Wiedza wlana Chrystusa
The Infused Science of Christ

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary theological debate about the historical human knowledge and self-understanding of Christ is wide ranging. In this essay I explore Aquinas’ account of the relationship between the ordinary acquired knowledge of Christ and his “infused science” or supernatural understanding and prophetic insight. I argue that Aquinas’ account of the acquired learning of Christ can provide helpful resources for the consideration of Jesus’ communication and self-understanding when considered in its historical and cultural linguistic context. However, this emphasis on his ordinary human situatedness is rightly complemented by the acknowledgement of his graced understanding of his own identity, mission, and soteriological significance. Aquinas’ treatment of the infused science of Christ allows us to acknowledge a habitual capacity for prophetic insight in Jesus, such that he would know all he needed to for the sake of his mission. At the end of the essay I explore ways that the affirmation of this latter infused science is also compatible with the traditional Catholic claim that Christ did not have the theological virtue of faith but instead possessed an economic mode of the beatific vision. I consider why one might hold to a distinction and compatibility of infused science and immediate, beatific intuition in the human mind of Christ.

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