On The Triune God

INTRODUCTION

  1. The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central truth of the Christian life.
  2. The importance of the treatise on God (One and Triune) in Dogmatic Theology
  3. Chief philosophical notions to be used in this treatise

I. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE MYSTERY EXCEEDS HUMAN REASON

  1. The Revelation of this mystery is, in the strict sense, supernatural.
  2. The truths of this mystery, even after its Revelation, are still indemonstrable to human reason working by its natural power alone
  3. Reason is able to demonstrate that any argument claiming to prove the impossibility of the mystery of the Trinity is false.
  4. Human reason is able to shed light upon the mystery of the Trinity through analogies taken from created things.

II. THE REVELATION OF THE TRINITY OF PERSONS

A. There are Three Distinct Persons in God

  1. The Church's teaching as contained in the Creeds of Faith, in her odgmatic definitions, and in her ordinary Magisterium.
  2. The Trinity of Persons in the New Testament.
  3. Hidden references to the mystery of the Trinity can be discovered in the Old Testament in the light of its full Revelation in the New Testament.
  4. Testimony of the Holy Fathers of the Church and their defense of Catholic teaching against its opponents, especially the adoptionists and the Sabellians.
  5. A recent error: Revelation is inconclusive regarding the eternity of the Trinity, especially that of the Holy Spirit.

B. The Divine Persons are Equal Among Themselves

  1. Consubstantiality of the Son and the Father
  2. Consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son
  3. The essence of the Three Persons is numerically identical
  4. God's works ad extra are common to the Three Persons

III. THE DIVINE PROCESSIONS

A. There are Two Processions in God

  1. The Divine Processions are immanent actions.
  2. The Divine Processions are operations of the Essence.
  3. The principle and the terminus of the Divine Processions is not the Essence but the Persons.
  4. There are but two processions in God.

B. The Son Proceeds from the Father

  1. The first procession is generation. The Person proceeding is most fittingly called the Son.
  2. The Word is a personal name for the Son.
  3. The Only Word of God is not only expressive of the Father but also of creatures, for God knows everything through one act of his intellect.
  4. The Word is begotten Wisdom.
  5. The word Image is a proper name for the Son.

C. The Holy Spirit Proceeds from the Father and the Son

  1. The historical question of the "Filioque"
  2. The teaching of the Church on this matter
  3. Rational explanations of Catholic theology
  4. The procession of the Holy Spirit is by way of the divine will and is, therefore, not generation.
  5. The Holy Spirit is love.
  6. The word Gift is a proper name for the Holy Spirit.

IV. THE RELATIONS AMONG THE DIVINE PERSONS

A. The Persons are Distinguished through their Relations

B. The Chief Philosophical Characteristics of Relations

  1. Notion of relation
  2. Relation as an accident and relation as purely itself

C. The Traits of the Trinitarian Relations

  1. The Divine Relations are true relations, but they are not accidents.
  2. The Divine Relations are subsistent, i.e., they are identified with the divine Essence.
  3. Nevertheless, the Divine Relations are distinguished from one another and distinguished from the Divine Essence according to our way of understanding.
  4. Since they are really distinct from one another, the Divine Relations allow us to express the real distinctions among the Divine Persons.
  5. In God, all things are one except where there is an opposition of relations.

D. The Number of Relations in God

  1. In god, there are four real relations.
  2. Of these four real relations, only three are opposed to one another and are, therefore, mutually exclusive, distinguishing the Persons.

V. THE DIVINE PERSONS

  1. The definition of person
  2. The term "person" can be predicated of God analogically.
  3. The Divine Persons are the subsistent relations of Paternity, Filiation, and Passive Spiration.
  4. The three Persons are coeternal and coequal.
  5. The plurality of Perons does not destroy the divine simplicity.
  6. The divine Persons are mutually indwelling and immanent.
  7. Precision in our way of speaking about the Divine Persons.

VI. THE TEMPORAL MISSIONS OF THE DIVINE PERSONS

  1. The notion of mission with reference to the Divine Persons.
  2. The Divine Missions are temporal and are divided into visible and invisible missions.
  3. The mutual order among the Divine Missions corresponds to the order of the eternal Processions.
  4. The indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity in the souls of the just.
  5. The indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity in the soul is the beginning of a constant, diligent and intimate conversation with each one of the Divine Persons.


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