Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Person, ewiges Subjekt; Unterschied, Ähnlichkeit -> zeitliches Subjekt; intellektuelle Natur, Wort, Hauchung, Zeugung; Intellekt - Sein: als Akt - Potenz

Kurzinhalt: Besides, just as we become subjects of an actuated intellectual nature inasmuch ... so also eternal subjects are subjects inasmuch as a Word is spoken in accordance with truth, and Love is spirated in accordance with goodness.

Textausschnitt: 411a With this in mind, let us proceed to the analogy of the eternal subject, so as to determine what is similar and what different when an eternal subject is related to his intellectual nature. (Fs)

411b First and foremost, eternal subjects as such, since they are immaterial, have no nature other than the intellectual. Nor is it as potency that they are in the genus of intellectual being: their intellect is the infinite act of all being. For them there is not one phase after another, so that they are per accidens subjects of an actuated intellectual nature in an earlier phase, and per se in a later phase, since the infinite act of understanding comprehends from eternity what understanding is and what the norms intrinsic to intelligence are. Thus, there is the greatest possible difference between eternal subjects and temporal subjects. (Fs) (notabene)

411c Still, there is this small similarity, in that both are subjects of an intellectual nature. Just as the divine intellect is as act with respect to all being, so the human intellect is as potency with respect to all being. For our intellect asks with regard to everything, 'What is it?' and 'Is it?' and this natural desire, manifested in questions, does not rest until it knows God by essence.1

411d Besides, just as we become subjects of an actuated intellectual nature inasmuch as we rise above sensible realities through inquiry, make judgments in accordance with truth through understanding, and spirate an act of will through judging in accordance with goodness, so also eternal subjects are subjects inasmuch as a Word is spoken in accordance with truth, and Love is spirated in accordance with goodness. (Fs) (notabene)

411e Again, just as we become subjects per se, subjects of the second phase, inasmuch as we understand our intellectual nature and manifest it to ourselves by conceiving and judging, and so love it as understood and manifested that we will to follow it in all things, so also the eternal subjects are subjects from eternity inasmuch as the infinite intellectual nature understands itself and manifests itself to itself by the Word, and by infinite Love loves itself as understood and manifested. (Fs) (notabene)

411f Moreover, just as we attain the perfection of the second phase either more by way of understanding or more by way of belief or more by way of love, so the eternal subjects are subjects, one inasmuch as from understanding he speaks the Word, another inasmuch as he is the Word spoken from understanding, and the third inasmuch as he is Love proceeding from understanding speaking and the Word spoken. (Fs)

411g Again, just as we depend upon one another both for our very existence through carnal generation and for becoming persons of the second phase through teaching and faith and love, so also the eternal subjects are so ordered among themselves that the Father is ungenerated, the Son is from the Father by way of intellectual generation, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of holiness. (Fs)

413a In all these there is a similarity, but in each of them the dissimilarity is much greater. There is an infinite distance between an intellect that is to all being as potency and an intellect that is to all being as act. Moreover, one who understands by an infinite act is not moved to understanding by inquiring about sensible data. Again, an eternal subject is never caught in a tension between the poles of liberation from animal limitations and the understanding of intellectual nature. Nor is he first conscious of himself by way of a preliminary and unstructured awareness in order later clearly and distinctly to manifest himself to himself in a word. He does not proceed through intermediate acts to more perfect acts of understanding, or speak many words, or love in many acts, nor he is capable of failing in his procession by way of truth or in his procession by way of holiness, but the selfsame eternal and infinite act is an act of understanding and of affirming and of loving. Again, infinite act is not specified by finite objects but rather by that which is being by essence and true by essence and good by essence. Nor is there here a real distinction between substance and accident, or between existing and operating, or between subject and act. Nor is there one constitution of the subject's existence and another constitution for a person of the second phase to exist by his own intention in accordance with his intellectual nature. Again, the Speaker is not understanding without being at the same time infinite affirmation and infinite love; and the Word is not the spoken truth without being at the same time infinite understanding and infinite love; and proceeding Love is not love without being at the same time infinite understanding and infinite affirmation. But eternal subjects are from eternity one and the same infinite act; and through those very emanations by way of truth and of holiness they are subjects and distinct from one another and ordered among themselves in an order that is an order of origin and, at the same time, intellectual and personal. (Fs) (notabene)