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On the Motive of the Incarnation
Early Modern Catholic Sources
by The Salmanticenses (Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca)
Translated by Dylan Schrader
Imprint: Catholic University of America Press
The Catholic University of America Press is pleased to announce a new series, Early Modern Catholic Sources, edited by Ulrich L. Lehner and Trent Pomplun. This series – the only one of its kind – will provide translations of early modern Catholic texts of theological interest written between 1450 and 1800.
The first volume in this series is On the Motive of the Incarnation, the first English translation of the seventeenth-century Discalced Carmelites at the University of Salmanca treatise on the motive of the Incarnation. Originally intended for students of their order, it became a major contribution to broader theological discourse. In this treatise, they defend the assertion that God intended Christ’s Incarnation essentially as a remedy for sin, such that if Adam had not sinned Christ would not have become incarnate, and that, at the same time, God intended all other works of nature and grace for the sake of Christ at their end. The Salmanticenses’ position thus combines elements of the Franciscan and Dominican traditions, stemming from the thought of Blessed John Duns Scotus and Saint Thomas Aquinas. This treatise is an exhaustive effort to show how the Scotistic emphasis on the primacy of Christ as the first willed and intended by God can be articulated within a Thomistic framework that acknowledges the contingency of the Incarnation on the need for redemption. In addition to the translation, the volume will include a brief introduction and extensive notes for theologians, historians, and students.
"A major contribution to the understanding of dogmatic theology in the scholasticism of the Baroque era, as well as to the Christological question on the motive for the Incarnation."
~Robert Fastiggi, Sacred Heart Major Seminary
"Provides a wonderful insight into theological reflections on the question of why God became incarnate and whether God would have become incarnate had people not sinned. It does so by presenting a translation of an interesting Carmelite text that offers an answer to this question and by providing a very scholarly account of ways in which the question was discussed up to the time when the text first appeared."
~Brian Davies, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
"Unsurpassed in depth, nuance, comprehension, and acuity, this theological exposition of the divine motive of the Incarnation of Christ set a high standard for all later theological explorations of this mystery of faith. Fr. Dylan Schrader's helpful introduction and superb translation makes this theological masterwork of the Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca, a classic of the early modern period, available in an attractively accessible form to new generations of theologians, priests, and students of theology. This extraordinary work of theology is to be warmly welcomed as the inaugural volume of an important new series of early modern Catholic sources."
~Reinhard Hütter, author of Aquinas on Transubstantiation: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Bound for Beatitude: A Thomistic Study in Eschatology and Ethics
"Catholic theology today needs a new ressourcement, a new engagement with the great scholastic theologians of the post-Reformation age. This Early Modern Catholic Sources series will be a major contribution to such an engagement. The great work of the Salamanca theologians of the seventeenth century opens up a lost world of precise thought, deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition. The question of the motive of the incarnation touches a wide range of fundamental issues and Fr. Dylan Schrader’s careful translation will amply repay close study"
~Michael Root, The Catholic University of America
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