Oo
obedientia; also oboedientia: obedience.
obedientia Christi: obedience of Christ; viz., Christ’s obedient work as the Mediator, performed for our redemption; it was distinguished by the scholastics into obedientia activa and obedientia passiva, active and passive obedience. The obedientia activa describes the life of Christ from his birth to his passion, and particularly his ministry, during which Christ acted sinlessly and in perfect obedience to the will of God. The obedientia passiva refers to Christ’s passion, during which he accepted passively, without any resistance, the suffering and cross to which he was subjected for the satisfaction of sin. According to the medieval scholastics, following Anselm, the obedientia activa was not of a vicarious or substitutionary nature, but rather was Christ’s own necessary obedience under the law, the ground of Christ’s own merit and therefore of his aptitude for the work of satisfaction. Had the Mediator not been meritorious before God, the payment of the obedientia passiva would have been exacted of him for his own disobedience and could not have been applied to believers. This view of his obedience relates directly to the medieval theory of penance and to the distinction between punishment (poena, q.v.) and guilt (culpa, q.v.). Poena accrues to anyone who is not actively obedient, while culpa is the result, qualitatively speaking, of sin. Since Christ’s obedientia passiva accomplished the remission of sins (remissio peccatorum), those saved by grace through Christ have their culpa removed, but since Christ’s obedientia activa was accomplished in order to constitute Christ as the worthy Mediator and not applied to sinners, the poena of sin remains and must be suffered temporally through the sacrament of penance. Following Luther, the Protestant scholastics, Lutheran and Reformed alike, argued that both the obedientia activa and the obedientia passiva were accomplished in the place and on behalf of believers and together constituted the one saving work of Christ, satisfying for both the poena and culpa of sin. Christ’s obedience, then, according to the Protestant scholastics, remits sin in such a way as to make unnecessary the sacrament of penance. This view of Christ’s obedience conforms to the doctrine of justification sola fide, apart from the works of the law. Since the Protestant scholastics are adamant that the obedientia Christi was totally soteriological in purpose, they often refer to it as a single obedience with two aspects rather than as an obedientia activa and an obedientia passiva. Thus the obedientia Christi is both an actio passiva, a passive action, and a passio activa, an active passion. Actio passiva refers to Christ’s subjection to the law, while passio activa refers to the real obedience of his life and death. See imputatio; poenitentia; reatus; satisfactio vicaria; sufficientia.
obex: hindrance; impediment; specifically, a spiritual obstacle in the way of sacramental grace. See ex opere operato.
obiectum: object; in grammar and in logical predication, the thing or concept toward which the action of the verb is directed; in theology or philosophy, the thing or concept toward which the thinking subject, i.e., the mind or intellect, directs its thought, or the thing toward which the senses are directed in perception. See antepraedicamenta; praedicamenta; praedicatio; subiectum.
obiectum electionis: the object of election; viz., the human beings who are numbered as the elect in the eternal decree of God. Lutheran and Reformed scholastics agree that the obiectum electionis is neither the whole human race nor the visible church (see ecclesia) nor all believers but only those who will persevere, inasmuch as some believe only for a time, have faith only temporarily, and ultimately fall away. The object of God’s election is the finite number of those who are actually saved, since the elective decree itself, whether defined as a conditional decree or an absolute decree, is inalterable. See decretum; electio; perseverantia; praedestinatio.
obiectum fidei: object of faith; distinguished by the scholastics into two categories: the obiectum formalis fidei, or formal object of faith, which is Scripture; and the obiectum materialis fidei, or material object of faith, which is Christ, or more precisely, the whole revelation of God as it is fulfilled and given in Christ. Scripture, as the formal object of faith, is also the formal object of theology (obiectum formalis theologiae) and the foundation of theological knowing. See obiectum theologiae; principia theologiae.
obiectum theologiae: the object of theology; as defined by the Protestant scholastics, the object of theology is twofold (duplex), material and formal. The obiectum materialis theologiae, or material object of theology, is the material or substance of revelation, the res revelatae, or things revealed. The obiectum formalis theologiae, or formal object of theology, is the foundation or method of knowing (principium sive ratio cognoscendi) on which our knowledge of the res revelatae depends, i.e., the revelation itself as given in Scripture. Therefore the obiectum theologiae is God in his self-revelation and, by extension, Christ as the fundamentum Scripturae (q.v.) and the focus of saving truth. See authoritas Scripturae; principia theologiae; revelatio generalis / revelatio specialis; veritas.
obiter dictum: a rule set forth in passing.
obsessio corporalis: bodily possession; also obsessio spiritualis: spiritual possession; an activity of the devil or of evil angels, entering human beings and using them as their instruments.
obsignatio: an act of sealing or certifying; a term from Roman law that specifically refers to the witnessing and sealing of a will or testament (testamentum, q.v.) and is therefore used with reference to the sealing of the New Testament by Christ. See foedus gratiae.
occultatio: hiding or veiling; a term used by the orthodox Reformed in their doctrine of the status humiliationis (q.v.), or state of humiliation, to describe the relation of the humiliatio, or exinanitio (evacuation, or kenōsis, q.v.), to the divine nature of Christ and its attributes. The divinity of Christ is hidden under the flesh as by a veil. Some of the Lutherans use similar terminology, speaking of a krypsis (q.v.), a hiding, of the divine attributes, but with a different implication, since the Lutheran “cryptics” did hold to a communication of divine attributes to Christ’s human nature.
odium: hatred, animosity, aversion; especially the odium Dei, the hatred or aversion of God, which the Protestant scholastics frequently list among the affections of the divine will as indicative of the feeling of God toward sin and disobedience. The term odium Dei is recognized as an anthropopathism (see anthrōpopatheia).
oeconomia (from the Greek οἰκονομία, oikonomia): the usual transliteration of the Greek found in the writings of the Protestant scholastics. See dispensatio.
oeconomia foederis: the economy of the covenant; specifically, the temporal administration or dispensation of the covenant of grace (foedus gratiae, q.v.). In the typical Reformed definitions of the covenant, it is identified as being one in substance and several in its dispensations. The simplest division of the economy is into the Old Testament and New Testament administrations of the covenant. Most of the Reformed, however, especially those of the federal school, divide the two Testaments into a series of administrations, viz., from Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Christ, and Christ to the eschaton; sometimes further divisions are added, as Moses to David, David to Christ, Christ’s advent to his resurrection or ascension, and his resurrection or ascension to the eschaton.
oeconomia salutis: the economy of salvation; a term used to indicate the entire administration of salvation in the temporal order, referencing either (1) the sequence of the Testaments; (2) the movement from a time before the revelation of the law on Sinai (ante legem, q.v.) to the history of Israel under the law (sub lege) and to the dispensation of salvation following the incarnation (sub gratia); or similarly, (3) the history of the covenants from the covenant of works (foedus operum, q.v.) and the protevangelium (q.v.) to the final judgment. See foedus; ordo salutis.
officium: work, duty, obligation; also, particularly among the later Protestant scholastics, office; used as a synonym for munus in discussions of the munus Christi (q.v.) or officium Christi. Strictly speaking, officium Christi ought to refer to the work of Christ, his obedience both active and passive, and his satisfaction for sin; munus Christi ought to refer primarily to the prophetic, priestly, and kingly office of Christ, the “official” or appointed tasks to which Christ was anointed as Mediator. The terms, however, were often interchangeable. See munus triplex; obedientia Christi; satisfactio vicaria.
oikonomia (οἰκονομία): economy. See dispensatio; oeconomia foederis; oeconomia salutis.
Omne peccatum in Deum committitur: All sin is committed against God; i.e., since all sins violate the divine law, even when their immediate result is the suffering of other human beings, they are ultimately sins against God himself.
Omne quod est, ex suppositione quod sit, necesse est esse: Everything that is, on the supposition that it is, is necessary that it is. See necessitas consequentiae.
Omne quod movetur ab alio movetur: Whatever is moved is moved by another; or Whatever is in motion is put in motion by another; sometimes referred to in discussions of the Aristotelian tradition as the “principle of motion.” Both in Aristotle’s own thought and in Aristotelian philosophy as adapted in the scholastic tradition, it is assumed that motion of any sort, whether spatial or from potency to actuality, presumes both a mover and something that is moved. The principle, however, is not stated exclusivistically: some things are in part moved by themselves, whether because they are inherently changeable in some way, because they have locomotion, or because they have powers of choice. What all finite things in themselves lack, however, is a fully adequate cause or foundation of their own motion. More specifically, living beings have an inherent capability of self-motion. They are capable of moving spontaneously and freely, but they are not ultimately or absolutely self-moved inasmuch as they cannot account fully for their own existence, whether in its initial movement from nonexistence to existence, potency to act, or in its ongoing contingent actuality. The self-motion of finite beings, then, is both limited and dependent. God alone is self-moved and not moved by another. The axiom, therefore, has three basic applications: (1) no physical body is moved unless it is moved by something else, (2) no effect can be produced unless by a cause other than itself, and (3) nothing can occur in the finite order without the concurrence of the first cause (prima causa). See actus; concursus; motus; potentia; prima causa; primum movens.
omnipotentia: omnipotence, having all power and potency, being all powerful; an attribute of God; omnipotentia indicates the power, or potentia (q.v.), of God ad extra by virtue of which he can do all things that are not contrary either to his will or his knowledge. In other words, the omnipotentia Dei is limited only by the essence or nature of God himself and by nothing external to God. Thus the fact that God cannot do evil, cannot die, and cannot cease to be Father, Son, and Spirit is not a limit on or a contradiction of his omnipotentia. The scholastics agree with Augustine that all such hypothetical acts as would diminish God would be signs of weakness or of a defective willing, not evidences of omnipotence. Since, moreover, God himself is eternally fully actualized (in actu, q.v.) and never in process or in potency (in potentia, q.v.), the potentia Dei, the potency of God, or omnipotentia Dei, refers to the divine activity ad extra and never to a change or a potential for change in the divine essence, which is, by definition, both perfect and immutably so (see immutabilitas). Furthermore, since God’s omnipotence is a potentia, it cannot be a capacity for self-privation, i.e., a deficiency or deficient cause. The divine omnipotence may be further defined as the divine power or potential for the conferring of being and the active governance of all that is. In the former instance, which is the work of creation, the power of God is omnipotentia absoluta or potentia absoluta (q.v.), since it observes no prior condition apart from the divine essence itself and operates in relation to the divine knowledge of all possibility (scientia necessaria, q.v.). This omnipotentia absoluta can be referred also to miracles. In the latter instance, which is the work of providence or continued creation (see creatio continuata; providentia), the power of God is omnipotentia relativa sive ordinata, relative or ordained omnipotence, or potentia ordinata (q.v.), since it is bound by laws of its own making and relates to the divine governance of actuality.
omnipraesentia: omnipresence; frequently paired with immensitas, which indicates, literally, “without measure” (sine mensura, q.v.). God is everywhere present in the sense of being unbounded by space or measure. God is everywhere present because he is an infinite spiritual, immaterial being who cannot be contained or restricted by physical dimensions. See immensitas.
omnipraesentia generalis: general or generalized omnipresence; specifically, the omnipresence or ubiquity (ubiquitas, q.v.) of Christ’s human nature, i.e., the illocal, supernatural presence as explained in the Lutheran doctrine of the communication of proper qualities (communicatio idiomatum, q.v.). An unqualified assertion of omnipraesentia generalis was made by Johann Brenz prior to the Formula of Concord; the concept was subsequently modified by Martin Chemnitz, who argued for an ubivolipraesentia or multivolipraesentia. The idea of ubivolipraesentia does not limit the presence of Christ’s exalted human nature but rather stresses that it is a communicated omnipresence, the purpose of which lies in the divine will and the ground of which is the omnipresence of the Logos. Multivolipraesentia stresses, not generalized omnipresence, but the specific presence of Christ’s humanity in the Lord’s Supper. With this qualification, the omnipraesentia generalis does not threaten the praesentia localis (q.v.), or local presence, of Christ’s human nature according to its own attributes. Indeed, the Lutheran orthodox argue for the physical locality of Christ’s humanity on the basis of the first genus of the communicatio idiomatum while arguing ubiquity only on the basis of the second genus. In the seventeenth century it was argued that Christ’s humanity in actu primo, in its primary actuality or existence as such, remains local or localized always; whereas Christ’s humanity in actu secundo, in its secondary actualization, is not always localized but partakes of the divine omnipraesentia as omnipraesentia generalis. See actus; in actu.
omnipraesentia intima sive partialis: secret or partial omnipresence; a term used by Lutheran scholastics to describe the omnipresence of Christ’s human nature during the status humiliationis (q.v.), or state of humiliation. Christ’s divine attributes are then hidden or secret (intima) because they are not in use (chrēsis) in and through the human nature, even though possessed by the human nature (see ktēsis). Since this is an omnipresence in terms only of possession and not of use, it is termed partial or partialis, or more clearly, nuda adessentia, a mere being present, as opposed to an active or effective being present, the praesentia extima sive totalis (q.v.). This omnipraesentia intima sive partialis must also be distinguished from the praesentia intima sive personalis, the intimate or personal presence, i.e., the presence of the Logos to the flesh and the flesh to the Logos by reason of the unio personalis (q.v.). In both cases, intima, secret or intimate, indicates the special relationship between the Logos and the assumed human nature—in the former term, omnipraesentia refers to the real but not manifest communication of proper qualities (communicatio idiomatum, q.v.); in the latter term, praesentia refers to the communion of the natures (communio naturarum, q.v.) one with the other and to the fact that the person of the Logos is never and nowhere separated from the human nature. Thus the Lutheran aphorism Logos non extra carnem (q.v.), “The Logos is not beyond the flesh.”
omnisapientia: omnisapience; having all wisdom and being all-wise; specifically, the omnisapientia or sapientia Dei, the wisdom of the divine counsel (consilium Dei, q.v.), by virtue of which God knows all causes and effects and ordains them to their proper ends and by which he ultimately accomplishes his own end in and through all created things. Omnisapientia can therefore be defined as the correspondence of God’s thought with the highest good, or summum bonum (q.v.), of all things. Since God is himself the summum bonum toward which all things ultimately tend, the definition can equally well read, the correspondence of God’s thought with God’s essence, considered as the summum bonum. Furthermore, omnisapientia can be distinguished from omniscientia (q.v.). Whereas omniscientia refers to the knowledge that God has as prima causa (q.v.) efficiens, or first efficient cause, omnisapientia refers to God as causa finalis (q.v.), final cause or goal. Thus scientia (q.v.) and omniscientia indicate a pure or theoretical understanding, while sapientia (q.v.) and omnisapientia denote a practical understanding, a wise knowing that directs the ordering of ends and goals. See prima causa; primum movens.
omniscientia: omniscience, having all knowledge and being all knowing; specifically, the attribute of God by which God knows all things, all events, and all circumstances of things and events perfectly and immediately in his timeless eternity (see aeternitas). The omniscientia Dei is therefore described by the scholastics as absolutely true (verissima), absolutely clear (distinctissima), simultaneous (simultanea), and immediate or intuitive (intuitiva). It is verissima because it is all-encompassing, complete, and without defect; distinctissima because it lacks no detail, either concerning things possible or things actual or concerning which possibilities will be actualized and which will not; simultanea because the eternal God is free from succession, not only in being, but also in knowing, and therefore knows all things at once, including the order and temporal succession of things; intuitiva because it knows all things by immediate apprehension rather than by discourse or demonstration. See intellectus Dei; scientia Dei.
omnisufficientia: all-sufficiency; a divine attribute derived from the absolute life of God (vita Dei, q.v.) and the divine self-existence (aseitas, q.v.), indicating the absolute self-sufficiency of God. As self-existent life, God stands in need of nothing but is totally sufficient in and of himself. See attributa divina.
opera appropriata: appropriated works; divine works related to the individual persons of the Trinity. In traditional trinitarian thought, although the entire Godhead is the source or foundation of all acts ad extra, there are ad extra works, such as incarnation and sanctification, that are appropriated to individual persons of the Trinity. The act is said to arise with all three persons, the one God, as its fundamentum, or source, and to conclude on one of the persons as its terminus. See fundamentum; opera Dei ad extra; opera Dei ad intra; opera Dei essentialia; opera Dei personalia; Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa; terminus; Trinitas.
opera Dei: the works of God; without modifier, a term usually applied to the creation and to the providential preservation of creation; more precisely, all the activities of God, distinguished into opera Dei essentialia and opera Dei personalia, opera Dei ad intra and opera Dei ad extra.
opera Dei ad extra: the outward or external works of God; the divine activities according to which God creates, sustains, and otherwise relates to all finite things, including the activity or work of grace and salvation; sometimes called opera exeuntia, outgoing works. See operationes Dei externae.
opera Dei ad intra: the inward or internal works or activity of God; also termed opera Dei interna. In contrast to the opera Dei ad extra, the internal works of God are accomplished apart from any relation to externals and are, by definition, both eternal and immutable. The internal works of God are either essential or personal, i.e., opera Dei essentialia (q.v.), essential works of God, or opera Dei personalia (q.v.), personal works of God. The opera Dei ad intra can also be termed opera immanentia, immanent or inward works, in which case the opera essentialia and opera personalia are distinguished as (1) opera immanentia donec exeunt, immanent works before their going out, or efflux, since the opera essentialia ground all opera ad extra; and (2) opera immanentia per se, immanent works of themselves, since the opera personalia do not go forth from the divine essence.
opera Dei essentialia: the essential works of God; the works of God performed by the Godhead in its oneness; i.e., the common works (opera communia) of the divine persons as distinguished from the opera Dei personalia (q.v.); specifically, the eternal decree and its execution in time. Although the three persons work as one, there is nevertheless a modus agendi, or manner of working, that corresponds with the interpersonal relations of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father acts or works through the Son and in the Spirit. Thus the Father is the fons actionis, or source of activity, who works of himself and from none (a nullo); the Son is the medium actionis, or means of action, who works not of himself but from the Father (a Patre); and the Spirit is the terminus actionis, or limit of activity, who works not of himself but from both (ab utroque) Father and Son.
The opera Dei essentialia are further distinguished into (1) the opus Dei essentialis ad intra, which is the eternal decretum (q.v.) or consilium Dei (q.v.) willed by the entire Godhead as the foundation of all opera ad extra; and (2) the opus Dei essentiale ad extra, which is the execution or enactment of the divine decree, both in the general work of creatio (q.v.) and providentia (q.v.), i.e., the economy or arrangement of salvation. Because of the intimate relationship of the opus essentiale ad intra to the opus essentialis ad extra, they are sometimes called by the scholastics opera immanentia donec exeunt, immanent works preceding external act, and opera exeuntia, outgoing acts or external works. See opera Dei ad extra; opera Dei ad intra.
opera Dei personalia: the personal works of God; a term applied to the ad intra operation of the individual persons of the Trinity. (While all works of God ad extra are by definition the common work of the three persons in the Godhead, opera personalia occur only ad intra.) The opera personalia are therefore restricted to the activities of and relations between the persons: the activity of the Father in begetting the Son; the activity of the Father and the Son in spirating the Spirit; the relation of the Son to the Father by being begotten (passive generation); and the relation of the Spirit to the Father and the Son by being spirated (passive spiration). The opera personalia are also called opera divisa, since they identify and distinguish the persons; in contrast, the opera ad extra are, by definition, indivisa. The opera personalia are also called opera immanentia per se, immanent works of themselves, since they do not issue forth from the Godhead, in contrast to the opera essentialia, which ground all opera ad extra. Nonetheless, since the opera Dei ad extra do relate to particular persons of the Godhead, namely, the Son and Spirit, the work of the Godhead ad extra can also be understood as a common work that terminates on individual persons, as the Son in incarnation and the Spirit in sanctification, which can be identified as opera appropriata, works in a sense appropriated to particular persons. See opera appropriata; Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa; Trinitas.
opera supererogationis: works of supererogation, works beyond those required for salvation; also merita supererogationis: merits of supererogation; a concept in medieval and later Roman Catholic theology according to which the saints were believed to have performed works of full merit (see meritum de condigno) beyond those enjoined by commands of God in the law. Their further obedience was defined in terms of the holy life held forth by the counsels of the gospel (consilia evangelica, q.v.). The concept of opera supererogation lies at the foundation of two elements of Roman Catholic piety: indulgences and the rigors of monastic life. On the one hand, it was argued that the supererogatory merits of the saints could be dispensed by the church from its treasury of merits and bestowed as indulgences on those whose lives did not fulfill the legal requirements of salvation. On the other hand, it was assumed that the saints’ opera supererogationis were a model for human conduct and that the religious were capable of fulfilling both the commands of the law and the consilia evangelica under the conditions of the monastic life.
Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa: The ad extra (or external) works of the Trinity are undivided; specifically, since the Godhead is one in essence, one in knowledge, and one in will, it would be impossible in any work ad extra (q.v.) for one of the divine persons to will and to do one thing and another of the divine persons to will and do another. Given this conjoint mode of operation, some of the Reformed allow a concept of vestiges of the Trinity (vestigia Trinitatis, q.v.) in the works of God in creation. All the opera ad extra or opera exeuntia are opera Dei essentialia (q.v.). Sometimes the Protestant scholastics speak of the opera ad extra as opera certo modo personalia, personal works after a certain manner, because the undivided works ad extra do manifest one or another of the persons as their terminus operationis, or limit of operation. The incarnation and work of mediation, e.g., terminate on the Son, even though they are willed and effected by Father, Son, and Spirit.
operatio: operation, work, activity. The operation or action of anything rests on the fact that it exists and is determined by what it is. Thus operari sequitur ab esse, operation follows from being; or prius est esse, quam operari, being or existence is prior to operation. See actus essendi; esse; modus operandi.
operationes Dei externae: the external operation or works of God; distinguished into (1) the opus naturae or opus creationis and (2) the opus gratiae or opus redemptionis. Both of these operationes consist in the outward, or ad extra, exercise of divine will and power, resulting in definite temporal effects in conformity with, and as the execution or enactment of, the eternal decretum (q.v.) or consilium Dei (q.v.). (1) The opus naturae consists in the creatio (q.v.) of the world and the creatio continuata (q.v.), or divine providentia (q.v.). Although this work of creation and providence is a gracious work of God, it must be distinguished from (2) the opus gratiae, or work of special grace, for the sake of the redemption of believers. The opus gratiae comprehends the entire saving work of God from the protevangelium (q.v.) to the consummatio saeculi (q.v.). See dispensatio; oeconomia foederis; oeconomia salutis.
opheilēma (ὀφείλημα): a debt, something owed; hence, sins or trespasses, as in the form of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:12.
opinio: opinion; i.e., teaching of lesser authority that does not rest absolutely or demonstratively on knowledge (scientia, q.v.) or on wisdom (sapientia, q.v.) but on assertion or argument, in contrast to principia (q.v.) or proper and conclusive demonstrations (demonstrationes).
opposita: opposites or contraries; thus things, propositions, or terms that are mutually exclusive. Opposite or mutually exclusive things cannot exist together at the same time in the same subject, but only at different times or in separate subjects. Opposite or contrary propositions and terms are such that they negate one another. Thus a universal positive proposition is contrary to the universal negative proposition that treats the same subject; likewise, a term that has a positive significance is opposite to a term that expresses its negation, e.g., presence and absence.
oppositio adaequata: exact or direct opposite.
opus alienum: alien work, as opposed to opus proprium (q.v.).
opus creationis: the work of creation; also called the opus naturae. See operationes Dei externae.
opus Dei: the work of God; more often in the plural, opera Dei (q.v.), the works of God.
opus gratiae: the work of grace; also called the opus redemptionis. See operationes Dei externae.
opus naturae: the work of nature; also called the opus creationis. See operationes Dei externae.
opus oeconomicum: economic or administrative work; specifically, the work of the Godhead in the economy of salvation. See dispensatio; oeconomia foederis; oeconomia salutis; opera Dei ad extra; Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa; operationes Dei externae.
opus operatum: the work performed. See ex opere operato.
opus proprium: proper work; as opposed to opus alienum (q.v.), or alien or strange work; an important distinction in the opera Dei ad extra (q.v.) typical in late medieval theology and highly influential among the early Reformers. Like many of the theological distinctions, this one rests quite explicitly on a biblical text: Isaiah 28:21, where the Latin text indicates that God faciat opus suum alienum, usually rendered, that God “may do . . . his strange work,” yielding a distinction between a divine work that is strange, or alien, and the usual or “proper” manner of the divine working. The divine opus proprium is the work of God—such as creation, providence, and grace—that can be considered as proper to God, considering his nature as good, just, merciful, and so forth. By contrast, the divine opus alienum is the work of God that, in view of the goodness and justice of God, does not seem proper or properly attributed to God, such as the exercise of the divine will in and through human sin—in effect, apart from the intent of the sinner—for the sake of God’s ultimate purpose. The opus alienum is always the penultimate, never the ultimate, work of God.
opus redemptionis: the work of redemption; also called the opus gratiae. See operationes Dei externae.
opus theandricum: the theandric work; viz., the work of Christ as theanthrōpos (q.v.), or God-man. The term opus theandricum considers the result of the divine-human activity of Christ rather than the activity itself (actiones theandrikai, q.v.).
oratio: prayer.
Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum: Prayer, meditation, and trial make the theologian; a maxim from Luther.
ordinatio: ordering, ordinance, arrangement; also the ordination of a priest or minister. See sacramentum.
ordinatio ad poenam: ordination to punishment, a term for the positive, second act of reprobation. See reprobatio.
ordo antecedentium et consequentium: order of antecedents and consequents.
ordo causarum et effectuum: the order of causes and effects. See causa; ordo intentionis / ordo executionis; ordo rerum decretarum; ordo salutis.
ordo executionis: order of execution. See ordo intentionis / ordo executionis.
ordo intentionis / ordo executionis: order of intention / order of execution; a distinction indicating the logical priority of ends over means, often stated as Ordo executionis contrarius est ordini intentionis, “The order of execution is contrary to the order of intention.” Specifically, intention must stand logically prior to execution, albeit as the goal of the execution it will attain actualization subsequent to the enaction of all of the means by which it is accomplished: the goal, or finis, occupies first place in intention but last place in execution; the means stand last in intention but first in execution. This logical truism occupies a fairly significant place in the argument for a supralapsarian doctrine of predestination, although, when read in context, as in the works of William Twisse and others, it is clear that reference to the logic of the argument was not their sole or even primary basis, but as they indicated, “merely” a point of logic (apex logicus, q.v.), not a reason for debate or rupture at the confessional level. See ordo rerum decretarum; praedestinatio; supra lapsum.
ordo rerum creatarum: the order of created things; viz., the fixed order ordained by God that governs the course of all things in creation, under providence, in the work of salvation, and in the final glorification. Like the idea of an ordo rerum decretarum, it is typical of Reformed orthodoxy, and it underlies the so-called synthetic order or system that is typical of seventeenth-century scholasticism.
ordo rerum decretarum: the order of decreed or ordained things; also ordo decretorum Dei: the order of the decrees of God; the former term refers to the arrangement (ordo) of the entire causality of salvation under the divine decretum (q.v.); the latter, more specifically, to the problem of the infralapsarian versus the supralapsarian view of the decree. Both terms arose out of the concern of the Reformed to construct an order of divine saving causality resting upon the logical priorities in the eternal decree as they arise out of the nature and purpose of God. The Lutheran scholastics do not manifest any similar interest in or emphasis on an ordo rerum decretarum and view the Reformed structure as excessively speculative and rationalistic. The Reformed, for their part, assume a biblical basis for the entire ordo. The ordo is also determinative, together with the concept of an oeconomia or dispensatio (q.v.) of the foedus gratiae (q.v.), of the structure of scholastic Reformed systems of theology. See infra lapsum; intuitu fidei; ordo intentionis / ordo executionis; praedestinatio; supra lapsum.
ordo salutis: order of salvation; a term applied to the temporal order of causes and effects through which the salvation of the sinner is accomplished; viz., calling (vocatio), regeneration (regeneratio), adoption (adoptio), conversion (conversio, resipiscentia), faith (fides), justification (justificatio), mortification (mortificatio), renovation (renovatio), sanctification (sanctificatio), and perseverance (perseverantia). The actual arrangement of the several elements of the ordo, i.e., calling and so on, varies from system to system. Because of their emphasis on the eternal decree and its execution in time, the Reformed developed the idea of an ordo salutis in detail in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before the development of a similar structure in Lutheranism. The term ordo salutis was, however, not in use in the era of early or high orthodoxy, nor was the precise order or the number of terms belonging to the order strictly identified. Among the Reformed the most common way of referring to the ordo was as the armilla aurea (q.v.) or catena aurea, the “golden chain” of salvation, based directly on the exegesis of Romans 8:28–30. Despite the presence of glorification at the conclusion of the Pauline chain, many of the statements of the ordo do not include it, probably for formal reasons: since the issue is the order of salvation, the dogmatic locus or series of loci work through the temporal order, extending from the beginnings of salvation in prevenient grace (gratia praeveniens, q.v.) and calling to the conclusion of the work of salvation in this life in sanctification and final perseverance, leaving the discussion of glorification for the locus on the last things as the goal of the ordo after the work has been accomplished.
In the seventeenth century, however, under the impact of the precise definition of the Lutheran view of predestination following the Formula of Concord, a carefully defined ordo salutis did appear in the Lutheran systems. The term ordo salutis itself is of late origin, usually thought to have originated in the early eighteenth century as the descriptor of the series of terms developed with reference to Romans 8:28–30 and Acts 26:17–18, plus various other texts, with a view to arguing the proper ordering of the stages of the work of salvation in believers. See adoptio; conversio; fides; glorificatio; gratia; homo; illuminatio; intuitu fidei; iustificatio; mortificatio; perseverantia; praedestinatio; regeneratio; renovatio; resipiscentia; sanctificatio; vocatio.
organa gratiae et salutis: implements or instruments of grace and salvation; viz., the media gratiae, or means of grace, the Word and the sacraments. The Reformed almost exclusively tend to use the term media gratiae; the Lutherans also use organa gratiae to reinforce the concept of Word and sacraments as effective means or instruments through which grace operates for the sake of salvation. The implication of the term is not a doctrine of sacramental efficacy ex opere operato (q.v.), by the mere performance of the rite, but rather of the guarantee of the effective gift of grace and operation of grace to be received by faith, the medium lēptikon (q.v.), or receptive means, of grace. Thus the Lutherans argue that failure to hear the Word or to rightly receive the sacraments arises, not out of an ineffectual offer or an offer of grace not made with equal seriousness to all, but out of an absence of faith and a resistance to grace on the part of the individual. They declare that the Word is an “operating instrument” in conversion: Verbum Dei est organon operandi. The sacraments also are “effective means and instruments,” organa ac media efficacia. See media gratiae.
organon (ὄργανον): instrument; alternatively Latinized as organum. See causa instrumentalis; instrumentum; media. Organon was the standard term of reference for Aristotle’s logical works taken as a whole, as it was the intention of Francis Bacon to move beyond the older Aristotelian model when he titled his great work the Novum organum.
otiosus, -a, -um (adj.): idle, unoccupied; frequently in the expression Deus otiosus, an idle God, explicitly denied by the Reformers and the Protestant scholastics in the doctrines of creatio continuata (q.v.) and concursus (q.v.).
otiosus habitus: an idle or disengaged disposition or capacity; i.e., a capacity not operative, thus a capacity or disposition in actu primo, in its primary actuality. See in actu.
oudeneia (οὐδένεια): worthlessness or nothingness.
ousia (οὐσία): essence; substance. See essentia; essentia Dei; substantia.
ousiadōs (οὐσιαδῶς): essentially; the Latin essentialiter (q.v.); one way of predicating names of God, as opposed to hypostatikōs (ὑποστατικῶς), hypostatically, or personaliter, personally.