Dist. 44, Part 1, Art. 3, Q. 1
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/44/q/bon-sent-IV-d44-p1-a3-q1
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### Article III. *What the bodies of those rising again will be like.*

Next, as to the third article, it is asked what the bodies of those rising again will be like. And concerning this two questions are asked. First it is asked about their quality with respect to the elect. Second, with respect to the reprobate.

### Question I. *Whether the bodies of the elect rise again with deformities.*

As to the first, then, it is asked whether the bodies of the elect rise again with deformities. And that they do not, it seems.

1. Augustine, *On the City of God*, book twenty-two: "From the bodies of the elect there will be absent every deformity, every infirmity, and all slowness": therefore if these pertain to deformities, they too will lack them; it is evident, etc.

2. Likewise, nothing will rise again in the elect that is not of the comeliness of nature; for, as Augustine says, "from the bodies of the elect the vices will be taken away, and nature will be preserved"; but deformities are not of nature, therefore etc. *Proof of the minor*: on that passage to the Ephesians, chapter two: *We were by nature children of wrath*; the Gloss: "Nature is said truly and properly [to be] such as it was without fault in the first parents": therefore since deformities were not in it, it is evident, etc.

3. Likewise, the begetter transmits into the offspring everything that is of the truth of its own nature, when it begets without error, inasmuch as by nature the begetter begets what is like itself; but a begetter having a deformity, without error of nature begets one not having the deformity: therefore the deformity is not in it as of the truth of its own nature: therefore if only that will rise again in the elect which is of the truth of nature, deformities will not rise again in them.

4. Likewise, Anselm in the book *On Truth* says that "truth is a rectitude perceptible by the mind alone": therefore what is not of the rectitude of nature is not of the truth of nature; but deformity is not of the rectitude of nature, therefore it is not of the truth of nature: therefore it will not rise again in the elect.

**On the contrary:** 1. Flesh contracted from the begetters is of the truth of human nature; but a hunched back and many other deformities can be contracted from the begetters: therefore they are of the truth of human nature. But every such thing will rise again in the elect: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, of the truth of human nature there are members not only functional but also homogeneous [*consimilia*]; but in deformities of this kind there is something of the substance of a homogeneous member, as is evident, since in  a hump there is something of the substance of the flesh: therefore there is something of the truth of human nature: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, since the soul merited in the body, it ought also to be rewarded in the body, and this because the body is joined to it: if therefore the soul of a just man merited in deformities and through the deformities which it humbly bore: therefore it ought to be rewarded in them.

4. Likewise, the scars which were inflicted on the Martyrs by violence remain in glory as a sign of merit and triumph: therefore by parity of reasoning the deformities which are from nature, in which our soul merited [remain likewise].

> **Conclusion.** In the bodies of the elect no deformity will rise again, yet the matter of some deformity will rise again.

**I respond:** It must be said that some deformities are qualitative, such as those which come from a bad and disordered position of the members. Some are quantitative, as when someone has too large a head, or too large members, so that they are out of proportion to the others, or has humps, or such things in which there is something of the substance of the flesh. If we speak of the first, since they are not of the truth of human nature, but rather come about wholly through error, it must be said that they will in no way rise again in the elect. If we speak of the second, since there is there something of substance, something of viciousness, what is of substance will rise again, what is of viciousness will be taken away; that is to say, that the matter of that member will be diffused through the other members with respect to the superfluity, so that nothing will perish, and yet the whole will be reduced throughout to proportion. And thus it is evident that in the elect no deformity will rise again, yet the matter of some deformity will rise again. — And thus the arguments showing that they will not rise again are to be conceded.

*To 1 and 2.* The two [arguments] brought for the opposite are nonetheless to be conceded, [namely] that what is of the substance of the deformity will rise again, yet under the aspect of beauty.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that just men merit through deformities, it must be said that to merit through something is twofold: either [something] that has imperfection according to the state of merit, yet not according to its own form and nature; or [something] that has imperfection according to its own nature, as is evident, since one merits through charity, in which imperfection inheres only by reason of state, and merits through faith, in which imperfection inheres by reason of form. In the first we are rewarded through its perfection; in the second we are rewarded through its emptying-out, since faith is not apt to stand together with completed perfection. In this way it must be understood in bodily things; whence, since the human body is not repugnant to the state of perfection with respect to nature, but with respect to state, whereas deformity, with respect to its own proper character, is repugnant to perfection; hence it is that the body ought to rise again and be resumed, but deformity by no means.

*To 4.* To that which is objected concerning scars, it must be said that either the scars will not rise again, or, if they do rise again, they will so contribute to the comeliness and glory of the soul that they will not diminish the beauty of the body, since often such marks render the body more comely. Since, therefore, a scar can be without ugliness, but a deformity always deforms, therefore deformity does not befit the bodies of the elect in the way a scar does.