Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Gott, Trinität; Bewusstsein auf der Grundlage der göttlichen Wesenheit

Kurzinhalt: ... first we must consider divine consciousness on the basis of essential act, that is, on the basis of the pure and infinite act itself, prescinding in a way from the emanations and the real relations.

Textausschnitt: Divine Consciousness on the Basis of Essential Act

381c Once these matters are grasped, we must proceed analogically to a consideration of God; and first we must consider divine consciousness on the basis of essential act, that is, on the basis of the pure and infinite act itself, prescinding in a way from the emanations and the real relations.1 (Fs)

381d Now God understands, knows, and wills both God and all that is not God. Nor does an unconscious God unconsciously understand, know, and will; rather, a conscious God consciously understands, knows, and wills. Therefore, in God there is both conscious subject and conscious act of understanding, knowing, and willing. (Fs)
381e Furthermore, the Father and the Son and the Spirit are God. (Fs)

Therefore, the conscious Father consciously understands, knows, and wills; the conscious Son consciously understands, knows, and wills; the conscious Spirit consciously understands, knows, and wills. (Fs)

Moreover, regarding this divine consciousness had through essential act, the following points should be noted. (Fs)

381f First, since consciousness is of the subject as that which is conscious and also of the act as that by which one is conscious, the Father is conscious both of himself and of his act; and the same holds for the Son and the Spirit. (Fs)

Second, since in God there is no real distinction between relations and substance, similarly in God there is no real distinction between the subject that is conscious and the act by which the subject is conscious. (Fs)

Third, since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are really distinct only on the basis of relational opposition, it is impossible that through essential act, which prescinds from the relations, the Father should have a distinct consciousness of the Son or of the Spirit; and similarly it is impossible that the Son should have a distinct consciousness of the Father or of the Spirit; and the same is true for the Spirit. (Fs)

383a One might object here that the Father through essential act most fully understands both himself and the other persons. (Fs)

To this we reply that we are not speaking here about the object that is understood but about the subject who understands. (Fs)

But, the objector goes on, the Father is conscious not only of himself but also of his act; this act is really identical with the Son and the Spirit; therefore, through essential act the Father is conscious, on the side of the subject, of both the Son and the Spirit. (Fs)

In answer to this we point out that we have not said that there is no consciousness of the other persons, but that there is no distinct consciousness of the other persons. And the reason was that, as essential act prescinds from the relations, it likewise prescinds from the distinctions that are consequent upon the relations. (Fs)

383b Fourth, just as through essential act as such the same divinity is possessed in the same way by the Three, so that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are God, each of them equally, so also through essential act as such the same divine consciousness is possessed in the same way by the three persons, so that each of them is equally conscious both of himself and of his essential act. (Fs)

383c Fifth, this consciousness through essential act is related only analogously to our consciousness. For both in God and in us consciousness is an awareness on the side of the subject of both oneself and one's act. But in us this awareness is preliminary and unstructured: preliminary, because it is a prerequisite for us to know ourselves clearly and distinctly on the side of the object; unstructured, because it lacks that clarity and distinctness that is present in knowledge on the side of the object. In God, on the other hand, essential act is not preliminary to another act, and it does not go, by means of another act, from what is obscure and vague to what is clear and distinct; rather, God is understanding itself, in whom there is no real distinction between the subject as divine and the object as divine. (Fs)

383d Sixth, although there is no real distinction between the subject as divine and the object as divine, it by no means follows that the notion of consciousness on the basis of essential act is superfluous. For there is not only the object as divine but also the secondary objects, and these God as conscious consciously knows as objects and indeed as distinct from the subject. Besides, in the Trinity each person through essential act comprehends the three persons on the side of the object; nor does an unconscious person unconsciously comprehend the Three. (Fs)