on original justice but to the treatise on sin; therefore, the treatise on original sin is found not in the first part but in the First Part of the Second Part.
The parts of the Summa are subdivided into questions and articles. Hence, for the sake of brevity, the Summa is usually cited without a special title, by indicating the part, question, and article. E. g. I, q. 79, a. 5, or I, 2, q. 3, a. 2; that is, question 79, article 5 of the First Part, or question 3, article 2 of the First Part of the Second Part. Sometimes c. or ad I, 2, 3 is added. The meaning is: in the body of the article, which always begins, “I answer that,” or in the reply to the first, second, or third objection. Other works of St. Thomas are cited by adding a special title.