Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Trinität; Perichorese, Circumincessio: auf der Ebene der Ursprünge

Kurzinhalt: ASSERTION 13/3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell within one another ... Finally, in terms of origins circumincession can be explained as follows.

Textausschnitt: 419a Finally, in terms of origins circumincession can be explained as follows. Because an intellectual emanation is within the reality and the consciousness of that from which it is, the Son is within the reality and the consciousness of the Father, and similarly the Holy Spirit is within the reality and the consciousness of the Father and the Son. Besides, although in our case each of us is but one person and one conscious subject, in God there are three persons and three conscious subjects. Consequently, not only the Father as the principle of the Son, and the Father and the Son as the principle of the Holy Spirit, have another person within their consciousness and their reality as the one proceeding from them, but also the Son as proceeding from the Father, and the Spirit as proceeding from the Father and the Son, have, respectively, the Father, and the Father and the Son, within their own consciousness and reality. (Fs)

419b This can be explained in another way. God is being by essence and the very act of understanding, is true by essence and the very act of affirming, is good by essence and the very act of loving. These three are distinguished from one another only conceptually, so that the divine reality is an intelligible actually understood, and by identity divine truth actually affirmed, and by identity divine goodness actually loved. But the Father is God understanding as the principle of the Word, and the Word is God affirming as proceeding from the Father, and the Spirit is God loving as proceeding from the Father and the Son. Therefore, each person is in another inasmuch as that person is being and understanding, and so in the Father; inasmuch as he is true and affirming, and therefore in the Son; and inasmuch as he is good and loving, and therefore in the Spirit. (Fs) (notabene)

419c There is still another way of explaining this. Since in God intentional existence and natural existence are one and the same, the Word is God not only on the basis of intentional existence but also on the basis of natural existence; therefore, the other persons are in the Word, since their natural existence is also intentional existence. And according to this, God is said to be in the divine understood intention of God, that is, in the Word.1 Besides, although in us love effects only a quasi identification between the lover and the beloved, whereby a friend is said by the poet to be dimidium animae meae, 'half of my soul,'2 in God love involves a true and full identity between the lover and beloved, and according to this, God as loved is most truly said to be in God as loving.3 Therefore, inasmuch as the Father and the Son are loved by proceeding Love, which is the Holy Spirit, they are in this very love. Again, although the Father and the Son are consubstantial by reason of divine generation, they are also consubstantial by reason of the love that joins the two into one; and it is according to this that the Holy Spirit is said to be the bond between the Father and the Son, not as a go-between by way of a procession, but because diose whom nature has made consubstantial, infinite love also makes one from eternity on other grounds.4