Amandus Polanus von Polansdorf (1561–1610) on God’s General and Special Love

English Translation by Cathedralulus:

When love is attributed to God in Scripture, it does not mean a passion or an affect, for God is dispassionate [ἀπαθής], the freest, the most blissful, the most blessed, the most perfect. Nothing slavish happens to Him, nothing lowly, and finally nothing that indicates any imperfection. But God’s love denotes three completely, perfect things: eternal benevolence, actual beneficence, and actual delight in the thing loved. For he who loves something is well-disposed towards it, does it whatever good he is capable of, and delights in it. These three things are found in the love of God. Now this love is first the love of God in himself, and then towards his creatures. For God loves himself and above all things: the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit the Father and the Son. God’s love for his creatures is first general and then special. That general love is the one by which he fully embraces all things created by him, blesses them, and preserves and sustains them. In this way there is no one, no man, and no devil either, who can say that he is not loved by God. The special love is that by which alone he leads the elect to eternal life, as he acknowledges them to be his own children in Christ: this passage [Mal. 1:2] here must be understood from this special love.

Translation by Damianus Cathedralulus (Domke), “Reading the Book of Malachi with Polanus #2,” A Bear to be Loved: Thoughts on Zacharias Ursinus and Amandus Polanus (blog), March 18, 2023, https://cathedralulus.substack.com/p/reading-the-book-of-malachi-with-025.

Original Latin:

Dilectio cùm in Scriptura Deo attribuitur, non significat passionem, seu affectionem, quia Deus est ἀπαθής, liberrimus, beatisimus, foelicissimus, perfectissimus, in quem nihil cadit servile, nihil humile, nihil denique quod aliquam significet imperfectionem. Sed denotat tres res omnino perfectas, æternam benevolentiam, actualem beneficentiai & oblectationem in re amata. Qui enim amat aliquem, benè ei vult: quicquid boni potest, ei præftat: & eo oblectatur. Haectria in amore divino reperiuntur. Hæc verò dilectio est tum Dei intra se, tum erga creaturas. Deus enim se ipsum & ante omnia amat: Pater Filium & Spiritum Sanctum: Filius Patrem & Spiritum Sanctum: Spiritus Sanctus Patrem & Filium. Dilectio Dei erga creaturas vel generalis est, vel specialis. Illa, est quâ omnes prorfus res abs se cōditas complectitur, iis benefacit, easq́; conservat & susentat. Hoc pacto nemo est, vel hominum, vel etiam diabolorum qui dicere queat, se non diligi à Deo. Haec verò, est qua solos electos ad vitam æternam prosequitur, ut quos pro filiis suis in Christo agnoscit: De hac dilectione præsens locus es intelligendus.

Amando Polano a Polansdorf, Analysis Libelli Prophetae Malachiae, Aliquot Praelectionibus Genevae proposita (Basileae: Conradvm Waldkirch, 1597), 10; italics original. Second source.

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For a recent doctoral dissertation on Polanus’s doctrine of God, see Stephen Bradly Tipton, “The Ground, Method, and Goal of Amandus Polanus’ (1561–1610) Doctrine of God: An Historical and Contextual Analysis” (Ph.D. dissertation, Evangelische Theologische Faculteit Leuven 2020). It was published in 2022 as Stephen B. Tipton, The Ground, Method, and Goal of Amandus Polanus’ (1561–1610) Doctrine of God: A Historical and Contextual Analysis, Reformed Historical Theology, 73 (Göttingen, DE: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022).