Rr

raptus in coelum: a carrying off into the heavens.

ratio: reason, indicating (1) the human rational faculty; (2) the mental capacity for reasoning; (3) a motive, premise, or ground of argument; (4) principles and axioms that are either self-evident or gathered by good and necessary conclusion from self-evident principles; or (5) a theory or structure of knowledge. Ratio, accordingly, can be variously translated as reason, motive, account, basis, ground, plan, schema, or theory.

In early modern theological discussion, ratio, understood as the human faculty is frequently distinguished into reason considered abstractly and concretely. The abstract category refers to the ideal condition of reason, or rationality, apart from the problem of sin and the differing capacities of individual human subjects. Reason in the concrete refers not only to the capacities of individual subjects but also to the four states, or conditions, of humanity: (1) the original state, prior to sin, when reason was untainted; (2) the state of sin, when reason is distorted and, in religion or theology, is subject to idolatrous judgments; (3) in grace, when reason along with the will is renewed, albeit still subject to error; and (4) in glory, when reason will finally be restored to its full and proper capacity. See recta ratio; theologia naturalis.

ratio consequendi salutem: the schema of attaining to salvation. See ordo salutis.

ratio consequentia: reason or conclusion from the consequences; i.e., a conclusion based on inference.

ratio decidendi: the reason for deciding.

ratio Deum colendi: manner of worshiping God; a partial definition of religion in general. Religion also includes knowing God, Deum cognoscendi. See religio.

ratio formalis: formal reason; formal ground or formal basis, specifically, the conceptualization of the essential attributes of a thing as in its definition or as known to the mind; or the reason or basis in a thing or act for it being what it is.

ratio ratiocinans / ratio ratiocinata: reason reasoning / reason having considered; a distinction between mere reasoning (ratio ratiocinans) and rational analysis of a thing (ratio ratiocinata). See distinctio.

rationalis (adj.): reasonable; rational. See distinctio.

rationaliter (adv.): rationally; reasonably.

rationes aeternae: eternal or divine ideas; i.e., the eternal archetypal ideas or universals that exist in the mind of God and that, according to the scholastic and Augustinian theory of illumination (illuminatio, q.v.), are the foundation of human certainty. See causa exemplaris; forma exemplaris; idea; ideae divinae; universalia.

rationes probabiles: probable reasons.

realis (adj.): real; particularly with reference to the reality of a thing. Realis is etymologically grounded in the word res, indicating a thing, individual, or substantive existent; therefore realis has a more strict and technical implication than the adjectives “genuine” or “true.” See distinctio; praesentia realis; res.

realis communio naturarum: real communion of natures; a term used for emphasis by Lutheran dogmaticians to describe their view of the relationship of the natures in Christ’s person over against the Reformed definition of the communio naturarum (q.v.).

realiter (adv.): really, in reality.

reatus: liability; reatus poenae: liability to punishment; specifically, one of the two effects of sin. Sin (peccatum, q.v.) has two immediate effects: (1) macula (q.v.), or deformity of soul, and (2) reatus, liability under the transgressed law. Human beings are liable to poena (q.v.), since peccatum and the resultant macula constitute them as guilty before God. The medieval scholastics distinguished between reatus poenae and reatus culpae, liability to guilt, on the assumption that the obedientia Christi (q.v.) satisfied for and removed only the culpa, or guilt, of sin, leaving to each person the work of temporal satisfaction of the poena. The Protestant scholastics refuse to separate poena and culpa in this manner and therefore refuse to make a distinction between reatus culpae and reatus poenae. Instead, they argue for a single reatus, or liability, on the basis of the fall, a liability to both guilt and punishment. This Protestant view rests on a revision of the doctrine of the obedientia Christi. The language of macula and reatus also appears in the doctrine of baptism. Baptism removes the reatus of original sin, rendering the baptized no longer liable to punishment, but it does not remove the actus, or actuality, of sin: the macula, or deformity of soul, resulting from the fall. Baptism is therefore not a magical act that prevents sin but merely a beginning of the work of the Spirit. See baptismus.

recapitulatio: recapitulation; the Latin equivalent of the Greek term ἀνακεφαλαίωσις (anakephalaiōsis), which, like the Latin, indicates literally the provision of a new “head” or a new “headship”—specifically, the new headship of Christ, which supersedes the old headship of Adam and, in the work of salvation, undoes the sin and fall of Adam. The term is best known from its use in the central exposition of the work of Christ in Irenaeus’s Against Heresies.

reconciliatio: reconciliation; viz., the saving work of Christ viewed as the restoration of harmony or agreement between God and man. The term therefore relates specifically to the office of Christ as the Mediator between the two parties in covenant, God and man, and indicates the result of Christ’s mediatorial work of satisfaction (satisfactio, q.v.) and expiation (expiatio, q.v.) for the restoration of the original relationship between God and humanity that had been destroyed by the fall. See Mediator; medius; satisfactio vicaria.

recta Deum cognoscendi et colendi ratio: the right manner of knowing and worshiping God; viz., religion, or more precisely, true religion. See religio.

recta ratio: literally, right reason; i.e., true and proper understanding, referring to the human faculty of reason or to its proper use; thus also right or proper rationale, right or proper method. Recta ratio is to be distinguished from the corrupt or distorted faculty and from rash or ungrounded assertion. See ratio.

rectitudo: rectitude, uprightness; in particular, the human condition as created according to the similitudo (q.v.), or likeness, and imago Dei (q.v.), image of God.

rector: rector; viz., governor, with the connotation of a judicial or legal function. Thus a term applied to God in the Grotian theory of atonement. Also rector mundi, governor of the world.

redargutio: refutation, conviction; especially the inward conviction or refutation of sin that occurs by the work of the Spirit testifying inwardly to the truth of Scripture, specifically, to the truth of the law in its usus elenchticus. See testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti; usus legis.

redemptio: redemption; specifically, the work of salvation described as a rescue from bondage to sin, a rescue accomplished by the payment of a price; deliverance considered as ransom or repurchase. See satisfactio vicaria.

reductio ad absurdum: leading back to an absurdity; a standard way of refuting an argument by showing that, if carried to its conclusion, it actually leads to an impossibility.

regeneratio: regeneration; the rebirth of mind and will accomplished by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit at the outset of the ordo salutis (q.v.). See conversio; renovatio.

regimen ecclesiasticum: rule of the church; specifically, the rule of the church exercised by human beings as distinct from and derived from the gubernatio ecclesiae, or governance of the church, which ultimately belongs to God in Christ. We thus distinguish the regimen principale, or principal rule, which is Christ’s, from the regimen ministeriale, or ministerial rule, which is given to the ministerium (q.v.) of clergy and teachers, also known as the ecclesia repraesentativa. See ecclesia.

regnum Christi: the rule or kingdom of Christ. The Protestant scholastics recognize several distinctions that can be made with regard to the exercise of Christ’s rule. The Lutherans tend to argue for a threefold kingdom: (1) the regnum potentiae, or kingdom of power, according to which Christ, as divine Word and Second Person of the Trinity, rules the entire creation providentially and is the Lord of all creatures without distinction; (2) the regnum gratiae, or kingdom of grace, according to which Christ governs, blesses, and defends the ecclesia militans (q.v.) during its earthly pilgrimage (see in via; viator) for the sake of the salvation of believers; and (3) the regnum gloriae, or kingdom of glory, according to which Christ governs the glorious ecclesia triumphans, both presently in heaven and also in the consummatio saeculi (q.v.), when he will subdue all his enemies and bring the whole church into its triumphal reign. These divisions do not indicate several reigns but merely distinctions in the manner and exercise of rule. The regnum potentiae is universal and general or natural, whereas the regnum gratiae extends only to believers and is exercised in and through Christ’s threefold office (munus triplex, q.v.), specifically, through the munus regnum. The regnum gloriae is distinct from the other divisions of the regnum Christi in regard to the place and state of believers.

The Reformed scholastics express essentially the same distinctions in a twofold division of the kingdom into (1) the regnum essentiale, or essential rule, also called regnum universale or naturale, universal or natural rule; and (2) the regnum personale, or personal rule, also called regnum oeconomicum, or economic, soteriological rule (see opus oeconomicum). The former set of terms corresponds to the Lutheran definition of the regnum potentiae, the latter to the regnum gratiae and regnum gloriae, which belong to Christ as the Mediator of salvation, and are thus both personale and oeconomicum, personal and economic. The Reformed further distinguish the regnum personale or oeconomicum of the Mediator according to the states and modes of its administration, grace and glory. The difference between the Lutherans and Reformed over the communicatio idiomatum (q.v.) leads the Lutherans to argue that Christ rules his entire kingdom as theanthrōpos (q.v.), or God-man, including the regnum potentiae, since the Logos is never apart from the human nature and works all things in and through Christ’s humanity. The Reformed, however, tend to attribute the regnum universale specifically to the Second Person of the Trinity and only the regnum oeconomicum to the God-man as Mediator.

The Reformed and the Lutherans agree, however, on the eternal duration of the regnum Christi and the cessation only of certain modes of administration. The consummatio mundi (q.v.) will bring about the end of administration according to the mode of grace, and the regnum potentiae or regnum universale will at that point become fully manifest. Christ will continue the mediatorial rule in the raising of the dead and in his rule of the blessed; his enemies will be subjugated, he will turn over all things to the Father, and God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24). Against the Socinians, who use this passage to argue for an end to Christ’s mediation, both the Lutherans and the Reformed argue for a change merely in the divine oeconomia and a turning over of the kingdom, which is not an actus depositionis, an act of deposition, but an actus propositionis, an act of presentation for the glory of the Father, in which the essence of the mediatorial rule will be fully revealed. Some of the Reformed argue for an end of the regnum mediatorium, or mediatorial reign, according to its prophetic and sacrificial activities, while acknowledging the eternity of the munus regium and the continuance of the intercessory work of the munus sacerdotale.

regnum gratiae: kingdom or rule of grace. See regnum Christi.

regnum mediatorium: mediatorial rule. See munus triplex; regnum Christi.

regnum potentiae: kingdom or rule of power. See regnum Christi.

regula fidei: rule of faith; in the early church, the creedal expansion of the baptismal formula used to define the apostolic tradition of faith against the gnostics; in the medieval church it was sometimes extended to the canonical Scriptures (e.g, Aquinas, Summa Theologiae IIa-IIae, q. 1, a. 9). In the age of the Reformation and Protestant orthodoxy, the early church usage is known and sometimes used, but the expression typically references the canonical Scriptures themselves. Sometimes the expression regula fidei et caritatis, the rule of faith and love, is used, comprising the whole of Christian belief and life (e.g., Second Helvetic Confession 2.1). The addition of a regula caritatis derives from Augustine’s Christian Doctrine.

relatio: relation. See praedicamenta; relatio personalis.

relatio personalis: personal relation; in the doctrine of the Trinity, the incommunicable property or mode of subsistence that identifies the individual persons of the Trinity in relation to each other. Thus there are three personal relations in the Trinity: the paternitas (q.v.) of the Father, the filiatio (q.v.) of the Son, and the processio (q.v.) or spiratio (q.v.) of the Spirit. Relatio personalis describes, then, the internal workings of the Trinity when they indicate the relationships of the persons one to the other; when these opera Dei personalia (q.v.), or personal works of God, are used to identify the persons individually, each is viewed as a distinct character hypostaticus sive personalis (q.v.) or proprietas (q.v.) personalis. See notiones personales; Trinitas.

relativus, -a, -um (adj.): relative, as distinct from absolute. See absolutus; in se; secundum quid.

religio: religion; true religion is most simply defined by the Protestant scholastics as the right way of knowing and honoring God (recta Deum cognoscendi et colendi ratio), involving knowledge of God (cognitio Dei), love of God (amor Dei, q.v.), and fear of God (timor Dei) leading to an honoring or veneration (cultus, q.v.) of God. The word religio itself has been subject to several etymological interpretations, which the Protestant scholastics invariably rehearse and assess. Cicero (106–43 BC) thought that the word religio derived from the verb relego, relegere, to gather together, to set aside, or to reread. Religio is therefore the diligent study and observance of things pertaining to the gods. Zwingli adopted this derivation in his Commentary on True and False Religion. Macrobius, in contrast, had favored derivation from relinquo, relinquere, to relinquish or leave behind, inasmuch as religion demands separation from the profane. Both of these classic derivations are viewed with interest by the Protestant scholastics, though quite a few writers, following Calvin, note that Cicero’s view, and thus Zwingli’s view, is a bit far-fetched linguistically. The preferred etymology is that of Lactantius (Divine Institutes 4.28) and Augustine (City of God 10.3; True Religion 55), which derives religio from the verb religo, religare, to fasten, bind back, or reattach. Religio thus is a binding back or reattachment of fallen humanity to God, related to the idea of a human address to God and God’s condescension to and for humanity, and thus also to the verb eligo, eligere, to choose or elect. The term “religion” is therefore deduced from the bond of piety: Nomen religionis a vinculo pietatis deductum est (Baier, Compendium 1:14, after Lactantius). The orthodox further distinguish true from false religion, the latter consisting in superstitious worship, heresy, and pagan opinion; and also from impiety or contempt of God as manifest both in open blasphemy and in hypocrisy. True religion, moreover, can be distinguished into religio obiectiva, objective religion, and religio subiectiva, subjective religion. Objective religion is religion objectively considered as human knowledge of God as revealed in Scripture, in the law (lex, q.v.), and in the gospel (evangelium, q.v.). Subjective religion, or religion subjectively considered, is the effect of this knowledge of God in human life, the individual and the corporate love, fear, and worship of God.

religio naturalis / religio revelata: natural religion / revealed religion; a distinction between (1) the religion that arises naturally in rational creatures on the basis of their perception of the natural order and the divine handiwork in it, namely, natural or general revelation; and (2) the religion that rests on special or supernatural revelation. See revelatio generalis / revelatio specialis; theologia naturalis / theologia revelata sive supernaturalis.

remissio peccatorum: remission of sins, which occurs through faith and cannot be separated from faith in Christ, fides in Christum.

renovatio: renovation; literally, a making new once more; specifically, the gracious work of the Spirit after conversion (conversio, q.v.) by means of which the old Adam is put aside and the corrupted imago Dei (q.v.), or image of God, is restored to its integrity. The regenerated will cooperates with the grace of the Spirit in renovatio, and good works proceed from the believer. The term renovatio thus is roughly synonymous with sanctificatio (q.v.), or sanctification, the difference being that renovatio indicates primarily the undoing of the effects of the fall both negatively and positively, while sanctificatio indicates not so much a “making new once more” as a “making holy.” The scholastics further distinguish between renovatio negativa, the mortification of the old Adam as the believer increasingly dies to sin, and renovatio positiva, the vivification or renewal of the imago Dei (see ordo salutis). Renovatio can also refer to the final purgation of the world by fire when all things will be made new. When used in this sense, it is juxtaposed with annihilatio, the annihilation, or destruction of the world by fire. Both views of the end of the world were held by the Protestant orthodox, the majority tending toward renovatio. See interitus mundi.

repletivus, -a, -um (adj.): repletive; incapable of being judged or measured by circumscription or defined by physical limitations or spatial boundaries, but rather identified as filling space or acting upon space while at the same time transcending it. See praesentia.

reprobatio: reprobation; the eternal decree (decretum, q.v.) of God according to which he wills to leave certain individuals in their corrupt condition, to damn them because of their sin, and to leave them to eternal punishment apart from the divine presence. Reprobatio is therefore distinct from damnatio (q.v.): whereas the cause of damnatio is the sin of an individual, the cause of reprobatio is the sovereign will of God. Reprobatio can be conceived in two ways. (1) The supralapsarians among the Reformed consider reprobatio a decree coordinate with electio (q.v.), inasmuch as both election and reprobation ultimately take possible, creatable, and thus unfallen human beings as their object. Still, reprobation is not understood as causally parallel or in symmetry with election, inasmuch as it does not either will the sin or decree damnation without respect to sin. It is nonetheless conceived in the divine mind apart from any consideration of the actual fall of Adam, but only with a view toward the ultimate declaration of divine justice. (2) As defined by the infralapsarians among the Reformed and by the Lutherans, reprobatio is a divine decree taking fallen humanity as its object and willing to leave some of the fallen in sin; the Lutherans add the reason: they are not found in Christ and do not believe. Thus the Lutheran orthodox rest reprobation on the vindicatory justice of God (see iustitia vindicativa sive punitiva) in its relation to sin and, above all, to final unbelief. In contrast to the Reformed, the Lutheran scholastics will not define reprobation as mere preterition (praeteritio, q.v.), or passing over, since God has seriously offered grace and salvation to the reprobate. Nonetheless, the decree of reprobation is defined as immutable by the Lutherans as well as by the Reformed.

In order to show that the concept of divine reprobation does not render God directly the author of sin, some of the more elaborate scholastic definitions set out by the Reformed, both supra- and infralapsarian, can distinguish between negative and positive reprobation, the former indicating the divine will to refrain from bestowing grace on some, and the latter indicating the divine will to set aside for condemnation those who, lacking grace, are hardened in sin. Negative reprobation is often identified as a decretum praeteritionis, a decree to set aside; or as decretum non miserandi, a decree not to have mercy; or as a decretum deserendi, a decree of desertion. Positive reprobation is often called a decretum ex praescientia, a decree upon foreknowledge; or an ordinatio ad poenam, an ordination to punishment. This latter decree ex praescientia or ad poenam is an eternal act that decrees the ultimate damnation of some as the just punishment of their sins. See infra lapsum; intuitu incredulitatis finalis; praedestinatio; praeteritio; supra lapsum.

reprobi: the reprobates; the reprobates are sometimes also called the praesciti, or foreseen, inasmuch as God does not effectively cause their sin and damnation but foresees their failure to respond to the Word and therefore passes over them in their sins, leaving them to their just damnation. See damnatio; reprobatio.

res: thing, an actual thing, a real thing, thing in the most general sense; i.e., anything, something, or no particular kind of thing; a substance or substantial existent; something real, a reality. In other words, res, like ens (q.v.), indicates an existent in the most basic sense, as in the phrase in rerum natura (q.v.), in the nature of things. The plural “things” (also res) can simply indicate all finite reality. Secondarily, res can refer to the “thing in question,” the “issue at hand,” or the “substance” of an argument or text. Thus the Protestant scholastics can distinguish between scriptural authority quoad verba, according to the words, and quoad res, according to the things or issues signified by the words. In traditional exegesis, a distinction was made between the signum, i.e., the sign or name, and the res, the thing or reality indicated by the sign. The distinction between sign and thing signified (res significata, q.v.) carries over into sacramental theology, where the sacrament is understood to present the bread and wine as signa, or the substance or reality being presented, namely, the body and blood of Christ as res significata or, more specifically, res sacramenti (q.v.). See signum; universalia.

res iustifica: the thing that justifies. See bonum iustificum.

res sacra / res sacrans: a holy thing / a thing that makes holy. See sacramentum.

res sacramenti: literally, the thing of the sacrament; i.e., the thing, substance, or object toward which the sacramental signum (q.v.) points. In general, for both baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the res sacramenti is the person of Christ, together with Christ’s merits and benefits. Specifically, in the Lord’s Supper, where the Reformed hold that bread and wine signify the presence of Christ’s body and blood, the whole person of Christ, whose body was broken and whose blood was shed, is the res sacramenti. The res sacramenti can also be called the res signata or res significata, the thing signified, inasmuch as it is the referent of the signum. See materia coelestis; sacramentum.

res signata, alternatively, res significata: thing, reality or substance signified. See res sacramenti; signum.

res testata: the thing attested. See testimonium.

resipiscentia: repentance, a change of mind or heart; the term used by the Reformers to translate μετάνοια (metanoia), rather than the traditional patristic and medieval term poenitentia (q.v.). Resipiscentia indicated poenitentia only in the sense of the penitence or contrition (contritio, q.v.) characteristic of conversion to faith in Christ (conversio ad fidem Christi; see conversio) and of the effects of the Spirit’s gracious work in sinners (see gratia; sanctificatio).

resurrectio: resurrection; specifically, either the resurrection of Christ or the final resurrection of all people before the final judgment. The Reformed and the Lutherans are at one against all forms of chiliasmus (q.v.) in arguing a single resurrection at the end of time. They disagree slightly over Christ’s resurrection, the Lutherans viewing it as the second stage of Christ’s status exaltationis (q.v.), after the descensus ad inferos (q.v.). Since the Reformed view the descensus as belonging to the status humiliationis (q.v.), they see the resurrection of Christ as the first stage of his exaltatio. The causa resurrectionis is the power of God, which in and through the unio personalis (q.v.), according to both Lutherans and Reformed, imparts new life to Christ’s human nature for the sake of the salvation of believers. The resurrectio Christi is the victory over the power of sin and death, which makes possible the resurrection of the dead.

The resurrectio mortuorum, or resurrection of the dead, is defined by the Protestant scholastics as the quickening and awakening from temporal death (mors temporalis, q.v.) of the earthly body and its reunion with the soul for the sake of the final manifestation of the remuneratory and vindicatory justice of God (see iustitia remuneratoria sive distributiva; iustitia vindicativa sive punitiva) in the eternal salvation of believers and the eternal damnation of unbelievers. The subiectum quod resurrectionis, or passive subject of the divine work of resurrection, is the entire human race; the subiectum quo, or active, actual subject, is the body. The resurrected body is identical with the earthly body but is, by the enlivening work of the Spirit, now made spiritual, incorruptible, and glorious. See adventus Christi.

resuscitatio: resuscitation, revival; as, e.g., of the fallen will or fallen intellect. See conversio; illuminatio; vivificatio.

revelatio: revelation; a making-known specifically directed toward the intellect, as opposed to patefactio (q.v.), or manifestation, which indicates a presentation to sight as well.

revelatio generalis / revelatio specialis: general revelation / special revelation; a basic distinction between (1) the general gift of knowledge of God to all people in and through the created order and (2) the special gift of saving knowledge in Christ in and through the prophets and the apostles and in and through the teaching or prophetic office of Christ (see munus triplex). After the fall, human reason has proved incapable of deriving a pure or complete knowledge of God from creation. Thus revelatio generalis and the theologia naturalis (q.v.) resulting from it contain only a nonsaving truth, known only partially and imperfectly by the sinful intellect. A revelatio specialis was therefore necessary for salvation, and the theologia revelata or theologia supernaturalis based on it can alone contain true, undistorted, and saving knowledge of God.

revelatio immediata: immediate or unmediated revelation; a direct revelation of God by means of a theophany, a vision, a voice, or some inward inspiration, like the “inner light.” The orthodox, both Lutheran and Reformed, allow an immediate revelation given to the authors of Scripture but deny the existence of all such revelations after the closing of the canon. The Holy Spirit now reveals the truth of God mediately, through Scripture. See revelatio nova; testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti.

revelatio nova: new revelation; i.e., a denial of the fullness of revelation in Christ and of the closure of the canon of Scripture; specifically, the assertion that new truths are given directly by God; a category of revelation affirmed by enthusiasts but denied absolutely by all the orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed alike. See revelatio immediata.

reverentia: reverence.