Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Trinität - Zahl; transzendente (philosophische) Zahl

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 14 -- What do numbers signify in God?; 'The Father is'; 'the Son is'; 'the Spirit is'; 'the Father is not the Son or the Spirit'; 'the Son is not the Spirit'; and

Textausschnitt: QUESTION 14 -- What do numbers signify in God?
335a Numbers can be defined in two ways. (Fs)

According to the first way, they are defined on the basis of the material multiplicity of what are numbered. In this way, you can number your fingers by touching the first, the second, the third, and so on. More subtly, you can count the acts of numbering themselves all the way to infinity. However, since God is absolutely immaterial, numbers in this sense do not apply to God. (Fs)

335b According to the second way, numbers are defined by hypothetical propositions. For if one states the following propositions:

(1) A is; B is; C is; D is; ...
(2) A is neither B nor C nor D nor ...
(3) B is neither C nor D nor ...
(4) C is neither D nor ... (Fs)

then numbers can be defined by the following:
There is one, if propositions (1) are true but not (2), (3), ...
There are two, if propositions (1) and (2) are true but not (3), ...
There are three, if propositions (1), (2), (3) are true but not (4), and so on to infinity. (Fs)

335c Now, numbers defined in this way state only being and negations - being in propositions (1), negations in propositions (2), (3), (4),... Philosophers call numbers of this kind transcendental, since they do not suppose material multiplicity1. (Fs) (notabene; s. Fußote)

Fußnote: [This (Scholastic) philosophical notion of transcendental number is not the same as the mathematical notion of transcendental number. Lonergan refers to the latter in Phenomenology and Logic 60.]


Therefore, since the following propositions are true: 'The Father is'; 'the Son is'; 'the Spirit is'; 'the Father is not the Son or the Spirit'; 'the Son is not the Spirit'; and 'in God there is only a trinity, not a quaternity' (DB 432, DS 804, ND 318), it follows that the transcendental number three must be affirmed in God.2 (Fs) (notabene)