Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Divinarum Personarum; psychologische Analogie; intellektuelle Emanation: unvollkommenes Verstehen (3 Unvollkommenheiten)

Kurzinhalt: The first imperfection is that we do not clearly and distinctly grasp the formality of intellectual emanation. The only intellectual emanation in us is the procession of one accidental act from another; therefore ...

Textausschnitt: 775a Moreover, it is not at all impossible for being to be understood, the true affirmed, and the good loved in the same act. For acts are necessarily distinguished insofar as they regard specifically different objects. But being, the true, and the good are so far from being specifically different as to be convertible with one another.1

777a Furthermore, it is by no means contradictory for being to be understood, the true affirmed, and the good loved in the same act in such a way that this affirmation is nonetheless really and truly from understanding and this love really and truly from both affirmation and understanding. This would certainly be contradictory if 'from' indicated causal emanation. Likewise, there would be a contradiction if there were different objects specifying the understanding, the affirmation, and the love. Again, there would be a contradiction if the principle of emanation and that which emanates from the principle were the same in every way. But we are positing not causal, but intellectual emanation. Nor do we posit specifically different objects, but objects that are convertible: being, the true, the good. And although it is not the case that one act emanates from another, still one subsistent person proceeds from another subsistent person. (Fs)

777b Once this is well understood, the force of the psychological analogy becomes evident. For in the finite consciousness of one person, one accidental act intellectually emanates from another accidental act. But in the infinite consciousness of pure act, where there can be no accidents, one subsistent person intellectually emanates from another subsistent person. (Fs) (notabene)

777c But if we have demonstrated some understanding, we must must now take the easier road on the opposite side, to determine that this understanding is imperfect. The first imperfection is that we do not clearly and distinctly grasp the formality of intellectual emanation. The only intellectual emanation in us is the procession of one accidental act from another; therefore we can scarcely conceive divine intellectual emanation, in which the emanation is both true and real while the act is completely one and the same. These two appear to be so contrary to each other that, while we can conceive them separately, we can scarcely consider them together. (Fs) (notabene)

The second imperfection is the radical difference between created and uncreated intellectual emanation. In created emanation one accidental act proceeds from another. But in uncreated emanation one subsistent person proceeds from another. Although what follows throws some light on this, at the same time it most clearly reveals the limitations of the psychological analogy. For although in both cases there are one and three, still in the image there is one person and three accidental acts, while in God there is one act and three subsistent persons. Nor is the numerical similarity so significant that the totally diverse enumerated realities can be understood clearly and distinctly on diverse grounds. (Fs) (notabene)

777d Finally, the third imperfection is that not only is it impossible to demonstrate the divine processions by the natural light of reason, but also, after these processions are affirmed in faith, the process of reasoning that leads to affirming intellectual emanations is lengthy, difficult, and obscure. (Fs)