Written criticism – What does the word ‘born, not created’ mean, given that birth is related to sexual instinct?

The Pope addresses the meaning of the Creed phrase “Begotten, not made” and answers the objection that birth is a physical and instinctive act.

Theological Clarification

He explains that the birth meant here is not a sexual physical birth but an eternal theological and spiritual birth: like the birth of thought from the mind or the ray from the sun.

Figurative Examples

He points to other linguistic uses of non-physical birth—such as saying “children of light” or “children of this generation” or “daughter of the lips”—they are figurative or metaphorical births but are real in the appropriate way.

The Difference Between Physical and Spiritual

He emphasizes that true sonship can be non-physical: thought is born from the mind, heat is born from fire, and these are natural births but not sexual instinctive births.

Spiritual Purpose

The aim of the explanation is to broaden the believer’s mind so they understand that the word “begotten” in doctrine expresses an essential eternal relationship between the Father and the Son, not a bodily or temporal nativity.

Conclusion

The Son is “begotten, not made” in the sense that He is of the Father’s essence and of His nature in an eternal spiritual way, and is not a created being nor born in the animal or instinctive sense.

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