Whether This Is True: "Man Was Made God"?
Objection 1: It would seem that this is true: "Man was made God." For
it is written (Rom. 1:2, 3): "Which He had promised before by His
prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Who was made to
Him of the seed of David according to the flesh." Now Christ, as man,
is of the seed of David according to the flesh. Therefore man was
made the Son of God.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. i, 13) that "such was this
assumption, which made God man, and man God." But by reason of this
assumption this is true: "God was made man." Therefore, in like
manner, this is true: "Man was made God."
Obj. 3: Further, Gregory Nazianzen says (Ep. ad Chelid. ci): "God was
humanized and man was deified, or whatever else one may like to call
it." Now God is said to be humanized by being made man. Therefore
with equal reason man is said to be deified by being made God; and
thus it is true that "Man was made God."
Obj. 4: Further, when it is said that "God was made man," the subject
of the making or uniting is not God, but human nature, which the word
"man" signifies. Now that seems to be the subject of the making, to
which the making is attributed. Hence "Man was made God" is truer
than "God was made man."
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 2): "We do not
say that man was deified, but that God was humanized." Now to be made
God is the same as to be deified. Hence this is false: "Man was made
God."
_I answer that,_ This proposition, Man was made God, may be
understood in three ways. First, so that the participle "made"
absolutely determines either the subject or the predicate; and in
this sense it is false, since neither the Man of Whom it is
predicated was made, nor is God made, as will be said (AA. 8, 9). And
in the same sense this is false: "God was made man." But it is not of
this sense that we are now speaking. Secondly, it may be so
understood that the word "made" determines the composition, with this
meaning: "Man was made God, i.e. it was brought about that Man is
God." And in this sense both are true, viz. that "Man was made God"
and that "God was made Man." But this is not the proper sense of
these phrases; unless, indeed, we are to understand that "man" has
not a personal but a simple supposition. For although "this man" was
not made God, because this suppositum, viz. the Person of the Son of
God, was eternally God, yet man, speaking commonly, was not always
God. Thirdly, properly understood, this participle "made" attaches
making to man with relation to God, as the term of the making. And in
this sense, granted that the Person or hypostasis in Christ are the
same as the suppositum of God and Man, as was shown (Q. 2, AA. 2, 3),
this proposition is false, because, when it is said, "Man was made
God," "man" has a personal suppositum: because, to be God is not
verified of the Man in His human nature, but in His suppositum. Now
the suppositum of human nature, of Whom "to be God" is verified, is
the same as the hypostasis or Person of the Son of God, Who was
always God. Hence it cannot be said that this Man began to be God, or
is made God, or that He was made God.
But if there were a different hypostasis of God and man, so that "to
be God" was predicated of the man, and, conversely, by reason of a
certain conjunction of supposita, or of personal dignity, or of
affection or indwelling, as the Nestorians said, then with equal
reason might it be said that Man was made God, i.e. joined to God,
and that God was made Man, i.e. joined to man.
Reply Obj. 1: In these words of the Apostle the relative "Who" which
refers to the Person of the Son of God ought not to be considered as
affecting the predicate, as if someone already existing of the "seed
of David according to the flesh" was made the Son of God--and it is
in this sense that the objection takes it. But it ought to be taken
as affecting the subject, with this meaning--that the "Son of God was
made to Him ('namely to the honor of the Father,' as a gloss expounds
it), being of the seed of David according to the flesh," as if to say
"the Son of God having flesh of the seed of David to the honor of
God."
Reply Obj. 2: This saying of Augustine is to be taken in the sense
that by the assumption that took place in the Incarnation it was
brought about that Man is God and God is Man; and in this sense both
sayings are true as stated above.
The same is to be said in reply to the third, since to be deified is
the same as to be made God.
Reply Obj. 4: A term placed in the subject is taken materially, i.e.
for the suppositum; placed in the predicate it is taken formally,
i.e. for the nature signified. Hence when it is said that "Man was
made God," the being made is not attributed to the human nature but
to the suppositum of the human nature, Which is God from eternity,
and hence it does not befit Him to be made God. But when it is said
that "God was made Man," the making is taken to be terminated in the
human nature. Hence, properly speaking, this is true: "God was made
Man," and this is false: "Man was made God"; even as if Socrates, who
was already a man, were made white, and were pointed out, this would
be true: "This man was made white today," and this would be false;
"This white thing was made man today." Nevertheless, if on the part
of the subject there is added some word signifying human nature in
the abstract, it might be taken in this way for the subject of the
making, e.g. if it were said that "human nature was made the Son of
God's."
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