Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Vater, Son, Geist; Sendung (missio): zwei Arten; Bibelstellen

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 24 - Is a divine person sent by the one or those from whom he proceeds? ...
Influenced by these authorities, St Thomas distinguished two senses of the word 'mission.' In the first sense, ...

Textausschnitt: QUESTION 24 - Is a divine person sent by the one or those from whom he proceeds?

451b Our answer is that 'mission' can be understood in two ways: in the first way, according to the teaching and manner of speaking found in the New Testament itself; in the second way, according to the teaching and manner of speaking found in other documents. (Fs) (notabene)

451c If 'mission' is understood in the first way, it is clear that a divine person himself is sent and indeed is sent by that person or by those persons from whom he proceeds. For in the New Testament (1) the Father alone among the divine persons is not sent; (2) the Son is sent to the world by the Father to teach not his own doctrine but that of the Father, to seek not his own will but that of the Father, to perform not his own works but those of the Father; (3) the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, not to speak on his own but to teach what he has heard; (4) St Paul in the very same text (Galatians 4.4-6) uses the word exapostello twice, first to designate the mission of the Son and then to designate the mission of the Spirit of the Son; and (5) in the New Testament the words apostello, apostolos, exapostello, and pempo generally have a somewhat technical meaning, namely, that the person sent receives authority from the one sending to fulfil some duty towards others.1 (Fs)

451d For this reason Catholic theologians regularly teach that the relation of origin of the person sent is included in the formality of mission,2 and accordingly regularly argue that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son because he is sent by the Son. (Fs)

453a Still, not all documents speak in the same way as the New Testament. For Isaiah 48.16 reads, 'And now the Lord God and his Spirit has sent me.'3 This text St Augustine4 and the Eleventh Council of Toledo5 understood as the sending of the Son by the Holy Spirit. Influenced by these authorities, St Thomas distinguished two senses of the word 'mission.' In the first sense, the person sending is understood as the principle of the person sent; in the second sense, the person sending is understood as the principle of any effect produced externally.6 The New Testament uses the word in the first sense, as seems quite clear from the texts cited above. Some other documents are to be understood in the second sense, since in fact they are only about an effect produced in Christ as man.7

453b With all this well understood, we proceed to answer this question. When the sense is that a divine person is really and truly sent by a divine person, as is the case in the New Testament, a real relation 'who from another' is included in the very formality of mission; and since this sort of real relation in God is not really distinct from the relation of origin, it necessarily follows that a divine person is not sent except by the one or by those from whom that person proceeds. When, however, the sense is that any finite effect is produced externally, 'mission' is broadly understood as production, and in reality the three divine persons equally produce this effect, even though by appropriation it is predicated of only one or of two. (Fs) (notabene)

453c In what follows, note that, unless some other meaning is clear, 'mission' is always understood in the technical sense, as in John 20.21, 'As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'