6. Growth and Enumeration of Articles of Faith

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Article 7: Does Faith Grow According to Time? #

Central Question: Do the articles of faith increase or develop through the succession of times?

Core Principle: The substance of articles remains constant across all times, but their explicit formulation increases. Later believers explicitly know what earlier believers knew only implicitly.

The Implicit-Explicit Distinction:

• All later articles are implicitly contained in earlier, more fundamental beliefs
• Example: The mystery of redemption implicitly contains the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ
• Development is from implicit to explicit, not a change in substance
• Analogous to how axioms in geometry contain implicitly what theorems make explicit

Pedagogical Explanation: God reveals faith progressively to humanity, like a teacher revealing an art gradually to a student who cannot grasp it all at once:

• The mind sees things “paulatim” (bit by bit)
• God adapts revelation to human capacity and the needs of each time
• The Old Testament state is compared to childhood (Galatians 4:3)

Foundational Articles:

• God is (existence)
• God has providence concerning human salvation (divine care)
• These two foundational beliefs contain implicitly all other articles
• Just as all axioms reduce to the principle of non-contradiction, all articles reduce to these foundational truths

Distance from Christ as Measure of Clarity: Those nearer to Christ (John the Baptist, the apostles) understood the mysteries more fully. The farther in time from Christ’s coming, the more obscurely things were known.

Article 8: How Are Articles of Faith Enumerated? #

Problem: How should the fourteen articles be properly enumerated and organized?

Division Principle: Articles are distinguished by the special difficulties encountered in believing them.

Two Major Categories based on John 17:3 (“eternal life is knowing you, the true God, and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ”):

1. Majesty of Divinity (7 articles)
2. Mystery of Humanity of Christ (7 articles)

The Seven Articles of Divinity:

1. Unity of God (one God)
2. Trinity of Persons (three articles, one for each person: Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
3. Divine Works (three articles):
   • Creation (being of nature)
   • Sanctification (being of grace)
   • Resurrection and Eternal Life (being of glory)

The Seven Articles of Humanity:

1. Incarnation/Conception of Christ
2. Nativity from the Virgin
3. Passion, Death, and Burial
4. Descent to Hell
5. Resurrection
6. Ascension
7. Coming for Judgment

Significance: The total of fourteen articles mirrors the structure of Aristotle’s Metaphysics (fourteen books), suggesting a natural fit with human understanding.

The Rule of Two or Three Division: Human understanding naturally divides into two or three parts, not more. Berquist emphasizes:

• Socrates and Plato always divided by opposites (two)
• Aristotle noted three is the first number about which we say “all”
• Any more complex structure should subdivide two or three parts further
• Examples: youth/prime/old age; appetizer/main course/dessert; grammar school/high school/college

Key Arguments #

Objection 1: Things Always the Same Are Believed #

Objection: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for. In all times, the same things should be hoped for. Therefore, in all times, the same things are believed.”

Thomas’s Response: True, the same things are ultimately hoped for, but men did not arrive at hoping for them except through Christ. Those remote from Christ in time were farther from the achievement of these things. What is seen from a distance is seen less distinctly; therefore, goods hoped for are more distinctly known by those near to Christ’s coming.

Objection 2: God Has Perfect Knowledge from Eternity #

Objection: “If God has perfect knowledge from eternity, and faith is a gift from God (not from human defect), then knowledge of faith must have been perfect from the beginning and could not increase.”

Thomas’s Response: Distinguishes two causes in generation:

• Agent cause (the mover/maker): acts from what is perfect, so God has eternal perfect knowledge
• Material cause (the receiver): receives imperfectly and must progress from imperfect to perfect

God is the agent cause (perfect); man is the material cause (receiving the divine influx progressively). Therefore, it is necessary for knowledge of faith in men to proceed from imperfect to perfect, even though God’s knowledge is eternal and complete.

Objection 3: Nature Takes Its Beginning from the Perfect #

Objection: “The operation of grace is not less orderly than the operation of nature. Nature always takes its beginning from the perfect (Boethius). Therefore, grace should begin from perfect things. The apostles should have known perfectly, not we.”

Thomas’s Response: This objection conflates two different orders:

• Order of agent cause: Nature begins from what is perfect (the mover)
• Order of material cause: Nature begins from what is imperfect (the recipient)

God as agent has perfect knowledge eternally. But men as recipients must proceed from imperfect to perfect knowledge.

Objection 4: The Apostles Were Most Fully Instructed #

Objection: “The apostles were ‘plenissime’ (most fully) instructed in mysteries. They had the first fruits of the Spirit. Therefore, how can we be superior? The knowledge of faith did not grow through succession of times.”

Thomas’s Response: True, those nearer to Christ (whether before like John the Baptist or after like the apostles) knew mysteries more fully and pleniously. The apostles had more abundant knowledge than those who came later. But this is not an argument against development—it confirms the principle that proximity to Christ determines clarity of knowledge. The Church’s explicit understanding develops after the apostles’ time, even though the apostles themselves had more complete knowledge.

Important Definitions #

Implicitum vs. Explicitum #

• Implicitly: Contained within but not yet distinguished or formulated
• Explicitly: Clearly distinguished and separately formulated
• The development of faith is movement from implicit to explicit understanding, not a change in substance

Substantia Fidei (Substance of Faith) #

• The unchanging core truth of faith across all times
• Contains all later formulations implicitly
• Remains one and the same for all believers

Articulus Fidei (Article of Faith) #

• An indivisible truth about God distinguished by special difficulty in believing
• Pertains to things unseen (fides… de non apparentibus)
• Distinguished by the way it manifests a particular difficulty not evident in other articles

Paulatim #

• Latin adverb meaning “bit by bit” or “gradually”
• Describes how the human mind receives divine revelation and truth progressively
• Used by Thomas to characterize the pedagogical nature of divine teaching

Examples & Illustrations #

The Pedagogical Model #

Euclid’s Elements:

• Begins with axioms and postulates that are known through themselves
• All theorems are implicitly contained in these axioms, though made explicit through demonstration
• Order can sometimes be rearranged because these truths are so closely related

Aristotle’s Metaphysics IX (on Motion and Act):

• First book discusses motion and abilities for motion generally
• Second book distinguishes different senses of ability
• Many more distinctions emerge in the second treatment
• Not presented in the first book because the reader was not ready
• Demonstrates how understanding must proceed gradually from simple to complex

Bread and Wine at the Last Supper #

Why Natural Things Made by Humans Rather Than Purely Natural Things?

• Christ chose bread and wine (made by human hands) rather than water or apples (purely natural)
• Things we make ourselves, we seem to understand best in pedagogy
• By choosing things made by us, Christ demands even greater faith from us
• Shows the desire for human cooperation in the sacrament
• Demonstrates that even in the sacraments, the principle of progressive revelation through familiar things applies

Historical Examples of Explicit Development #

The Immaculate Conception and Assumption:

• Called the “Marian century” (19th-20th centuries)
• Defined explicitly in modern times
• Were known and believed implicitly much earlier
• Berquist’s teacher, Charles De Connick, was consulted by Pius XII on whether the Assumption should be defined
• These developments exemplify the progression from implicit to explicit knowledge in the Church’s faith

The Fourfold Division in Categories #

Before/After in Aristotle’s Categories:

• Before in duration (time)
• Before in nature (being)
• Before in knowledge
• Before in dignity/worth

Thomas applies this distinction to show the Father is not “before” the Son in any of these senses, maintaining perfect equality while preserving relational distinction.

Questions Addressed #

Does Faith Grow Over Time? #

Question: If all things to be hoped for remain the same, and faith is God’s perfect gift from eternity, how can articles of faith increase?

Answer: The substance of faith does not increase, but its explicit formulation does. Like a teacher revealing an art gradually to a student, God reveals what is necessary for each time. Those farther from Christ see less distinctly; those nearer understand more fully.

Why Distinguish by Difficulty Rather Than Other Principles? #

Question: Why are articles distinguished by the special difficulty of believing them rather than some other organizing principle?

Answer: Articles are about things unseen. Where there is special difficulty in believing something unseen and necessary for salvation, a distinct article must be recognized and taught explicitly. The difficulty marks the point where explicit formulation becomes necessary.

What Principle Organizes the Fourteen Articles? #

Question: How should the articles be systematized into an intelligible order?

Answer: Two categories based on John 17:3:

1. Things pertaining to God’s divinity that we hope to see
2. Things pertaining to Christ’s humanity through which we gain access to that vision

Each category contains seven articles, divided and subdivided by the principle of two or three to match natural human understanding.

Why Are There Disagreements About the Total Number of Articles? #

Question: Some traditions distinguish twelve articles (six on divinity, six on humanity) with each apostle contributing one. Thomas distinguishes fourteen. How are these compatible?

Answer: (Implied) Different enumeration methods emphasize different organizing principles, but all teach the same substance of faith. The tradition of twelve (one per apostle) and the structure of fourteen both capture the same faith but organize it differently.