Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Arten von Fragen: Kohärenz, Einsicht, Existenz; Abälard, Sic et Non

Kurzinhalt: In a first way, the question can be understood to express a problem of coherence ...

Textausschnitt: 21c In a first way, the question can be understood to express a problem of coherence, and so, on hearing die question, one at once answers no (Videtur quod non), because the Holy Spirit is from the Father and die Son, and what is from others is not from itself; but then one remembers (Sed contra est) that the Holy Spirit is God, and God is a se, and so the Holy Spirit is a se. Two arguments are used, to prove each side of a contradiction. That is a problem of coherence. (Fs)

21d In a second way, the question can be understood to express a problem for understanding. Granted that the Holy Spirit is both a se and not a se, how can both statements simultaneously be true? The matter would be quite simple if die Holy Spirit were composite; then the Holy Spirit could be a se in one respect and not a se in another. But the Holy Spirit is utterly simple, and so there arises a very serious problem for understanding. (Fs)

21e In a third way, the question can be understood to express a problem of fact, such that the meaning of the question is, Does there really exist a third divine person? Is this really taught in the sources of revelation? Is it understood in the same sense in the sources of revelation as it was later in the councils and among theologians? (Fs)

21f Furthermore, although diese three kinds of problems are very closely interconnected, still in any particular period more attention might be paid to one kind than to another. Thus, in the early stages of scientific inquiry when it is still necessary to persuade people to devote themselves to science, it might be extremely useful to focus on the problem of coherence; and so Abelard, continuing in the footsteps of some canonists, composed his Sic et non (ML 178, 1339-1610), in which he presented supporting reasons for both the affirmative and the negative side of 158 theological propositions. But it would be of little value to prove the existence of questions yet never attempt to solve them. Hence some people composed books of Sentences to collect and organize, from scripture and the Fathers, material for problems. Others began working out answers, either in the form of commentary on those books of Sentences or independently in shorter collections of questions or in larger works that expounded a summa of the whole of theology. (Fs)

23a Seeking answers moved theologians beyond the problem of coherence to the problem of understanding. Working on that problem, they soon discovered that questions cannot be put in any order whatsoever. Some questions simply cannot be answered until others have been resolved. And sometimes the answers to one question immediately provide the answers to others. This discovery lies behind the differing order of the questions in St Thomas's commentary on the Sentences and his Summa theologiae. He indicated the difference in the prologue to the first part of the Summa, where he distinguished the order of learning from the order demanded by running commentaries. (Fs)