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Christus Victor Motifs and Christ's Temptations in the Soteriology of Thomas Aquinas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Joel R. Gallagher
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Abstract

Gustaf Aulén's Christus Victor soteriological/atonement motif is constituted by the central theme of divine victory over the devil. Few scholars discuss at length the significance of Christ's victory over the devil in Aquinas's soteriology. A comparative analysis of the two treatments of Christ's victory over the devil will unveil the role and significance of that victory in Aquinas's soteriology. According to Aquinas, Christ's humanity and all his human actions are the instrumental efficient causes of salvation and, necessarily, his victory over the devil. Therefore, Christ's life prior to his Passion may be examined for evidence of that victory. The most obvious event for such an analysis is Christ's temptations which will offer a unique insight into Aquinas's presentation of Christ's victory over the devil.

Keywords

AulenChristAquinasDevilTemptations
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 101 , Issue 1094 , July 2020 , pp. 361 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

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2 Ibid., 158.

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6 Morgan, Jonathan, “Christus Victor Motifs in the Soteriology of Thomas Aquinas,” Pro Ecclesia vol. 21 no. 4 (2012), 409-421CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Aulén described the Christus Victor motif in his classic text published in 1931 which was published in English under the title Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement.

7 Loewe, William P., “Irenaeus’ Soteriology: Christus Victor Revisited,” Anglican Theological Review 67 no. 1 (January 1985), 2Google Scholar; See Aulén, Gustaf, Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement. Translated by Hebert, A.G. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2003), 16Google Scholar.

8 Loewe, “Irenaeus’ Soteriology,” 2.

9 Ibid., 6.

10 Ibid., 6-10, 14.

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12 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologiae: Complete English Edition in Five Volumes. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (hereafter ST) (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics, 1981), III, q. 48, a. 6Google Scholar.

13 Heidgerken, Benjamin E., The Christ and the Tempter: Christ's Temptation by the Devil in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Thomas Aquinas, Ph.D. Diss. (University of Dayton, May 2015), 21-22Google Scholar. As Heidgerken notes, Cajetan, Bañez, and Billuart devote little attention to Christ's temptations in their commentaries, and Garrigou-LaGrange does not comment on them at all. Only Paul Gondreau and Jean-Pierre Torrell discuss Aquinas's examination of Christ's temptations in significant detail. See footnote 61.

14 Ibid., 418-434.

15 For examples, see Morgan, “Christus Victor Motifs,” footnote 8.

16 Aulén, Christus Victor, 29-32, 46.

17 Ibid., 159.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 See Aulén, Christus Victor, 4-7, 16-60, 143-159.

21 Morgan, “Christus Victor Motifs,” 413.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 ST III, q. 49, a. 2. My italics.

26 Ibid. My italics.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., q. 49, a. 2, ad. 2-3. My italics.

29 Aulén, Christus Victor, 150.

30 See ST III, q. 46, a. 2, ad 3; ST III q. 46, a. 3; ST III, q. 46, a. 3, ad. 3.

31 I believe his interpretation is faulty, and I deal with it briefly later in this article. For the purposes of this article, I will proceed with Aulén's interpretation only to demonstrate the difference between their uses of Christ's victory.

32 ST III, q. 49, a. 1.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid. See also ST III, q. 48, a. 1.

35 ST III, q. 49, a. 1.

36 ST III, q. 49, a. 4.

37 Ibid.

38 Aulén, Christus Victor, 153.

39 Ibid., 155.

40 ST III, q. 46, a. 3.

41 See ST III, q. 46, a. 3, ad. 3; ST III, q. 48, a. 4; ST III q. 48, a. 4, ad. 2; ST III, q. 49, a. 2; ST III, q. 49, a. 2, ad. 1.

42 ST III, q. 49, a. 2.

43 See ST III, q. 46, a. 2, ad 3; ST III q. 46, a. 3; ST III, q. 46, a. 3, ad. 3.

44 ST III, q. 46, a. 3, ad. 3.

45 Anselm of Canterbury. Why God Became Man, in Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works, eds. Brian Davies and G.R. Evans. Translated by Janet Fairweather (hereafter CDH) (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), I, 12-13, 24.

46 “The obedience is the means of His [Christ's] triumph.” Aulén, Christus Victor, 29. “The Incarnation has its basis in God's Love. The work of the Incarnate is the work of Divine Love. This it is that overcomes the tyrants and effects atonement between God and the world.” Aulén, Christus Victor, 46.

47 Aulén, Christus Victor, 29-32.

48 ST III, q. 48, a. 2; ST III, q. 14, a. 1, ad. 1.

49 ST III, q. 14, a. 1, ad. 1.

50 ST III, q. 48, a. 5; ST III, q. 48, a. 5, ad.1-2; ST III, q. 48, a. 6.

51 Aquinas explains this himself: “It is the same Person and hypostasis of the Divine and human natures . . . the Passion [and satisfaction] is to be attributed to the suppositum of the Divine Nature . . . . by reason of the passible [human] nature assumed.” ST III, q. 46, a. 12.

52 E.g.: “The work of man's deliverance is accomplished by God Himself in Christ.” Aulén, Christus Victor, 20 (my italics); “The Divine victory accomplished in Christ . . . .” Aulén, Christus Victor, 21 (my italics); “The redemptive work is accomplished by the Logos through the Manhood as his Instrument; for it could be accomplished by no power but that of God Himself.” Aulén, Christus Victor, 33, italics original in text (Aulén here interestingly describes the Manhood as the “Instrument” of the Logos which resembles Aquinas's description of Christ's humanity as the “instrument” of the Godhead). “God in Christ combats and prevails over the ‘tyrants’ which hold mankind in bondage.” Aulén, Christus Victor, 55 (my italics). All of these statements by Aulén resemble the Pauline formula that he quoted on page 31: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.”

53 ST III, q. 48, a. 3.

54 Ibid.

55 Aulén, Christus Victor, 31, 57-58, 77, 153.

56 ST III, q. 48, a. 3.

57 Aulén, Christus Victor, 31, 57-58, 77, 153.

58 “Christ is not said to have reconciled us with God, as if God had begun anew to love us . . . .” ST III, q. 49, a. 4, ad. 2. “[Christ's] ‘satisfaction’ changes us (and our relationship with God), not God as such.” Van Nieuwenhove, Rik, “Bearing the Marks of Christ's Passion: Aquinas Soteriology,” in The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, eds. Van Nieuwenhove, Rik and Wawrykow, Joseph (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), 291Google Scholar.

59 Aulén, Christus Victor, 4.

60 Ibid., ix.

61 For further reading on Aquinas's analysis of Christ's temptations, see Torrell, Jean-Pierre O.P., Encyclopédie Jésus le Christ chez saint Thomas d'Aquin (Paris: Cerf. 2008), 1137-1143Google Scholar; Torrell, Jean-Pierre, Le Christ en ses mystères. La vie et l 'œuvre de Jésus selon saint Thomas d'Aquin, vol 2, coll. Jésus et Jésus-Christ, 78 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1986), 224-242Google Scholar; Gondreau, Paul, The Passions of Christ's Soul in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Heidgerken, Benjamin E., The Christ and the Tempter: Christ's Temptation by the Devil in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Thomas Aquinas, Ph.D. Diss. (University of Dayton, May 2015)Google Scholar.

62 The Tertia Pars of the Summa Theologiae was written in approximately 1272-73 and the Commentary on Matthew in approximately 1269-70. See Torrell, Jean-Pierre O.P., Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1: The Person and His Work. Translated by Royal, Robert (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 147, 212, 240, 261, 339Google Scholar.

63 ST III, q. 41, a. 1.

64 Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 1-12 (hereafter In Matt.). Translated by Holmes, Jeremy (Wisconsin: The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, 2013), 4 lec. 1, 311Google Scholar.

65 ST III, q. 41, a. 1.

66 In Matt., 4 lec. 1, 307-308.

67 ST III, q. 41, a. 1.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid.

70 My italics.

71 ST III, q. 41, a. 2.

72 In Matt. 4 lec. 1, 309.

73 ST III, q. 41, a. 2.

74 ST III, q. 41, a. 2, ad. 1.

75 ST III, q. 41, a. 2, ad. 2.

76 In Matt. 4 lec. 1, 345.

77 ST III, q. 41, a. 3.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 ST III, q. 1. a. 2. The first series of italicized words is in the translation and is a quote from Augustine. The separated italicized word “by” is mine.

81 ST III, q. 46, a. 2, ad 3. My italics.

82 ST III, q. 46, a. 3, ad. 3. The italicized word “by” is mine.