Scholasticism and New Philology: Giles of Viterbo, O. E. S. A. (1469–1532), On Divine Generation

Abstract

From the earliest Christian centuries, the doctrine of divine generation brought forth an abundant and controversial literature. From the Father-Son terminology in the Old and New Testaments, to the Gospel of John's repeated naming of Christ as,unigenitus a patre, only begotten of the Father, to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed's proclamation of “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father,” to the Council of Chalcedon's proclamation that the divine Son was “begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead,” the articulation was vast and prolific. Further, the formula that emerged victorious and enduring in late antiquity still challenged and urged later theologians to write treatises on the doctrine for centuries to come.Thatthe Father is presented as uniquely the Father of the Son, and the Son uniquely the Son of the Father is a dogmatic formula based on revelation, buthowGod begets God without either making himself or another God was a question formulated to approach theologically the complexities of the divine Trinity, particularly the relation among the three distinct divine persons in one divine nature.