Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Hervorgang (processio) - Sendung (missio); Argumente, Begründung; Sendung als kontingente Wahrheit erfordert einen "äußeren" Term

Kurzinhalt: ASSERTION 17/2 - The mission of a divine person is constituted by ... Whatever is contingently true cannot have the correspondence of truth through a reality that is simple and necessary ...

Textausschnitt: Argument

463c It is argued, first, that the mission of a divine person is not constituted without a divine relation of origin; second, that nothing more is required for a mission to be constituted than a relation of origin; third, that a mission as contingent and temporal requires an appropriate external term, not as a constitutive but only as a consequent condition. (Fs) (notabene)

Argument for the first part

465a Inasmuch as it is true that the Father sends the Son, it is true that the Father is the one sending, that the Father is not the one sent, that the Son is not the one sending, and that the Son is the one sent. Now, opposites are not really and truly predicated of the divine persons except according to relations of origin; but 'to be sending' and 'to be sent' are opposites that are really and truly predicated of divine persons; therefore they are predicated according to relations of origin. (Fs)

The major premise is clear and certain from the principle that everything is one where there is no distinction by relational opposition (DB 703, DS 1330, ND 325). (Fs)

The minor is clear from sacred scripture, as has been already established. (Fs)

465b Similarly, inasmuch as it is true that the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit, it is true that the Father and the Son are the ones who send and not the ones sent, and that the Holy Spirit is the one sent and not the one sending. Thus, the argument here is the same as above. (Fs)

Argument for the second part

465c Where there is present a cause or constitutive reason that is infinite in perfection, every other cause or constitutive reason is superfluous. (Fs)

But for the divine missions to be constituted there is a cause or reason that is infinite in perfection, namely, a real relation of origin, which is really identical with the divine essence. (Fs)

465d Therefore, for the divine missions to be constituted, any other cause or constitutive reason besides a relation of origin is superfluous. (Fs)

The major premise is clear from the very notion of the infinite. For what is infinite is not limited to this or that; and what is in no way limited is at least sufficient for all that is known with certainty.1

The minor is clear from the reason given for it. (Fs)

465e Therefore, just as a divine person is and knows and wills and operates by the divine essence, and is distinguished as generating or generated, or as spirating or spirated, by a divine relation of origin, so also a divine person is constituted as sending or as sent by a divine relation of origin. (Fs)

Argument for the third part

465f Whatever is contingently true cannot have the correspondence of truth through a reality that is simple and necessary and this alone. (Fs) (notabene)

467a But the fact that a divine person sends or is sent is contingently true; for all that can be or not be exists by a sovereignly free divine decision; and absolutely speaking, creation, incarnation, and sanctification could have not been. (Fs)

Therefore, the fact that a divine person sends or is sent cannot have the correspondence of truth through the divine perfection alone, and therefore requires an appropriate external term. (Fs)

467b Besides, this term is required as a condition consequent upon the mission itself. For the person sending and also the person sent in no way depend upon a creature and therefore, although the term is a condition because it is necessary, still it cannot be either a prior or a simultaneous condition. (Fs)