Annotation CCXXXI

”For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith.” — Romans 1:17

Whether those who scrutinize the divine mysteries are to be condemned.

Chrysostom, near the end of the second homily on the epistle to the Romans: “BUT IF it is dangerous to investigate those [things] which God has commanded, and the utmost punishment awaits curious men: what defense, in the end, will those have who presume to scrutinize [things] far more hidden than these, and more to be reverenced? — that is, in what way, and by what reason, God begot [his] Son, and what is his substance.” And in the eighth homily on the epistle to the Romans: “BUT IF, scrutinizing and searching out these lower [things], we give not honor to God, we

—we give [honor to God]: much more, investigating the origin of the Lord with superfluous curiosity, shall we suffer the extreme [punishment], as [those] who have affected God with contumelies. For if it is impious to scrutinize the figure of the resurrection, much more [impious to scrutinize] those hidden [things], dreadful and full of reverence.” Lucian the Monk — wholly devoid of scholastic theology, and on that account the perpetual enemy of the scholastic name — in the Annotations upon Chrysostom (reprobated by the Council of Trent), on the occasion of these words, harasses the scholastic theologians, and accuses [them] of temerity, because they dare to enter the innermost recesses of the most sacred Trinity, and to define with fixed assertion in what [respects] each person differs from the others, [and] in what [respects] it agrees. Nor does this inept and miserable manikin observe that Chrysostom’s words are aimed especially at those who search out [things] of this kind with an ambitious and empty curiosity, and with arrogant haughtiness — not against the pious and catholic theologians, who investigate these [things] with humble and reverent study, for the glory of God, for the defense of the faith, and for the overthrow of the heretics.