Dist. 28, 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/3/d/28/q/bon-sent-III-d28-a1-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether our bodies are to be loved out of charity.*

Fourthly it is asked whether our bodies are to be loved out of charity. And it seems that they are not.

1. John, chapter twelve: *He who loves his soul shall lose it;* but it is agreed that "soul" stands there only for "carnal life": therefore if carnal life in this world is to be hated, it seems that our bodies are to be hated, and therefore not to be loved out of charity.

2. Likewise, nothing is to be loved out of charity which hinders a man from the attainment of beatitude; but our flesh is of this kind, because the flesh lusts against the spirit, according to what is said in Galatians, chapter five; and in Romans, chapter seven: *I find in my members that which opposes the law* etc.: therefore if our bodies hinder us from attaining beatitude, it seems that they are not to be loved out of charity.

3. Likewise, charity never fails: therefore those things are to be loved out of charity which never fail; but bodies are corrupted: therefore they are not to be loved out of charity.

4. Likewise, the character of image, or the express assimilation to God, is that which causes a rational creature to be loved out of charity, as is clear from what precedes; but in the body we have something in common with the brutes, nor is the perfection of the image found in us on the side of the body: it seems therefore that our bodies are not to be loved out of charity, just as neither are the brute animals.

**On the contrary:**
1. To the Ephesians, chapter five: *Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies:* if therefore the Apostle exhorts to the loving of wives out of charity; since they are to be loved in like manner as bodies, it seems that our bodies are to be loved out of charity.

2. Likewise, Augustine says in the book *On Christian Doctrine*: « There are four things to be loved », and having set down three, he adds: « the fourth, that which is below us, namely our body »: if therefore Augustine there enumerates the things to be loved out of charity precisely and properly, it seems that our bodies are to be loved out of charity.

3. Likewise, everything capable of being made blessed is capable of being loved out of charity; but our body will share with the soul in the participation of felicity: therefore it ought likewise to share in the love of charity.

4. Likewise, in the order of charity blood-relations are to be put before strangers according to Ambrose; but consanguinity exists only on the side of bodies: if therefore this condition renders men more lovable, it seems that our bodies are numbered among those things which are to be loved out of charity.

> **Conclusion.** Our bodies, since they are capable of beatitude by a certain overflow, are to be loved out of charity.

**I respond:** It must be said that, since charity is a weight inclining toward the highest Good and perfect beatitude, it causes everything to be loved which is blessed or capable of being made blessed. Since therefore it happens that something is blessed in a threefold way, namely by essence and by a primary influx and by a certain overflow; hence it is that all these things are to be loved out of charity, according to before and after, according to more and less. Now blessed by essence is God alone; blessed by a primary influx is the rational spirit; blessed finally by a certain overflow is the human body, into which the joy of glory overflows through the conjunction of itself to the blessed soul. Hence it is that charity causes us to love not only God and the rational spirit, but also our body. — It must therefore be conceded, as has been proved, that our bodies are to be loved out of charity; and the reasons adduced for this side are also to be conceded.

1. To that, then, which is objected, that God exhorts us in the Gospel to hate the carnal life; it must be said that in our body there is the viciousness of concupiscence and the goodness of nature. And because the viciousness of concupiscence inclines toward evil, therefore it is to be hated; and if anyone loves it, he hates his own soul; but because the goodness of nature is ordered toward the highest Good to be in a certain way co-participated, therefore it is to be loved. Since therefore the Lord exhorts to the hating of our soul or carnal life; it must be said that this does not conclude that our bodies are not to be loved absolutely, but that they are not to be loved as regards the viciousness of concupiscence.

2. And by this is made clear the response to the following reason: because the flesh does not oppose the spirit nor hinder from attaining beatitude on account of the condition of nature, but on account of the viciousness of contracted concupiscence.

3. To that which is objected, that those things which are corrupted ought not to be loved out of charity, since charity never fails; it must be said that, although our body is corruptible for a time and according to the present state, it is nevertheless ordained to perpetual incorruption. Hence although it is now sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; and therefore, although the body is corruptible as regards the infirmity of fallen nature, it does not follow that it is not lovable out of charity as regards the truth of nature, according to which it is ordained to perpetual incorruption.

4. To that which is objected, that the character of image and express assimilation, which causes a rational creature to be loved out of charity, is not found in the body; it must be said that it is true, speaking per se, that the character of image does this. But although the human body is not unto the image of God per se, it is nevertheless united to the soul, which is unto the image of God — united, I say, in the unity of nature; and by reason of that it is capable of co-participating beatitude; and as it is capable of co-participating beatitude, so it is to be loved out of charity, namely by that account by which it is united to the rational soul; and this is proper to the human body in respect of any other body whatever. Therefore the case is not the same with regard to other bodies and irrational animals.

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