Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

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BrotherAlan
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Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by BrotherAlan » Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:26 pm

Okay, so, here is the first part of Thomas Aquinas' teachings on the Trinity; now, note, that these teachings of his, from his famous "Summa Theologiae", FOLLOW his teachings on the nature and properties of God that can be discovered by reason alone (eg., that God exists, that He is One, intelligent, that He understands Hismelf and His Thought IS Himself, that He is Happy, All-Powerful, etc., etc.) So, some things he writes here may allude back to those teachings...but, nevertheless, it may be interesting and helpful to look into the way this master theologian explains the Christian doctrine on the Trinity....

In Christ,
BrotherAlan
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From Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologiae" (Part I, Q. 27) [Note: Aquinas FIRST gives objections to the position that he will take, then he gives his response to the question, and then he responds to the objections]

Article 1. Whether there is procession in God?

Objection 1. It would seem that there cannot be any procession in God. For procession signifies outward movement. But in God there is nothing mobile, nor anything extraneous. Therefore neither is there procession in God.

Objection 2. Further, everything which proceeds differs from that whence it proceeds. But in God there is no diversity; but supreme simplicity. Therefore in God there is no procession.

Objection 3. Further, to proceed from another seems to be against the nature of the first principle. But God is the first principle, as shown above (Question 2, Article 3). Therefore in God there is no procession.

On the contrary, Our Lord says, "From God I proceeded" (John 8:42).

I answer that, Divine Scripture uses, in relation to God, names which signify procession. This procession has been differently understood. Some have understood it in the sense of an effect, proceeding from its cause; so Arius took it, saying that the Son proceeds from the Father as His primary creature, and that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as the creature of both. In this sense neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost would be true God: and this is contrary to what is said of the Son, "That . . . we may be in His true Son. This is true God" (1 John 5:20). Of the Holy Ghost it is also said, "Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Now, to have a temple is God's prerogative. Others take this procession to mean the cause proceeding to the effect, as moving it, or impressing its own likeness on it; in which sense it was understood by Sabellius, who said that God the Father is called Son in assuming flesh from the Virgin, and that the Father also is called Holy Ghost in sanctifying the rational creature, and moving it to life. The words of the Lord contradict such a meaning, when He speaks of Himself, "The Son cannot of Himself do anything" (John 5:19); while many other passages show the same, whereby we know that the Father is not the Son. Careful examination shows that both of these opinions take procession as meaning an outward act; hence neither of them affirms procession as existing in God Himself; whereas, since procession always supposes action, and as there is an outward procession corresponding to the act tending to external matter, so there must be an inward procession corresponding to the act remaining within the agent. This applies most conspicuously to the intellect, the action of which remains in the intelligent agent. For whenever we understand, by the very fact of understanding there proceeds something within us, which is a conception of the object understood, a conception issuing from our intellectual power and proceeding from our knowledge of that object. This conception is signified by the spoken word; and it is called the word of the heart signified by the word of the voice.

As God is above all things, we should understand what is said of God, not according to the mode of the lowest creatures, namely bodies, but from the similitude of the highest creatures, the intellectual substances; while even the similitudes derived from these fall short in the representation of divine objects. Procession, therefore, is not to be understood from what it is in bodies, either according to local movement or by way of a cause proceeding forth to its exterior effect, as, for instance, like heat from the agent to the thing made hot. Rather it is to be understood by way of an intelligible emanation, for example, of the intelligible word which proceeds from the speaker, yet remains in him. In that sense the Catholic Faith understands procession as existing in God.

Reply to Objection 1. This objection comes from the idea of procession in the sense of local motion, or of an action tending to external matter, or to an exterior effect; which kind of procession does not exist in God, as we have explained.

Reply to Objection 2. Whatever proceeds by way of outward procession is necessarily distinct from the source whence it proceeds, whereas, whatever proceeds within by an intelligible procession is not necessarily distinct; indeed, the more perfectly it proceeds, the more closely it is one with the source whence it proceeds. For it is clear that the more a thing is understood, the more closely is the intellectual conception joined and united to the intelligent agent; since the intellect by the very act of understanding is made one with the object understood. Thus, as the divine intelligence is the very supreme perfection of God (14, 2), the divine Word is of necessity perfectly one with the source whence He proceeds, without any kind of diversity.

Reply to Objection 3. To proceed from a principle, so as to be something outside and distinct from that principle, is irreconcilable with the idea of a first principle; whereas an intimate and uniform procession by way of an intelligible act is included in the idea of a first principle. For when we call the builder the principle of the house, in the idea of such a principle is included that of his art; and it would be included in the idea of the first principle were the builder the first principle of the house. God, Who is the first principle of all things, may be compared to things created as the architect is to things designed.
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

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morbo3000
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Re: Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by morbo3000 » Mon Jan 05, 2015 10:49 pm

his teachings on the nature and properties of God that can be discovered by reason alone (eg., that God exists, that He is One, intelligent, that He understands Hismelf and His Thought IS Himself, that He is Happy, All-Powerful
I'm late to the game.

I know that Aquinas was synthesizing theology with platonism.

But I don't see how God's self-understanding, or happiness or omnipotence are self-evident through reason, apart from biblical revelation. If I go into a field late at night and view the stars, I will not see God's oneness. Nor self-understanding. Nor his happiness. Unless I anthropomorphize. If I stand at the ocean, I see the power of the sea, but I do not see an all-powerful deity. If I were a panentheist, I could say that I saw god's power in the sea. But that wouldn't be omnipotence.

You can't get any of these things without revelation.
When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
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BrotherAlan
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Re: Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by BrotherAlan » Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:10 am

Dear morbo3000,
Thanks for your comments.

In response to your comments, it can be stated that there is a difference between a statement being "self-evident" and a statement being knowable by reason, simply. A statement is self-evident when it is known to be true once one grasps the definitions of the terms used in the statement. For example, "A square has 4 sides," is a self-evident statement because once one knows what is the definition of "square" and the definition of "side", one sees that that statement is true (without need for a logical argument to demonstrate its truth). That said, it is possible for a statement to be knowable by reason, even if it is not self-evident, for it is possible to demonstrate the truth of a statement through an argument. For example, the statement, "All dogs are warm-blooded," is not a self-evident statement, but it is a true statement to which one can argue (eg., "All dogs are mammals. But, all mammals are warm-blooded. Therefore, all dogs are warm-blooded.")

With that said, it can now be stated that certain truths about God can be known by reason; but not because they are self-evident, but because they are truths to which we can reason or argue. For example, we can know that an intelligent God exists by looking at the order in the universe, and then forming an argument like to this: "If there is order in the universe, then there must be a God who placed this order in the universe. But, there is order in the universe. Thus, there must be a God who placed this order in the universe." Now that is just an example of a very simplified version of an argument that, to be fully established, requires a good amount of additional reasoning and argumentation (in other words, this is hardly the full argument for such a statement). But, such a full argument can (and has) been made by some philosophers and theologians, eg., Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, et al. (though it would require giving a full course, or more, of formal study of these philosophers/theologians in order to truly manifest the compelling nature of the arguments concerning God and His attributes which they provide us). And this not just for the existence of God, but for certain of His attributes, eg., His omnipotence, His omniscience, His being eternal, His omnipresence, and, yes, even His own happiness, among other attributes which a man can, at least in theory, come to know by using his reason (and observing the natural world around him). In fact, the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, teaches this very point by stating, "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." (Rom. 1:20) So it is that not only do the philosophers show us that knowledge of certain things about God can be known by our reason (eg., His existence, and certain of His attributes), but Scripture itself teaches us that this is so.

Now, this being said, to really form a demonstrative proof of the existence of God (as well as those aforementioned attributes of His) requires a lot of hard work, intelligence, and effort; Thomas Aquinas himself (who was able to formulate such proofs) states that such proofs about God are practically possible only after a long period of time, and only by relatively few men, and are, without the aid of Divine Revelation, usually attained with an admixture of error. Therefore, God, in His mercy, deigned to reveal Himself to us so that the truths about Him could be known easily by all men, and without any admixture of error. And, in revealing Himself to us, He not only revealed to us those truths which we could, in theory (even if not always in practice), come to know by our reason alone-- eg., His existence, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His own beatitude/happiness, etc.-- but, even moreso, He revealed to us certain things about Himself that we could not have known from our reason alone. The most important and fundamental of these latter truths (i.e., truths which we could not know by our reason alone, but which absolutely needed to be revealed to us) is the truth that is the main point of this thread, namely, that He is a Trinity of Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom belongs all power and glory, now and for all eternity. Amen...

In Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and the Son of Mary,
BrotherAlan

P.S.
With regard to Aquinas' theology, it should be known, first of all, that Aquinas, in his day, was known, first and foremost, as a master of the Sacred Page (today, many people seem to have the impression that Aquinas' main work was to utilize Greek philosophy in Christian theology; and, while it is certainly true that Aquinas did this, his FUNDAMENTAL aim in his theology was, as is proper to theology, the study and manifestation of the truths of Sacred Scripture-- as anyone who knows Aquinas well would readily attest, Aquinas was, simply, a Lover and a Master of the Scriptures, as he was a true Lover of Our Lord Himself). Secondly, with regard to the philosophy that he did utilize, the philosopher which he, by far, utilized the most was not Plato but, rather, Aristotle (in fact, he almost always simply refers to Aristotle with the honorable title of "The Philosopher", showing that Aquinas regarded Aristotle as the greatest of the pre-Christian philosphers). That said, Aquinas did, in so far as it was possible, try to reconcile/integrate Platonic philosophy with that of Aristotle (just as he, insofar as was possible, sought to utilize Aristotlian philosophy in order to help us better understand that which, through Divine Revelation, we could know about God and creation).
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

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Re: Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by morbo3000 » Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:02 am

BrotherAlan,

Thanks for your thorough reply. I was uncertain if it was Aristotle or Plato, but I knew someone would know better.

> And, in revealing Himself to us, He not only revealed to us those truths which we could, in theory (even if not always in practice), come to know by our reason alone-- eg., His existence, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His own beatitude/happiness, etc...

I would be interested to hear how you share christianity with someone by demonstrating gods omnibenevolence, or omniscience outside of the bible. It is quite easy to posit the opposite. The god revealed in the natural world displays either wrath sometimes and blessing at other times, or simply ambivalence.








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Re: Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by jriccitelli » Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:22 pm

Brother Alan, I commend your love of some great philosophers, and Thomas Aquinas. When I read your posts, your posts sounded like Aquinas own books.
'... the nature and properties of God that can be discovered by reason alone (eg., that God exists, that He is One, intelligent, that He understands Himself and His Thought IS Himself, that He is Happy, All-Powerful, etc., etc.)'
Interesting i had to use this reasoning with an Atheist last night. I cannot concur that Creation reveals Gods happiness, I never heard that before, but creation does reveal an 'extensive amount' about His personality. Some of it perplexing. The contrast between cute fuzzy rabbits and poisonous vipers, roses and thorns, sugar cane and magic mushrooms, the variety in creation speaks of the vast incomprehensible proportions of Gods character, which can only be summed up as 'too vast to comprehend humanly speaking'. I could say that it seems God finds happiness in creation, and or creating, but there are some things in creation that may point to an unhappiness with some aspects of Creation. Albeit, the bad seems a necessary evil, due to fallen man and sin. I see God will be happy, in the end, but that is only because i have read the end of the book ;)

BrotherAlan
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Re: Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity

Post by BrotherAlan » Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:44 am

Thanks JR-- I love St. Thomas Aquinas, and have greatly benefited by studying him, and highly recommend him to any Christian who seeks to grow in his understanding of the Scriptures, and to be able to better explain and defend the Faith against any objections (reasonable or otherwise) that one can raise against the Faith.

To respond to your comments about the issue of whether or not we can demonstrate by reason alone that God is happy, St. Thomas Aquinas (following Aristotle) does this in the following manner:
God is an intelligent being Who is eternally contemplating the highest Truth (which is, btw, Himself).
But, an intelligent being Who is eternally contemplating the highest Truth is eternally and supremely happy.
Thus, God is eternally and supremely happy.

That is the basic argument; to delve more into this argument, see any (or all!) of the following:
  • St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Contra Gentiles, especially chapters 100-102
    St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, especially Part I, question 26
    St. Thomas Aquinas' Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, especially Book XII, Lesson 8
All of these can be found at the following site: http://dhspriory.org/thomas/

Note that this knowledge of God being happy seems to be the highest truth (or, at least, pretty close to the highest truth) that human reason can come to know on its own (i.e., unaided by Divine Revelation). Aristotle arrived at this truth at the very end of of his philosophy, writing the following near the end of his crowning philosophical work, The Metaphysics:
And [God's] course of life is like the best which we enjoy for a short time; for [He] is always in that state (of pleasurable contemplation of truth), though this is impossible for us....Therefore, if God is in that pleasurable state in which we sometimes are, this is wondrous; and if He is in that state in a higher degree, this is even more wondrous; and He is in that state.

Life, then, also belongs to Him; for intellectual activity is life, and God is that activity; and the essential activity of God is the life which is best and eternal. And we say that God is [a living being], eternal and most excellent. Hence life and continuous and eternal duration belong to God; for this is what God is.
Very interesting to note that Aristotle, using his reason alone, was able to arrive at such profound truths, taught also in the Holy Scriptures, as that of God being happy, God being the (First/Highest) Truth, and God being (the Highest) Life (as Christ, Who is God, said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.") It is also very interesting to note, too, that, while it needed to be revealed by God (in John 1) that His Word (i.e., His Thought about Himself) is not only God Himself, but also a distinct Divine Person from the Father (i.e., the Divine Person Who generates the Word), nevertheless, Aristotle, using his reason alone, was able to arrive at a knowledge that God's Thought is Himself-- showing that the knowledge of God which is given to us by Divine Revelation, though surpassing the limits of human reason, nevertheless is very reasonable (i.e., it does not contradict human reason and, even more so, human reason, at least in many ways, leads us in the direction of the knowledge which Divine Revelation, in the end, ultimately gives us). I think all of this is very important for us, as Christians, to notice (and, at least to some extent, to be able to explain), especially in our day and age, a day and age in which rationalism tends to view the Christian Faith as something entirely contrary to reason-- this simply is not true. In the words of one of my pastors, namely, Pope Benedict XVI, we Christians today need to do our best to show the reasonableness of the Christian Faith. This is what St. Thomas Aquinas did many centuries ago, and so we do well, in our day and age, to follow his lead and example...to the greater glory of God!

In Christ, the Eternal Word of God and the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
BrotherAlan
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

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