Dist. 9, Art. 1, Q. 4
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/1/d/9/q/bon-sent-I-d9-a1-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether the generation of the Son is terminated.*

Fourthly and lastly it is asked, whether the generation of the Son is terminated. And that it is so, seems [the case].

1. Augustine in the *Book of Eighty-Three Questions*: "He who is always being born is never born, and accordingly is never a son." Therefore no one is to be called a son through generation, until the generation

is terminated; but the Word of the Father is rightly called a perfect Son: therefore his generation is terminated.

2. Likewise, by reason it is shown thus: to-be-produced is terminated at being-produced, therefore to-be-generated [is terminated] at being-generated; but the Son of God is generated and born: therefore his production or generation is terminated.

3. Likewise, it is more noble to be generated than to be generating, because to be generating is the way to being-generated, and not conversely; but what is more noble is to be attributed to God: therefore being-generated ought rather to be attributed to him than being-generating: therefore the generation of the Son is spoken of as in [its] termination.

4. Likewise, in generation, which is always in [the act of] generating, something or someone is always being produced; but that which has been produced is not produced [further], according to that by which it has been produced: therefore it must be either that there is repetition, or that one generated thing succeeds [another] in such a generation; but in the Son of God there is neither succession nor repetition: therefore neither continuous generation: therefore the generation of the Son of God is terminated.

**On the contrary:**

1. The Damascene: "God, being infinitely and without time, generates infinitely and unceasingly": therefore the generation never terminates.

2. Likewise, by reason this same thing seems able to be shown. The eternal does not have itself otherwise now than before, but always entirely uniformly: therefore if the Father from the beginning always generates, he still generates; otherwise he would have himself otherwise now than before, and so the eternal generation would be changed.

3. Likewise, the simple and the infinite lack every term; but the generation of the Son is simple and infinite: therefore the generation of the Son lacks every term. That it is infinite, is plain, because the Son is infinite, and again the generation itself is eternal, and the eternal is infinite in duration.

4. Likewise, more perfect is a power always conjoined to act than [one which is] not always [so]: therefore more perfect is the fecundity always conjoined to the act of generation, especially since the fecundity of generating is not lost, but rather perfected: if therefore in God there is perfect fecundity, he therefore always generates; but he does not generate any other than the Son: therefore the Son is always being generated.

> **Conclusion.** The divine generation must be called terminated, insofar as this word excludes imperfection, but unterminated, insofar as it excludes [the limit of] duration.

**Respondeo:** For the understanding of the foregoing it must be noted that there are some things in which to-be and to-have-been-made are the same, but to-become and to-be differ — as are those whose being is permanent and does not depend wholly upon the producing principle, but rather have some ground of subsisting within themselves, whether through their own principles or [those] of the subject, as substances and innate accidents. There are some in which to-be and to-have-been-made differ, but to-become and to-be are the same — as are successive things, whose being depends wholly upon the producing principle as existing in its actuality, as are motions and changes. There are some in which to-become and to-be and to-have-been-made are the same — as are those which have permanent being and depend totally upon the producing principle, as it exists in its actuality in the same mode by which [it existed] at the beginning, not only in itself but also with respect to the produced thing, in such a way that a like mode of actuality is regarded with respect to both; and such are influences, whether bodily or spiritual. Hence Augustine in the eighth [book] *On Genesis according to the Letter* says that light is always being born and, while it is being born, it is, whence the air is always illumined and is always being illumined. He says entirely the same of the spiritual light, which is grace.

If therefore the Son of God has most-permanent being

and being most-conjoined to the productive principle, as [a being] existing in its actuality, because the Son himself is pure act; entirely the same is in him to-be-born and to-have-been-born; and therefore he is always being born and is always born and always is, nor does he ever cease nor leave off being generated, nor [does] the Father [leave off] generating.

When, therefore, it is asked whether the generation of the Son is terminated, a distinction must be made: because "terminated" either excludes imperfection — and thus the generation of the Son is terminated, because perfect, since they are simultaneously, indeed the same is to-be-generated and to-have-been-generated. But if it should exclude duration, [then] it is false, because it always endures.

I therefore grant that the generation of the Son is unterminated by reason of ceasing, because it never ceases to be generated, as the reasons adduced for the second part prove.

**To the arguments for the affirmative side:**

1. To that which is objected on the contrary, that *He who is always being born is never born*; it must be said that this is true in that generation in which to-be-born and to-have-been-born differ; but the divine generation is not such. Nevertheless, because the divine generation is understood through created generation, and in creatures of one perfectly born one does not say "is being born" but "has been born": therefore Augustine holds that it is better said that the Son "has been born", because it is more intelligible, not because to be born does not befit him.

2. 3. To that which is objected, that to-be-produced is terminated at being-produced, and likewise, that being-generated is more noble than being-in-generation; it must be said that all these things have place only there, where to-be-generated and to-have-been-generated differ. In that generation, however, they have no place.

4. To that which is objected last, that in generation, which is always in [the act of] generating etc.; it is to be solved by way of refutation; for it is not true that a generation always being always produces something anew, because a ray always arises from the sun, and yet it is not always repeated nor does it succeed [itself], but from its origin it is continued in being.