Gg

gemina praedestinatio: double predestination. See praedestinatio.

generatio: generation; when used in relation to human beings, birth; when used relative to the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son, the eternal and changeless activity in the Godhead by which the Father produces the Son without division of essence and by which the Second Person of the Trinity is identified as an individual subsistence or modus subsistendi (q.v.), mode of subsistence, of the divine essence. The generatio, moreover, is not voluntary but natural and necessary. Generatio can also be distinguished into generatio activa, active generation, which is the active begetting of the Son by the Father, and generatio passiva, passive generation, which is the Son’s reflexive relation to the Father in the generation. Generatio passiva is sometimes used synonymously with filiatio (q.v.), filiation. Thus the generation of the Son can be described as eternal and perpetual (aeterna et perpetua) and described also as hyperphysica (q.v.), not physical. It is not, moreover, a movement of the Son from potency to actuality or from nonbeing (non esse) into existence (esse, q.v.), but an eternal and perpetual relation in the Godhead, an unchanging activity or motion that is in the divine essence according to its very nature. Since generatio belongs to the divine nature, it is a necessary and not a voluntary activity. Finally, like the other proprietates personales (see proprietas), paternitas (q.v.) and spiratio (q.v.) or processio (q.v.), paternity and spiration or procession, the generation or filiation of the Son is entirely internal (interna et intima). See persona; processio intellectualis; subsistentia; Trinitas.

genesis (γένεσις): birth, beginning, or begetting; the Greek term used synonymously in trinitarian language with filiatio (q.v.), filiation, or nativitas, birth or begottenness, as the character hypostaticus sive personalis (q.v.), or personal character, of the Son; also synonymous with generatio (q.v.).

genitura: a generation or begetting; either the act of generation or the thing generated; in trinitarian language, the spiritual generation of the Son or the Son considered as generated.

gennēsia (γεννήσια): begottenness; the Greek equivalent of the filiatio (q.v), or filiation, and generatio (q.v), or generation, of the Second Person of the Trinity. See genesis; Trinitas.

genus: genus; viz., either a number of individual things identified as a group by means of a common concept or universal, or the universal itself as predicated of a group of individual things. In the former view, the universal is merely an abstraction; in the latter, it exists either in the thing or prior to the thing (see universalia). The idea of genus must be further clarified as indicating a universal that does not exhaustively express or describe the essence, or quidditas (q.v.), of the individuals in the group. Thus people, horses, and snails all belong to the genus animal. By way of contrast, species refers to individuals in a group or to the universal predicated of the group in such a way as to express the essence of those individuals fully or exhaustively. The species are identified within the genus by their differentia, or differentiating properties. Thus “animal” identifies a genus that is animated, as distinct from vegetables and minerals; “man” as a species indicates all human beings as specifically rational, intellectual animals and therefore distinct from horses and snails; “Peter,” or precisely the Peterishness (Petreitas) of Peter, distinguishes him as one particular human being from another particular human being, Paul. These distinguishing characteristics are called differentia and serve to identify genus and species and, by extension, to allow the univocal predication of the genus of all of its members, as also of the species. See animal rationale; differentia; species.

genus apotelesmaticum. See communicatio idiomatum.

genus idiomaticum. See communicatio idiomatum.

genus maiestaticum. See communicatio idiomatum.

genus tapeinotikon (from the Greek ταπείνωσις, tapeinōsis): tapeinotic genus, or genus of humiliation; a fourth genus of the communicatio idiomatum (q.v.), or communication of proper qualities, argued by the nineteenth-century German kenoticists, according to which the divine nature empties itself in and through the communication of human attributes to it by the human nature. This concept does not form a part of the orthodox Lutheran Christology and was not taught as a positive doctrine in the era of orthodoxy. The Reformed did, in polemic, point out that the logic of the Lutheran communicatio idiomatum, with its communication of divine attributes to the human nature, demanded a reciprocal communication of human attributes to the divine nature. The Reformed argument was intended to show the illogic of the Lutheran position, not, of course, to suggest a fourth genus.

genus theologiae: the genus of theology; viz., the classification of theological study. The Protestant scholastics raise the question of the nature of the theological discipline in the prolegomena of their systems, specifically, the question of the classification or genus of theology among the various types of human study: art (ars, q.v.), science (scientia, q.v.), wisdom (sapientia, q.v.), or prudence (prudentia, q.v.). The Reformed place theology, with qualification, into the genus either of scientia or of sapientia—theology can be identified as a subalternate form of scientia inasmuch as it knows principles (principia, q.v.) and draws conclusions from them, or as a sapientia inasmuch as it knows principles and the goals toward which they tend. Theologians who emphasized theology as a praxis (q.v.) identified it as sapientia, whereas those who identified it as a mixed speculative and practical discipline tended to identify it as a form of scientia. See theologia.

gloria: glory, brightness, splendor; specifically, the gloria Dei, or glory of God. The scholastics include gloria among the divine attributes, usually in close association with maiestas (q.v.), or majesty. Both terms, gloria and maiestas, indicate the infinite eminence of God, as manifest in the biblical language of the inaccessible light in which God dwells and the inapproachability of the “face of God.” Gloria specifically indicates the brightness or resplendence of God in his perfection and infinite eminence. This brightness and resplendence, moreover, belong to the divine essence and all its attributes, with the result that the gloria Dei and maiestas Dei are the divine essence itself, God as the absolute resplendence and the ultimate greatness. See attributa divina.

glorificatio: glorification; the final stage or degree of the order of salvation (ordo salutis, q.v.) described in Romans 8:29–30. Following the incomplete sanctification (sanctificatio, q.v.) that occurs in this life, glorification is the eschatological change from the condition of earthly misery and punishment for sin to the state of eternal blessedness and happiness. Glorification is sometimes identified as real redemption, redemptio realis, as distinguished from the forensic justification of believers mentioned in Romans 1:17.

gradus: gradation, degree, grade. In metaphysics, there are grades or degrees of predication (gradus metaphysici) from the most general to the specific: thus, in categorizing Peter, Paul, or Mary, beginning with the broadest category, namely being (ens, q.v.), each can be further specified as a substance (substantia, q.v.) or subsistent individual, a body (corpus), as living (vivens), as animal (animal), and finally as human (homo, q.v.). The term is significant in theology with reference to the eternal decree (decretum, q.v.), which is one but can be distinguished into a series of logical gradus, or degrees, whether in an infra- or a supralapsarian mode; or in eschatology, to degrees of glory and punishment. See gradus gloriae; gradus poenarum infernalium; infra lapsum; praedestinatio; supra lapsum.

gradus gloriae: degrees of glory; the teaching, based on 1 Corinthians 15:41–42, that heavenly gifts will be distributed unequally after the judgment, without implying, however, greater or lesser blessedness or a fuller visio Dei (q.v.) for some rather than others. The Reformed tend to rest the gradus gloriae on the differences between individuals in this life; those who manifest greater fruits of faith and righteousness on earth will inherit greater glory in heaven. The Lutherans, however, argue against any consideration of human merit on the part of God and admit no degrees in essentialibus, in essentials, but only in accidentalibus, in accidentals, with those degrees having reference only to the freedom of God to bestow different praemia (q.v.) on different activities. See dies novissimus; iudicium extremum.

gradus poenarum infernalium: degrees of punishment in hell. See poena.

gratia: grace; in Greek, χάρις (charis); the gracious or benevolent disposition of God toward sinful humanity and therefore the divine operation by which the sinful heart and mind are regenerated, including the continuing divine power or operation that cleanses, strengthens, and sanctifies the regenerate. The Protestant scholastics distinguish five actus gratiae, or actualizations of grace. (1) Gratia praeveniens, or prevenient grace, is the grace of the Holy Spirit bestowed on sinners in and through the Word; given the universal sinfulness of human beings, it must precede repentance. Disagreement arises among the several confessionalities over the issues of the irresistibility or resistibility of prevenient grace and over the question of whether human beings are capable of cooperating with it. Thus Lutherans, Arminians, and Reformed differ over the question of the resistibility of grace. The Lutherans and Arminians argue for a gratia resistibilis (q.v.), or resistible grace, so that no inalterable or necessary pattern of actus gratiae must follow the initial gift of gratia praeveniens; indeed, grace may be rejected and subsequently regained in a repeated conversion (conversio reiterata, q.v.). The Reformed argue that grace is irresistible (gratia irresistibilis, q.v.) when given effectively to the elect. (2) Gratia praeparans is the preparing grace, according to which the Spirit instills in repentant sinners a full knowledge of their inability and also their desire to accept the promises of the gospel. This is the stage of the life of a sinner that can be termed the praeparatio ad conversionem (q.v.) and that the Lutheran orthodox characterize as a time of terrores conscientiae (q.v.). Both this preparation for conversion and the terrors of conscience draw directly on the second use of the law, the usus paedagogicus (see usus legis). (3) Gratia operans, or operating grace, is the effective grace of conversion, according to which the Spirit regenerates the will, illuminates the mind, and imparts faith. Operating grace is therefore the grace of justification insofar as it creates in human beings the means, or medium, of faith, through which we are justified by grace (see medium lēptikon). (4) Gratia cooperans, or cooperating grace, is the continuing grace of the Spirit, also termed gratia inhabitans, indwelling grace, which cooperates with and reinforces the regenerate will and intellect in sanctification. Gratia cooperans is the ground of all good works and, insofar as it is a new capacity in the believer for the good, it can be called the habitus gratiae, or disposition of grace. Finally, some of the scholastics make a distinction between gratia cooperans and (5) gratia conservans, or conserving, preserving grace, according to which the Spirit enables the believer to persevere in faith. This latter distinction arises most probably out of the distinction between sanctificatio (q.v.) and perseverantia (q.v.) in the scholastic ordo salutis (q.v.), or order of salvation. See facere quod in se est; meritum de congruo.

gratia communis: common grace; i.e., a nonsaving, universal grace according to which God in his goodness bestows his favor upon all creation in the general blessings of physical sustenance and moral influence for the good. Thus rain falls on the just and the unjust, and all persons have the law engraved on their hearts. Gratis communis is therefore contrasted by the Reformed with particular or special grace (gratia particularis sive specialis, q.v.).

gratia Dei: the grace of God; viz., the goodness of God (bonitas Dei, q.v.) toward humanity manifest as undeserved favor and, specifically, the cleansing power of God, which renews and regenerates sinners.

gratia gratum faciens: grace making gracious; in late medieval theology, the habit of grace (habitus gratiae, q.v.) infused into the sinner by which the sinner is justified or made righteous. Following the Reformers’ forensic conception of justification (iustificatio, q.v.), the Protestant orthodox distinguish justification and sanctification in the order of salvation (ordo salutis, q.v.) and in addition deny that the inward disposition to receive grace, or habitus gratiae (q.v.), is an inherent capacity in human beings to choose or grasp the grace of God, defining it instead as a disposition resting entirely on the effective power of God. The concept of gratia gratum faciens is therefore replaced by the concept of the gratia cooperans, or cooperating grace, of the Holy Spirit. See gratia; gratia infusa.

gratia habitualis: habitual grace; also gratiae habituates: habitual graces. See communicatio gratiarum.

gratia infusa: infused grace; viz., the donum gratiae, or gift of grace, bestowed by God upon believers and the habitus gratiae (q.v.), the habit or disposition toward grace, created in believers by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Protestant scholastics deny that gratia infusa or gratia inhaerens (q.v.), inhering grace, is the basis of justification. Rather gratia infusa is the result of regeneratio (q.v.) and the basis of sanctificatio (q.v.), the source of all the good works of believers. The orthodox prefer the terms gratia inhaerens and gratia cooperans rather than the term gratia infusa in order to retain in their formulations the Reformers’ teaching concerning grace as a power of God or a divine favor (favor Dei or gratuitus favor Dei, q.v.) that never belongs to human beings as an inherent aspect of human nature capable of engaging the divine but is always graciously given. See gratia; gratia gratum faciens.

gratia ingrediens: grace entering in; a synonym for gratia praeveniens (q.v.). See gratia.

gratia inhaerens: inherent grace or inhering grace; also termed gratia inhabitans. See gratia.

gratia irresistibilis: irresistible grace; a doctrine specific to the Reformed and strict Augustinian doctrines of salvation. It is correlated with an assumption of the depth of the original and inherent sin of humanity (peccatum inhaerens, q.v.; peccatum originale, q.v.), which has left the human race in a state of utter inability even to approach the offer of salvation without a radical graciousness of God. The doctrine of irresistible grace does not, however, argue that human beings are compelled to be saved against their wills, inasmuch as the will (voluntas, q.v.) is understood to be uncoercible; rather, it assumes the transforming power of grace, which regenerates the will in its course of free willing and choosing. See gratia; gratia particularis sive specialis; gratia praeveniens; liberum arbitrium.

gratia particularis sive specialis: particular or special grace; i.e., the grace of God that is given savingly only to the elect. The Reformed contrast this gratia particularis or gratia specialis with the gratia universalis (q.v.), or universal grace of the gospel promise, and with the gratia communis (q.v.), the common, nonsaving grace given to all. Lutheran orthodoxy argues against the concept on the ground of the efficacy of the Word and in the name of universal grace as a gratia seria, a serious grace or grace seriously offered to all, and therefore salvific. See gratia.

gratia praeveniens: prevenient grace, the grace that “comes before” all human response to God. A special term is given to the grace that necessarily precedes conversio (q.v.), since humanity is universally sinful and incapable of salvation or of any truly good work without the help of God. A fully monergistic theology, whether Augustinian or Calvinist, assumes that this grace is irresistible, whereas a synergistic system, whether semi-Pelagian or Arminian, or a form of Lutheranism, will hold prevenient grace to be resistible. See gratia resistibilis.

gratia resistibilis: resistible grace; a theological concept used by both the Lutherans and the Arminians to argue against the Reformed that gratia salvifica (q.v.), salvific or saving grace, is both universally offered and resistible. Whereas the Arminian teaching clearly indicates a cooperatio (q.v.), a cooperation or a synergistic relationship, between God and man in the effecting of salvation, the Lutheran teaching observes that only God’s grace is efficax, or effective, in salvation but that, since it is not an immediate operation of the divine omnipotentia (q.v.) but rather a mediate operation of God in and through designated media gratiae, or means of grace, it may be resisted. In other words, the Arminian insists that human beings may both effectively resist and also effectively cooperate with the gratia praeveniens (q.v.), prevenient grace, whereas the Lutheran orthodox allow only a resistance to but not an effective cooperation with the gratia praeveniens. Nonetheless, both Arminius and the Lutheran orthodox affirmed the universality of sin and the necessary priority of grace in salvation. The Reformed, by way of contrast, allow neither resistance to nor cooperation with the gratia salvifica praeveniens and insist that it is both an irresistible grace (gratia irresistibilis, q.v.) and a particular grace (gratia particularis sive specialis, q.v.).

gratia sacramentalis: sacramental grace; viz., the grace of God made available in and through the sacramental means of grace to those who have faith in Christ.

gratia salvifica: saving grace; specifically, gratia salvifica est gratuitus Dei favor propter Christum: the gracious favor of God on account of Christ. See gratia.

gratia specialis: special grace. See gratia particularis sive specialis.

gratia Spiritus Sancti applicatrix: the applicative grace of the Holy Spirit; viz., the grace applied by the Holy Spirit that works salvation in the regeneratio (q.v.), conversio (q.v.), and sanctificatio (q.v.) of believers. See ordo salutis.

gratia unionis: grace of union. See communicatio gratiarum.

gratia universalis: universal grace; i.e., that grace of God in the universal call of the gospel according to which salvation is offered to all. Denied by a majority of the Reformed, including Calvin and Beza and various proponents of hypothetical universalism like John Davenant; affirmed by advocates of the Amyraldian form of hypothetical universalism, by Lutherans, and by Arminians. Sometimes the term gratia universalis is used to identify common grace (gratis communis, q.v.). See gratia; gratia particularis sive specialis; universalismus hypotheticus.

gratuitus favor Dei: the gracious favor of God; i.e., the grace of God. See gratia.

gubernatio: governance, rule; especially providential governance. See concursus; providentia; regimen ecclesiasticum.

gubernatio ecclesiae civilis: civil government of the church; viz., the power that civil magistrates exercise with respect to the church within their jurisdiction; specifically, a responsibility to protect true worship and the law of God. The power of the magistrate is defined as circa sacra, around the holy, not in sacra, in the holy.

gula: gluttony. See septem peccata mortalia.