Rationes seminales

Rationes seminales (Latin, from the Greek λόγοι σπερματικοὶ or logoi spermatikoi), translated variously as "germinal principles", "causal principles", "primordial reasons", "original factors", "seminal reasons", "seminal virtues", or "seedlike principles", express a theological theory on the origin of species. This involves the doctrine of a divine creation of the world in seed form, with certain potentialities, which can then develop or unfold accordingly over time; what appears as change is simply the realization of the preexisting potentialities. The theory is a metaphor of the growth of a plant: much as a planted seed eventually develops into a tree, so a creator-god formed the world by planting rationes seminales, from which all subsequent life sprung. The concept functions to reconcile the belief that God created all things with the evident fact that new things are constantly developing.

The roots and terminology of this idea occur within the Hellenistic philosophy of the Stoics (4th century BCE onwards) and in Neoplatonism.^[1] The idea passed into Christian thought through the writings of authors such as Justin Martyr (2nd century CE),^[2] Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133 – c. 190 CE), Tertullian, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Bonaventure (1221-1274), Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 - 1280), and Roger Bacon (13th century). Contemporary theistic evolutionists look to this doctrine for inspiration on the consistency of Judeo-Christian creation with the modern biological theory of evolution.

References

^ Christoph Helmig, Forms and Concepts: Concept Formation in the Platonic Tradition, Walter de Gruyter (2012), p. 194)
^ Horowitz, Maryanne Cline (1998). "The Challenge to Christian Theologians". Seeds of Virtue and Knowledge. ACLS Humanities E-Book. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780691044637. Retrieved 15 September 2023. The Stoic phrase seminales rationes, 'seminal reasons,' passes into Christian vocabulary in the first century. [...] in particularly Christian fashion, [Saint] Paul uses the Stoic imagery of seeds to explain Christ's resurrection. The true reality of a human being, the seed may throw off both soul and flesh and assume a new body, as occurred when Christ was resurrected.[...] The Greek apologist Justin Martyr develops the Stoic doctrine of God as the logos spermatikos more explicitly. Following Philo in identifying the divine logos with the logos spermatikos, he believes that human reason is the seed sown by the divine sower.

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[1] Christoph Helmig, Forms and Concepts: Concept Formation in the Platonic Tradition, Walter de Gruyter (2012), p. 194)

[2] Horowitz, Maryanne Cline (1998). "The Challenge to Christian Theologians". Seeds of Virtue and Knowledge. ACLS Humanities E-Book. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780691044637. Retrieved 15 September 2023. The Stoic phrase seminales rationes, 'seminal reasons,' passes into Christian vocabulary in the first century. [...] in particularly Christian fashion, [Saint] Paul uses the Stoic imagery of seeds to explain Christ's resurrection. The true reality of a human being, the seed may throw off both soul and flesh and assume a new body, as occurred when Christ was resurrected.[...] The Greek apologist Justin Martyr develops the Stoic doctrine of God as the logos spermatikos more explicitly. Following Philo in identifying the divine logos with the logos spermatikos, he believes that human reason is the seed sown by the divine sower.

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References