The Christology of John Duns Scotus
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. The Divine Will as Ordered Love: Creation and Election
[F]or every being rationally willing first wills the end, and second immediately wills that which attains the end, and third the other things that are more remotely ordered to attaining the end. Thus too does God, in the most rational way, although not by diverse acts, yet by a single act as far as it tends in diverse ways over ordered objects.
First, God loves himself. Secondly, he loves himself for others, and this is an ordered love. Thirdly, he wishes to be loved by him who can love him with the greatest love—speaking of the love of someone who is extrinsic to him. And fourthly, he foresees the union of that nature that must love him with the greatest love even if no one had fallen… [I]n the fifth instant God saw the mediator coming, suffering and redeeming his people. And he would not have come as a suffering and redeeming mediator unless someone had first sinned; nor would the glory of the body have been delayed unless there were people to be redeemed, but immediately the whole Christ [i.e., Jesus Christ along with all the elect] would have been glorified.(Scotus, Rep. Par. III, d. 7, q. 4; trans. Carol 1986, pp. 126–27)
3. What Is a Person?
3.1. How Is the Assumed Human Nature Not in Itself a Person?
3.2. Who Is the Person Assuming the Human Nature and How Is This Accomplished?
4. Unity and Duality in Jesus Christ
- There was a true generation of the Son of God [according to his human nature] in time from Mary.19 But the term of generation is being of existence (esse existentiae) or something possessing such being;
- To live means to have life, but to have life means to have being. If Christ had only uncreated being, he could not have died. Therefore, he had created being;
- Christ’s soul was created. But to be created is a passive making, terminating in actual existence. Therefore, Christ had created being;
- The Trinity is the efficient cause of Christ’s human nature. Efficient and conserving causality terminates at something existing. Therefore, Christ had existing created being;
- If the human nature of Christ were to be let go by the Word, the existing human nature would not require a new generation or creation. Nor would such a “letting go” entail the annihilation of that nature. Nor would that nature acquire a new existence qua nature in becoming a created person because nothing new would be posited. Rather, only actual and aptitudinal hypostatic dependence on the Word would be negated;
- The foundation of a relation in the order of nature (here logical, not chronological) precedes the relation. Hence, actual being precedes actual relation (logically, not chronologically). The union of the nature to the Word is an actual relation. Therefore, the human nature must have in the order of nature (not chronologically) preceded the relation in the order of nature.
5. Christ’s Dual Filiation
6. The Graces of Christ24
6.1. Christ’s Personal and Capital Grace
It is fitting that what has the ratio of influentia in others in the being of grace should have the ratio of the highest being of grace (just as that which flows into others in the being of nature is the first in nature); since, therefore, Christ, who is Head of the Church, flows into the members of the Church in the being of grace, it is fitting that He should have the highest [grace] (although finite).
“God does not give the Spirit by measure”, and this is understood of Christ, for “of his fullness have we all received”, etc. Grace that is not ‘by measure’ is the highest possible grace; also, a fullness that can be shared in by another grace according to a certain measure seems to be found only in the highest grace.
It seems [Christ] could not: For no other nature could be head of those who have grace, for there cannot be two heads, just as there cannot be two things that are highest in the same order…. Here one could say that although God could by his absolute power confer the same amount of grace on another nature…, yet he could not do so by ordained power because (according to the laws already set down by divine wisdom) there will be only one head in the Church, from whom graces will flow into its members.
6.2. Christ’s Personal and Unitive Grace
- The fullness of grace is causally necessary for hypostatic union;27
- The fullness of grace is causally sufficient for hypostatic union;28
- The hypostatic union is causally necessary for the fullness of grace;29
- The hypostatic union is causally sufficient for the fullness of grace.
God first wills some non-supreme [sc. non-angelic] nature to have supreme glory, showing that he need not confer glory according to the order of natures, and then secondly, as it were, he willed that that nature exist in the person of the Word (so that the angel would thus not be placed beneath man).
7. Scotus’s Soteriology—Theory of Redemption
- It was (hypothetically) necessary that God redeem humankind after the fall;
- Humankind could not be redeemed apart from (what for Anselm is infinite) satisfaction;
- Only the God-man (because of the infinite God) could offer adequate satisfaction;
- Only the death of a perfect man (because man committed the infinite offense) could provide perfect satisfaction.
8. Conclusions
Funding
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Conflicts of Interest
1 | Scotus’s biography has had a long and convoluted histography and is still subject to scholarly debate. This paper cannot attempt to provide a satisfactory narrative of Scotus’s life that both addresses competing claims and arrives at a coherent presentation in terms of the currently available data. Two recent works, although differing on numerous important points, will help readers interested in Scotus’s biography to acquire a better sense of Scotus’s life and activities as well as the difficulties in establishing these very points. See Vos 2018a; Dumont 2022; Williams 2003 is still commonly referenced in the secondary literature. |
2 | “Extension”, here, should not be understood as a mere addition or appendage to the doctrine of God. Nor, should it, as Scotus makes clear in the Prologue to his Ordinatio, be understood as implying that the Incarnation is the integral or adequate object of theology (compare with Bonaventure, Sent. I, prooemium, q. 1.), to which all the rest of theology is reduced. For Scotus, understanding “extension” in either of these ways would create confusion between the necessary God and the contingent order of creation and salvation, rendering the Incarnation both necessary and eternal (Scotus 1950, Ord. Prologus, p. 3, q. 3, nn. 172–74; cf. Boulnois 1999, pp. 95–106; Fehlner 2023c, p. 253). Rather, for Scotus, the relation between the eternal Word and the assumed human nature in the Incarnation is an extrinsic, contingent relation that is in no way essential to the divine being, yet because the Incarnation includes a divine person, it is included within the ambit of theology. For Scotus, therefore, theology’s adequate object cannot be “Christ but something that is as it were common to both the Word, about whom primarily are believed the articles [of the Creed] pertaining to reparation, and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, about whom are some other theological truths” (Scotus 1950, Ord. Prologus, p. 3, q. 3, n. 174). Theology’s adequate object, therefore, Scotus concludes, is simply “God as God” (Scotus 1950, Ord. Prologus, p. 3, q. 3, n. 175). This clarification from Scotus at the outset of his great commentary on Lombard’s Sentences reveals that he was always very concerned with articulating a unified understanding of theology that avoids any equivocation between God and creation, between the necessary and the contingent while at the same time preserving theology’s ability to speak to both the necessary truths about the Trinity and the contingent truths about salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Hence, when Vos describes Christology as an “extension of the doctrine of God”, for Scotus, as Vos goes on to clarify, this is in reference to the fact that “If God cannot be incarnate, then orthodox Christology is impossible” (Vos 2018b, p. 109). For Scotus, given the object of theology is God, coupled with the fact of the Incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, which is both contingent and realized within a contingent creation, any coherent understanding of the Incarnation requires an understanding of God as a free, rational being, possessed of infinite knowledge, eternally communicative, and thus Trinitarian. Establishing this assertion is beyond the scope of this paper. For discussion and confirmation, cf. (Boulnois 2020; Vos 2018b, pp. 56–67; Kośla 1995, pp. 65–103). This line of trinitarian thought runs throughout the entirety of the Franciscan Tradition, e.g., from Bonaventure through John Pecham, Matthew of Aquasparta, and Walter of Bruges to Peter of Trabes and William of Ware. See (Friedman 2012, pp. 64–88, 92–169), for the continuity of the Franciscan tradition on the Trinity, and (Goff 2015, pp. 282–91), for Bonaventure in particular. The “extension” of the doctrine of God into Christology, therefore, is for Scotus, as he rethinks “classical” theology, a commentary and exposition of the mirabilia Dei recounted in Scripture, on how there can be a necessary God and a contingent creation, and, more intimately (and importantly), how and why one of the necessary persons of the Trinity, the second person, really and substantially entered into the history of that contingent creation. I thank the anonymous reviewer for pointing out a potential ambiguity regarding the term “extension”. |
3 | For the historical and theological context of Scotus, see (Cross 2002; Vos 2018b; Hunter 2020; Kennard 2022; Carol 1986). |
4 | “…nam omnis rationabiliter volens, primo vult finem, et secondo immediate illud quod attinget finem, et tertio alia quae sunt remotius ordinate ad attingendum finem. Sic etiam Deus rationabilissime, licet non diversis actibus, unico tamen actu, in quantum ille diversimode tendit super obiecta ordinata” (Scotus, Ordinatio III, d. 32, q. un., n. 21). All translations of Scotus, unless otherwise noted, are taken from Peter Simpson: https://www.aristotelophile.com/current.htm, accessed on 30 May 2025. |
5 | “Cum ergo omnis ordinate volens prius velit finem quam illud quod est ad finem…” (Scotus, Lectura III, d. 19, q. un., n. 22). |
6 | “… quod sicut est aliqua realitas propria qua natura est ‘haec’, ultra illam qua natura est natura, et haec non est formaliter illa, ita ultra utramque istarum essent realitas aliqua qua esset persona; et ita neutra istarum esset formaliter eadem” (Scotus 2006, Ordinatio III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 34, p. 15). |
7 | Before moving to his explanation, Scotus admits that both approaches present difficulties. He provides arguments against the first way (see Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, nn. 36–39, pp. 16–18); and against the second way (see Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n., nn. 40–43, pp. 18–19); how he thought the two ways should be understood (see Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, nn. 44–52, pp. 19–24). |
8 | “Actual dependence”, for Scotus, simply refers to a being’s real dependence upon a higher nature or, in the case of the Incarnation, the human nature of Jesus Christ’s hypostatic dependence upon the person of the Word for its subsistent—i.e., personal existence, as a concrete existence of a kind of nature that is rational. “Aptitudinal dependence”, Scotus explains through an analogy. It is “the sort… of dependence… that would always—as far as concerns itself—be in act (in the way that ‘heavy’ is apt by nature to be in the center, where it would always be… unless it was impeded” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 45, p. 20). This sort of dependence seems to derive from every creature’s essential obediential dependence upon God. However, it is not identical to obediential dependence because it can be negated in the created person. Otherwise, a created person “would rest by violence in created nature (as a stone rests upwards by violence)” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 46, p. 20). |
9 | “Istud dictum faciliter videri potest si videamus differentiam inter negationem nudam actus et negationem aptitudinis et negationem quae requirit repugnantiam” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 50, p. 23; trans. modified). |
10 | “quia repugnantia ad dividi non convenit naturae creatae nisi per aliquam entitatem positivam” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 69, p. 32). |
11 | “sed aliqua distinctio positive est naturae et proprietas personalis” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 70, p. 32). |
12 | The editors of the Vatican edition attribute this approach to William of Ware. |
13 | “hoc est causa formalis, secundum quod formaliter terminat; terminat autem in quantum persona relativa, ita quod proprietas relativa est ratio terminandi” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 72, pp. 34–35). |
14 | “non ergo debet intelligi quod sic sit causa formalis, quae sit altera pars compositi, neque causa formalis superveniens compositioni, neque forma exemplaris, quia hoc est communi toti Trinitati” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 72, pp. 34–35; trans. emphasis added). |
15 | “persona nullam addit entitatem absolutam ultra naturam singularem, et ita nec suppositum in communi, sicut nec persona in natura intellectuali” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 1, p. 1, q. 1, n. 78, p. 37). |
16 | He also discussed his theory of grace, merit, and human cooperation in salvation. |
17 | The editors of the Vatican edition associate this position primarily with Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. III, q 17, a. 2, corp.; Quodl. 9, q. 2, a. 2, corp., as well as Godfrey of Fontaines, Quodl. 8, q. 1, in corp. |
18 | “quia si ‘haec natura’ esset in supposito proprio, idem esset esse naturae et personae; ergo et nunc, quia ‘haec persona’ supplet personalitatem propriam quantum ad esse personae, igitur quantum ad esse naturae” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 6, q. 1, n. 11, p. 235). |
19 | |
20 | “propter quod proprie dicitur ‘homo’, et ideo est exsistens exsistentia illius naturae” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 6, q. 1, n. 36 p. 243). |
21 | “qualis est exsistit exsistentia ista, scilicet per naturam humanum” (Scotus 2006, Ord. III, d. 6, q. 1, n. 38, p. 244). |
22 | |
23 | For Thomas Aquinas, see Summa Theol. III, q 35, a. 5, corp.; for Bonaventure, Sent. III, d. 8, a. 2, q. 2. For additional discussion of the historical developments and arguments governing the different positions taken by theologians on Mary’s filiation, see Rosini (2008, pp. 26–48). |
24 | This section closely follows Kennard (2022, pp. 152–75). |
25 | “Quia decet quod illud quod habet rationem influentia in alia in esse gratiae, habeat rationem summi in esse gratiae (sicut illud quod influit in alia in esse naturae, est primum in natura); cum igitur Christus, qui est caput Ecclesiae, influat in membra Ecclesiae in esse gratiae decet quod habeat summam (licet finitam)” (Scotus 2003, Lect. III, d. 13, n. 61, p. 290; qtd in Kennard 2022, pp. 155–56; trans. Kennard). |
26 | Summary from Kennard (2022, p. 159); see also, for further discussion, pp. 160–68. |
27 | Claim 1 is ascribed to the authors of the Summa halensis III, n. 96 and Bonaventure, Sent. III, d. 13, a. 1, q. 1, ad 3. |
28 | Claim 2 seems to be the position of Henry of Ghent, Quodl. 13, n. 5. |
29 | Both 3 and 4 seem to have been held by Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. III, q. 6, a. 6, ad 1; Summa Theol. III, q. 6, a. 6, resp.; Summa Theol. III, q. 7, a. 1, resp. |
30 | He also includes the main lines of his contemporaries who follow the logic of Anselm with respect to both the motive of the Incarnation and the conditions for redemption. |
31 | In Scotus (2011, Ord. IV, d. 15, q. 1, nn. 7–8, p. 60), Scotus asserts that God could reconcile humankind to himself apart from any satisfaction on humanity’s part. |
32 | Here, Scotus refers to Psalm 130 (129):7, which states that with God is “plenteous redemption”. |
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Goff, J.I. The Christology of John Duns Scotus. Religions 2025, 16, 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060719
Goff JI. The Christology of John Duns Scotus. Religions. 2025; 16(6):719. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060719
Chicago/Turabian StyleGoff, Jared Isaac. 2025. "The Christology of John Duns Scotus" Religions 16, no. 6: 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060719
APA StyleGoff, J. I. (2025). The Christology of John Duns Scotus. Religions, 16(6), 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060719