On the Relation between Theological Truth and Felicity
Inter veritatem et felicitatem theologica non est confusio neque separatio. Felicitas est forma Spiritus qua sermo fit idoneus ad dicendum de Deo; veritas est effectus ontologicus eiusdem Spiritus, quo quod dicitur vere est. Utrumque est opus unius Spiritus in duobus ordinibus: verbi et entis.
Between theological truth and felicity there is neither confusion nor separation. Felicity is the form given by the Spirit whereby speech becomes rightly ordered toward God; truth is the ontological effect of that same Spirit, by which what is spoken truly is. Both are the work of one Spirit operating in two orders: the order of word and the order of being.
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Thesis
Felicity and truth are two inseparable dimensions of theology’s participation in divine speech.
Felicity (felicitas) concerns the authorization and rightness of theological language — that it may be spoken in Spiritu Sancto.
Truth (veritas) concerns the fulfillment and correspondence of that language in the divine reality.
They differ as form and effect: felicity makes theology speakable, truth makes it real.
Locus classicus
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.” — Isaiah 55:11
Here Scripture joins felicity and truth in a single divine act. God’s word is felicitous because it can rightly be spoken by Him; it is true because it brings into being the very reality it names.
Explicatio
In Disputatio III, we learned that the Holy Spirit determines which expressions belong within the language of faith, T, through the conditions of felicity — the marks that identify speech as rightly spoken in the Spirit. In Disputatio IV, we saw that theology possesses twofold truth: internal, corresponding to felicity, and external, corresponding to reality. Here we bring these together.
When theologians write FT + Modeling = TC, they do not mean a mathematical formula but a theological relation. FT denotes the felicity conditions of T: the Spirit’s gift of coherence, authorization, and spiritual rightness in speech. “Modeling” denotes the interpretation of that language within being, as we explored earlier. TC stands for the truth conditions of theology — the reality in which theological expressions are fulfilled.
This expression can be read in plain words as:
“When the language of faith is authorized by the Spirit and interpreted within reality, it becomes true.”
Thus, felicity is not preliminary to truth as a mere stepping stone; it is the inner form of truth’s possibility. The felicity of divine speech is the manner in which truth enters language.
Inversely, truth is the ontological consummation of felicity — the outward completion of what felicity initiates. To speak felicitously in the Spirit is to speak words that are destined to become true in God’s creative act.
Objectiones
Obiectio I. If felicity depends upon the Spirit’s authorization and truth upon divine causation, then both seem identical; why distinguish them?
Obiectio II. Felicity concerns speech, truth concerns being; to relate them risks confusing theology and ontology.
Obiectio III. To say that felicity precedes truth implies that theology can be “right” even if what it says is not real.
Responsiones
Ad I. The Spirit’s work is one but operates in two registers: linguistic and ontological. In the order of language, the Spirit gives felicity—right form, coherence, and authorization. In the order of being, the Spirit gives truth—real correspondence and fulfillment. To distinguish these is not to divide the Spirit but to respect the distinction between Word and world.
Ad II. Felicity and truth belong to different but ordered domains. Theology begins in language and terminates in being. The two are united by divine causality, for God’s Word does not remain in grammar but becomes act. Hence, theology is both linguistic and ontological, without confusion of essence or competition of causality.
Ad III. Felicity without fulfillment is incomplete, not false. There are utterances that are felicitous — rightly spoken — whose truth awaits divine consummation. The creed “He will come again in glory” is such a word: fully authorized, perfectly felicitous, but awaiting its eschatological verification. Felicity anticipates truth; truth fulfills felicity.
Nota
We may picture felicity and truth as two poles of a single divine circuit. Felicity is the descent of the Spirit into speech; truth is the return of that speech into being. The Word goes forth felicitously, returns truthfully.
To say that the Spirit causes both is to affirm that God’s communication is never idle. Felicity is the Spirit’s formal causality — ordering language so it may bear meaning; truth is the Spirit’s final and efficient causality — making real what language, so ordered, declares.
Theological language that seeks truth without felicity becomes presumptuous, attempting to name God without the Spirit’s authorization. Conversely, felicity without truth becomes pietistic solipsism, where words comfort but do not correspond. Only when the two coincide does theology become the living voice (viva vox) of the gospel.
Thus, the relation between felicity and truth is neither sequential nor competitive but circular: the Spirit who authorizes speech also fulfills it. The Word that begins in divine grace ends in divine reality.
Determinatio
From the foregoing it is determined that:
Felicity and truth are distinct yet inseparable moments of theology’s participation in the Spirit’s act of communication.
Felicity concerns the rightness of speech within T (the internal authorization of the Word), while truth concerns the realization of that speech within being (the external fulfillment of the Word).
The same Spirit who gives felicity as form of divine discourse causes truth as fulfillment of divine action.
Felicity anticipates truth eschatologically: what is rightly spoken in faith will be shown true in glory.
Therefore, theology’s speech is a participation in God’s own causal communication—words that live because the Spirit makes them both felicitous and true.
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