Whether the Son of God Assumed a Person?
Objection 1: It would seem that the Son of God assumed a person. For
Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 11) that the Son of God "assumed
human nature _in atomo,"_ i.e. in an individual. But an individual in
rational nature is a person, as is plain from Boethius (De Duab.
Nat.). Therefore the Son of God assumed a person.
Obj. 2: Further, Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 6) that the Son
of God "assumed what He had sown in our nature." But He sowed our
personality there. Therefore the Son of God assumed a person.
Obj. 3: Further, nothing is absorbed unless it exist. But Innocent
III [*Paschas. Diac., De Spiritu Sanct. ii] says in a Decretal that
"the Person of God absorbed the person of man." Therefore it would
seem that the person of man existed previous to its being assumed.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine [*Fulgentius] says (De Fide ad Petrum
ii) that "God assumed the nature, not the person, of man."
_I answer that,_ A thing is said to be assumed inasmuch as it is
taken into another. Hence, what is assumed must be presupposed to the
assumption, as what is moved locally is presupposed to the motion.
Now a person in human nature is not presupposed to assumption;
rather, it is the term of the assumption, as was said (Q. 3, AA. 1,
2). For if it were presupposed, it must either have been
corrupted--in which case it was useless; or it remains after the
union--and thus there would be two persons, one assuming and the
other assumed, which is false, as was shown above (Q. 2, A. 6). Hence
it follows that the Son of God nowise assumed a human person.
Reply Obj. 1: The Son of God assumed human nature _in atomo,_ i.e. in
an individual, which is no other than the uncreated suppositum, the
Person of the Son of God. Hence it does not follow that a person was
assumed.
Reply Obj. 2: Its proper personality is not wanting to the nature
assumed through the loss of anything pertaining to the perfection of
the human nature but through the addition of something which is above
human nature, viz. the union with a Divine Person.
Reply Obj. 3: Absorption does not here imply the destruction of
anything pre-existing, but the hindering what might otherwise have
been. For if the human nature had not been assumed by a Divine
Person, the human nature would have had its own personality; and in
this way is it said, although improperly, that the Person "absorbed
the person," inasmuch as the Divine Person by His union hindered the
human nature from having its personality.
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