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Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars)

T >> Thomas Aquinas >> Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars)




But this is impossible, for two reasons: first, because the relations
distinguish and constitute the hypostases, as shown above (A. 2);
secondly, because every hypostasis of a rational nature is a person,
as appears from the definition of Boethius (De Duab. Nat.) that,
"person is the individual substance of a rational nature." Hence, to
have hypostasis and not person, it would be necessary to abstract the
rationality from the nature, but not the property from the person.

Reply Obj. 1: Person does not add to hypostasis a distinguishing
property absolutely, but a distinguishing property of dignity, all
of which must be taken as the difference. Now, this distinguishing
property is one of dignity precisely because it is understood as
subsisting in a rational nature. Hence, if the distinguishing
property be removed from the person, the hypostasis no longer
remains; whereas it would remain were the rationality of the nature
removed; for both person and hypostasis are individual substances.
Consequently, in God the distinguishing relation belongs essentially
to both.

Reply Obj. 2: By paternity the Father is not only Father, but is a
person, and is "someone," or a hypostasis. It does not follow,
however, that the Son is not "someone" or a hypostasis; just as it
does not follow that He is not a person.

Reply Obj. 3: Augustine does not mean to say that the hypostasis of
the Father would remain as unbegotten, if His paternity were removed,
as if innascibility constituted and distinguished the hypostasis of
the Father; for this would be impossible, since "being unbegotten"
says nothing positive and is only a negation, as he himself says. But
he speaks in a general sense, forasmuch as not every unbegotten being
is the Father. So, if paternity be removed, the hypostasis of the
Father does not remain in God, as distinguished from the other
persons, but only as distinguished from creatures; as the Jews
understand it.
_______________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 40, Art. 4]

Whether the properties presuppose the notional acts?

Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are understood
before the properties. For the Master of the Sentences says (Sent. i,
D, xxvii) that "the Father always is, because He is ever begetting the
Son." So it seems that generation precedes paternity in the order of
intelligence.

Obj. 2: Further, in the order of intelligence every relation
presupposes that on which it is founded; as equality presupposes
quantity. But paternity is a relation founded on the action of
generation. Therefore paternity presupposes generation.

Obj. 3: Further, active generation is to paternity as nativity is
to filiation. But filiation presupposes nativity; for the Son is so
called because He is born. Therefore paternity also presupposes
generation.

_On the contrary,_ Generation is the operation of the person of the
Father. But paternity constitutes the person of the Father. Therefore
in the order of intelligence, paternity is prior to generation.

_I answer that,_ According to the opinion that the properties do not
distinguish and constitute the hypostases in God, but only manifest
them as already distinct and constituted, we must absolutely say that
the relations in our mode of understanding follow upon the notional
acts, so that we can say, without qualifying the phrase, that "because
He begets, He is the Father." A distinction, however, is needed if we
suppose that the relations distinguish and constitute the divine
hypostases. For origin has in God an active and passive
signification--active, as generation is attributed to the Father, and
spiration, taken for the notional act, is attributed to the Father and
the Son; passive, as nativity is attributed to the Son, and procession
to the Holy Ghost. For, in the order of intelligence, origin, in the
passive sense, simply precedes the personal properties of the person
proceeding; because origin, as passively understood, signifies the way
to a person constituted by the property. Likewise, origin signified
actively is prior in the order of intelligence to the non-personal
relation of the person originating; as the notional act of spiration
precedes, in the order of intelligence, the unnamed relative property
common to the Father and the Son. The personal property of the Father
can be considered in a twofold sense: firstly, as a relation; and thus
again in the order of intelligence it presupposes the notional act,
for relation, as such, is founded upon an act: secondly, according as
it constitutes the person; and thus the notional act presupposes the
relation, as an action presupposes a person acting.

Reply Obj. 1: When the Master says that "because He begets, He is
Father," the term "Father" is taken as meaning relation only, but not
as signifying the subsisting person; for then it would be necessary
to say conversely that because He is Father He begets.

Reply Obj. 2: This objection avails of paternity as a relation, but
not as constituting a person.

Reply Obj. 3: Nativity is the way to the person of the Son; and so,
in the order of intelligence, it precedes filiation, even as
constituting the person of the Son. But active generation signifies a
proceeding from the person of the Father; wherefore it presupposes
the personal property of the Father.
_______________________

QUESTION 41

OF THE PERSONS IN REFERENCE TO THE NOTIONAL ACTS
(In Six Articles)

We now consider the persons in reference to the notional acts,
concerning which six points of inquiry arise:

(1) Whether the notional acts are to be attributed to the persons?

(2) Whether these acts are necessary, or voluntary?

(3) Whether as regards these acts, a person proceeds from nothing or
from something?

(4) Whether in God there exists a power as regards the notional acts?

(5) What this power means?

(6) Whether several persons can be the term of one notional act?
_______________________

FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 41, Art. 1]

Whether the Notional Acts Are to Be Attributed to the Persons?

Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are not to be
attributed to the persons. For Boethius says (De Trin.): "Whatever
is predicated of God, of whatever genus it be, becomes the divine
substance, except what pertains to the relation." But action is one
of the ten genera. Therefore any action attributed to God belongs
to His essence, and not to a notion.

Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. v, 4,5) that, "everything
which is said of God, is said of Him as regards either His substance,
or relation." But whatever belongs to the substance is signified by
the essential attributes; and whatever belongs to the relations, by
the names of the persons, or by the names of the properties.
Therefore, in addition to these, notional acts are not to be
attributed to the persons.

Obj. 3: Further, the nature of action is of itself to cause passion.
But we do not place passions in God. Therefore neither are notional
acts to be placed in God.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine (Fulgentius, De Fide ad Petrum ii) says:
"It is a property of the Father to beget the Son." Therefore notional
acts are to be placed in God.

_I answer that,_ In the divine persons distinction is founded on
origin. But origin can be properly designated only by certain acts.
Wherefore, to signify the order of origin in the divine persons, we
must attribute notional acts to the persons.

Reply Obj. 1: Every origin is designated by an act. In God there is a
twofold order of origin: one, inasmuch as the creature proceeds from
Him, and this is common to the three persons; and so those actions
which are attributed to God to designate the proceeding of creatures
from Him, belong to His essence. Another order of origin in God
regards the procession of person from person; wherefore the acts
which designate the order of this origin are called notional; because
the notions of the persons are the mutual relations of the persons,
as is clear from what was above explained (Q. 32, A. 2).

Reply Obj. 2: The notional acts differ from the relations of the
persons only in their mode of signification; and in reality are
altogether the same. Whence the Master says that "generation and
nativity in other words are paternity and filiation" (Sent. i, D,
xxvi). To see this, we must consider that the origin of one thing
from another is firstly inferred from movement: for that anything be
changed from its disposition by movement evidently arises from some
cause. Hence action, in its primary sense, means origin of movement;
for, as movement derived from another into a mobile object, is called
"passion," so the origin of movement itself as beginning from another
and terminating in what is moved, is called "action." Hence, if we
take away movement, action implies nothing more than order of origin,
in so far as action proceeds from some cause or principle to what is
from that principle. Consequently, since in God no movement exists,
the personal action of the one producing a person is only the
habitude of the principle to the person who is from the principle;
which habitudes are the relations, or the notions. Nevertheless we
cannot speak of divine and intelligible things except after the
manner of sensible things, whence we derive our knowledge, and
wherein actions and passions, so far as these imply movement, differ
from the relations which result from action and passion, and
therefore it was necessary to signify the habitudes of the persons
separately after the manner of act, and separately after the manner
of relations. Thus it is evident that they are really the same,
differing only in their mode of signification.

Reply Obj. 3: Action, so far as it means origin of movement,
naturally involves passion; but action in that sense is not
attributed to God. Whence, passions are attributed to Him only from a
grammatical standpoint, and in accordance with our manner of
speaking, as we attribute "to beget" with the Father, and to the Son
"to be begotten."
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 41, Art. 2]

Whether the Notional Acts Are Voluntary?

Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are voluntary. For
Hilary says (De Synod.): "Not by natural necessity was the Father led
to beget the Son."

Obj. 2: Further, the Apostle says, "He transferred us to the kingdom
of the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13). But love belongs to the will.
Therefore the Son was begotten of the Father by will.

Obj. 3: Further, nothing is more voluntary than love. But the Holy
Ghost proceeds as Love from the Father and the Son. Therefore He
proceeds voluntarily.

Obj. 4: Further, the Son proceeds by mode of the intellect, as the
Word. But every word proceeds by the will from a speaker. Therefore
the Son proceeds from the Father by will, and not by nature.

Obj. 5: Further, what is not voluntary is necessary. Therefore if the
Father begot the Son, not by the will, it seems to follow that He
begot Him by necessity; and this is against what Augustine says (Ad
Orosium qu. vii).

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says, in the same book, that, "the Father
begot the Son neither by will, nor by necessity."

_I answer that,_ When anything is said to be, or to be made by the
will, this can be understood in two senses. In one sense, the
ablative designates only concomitance, as I can say that I am a man
by my will--that is, I will to be a man; and in this way it can be
said that the Father begot the Son by will; as also He is God by
will, because He wills to be God, and wills to beget the Son. In the
other sense, the ablative imports the habitude of a principle as it
is said that the workman works by his will, as the will is the
principle of his work; and thus in that sense it must be said the God
the Father begot the Son, not by His will; but that He produced the
creature by His will. Whence in the book _De Synod.,_ it is said: "If
anyone say that the Son was made by the Will of God, as a creature is
said to be made, let him be anathema." The reason of this is that
will and nature differ in their manner of causation, in such a way
that nature is determined to one, while the will is not determined to
one; and this because the effect is assimilated to the form of the
agent, whereby the latter acts. Now it is manifest that of one thing
there is only one natural form whereby it exists; and hence such as
it is itself, such also is its work. But the form whereby the will
acts is not only one, but many, according to the number of ideas
understood. Hence the quality of the will's action does not depend on
the quality of the agent, but on the agent's will and understanding.
So the will is the principle of those things which may be this way or
that way; whereas of those things which can be only in one way, the
principle is nature. What, however, can exist in different ways is
far from the divine nature, whereas it belongs to the nature of a
created being; because God is of Himself necessary being, whereas a
creature is made from nothing. Thus, the Arians, wishing to prove the
Son to be a creature, said that the Father begot the Son by will,
taking will in the sense of principle. But we, on the contrary, must
assert that the Father begot the Son, not by will, but by nature.
Wherefore Hilary says (De Synod.): "The will of God gave to all
creatures their substance: but perfect birth gave the Son a nature
derived from a substance impassible and unborn. All things created
are such as God willed them to be; but the Son, born of God, subsists
in the perfect likeness of God."

Reply Obj. 1: This saying is directed against those who did not admit
even the concomitance of the Father's will in the generation of the
Son, for they said that the Father begot the Son in such a manner by
nature that the will to beget was wanting; just as we ourselves
suffer many things against our will from natural necessity--as, for
instance, death, old age, and like ills. This appears from what
precedes and from what follows as regards the words quoted, for thus
we read: "Not against His will, nor as it were, forced, nor as if He
were led by natural necessity did the Father beget the Son."

Reply Obj. 2: The Apostle calls Christ the Son of the love of God,
inasmuch as He is superabundantly loved by God; not, however, as if
love were the principle of the Son's generation.

Reply Obj. 3: The will, as a natural faculty, wills something
naturally, as man's will naturally tends to happiness; and likewise
God naturally wills and loves Himself; whereas in regard to things
other than Himself, the will of God is in a way, undetermined in
itself, as above explained (Q. 19, A. 3). Now, the Holy Ghost
proceeds as Love, inasmuch as God loves Himself, and hence He
proceeds naturally, although He proceeds by mode of will.

Reply Obj. 4: Even as regards the intellectual conceptions of the
mind, a return is made to those first principles which are naturally
understood. But God naturally understands Himself, and thus the
conception of the divine Word is natural.

Reply Obj. 5: A thing is said to be necessary "of itself," and "by
reason of another." Taken in the latter sense, it has a twofold
meaning: firstly, as an efficient and compelling cause, and thus
necessary means what is violent; secondly, it means a final cause,
when a thing is said to be necessary as the means to an end, so far
as without it the end could not be attained, or, at least, so well
attained. In neither of these ways is the divine generation
necessary; because God is not the means to an end, nor is He subject
to compulsion. But a thing is said to be necessary "of itself" which
cannot but be: in this sense it is necessary for God to be; and in
the same sense it is necessary that the Father beget the Son.
_______________________

THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 41, Art. 3]

Whether the Notional Acts Proceed from Something?

Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts do not proceed from
anything. For if the Father begets the Son from something, this will
be either from Himself or from something else. If from something else,
since that whence a thing is generated exists in what is generated, it
follows that something different from the Father exists in the Son,
and this contradicts what is laid down by Hilary (De Trin. vii) that,
"In them nothing diverse or different exists." If the Father begets
the Son from Himself, since again that whence a thing is generated, if
it be something permanent, receives as predicate the thing generated
therefrom just as we say, "The man is white," since the man remains,
when not from white he is made white--it follows that either the
Father does not remain after the Son is begotten, or that the Father
is the Son, which is false. Therefore the Father does not beget the
Son from something, but from nothing.

Obj. 2: Further, that whence anything is generated is the principle
regarding what is generated. So if the Father generate the Son from
His own essence or nature, it follows that the essence or nature of
the Father is the principle of the Son. But it is not a material
principle, because in God nothing material exists; and therefore it
is, as it were, an active principle, as the begetter is the principle
of the one begotten. Thus it follows that the essence generates,
which was disproved above (Q. 39, A. 5).

Obj. 3: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. vii, 6) that the three
persons are not from the same essence; because the essence is not
another thing from person. But the person of the Son is not another
thing from the Father's essence. Therefore the Son is not from the
Father's essence.

Obj. 4: Further, every creature is from nothing. But in Scripture
the Son is called a creature; for it is said (Ecclus. 24:5), in the
person of the Wisdom begotten,"I came out of the mouth of the Most
High, the first-born before all creatures": and further on (Ecclus.
24:14) it is said as uttered by the same Wisdom, "From the beginning,
and before the world was I created." Therefore the Son was not
begotten from something, but from nothing. Likewise we can object
concerning the Holy Ghost, by reason of what is said (Zech. 12:1):
"Thus saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the
foundations of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him";
and (Amos 4:13) according to another version [*The Septuagint]: "I
Who form the earth, and create the spirit."

_On the contrary,_ Augustine (Fulgentius, De Fide ad Petrum i, 1) says:
"God the Father, of His nature, without beginning, begot the Son equal
to Himself."

_I answer that,_ The Son was not begotten from nothing, but from the
Father's substance. For it was explained above (Q. 27, A. 2; Q. 33,
AA. 2 ,3) that paternity, filiation and nativity really and truly
exist in God. Now, this is the difference between true "generation,"
whereby one proceeds from another as a son, and "making," that the
maker makes something out of external matter, as a carpenter makes a
bench out of wood, whereas a man begets a son from himself. Now, as a
created workman makes a thing out of matter, so God makes things out
of nothing, as will be shown later on (Q. 45, A. 1), not as if this
nothing were a part of the substance of the thing made, but because
the whole substance of a thing is produced by Him without anything
else whatever presupposed. So, were the Son to proceed from the
Father as out of nothing, then the Son would be to the Father what
the thing made is to the maker, whereto, as is evident, the name of
filiation would not apply except by a kind of similitude. Thus, if
the Son of God proceeds from the Father out of nothing, He could not
be properly and truly called the Son, whereas the contrary is stated
(1 John 5:20): "That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ."
Therefore the true Son of God is not from nothing; nor is He made,
but begotten.

That certain creatures made by God out of nothing are called sons of
God is to be taken in a metaphorical sense, according to a certain
likeness of assimilation to Him Who is the true Son. Whence, as He is
the only true and natural Son of God, He is called the "only
begotten," according to John 1:18, "The only begotten Son, Who is in
the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"; and so as others are
entitled sons of adoption by their similitude to Him, He is called the
"first begotten," according to Rom. 8:29: "Whom He foreknew He also
predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son, that He
might be the first born of many brethren." Therefore the Son of God is
begotten of the substance of the Father, but not in the same way as
man is born of man; for a part of the human substance in generation
passes into the substance of the one begotten, whereas the divine
nature cannot be parted; whence it necessarily follows that the Father
in begetting the Son does not transmit any part of His nature, but
communicates His whole nature to Him, the distinction only of origin
remaining as explained above (Q. 40, A. 2).

Reply Obj. 1: When we say that the Son was born of the Father, the
preposition "of" designates a consubstantial generating principle,
but not a material principle. For that which is produced from matter,
is made by a change of form in that whence it is produced. But the
divine essence is unchangeable, and is not susceptive of another form.

Reply Obj. 2: When we say the Son is begotten of the essence of the
Father, as the Master of the Sentences explains (Sent. i, D, v), this
denotes the habitude of a kind of active principle, and as he
expounds, "the Son is begotten of the essence of the Father"--that
is, of the Father Who is essence; and so Augustine says (De Trin. xv,
13): "When I say of the Father Who is essence, it is the same as if I
said more explicitly, of the essence of the Father."

This, however, is not enough to explain the real meaning of the
words. For we can say that the creature is from God Who is essence;
but not that it is from the essence of God. So we may explain them
otherwise, by observing that the preposition "of" [de] always denotes
consubstantiality. We do not say that a house is "of" [de] the
builder, since he is not the consubstantial cause. We can say,
however, that something is "of" another, if this is its
consubstantial principle, no matter in what way it is so, whether it
be an active principle, as the son is said to be "of" the father, or
a material principle, as a knife is "of" iron; or a formal principle,
but in those things only in which the forms are subsisting, and not
accidental to another, for we can say that an angel is "of" an
intellectual nature. In this way, then, we say that the Son is
begotten 'of' the essence of the Father, inasmuch as the essence of
the Father, communicated by generation, subsists in the Son.

Reply Obj. 3: When we say that the Son is begotten of the essence of
the Father, a term is added which saves the distinction. But when we
say that the three persons are 'of' the divine essence, there is
nothing expressed to warrant the distinction signified by the
preposition, so there is no parity of argument.

Reply Obj. 4: When we say "Wisdom was created," this may be
understood not of Wisdom which is the Son of God, but of created
wisdom given by God to creatures: for it is said, "He created her
[namely, Wisdom] in the Holy Ghost, and He poured her out over all
His works" (Ecclus. 1:9, 10). Nor is it inconsistent for Scripture in
one text to speak of the Wisdom begotten and wisdom created, for
wisdom created is a kind of participation of the uncreated Wisdom.
The saying may also be referred to the created nature assumed by the
Son, so that the sense be, "From the beginning and before the world
was I made"--that is, I was foreseen as united to the creature. Or
the mention of wisdom as both created and begotten insinuates into
our minds the mode of the divine generation; for in generation what
is generated receives the nature of the generator and this pertains
to perfection; whereas in creation the Creator is not changed, but
the creature does not receive the Creator's nature. Thus the Son is
called both created and begotten, in order that from the idea of
creation the immutability of the Father may be understood, and from
generation the unity of nature in the Father and the Son. In this way
Hilary expounds the sense of this text of Scripture (De Synod.). The
other passages quoted do not refer to the Holy Ghost, but to the
created spirit, sometimes called wind, sometimes air, sometimes the
breath of man, sometimes also the soul, or any other invisible
substance.
_______________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 41, Art. 4]

Whether in God There Is a Power in Respect of the Notional Acts?

Objection 1: It would seem that in God there is no power in respect
of the notional acts. For every kind of power is either active or
passive; neither of which can be here applied, there being in God
nothing which we call passive power, as above explained (Q. 25, A.
1); nor can active power belong to one person as regards another,
since the divine persons were not made, as stated above (A. 3).
Therefore in God there is no power in respect of the notional acts.

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