Fontalis plenitudo. „Źródłowa pełnia” według św. Bonawentury

Abstract

In his Trinitarian theology Bonaventure stresses the primariness (primitas) of God the Father. In this idea he refers to the Neoplatonism of Pseudo-Dionysius and Richard of St Victor. Bonaventure describes the Father using the notion of personal property. It is a notion that helps in distinguishing the persons in the Trinity. In this he differs from Thomas Aquinas who stresses the interpersonal relations. According to Bonaventure the particular personal property of the Father is originating fullness (fontalis plenitudo) which is the ultimate source of all properties including his being inoriginated (innascibilitas). One of the questions developed by Bonaventure is: Does the Father generate the Son because he is father or is he father because he generates the Son? Following the principle agere sequitur esse he responds: The Father generates the Son because he is father. A contemporary theologian, J. Galot, adds that the Father is father in the act of generating. So the fatherhood of God the Father does not precede the generation nor the generation precedes the fatherhood. This apparently subtle question has some consequences for Arian controversy: if the fatherhood of the Father precedes the generation of the Son, there could be a time in which the Father was alone without the Son (!). Fontalis plenitudo is an important property of the Father because it explains the relation between being inoriginated and being father, no it explains the notion of the fatherhood of God the Father and the union of the Father and the Son in the act of spiration of the Holy Spirit. The Father as fontalis plenitudo is the ultimate origin of all (omnimoda principalitas) even in the divine being, he is the priciple of the whole divinity [principium totius deitatis). Using the contemporary Trinitarian language we can say that this plenitudo is the fullness of the divine love. In the theology of St Bonaventure there are other forms of fullness. In the Father there is fontalis plenitudo, in Christ there is plenitudo superabundantiae, in the Holy Spirit - plenitudo redundantiae, in the creatures - plenitudo praerogativae (in St Mary - St Luke 1:28) or plenitudo sufficientiae (in Stephen — Rev 6:8), or plenitudo numerositatis (regarding the Church — Eph 4:10). The idea of Bonventurian plenitudo can be summerized in this statement: The Father is originating fullness which is the fullness of the love shared by the divine persons and spread over the creatures.