Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: Trinität, psychologische Analogie, Vergleich: Physiker, Quantentheorie

Kurzinhalt: the psychological analogy truly gives a deeper insight into what God is. Still, that insight stands upon analogy ... Just as an experimental physicist may not grasp ...

Textausschnitt: By natural reason we know that God is absolute being, absolute understanding, absolute truth, absolute love. But natural reason cannot establish that there are in God processiones intelligibiles, that the divine Word is because of divine understanding as uttering, that divine Love as proceeding is because of divine goodness and understanding and Word as spirating. Such further analogical knowledge of quid sit Deus pertains to the limited but most fruitful understanding that can be attained when reason operates in the light of faith. Thus, the Augustinian psychological analogy makes trinitarian theology a prolongation of natural theology, a deeper insight into what God is.
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In other words, the psychological analogy truly gives a deeper insight into what God is. Still, that insight stands upon analogy; it does not penetrate to the very core, the essence of God, in which alone trinitarian doctrine can be contemplated in its full intelligibility; grasping properly quid sit Deus is the beatific vision. Just as an experimental physicist may not grasp most of quantum mathematics, but under the direction of a mathematician may very intelligently devise and perform experiments that advance the quantum theory, so also the theologian with no proper grasp of quid sit Deus but under the direction of divine revelation really operates in virtue of and towards an understanding that he personally in this life cannot possess.
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Hence it is that the psychological analogy enables one to argue that there are two and only two processions in God, that the first is 'per modum intelligibilis actionis' and a natural generation; that the second is 'per modum amoris' and not a generation; that there are four real relations in God and three of them really distinct; that the names verbum and imago are proper to the Son, while the names amor and donum are proper to the Holy Spirit. But do not think that Aquinas allows the psychological analogy to take the place of the divine essence as the one sufficient principle of explanation. The psychological analogy is just the side door through which we enter for an imperfect look.
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Thus, though the generation of the Son is 'per modum intelligibilis actionis,' though a proper name of the Son is the Word, still Aquinas did not conclude that the principle by which the Father generates is the divine intellect or the divine understanding. In us the inner word proceeds from understanding, and our understanding is really distinct from our substance, our being, our thought, our willing. But in God substance, being, understanding, thought, willing are absolutely one and the same reality. Accordingly, ...