Dist. 43, Art. 1, Q. 6
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/4/d/43/q/bon-sent-IV-d43-a1-q6
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### Question VI. *What is the cause of our resurrection.*

In the sixth place it is asked what is the cause of our resurrection; and that [it is] the resurrection of Christ [is shown]:

**1.** The Gloss says on that passage to the Romans, chapter one: *From the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ*: "Christ's resurrection effects our general resurrection." The Gloss says the same thing on that verse of the Psalm: *At evening weeping will tarry.*

**2.** Likewise, it seems [so] *by reason*, because the Apostle argues thus: if Christ has risen, we too shall rise; but such an argument would not hold unless there were some relation of causality of Christ's resurrection to our resurrection: therefore etc.

Likewise, it seems that the *voice of Christ* is the cause.

**3.** On that verse of the Psalm: *He will give to his voice a voice of power*, the Gloss says: "of raising the dead."

**4.** Likewise, this same thing seems [to hold] *by reason*: because that is the cause of the awakening in one asleep which, when heard, awakens him, namely the voice of the one calling; but the dead in their tombs will be awakened by hearing the voice of the Son of God: therefore etc. The *minor* is clear from John, chapter five: *All who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God.*

**On the contrary:** That the *resurrection of Christ* is not in any way the cause seems [to hold]:

**1.** Because that without which the thing would [still] exist is not a cause; but even if Christ had not risen, the dead would nevertheless rise, because it was necessary that the wicked at least be requited in soul and body or be punished, and the good also, who have merited [it].

**2.** Likewise, if it is a cause, I ask, in what genus? Not *efficient*; this is agreed, because Christ's resurrection is past; but whatever is past does not effect that which is future. Not *final* nor *material*; this is agreed: therefore it is *exemplary*. But *on the contrary*: an exemplary cause does not entail its effect; but Christ's resurrection entails ours: therefore etc.

**3.** Likewise, the resurrection of the wicked is not made like to Christ's resurrection: therefore it is not the exemplar of the resurrection of the wicked, therefore neither of the general resurrection.

Likewise, that the *voice of Christ* is not the cause seems [to hold]:

**4.** Because the resurrection happens *suddenly*, and it is of equal power to reform the body as [to reform] the soul; but this belongs to infinite power, and that belongs to the Son of God: therefore etc.

**5.** Likewise, if the dead hear the voice, [it is] either *before* they rise or *after*. If *before*: then they hear before they live; if *after*: then the voice was not the cause of the resurrection.

**6.** Likewise, on that verse: *He will give to his voice a voice of power*, the Gloss says: "of raising up bodies"; but when some power is given to someone, although it be given miraculously, the operation proceeding from it is nevertheless natural, as is clear in a blind man given sight: therefore if it is by a power given to the voice, the resurrection is natural, the contrary of which has been shown above.

### Conclusion

> **Conclusion.** The resurrection and voice of Christ are in some way the cause, both exemplary and instrumental, of our resurrection.

**I respond:** It must be said that in Christ there is to be assigned a twofold cause of our resurrection, namely an *efficient* and an *exemplary* one. The *efficient* [cause], moreover, is to be assigned in two ways: either as *first principle* or as *instrument*. The efficient [cause] as first principle is Christ according to [his] Divinity and the whole Trinity; the efficient [cause] as instrument is the voice of Christ, at whose utterance and calling the dead will rise. — Similarly the *exemplary* cause is twofold: one, in which the thing is *known and disposed*, and thus it is the Son of God according to the divine nature and the whole Trinity; in another way, in which the thing is *begun and exemplified*, and thus it is the resurrection of Christ; because, as Augustine says *On the City of God*, "our bodies will be such as Christ showed by his resurrection." Hence it was as it were an exemplar, in which our resurrection has been begun, as of the members in the head, as is said to the Ephesians, chapter two: *He made us alive together with Christ and raised us up* etc. — It is clear, therefore, how Christ's resurrection and his voice is the cause of our resurrection. And because the resurrection and voice belong to the Son of God in the flesh, therefore Augustine says on John, chapter five, that through the Word made flesh comes about the resurrection of bodies.

**To the arguments to the contrary:**

**1.** To that which is objected, that otherwise there would be a resurrection etc.; it must be said that God would then act otherwise; but since he decreed to act thus, this is the cause.

**2.** To that which is objected, that the exemplar does not entail [its effect]; it must be said that this is true of an exemplar in which the thing is *known*; nevertheless an exemplar in which the thing is *begun*, where it cannot be left imperfect, entails [its effect] of necessity; hence just as a head cannot be without members, so neither [can there be] a resurrection of the head without a resurrection of the members following.

**3.** To that which is objected, that it is not made like; it must be said that it is not perfectly made like to the resurrection of the wicked — and therefore they are not perfectly exemplified — yet it is made like in the renewed vivification of the body and in the indissoluble union; and therefore it is the exemplar of the general resurrection.

**4.** To that which is objected about the voice of Christ, that it is not the cause, because the resurrection is a work of infinite power; it can be said, as was said above concerning the Sacraments, that God will act by infinite power, though at the utterance of the voice; hence there is not there *properly* a causality.

**5.** To that which is objected: when do they hear the voice? it must be said that [they rise] *at the same time*, yet they rise *prior in nature* to their hearing; hence the hearing of the voice does not raise [them], but the power accompanying the voice. But in bodily awakening, it must be said that the hearing of the voice awakens; but in hearing there are two things, namely the reception of the species in the organ and the judgment about the thing received; as regards reception it precedes the awakening, but as regards judgment it follows.

**6.** To that which is objected last about the operation of that voice, that it is natural; it must be said that, just as to holy men is given the grace of miracles and the power of raising the dead, not because they themselves raise [them] by something which is in themselves, but because God acts at their petition: so in the case at hand it is to be understood

that God acts; and thus it is a miracle, if [the dead] are raised at that voice, just as if at the prayers of Paul.

Furthermore, granted that a power be given; because it is [directed] to an act above nature and to a mode of operating above nature, hence it is that it goes forth miraculously into its operation, as is clear by the example of the power of childbearing, which is said to have been given to the blessed Virgin.

Thus therefore it is clear that the resurrection of Christ and [his] voice are the cause in some way, yet the principal cause is the power of God and the wisdom of God; and Christ's resurrection entails our resurrection either *by hypothesis* — as if one soul is immortal, so are all; likewise if one has risen, so [shall] all — or *by the topic from the lesser*, because the blessed soul of Christ needed the body less than others; or *by the topic from the exemplary cause* related to the efficient [cause], namely because therein our resurrection has been begun, and for our sake Christ was incarnate, suffered and died, and rose again for our sake also, and our resurrection has been begun in him as in a certain exemplar: therefore if the works of God are perfect, it is fitting *that this corruptible put on incorruption*. And thus that [matter] is clear.

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