Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Trinität; Perichorese, Circumincessio: auf der Ebene der göttlichen Wesenheit; Bibelbelege

Kurzinhalt: ASSERTION 13/1 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell within one another ... In terms of the divine essence, the explanation is as follows. In each and every thing there is its essence and all that ...

Textausschnitt: ASSERTION 13
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell within one another both ontologically and psychologically. (Fs)

413b The doctrine of the circumincession1 (circumincessio, circuminsessio, perichoresis) of the divine persons is taught in scripture, in the Fathers, and in the Council of Florence. (Fs)

415a John 10.38: '... even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.'
John 14.10: 'Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?'

John 17.21: '... that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us.'

1 Corinthians 2.10-11: '... the Spirit scrutinizes all matters, even the deep things of God. Who, for example, knows a man's innermost self but the man's own spirit within him? Similarly no one knows what lies at the depths of God but the Spirit of God.'2

Matthew 11.27: '... no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.'

Let St Fulgentius, whom the Council of Florence quotes, represent the Fathers:3 'Because of this unity the Father is entire in the Son, entire in the Holy Spirit; the Son is entire in the Father, entire in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is entire in the Father, entire in the Son' (DB 704, DS 1331, ND 326). (Fs)

415b Therefore this circumincession, as expressed in these statements, is a matter of divine and catholic faith. It is explained by St Thomas in terms of the divine essence, in terms of the personal relations, and in terms of the origins or processions.4 (Fs) (notabene)

415c In terms of the divine essence, the explanation is as follows. In each and every thing there is its essence and all that is really identical with the essence. But each of the divine persons is the divine essence itself since none of them is really distinct from the divine essence. Therefore, the Father is in the Son, because the Father is his essence, and his essence is really identified with the essence of the Son, and the essence of the Son is in the Son. And similarly, the Son is in the Father, the Father and the Son are in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in the Father [and in the Son]. (Fs)

415d The same conclusion follows from the fact that each divine person is conscious through the essential divine act and, moreover, is really identical with the essential divine act. For whoever is really within the consciousness of another is really in that other. But the essential divine act, by which each of the persons is conscious, is within the consciousness of each of the persons. And besides, each person is this essential act itself. Hence, each person is really within the very consciousness of each of the other two.5