The Trinitarian Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas - El Camino ...

The Treatise on the Triune God 49
Disputed Questions De potentia. Following the explanations given in the
prologue of the treatise on the Trinity in the Summa, the study of ‘that
which concerns the distinction of the persons’ is presented like this:
I. THE ORIGIN OR THE PROCESSIONS (q. 27)
II. THE RELATIONS OF ORIGIN (q. 28)
III. THE PERSONS (qq. 29–43).
(a) The persons, considered absolutely (qq. 29–38)
1. The persons in their common properties (qq. 29–32)
- The meaning of the name ‘person’ (q. 29)
- The plurality or ‘number’ of the persons (q. 30)
- Consequences of the plurality of the persons (q. 31)
- Our knowledge of persons (q. 32)
2. The persons in the features which are proper to each of them
(qq. 33–38)
- The Father (q. 33)
- The Son (qq. 34–35)
- The Holy Spirit (qq. 36–38)
(b) The persons, considered in comparison (qq. 39–43)
1. The persons compared to the essence (q. 39)
2. The persons compared to the properties (q. 40)
3. The persons compared to notional acts (q. 41)
4. The persons in their mutual relations (qq. 42–43)
- The persons’ relations of equality and of similarity (q. 42)
- The missions of the persons (q. 43).
This structure does not reXect the order of our discovery of the Trinitarian
mystery, as one would Wnd it in the Summa Contra Gentiles or the biblical
commentaries.49 And it does not oVer an historical approach which reXects
the centuries-long genesis of the Church’s confessions of the Trinity. The
Summa Theologiae proposes a speculative understanding of the faith (intellectus
Wdei) which exhibits the notions, so to speak, in the inverse order to that
in which we would Wnd them out.50 This method of exposition consists in
treating procession, relation, and person in their conceptual sequence, so that
49 A comparison of the two Summas shows that, in the Summa Theologiae, the exposition is
mainly dedicated to notions which, in the Summa contra Gentiles, are aimed at giving an
account of the faith in the face of arguments against Trinitarian faith.
50 In faith, we know God through his action in the world and we confess the three divine
persons; then theology reWnes that the persons, in virtue of the processions (generation of the
Son, procession of the Spirit), are distinguished by relations. The Summa Theologiae in a sense
follows the reverse order: processions, relations, persons (including the foundations of creation
and grace which are studied in a detailed way in the rest of the Summa).