Dionysius Cartusianus, Commentaria in I Sententiarum, d. XVII q. 2; Opera omnia, t. 20 (Tournai, 1902)
Secondly it is asked whether charity is to be loved out of charity.
It seems that it is not. First, because according to Augustine in the book On Christian Doctrine there are four things to be loved out of charity, namely God, one's own soul, one's neighbour, and one's own body — and none of these is charity. Second, if charity is loved, then it is loved by some love; and that love must in turn be loved by another love, and so it will go on to infinity. Third, faith is not believed, nor is hope hoped: therefore neither is charity loved.
On the contrary there is the authority of Augustine, who says in the Letter: "He who loves his neighbour, it follows that he should above all love love itself." And in the eighth book On the Trinity: "Let no one say," he says, "I do not know what to love. Let him love his brother, and let him love love itself."
To this Bonaventure replies […]
Albert, further, resolves it briefly, saying: Augustine, in saying that he who loves his neighbour must above all love love itself, argues according to the way an exemplar cause is received in the thing modelled on it. And so the sense is: the one loving God loves love in its exemplar, namely in the uncreated love, according as that exemplar shows itself in created love. For uncreated charity shows itself and shines out in created charity, and so is loved in it as in its own mirror.
Thomas, replying more fully: something, he says, is lovable in two ways — first as the account under which loving takes place, second as the object; just as colour is seen as the object, but light as that by reason of which colour is actually visible. Charity, finally, is taken in three ways: first for uncreated charity, second for the habit of charity, third for its act. And any one of these three is an account under which one loves, and can also be charity's object […]
Draft English (Claude), awaiting Wilson · cc-by · published at bonaventure.wrootpress.com. This page quotes it; that is its home.
Dionysius Cartusianus, Commentaria in I Sententiarum, d. XVII q. 2; Opera omnia, t. 20 (Tournai, 1902) · pd
⭐ The question this crux asks, put in 1460 by a man who had read everyone who had asked it before, and who answers it by reporting them. The three arguments against are the sharpest short statement of the difficulty anywhere on this page — Augustine lists four things to be loved and charity is not among them; a love of love needs a further love and so to infinity; faith is not believed and hope is not hoped. ⭐ The image is Albert's and it is the best thing on the page: uncreated charity shines out in created charity and is loved in it as in its own mirror, so that loving one's own love of God is not a second act beside loving God but the same act seeing itself. Thomas's answer, as Denys gives it, does the same work analytically — charity is what one loves BY as light is what one sees colour by, and it can also be what one loves. ⛔ Bonaventure's reply is elided at […] because Bonaventure argues this crux on this very page in his own words, and a text may be found through Denys and never cited through him. What is printed here is what DENYS wrote about Albert and Thomas, and it is a witness for neither of them.