Bb

baptismus: baptism; the first in order of the two sacraments revealed in and enjoined by the New Testament. Baptism is a sacramentum (q.v.) because it is a ritual act commanded by God, consisting in a visible sign of God’s grace and accompanied by a divine promise. The purpose or goal (finis) and the effect (effectus) of baptism are, immediately or proximately, the regeneration or renovation (see regeneratio) of the baptized and, ultimately, their eternal salvation. The scholastics here recognize a distinction between the baptism of infants and the baptism of adults. For infants the sacrament of baptism provides the ordinary or ordained means of regeneration and only secondarily functions as a seal (obsignatio) of faith insofar as it is a seal of the foedus gratiae (q.v.), or covenant of grace, into which children of believers are born. Both Lutherans and Reformed view baptism as the sign or seal of the covenant of grace, but Lutherans argue that infants do not belong to the covenant or partake of covenant-holiness (sanctitas foederalis) before baptism, whereas the Reformed argue for the covenant before baptism. For adults the sacrament of baptism provides principally a seal and a testimony of the grace already bestowed by the Word and, secondarily, an augmentation of the regenerating grace of God. Thus infants are baptized before hearing the Word, in the expectation that they will receive from their baptism the firstfruits of the gracious work of the Spirit, including faith, whereas adults must first hear the Word and be brought by it to faith and only thereafter are baptized. Against the Anabaptists, who refuse baptism to infants on the ground that infants cannot have faith, both the Lutherans and the Reformed argue for the efficacy of divine grace and the fact that faith arises because of grace in the case both of infants and of adults. See abrenuntiatio.

baptismus flaminis: baptism of the breath or wind; i.e., the special gifts of the Spirit poured out on the church (Acts 1:5).

baptismus fluminis: the baptism of running water, or simply, the baptism of water. See baptismus.

baptismus sanguinis: the baptism of blood; i.e., martyrdom.

beatae memoriae: of blessed memory; i.e., speaking of the dead.

beati: the blessed in heaven; i.e., those who are no longer in via (q.v.) but in patria (q.v.). The beati, because of their purified state—immortality and incorruptibility—are no longer tainted with concupiscentia (q.v.) and can now attain the visio Dei (q.v.). The knowledge of God accessible to the beati is the highest form of human theology except for the theology of the human Jesus in his union with the Word. See theologia beatorum; theologia ectypa.

beatitudo: beatitude, blessedness; specifically, beatitudo aeterna, eternal blessedness. The scholastics define beatitudo aeterna as the final condition in eternity of all who persevere in faith, consisting in the supernatural perfection of body and soul as bestowed on the faithful after death by the pure grace of God in Christ, to his own eternal glory. The supernatural perfection of the body is the incorruptibility and spirituality of the resurrection (resurrectio, q.v.), whereas the supernatural perfection of the soul consists in the intellectual visio Dei (q.v.), or vision of God, and the voluntary perfection of love for God, so that the will (voluntas, q.v.) can no longer sin. Thus blessedness consists in the perfect vision and enjoyment (frui, q.v.) of God.

Beatitudo consistit in perfecta Dei vision et fruitione: Blessedness consists in the perfect vision and enjoyment of God. See beatitudo; frui; visio Dei.

Bene docet, qui bene distinguit: One teaches well who distinguishes well; i.e., good teaching of difficult points depends on the ability to make careful distinctions; a scholastic maxim that illustrates the heart of the scholastic method. See distinctio.

benedictio: benediction, blessing; either the blessing of God or the liturgical blessing at the conclusion of the service of worship.

beneficium: benefit, gift.

beneplacitum: good pleasure; applied restrictively by the Protestant scholastics to God, thus beneplacitum Dei, the good pleasure of God, or divine good pleasure; also, specifically, beneplacitum voluntatis Dei, the good pleasure of the will of God, indicating the ground of God’s elective choice (Eph. 1:5), principally in Reformed theology, where emphasis is placed on the freedom and sovereignty of the divine purpose. The beneplacitum voluntatis stands in contrast to the signum voluntatis, namely, the revelation of God’s will, or voluntas signi. See causa; consilium Dei; decretum; praedestinatio; voluntas Dei.

benevolentia: literally, goodwill or good willing; a synonym for eudokia (q.v.) and favor Dei, related also to the good pleasure (beneplacitum, q.v.) of God. The benevolentia Dei is one of the affections or attributes of God’s will. See amor Dei; attributa divina; bonitas Dei; voluntas Dei.

bibitio spiritualis et sacramentalis: a spiritual and sacramental drinking. See manducatio.

bona consequentia: good or valid consequence, valid conclusion; sometimes bona et necessaria consequentia, valid and necessary conclusion. See consequentia.

bona fide: in good faith; bona fides: good faith; bonae fidei: of good faith.

bona officia: good offices or good services.

bonitas: goodness; specifically, moral goodness as distinct from dignitas (q.v.), or goodness in the sense of merit. The scholastics also distinguish between bonitas absoluta, absolute goodness, and bonitas dependens ab alio, goodness dependent on another, or derived goodness; and also between bonitas essentialis sive substantialis, essential or substantial good, i.e., the goodness that belongs to the being or essence of things as created by God, and bonitas accidentalis, accidental or incidental goodness, i.e., goodness that is in a thing as an incidental property and that can be lost by the thing. Bonitas essentialis is also contrasted with bonitas graduum, a goodness of degrees. All creatures, insofar as they are created and given being by God, have an essential goodness, but none has a perfect goodness of degrees, since the perfect or highest degree of goodness belongs to God only.

In this latter sense, essential goodness, bonitas, together with unity (unitas, q.v.) and truth (veritas, q.v.) is identified as bonitas transcendentalis, transcendental goodness, one of the transcendental properties or universal predicates of being in general as identified in metaphysics. Goodness in this sense is not a moral but an ontological category: it is the property of the actualization, completion, or perfection of the nature of a thing and is traditionally understood as convertible with “being.” A thing is good inasmuch as it has being. See proprietates entis.

bonitas Dei: the goodness or moral excellence of God; a term used by scholastics in arguing that goodness belongs to God in an absolute sense and, with all the divine attributes (attributa divina, q.v.), is to be viewed as identical with the divine essence in its perfection. Thus God is good in se, in himself, and is the absolute good, the ground and standard of all created goodness. By extension, therefore, God is good respectively or in relation to his creatures. The bonitas Dei in relation to creatures is to be considered in three ways: (1) efficienter, or efficiently, as the efficient cause that produces all finite or created goodness; (2) as the exemplar or causa exemplaris (q.v.), the standard or exemplary cause, of all created good, i.e., as the standard of good according to which goodness is created and judged; (3) as the summum bonum (q.v.), the highest good or final cause (causa finalis, q.v.), the ultimate end of all good things. Thus the bonitas Dei is most clearly manifest in the goodwill (benevolentia, q.v.) of God toward his creatures, specifically, in the positive attributes or affections of God’s will, grace (see gratia Dei), mercy (misericordia, q.v.), long-suffering (longanimitas, q.v.), love (see amor Dei), and patience (patientia, q.v.). See bonum.

bono et malo: of good and evil.

bonum (n.): good. In traditional metaphysics, good in an absolute sense is identified with being (ens, q.v.) or, more precisely, together with the properties of being one (unum, q.v.) and true (verum), good is identified as a transcendental property of being as such. God, as ultimate and absolute being, is and must be the absolute and highest good (summum bonum) and the source of all good (fons omnium bonorum, q.v.). Note the axioms bonum diffusivum sui est: the good is diffusive of itself; and similarly, bonum est communicativum sui: the good is communivative of itself. Also Bonum est ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu: Good arises from integral causes, evil from some sort of defect. See bonitas Dei; causa deficiens; causa efficiens; ens; privatio; privatio boni.

bonum increatum: uncreated or increate good; i.e., God, as the self-existent ground of all finite, created good. See bonitas Dei.

bonum iustificum: the good or merit that justifies; viz., the meritum Christi, or merit of Christ, which is the object (obiectum) of justifying faith.

bonus, -a, -um (adj.): good. See bonum.

boulēsis (βούλησις): will or purpose.

boulētikōs (βουλητικῶς): having a will or capable of exerting a will; from boulēsis (βούλησις): will or purpose.