Quid per prius datur. La doctrina tomasiana del doble orden de prioridad entre el don creado y el Don increado

Abstract

The communication to the rational creature of the gift of grace and the Gift of the Holy Spirit, being simultaneous, comprises a certain order which itself includes diverse modes of order. This doctrine of Saint Thomas is of extreme importance for a more complete understanding of some of the great theological questions which characterize his thought, such as those concerned with Trinitarian inhabitation and justification. In this present study we intend to deepen this teaching from the background of that offered in the Summa Halensis by John of La Rochelle, his immediate, most important and influential predecessor in this question. Following the order of exposition in the Commentary on the Sentences, we consider in turn the fact of the conjoined giving of the created gift and the uncreated Gift, and the order between them, themes which suppose the philosophical doctrines of the relation of ratio and of principle, of order and its modes.