Sect. 104The Divine Productions as Communications of Essence and Nature; the Divine Products as Hypostases or PersonsThe Divine Productions as Communications of Essence and Nature; the Divine Products as Hypostases or Persons
I. If the internal Divine productions are true productions and their products are substantial products, the productions must be conceived as communications of the Divine Nature from one subject to another, consequently as productions of other subjects, who are put in full possession of the Divine Nature and thus are Divine Hypostases and Persons.
1. The perfect actuality of the Divine Life, which requires that its product be nothing but a manifestation of its wealth of life, likewise requires that this manifestation should not take place by producing a perfection in a subject already existing. The production can only tend to communicate the perfection of the producer to another subject; and as it communicates the whole perfection—that is, the essence and nature—of the producer to the produced subjects, the latter are necessarily true receivers, and hence possessors of the Divine Nature and Essence, or Divine Hypostases and Persons.
2. Where there are productions there is also a producing subject (the principle which acts, principium quod), to which the nature (the principle by or through which the subject acts, principium quo) belongs; consequently there is a hypostasis. On the other hand, in every production the product must be really distinct from the producing Principle. But, by reason of the Divine simplicity, there can be such real distinction between the producer and his products as would entail a composition of several realities in the same subject or hypostasis. Consequently the internal productions in God must result in such a distinction between the producers and the products as will oppose the products to the producers as hypostases to distinct hypostases.
3. The products of the Divine productions are substantial products; they are the Divine Substance itself. If, then, by reason of the productions, a difference must still exist between the product and its principle, it can only be that the Substance is possessed by each of Them in a different manner: in other words, that in each of Them the Substance appertains to itself, or subsists, in a different manner. Consequently the Divine productions essentially tend to multiply the modes of subsistence of the Divine Substance, and to make the Divine Substance subsist, not only in one, but in three modes.
Moreover, the three Hypostases in God are also essentially Persons, and Persons of the most perfect kind, because their Substance is the most self-sufficient of all substances, their Nature the most spiritual of all natures, their Essence the noblest of all essences.
II. Assuming that the internal productions in God are the result of His active cognition and volition, it can be strictly demonstrated à priori that there are necessarily three Divine Persons. There cannot be less than three because the communication and manifestation of the Divine Life would be incomplete, if either the intellect or the will remained barren. Nor can there be more than three because, in this case, either other productions would take place besides those admitted by the internal manifestation of knowledge and will; or the productions would not be perfect and adequate manifestations of knowledge and volition; or, lastly, the acts of knowing and willing would be multiplied as well as the products.
The Trinity of the Divine Persons is, therefore, not accidental, but based upon the nature of the Divine fecundity, which would be manifested incompletely in less than three Persons and cannot be manifested in more than three, because in three it manifests and exhausts its full wealth.
III. Likewise, in the above hypothesis, the Three Persons appear essentially in the fixed order of succession determined by their origin as revealed in Scripture. For the production by knowledge supposes, from its nature, but one knowing Person as principle, yet, at the same time, through the intermediation of the fecundity of the knowledge, tends to give fecundity to the love which proceeds from the knowledge. The production by love from its very nature, presupposes the existence of two persons, because, in God, love can only be fruitful in as far as it proceeds from a fruitful knowledge, is essentially mutual love between the first Person and His Image, and takes the form of a gift of two persons to a third. But the order of origin does not imply an order in the Nature, Essence, or Substance of the Persons, because in kind and in number there is but one Nature. In general, the order of origin does not imply that what stands first in the order actually exists, or even is possible, before or without what stands last; or that the last is in any way dependent on or subordinate to the first. For the producing Persons cannot be conceived in their particular being without the relationship to their Product, nor can the first production be conceived without the second, which is consequent upon it; and as the producing Persons are related just as necessarily to their Products as the Products are to Them, the subordination and dependence otherwise existing between Product and Principle is here obviated.
IV. There can be no question of an order of dignity between the Divine Persons, as if the producing Persons possessed either a higher dignity than their Product or authority over it. For, although the character of principle is a true dignity (ἀξίωμα), or rather constitutes the personal dignity and personal being of the Persons Who possess it, still it is no less a dignity for the produced Persons to be the end and object to which the communicative activity of the others is directed essentially, or that the whole being of the Producers is as essentially for the Products as the whole being of the Products is essentially from the Producers. In other words, in God there is no order founded upon degrees of personal dignity, but upon the various ways, determined by the relationships of origin, of possessing the same supreme dignity, viz. the essential possession of the Godhead.
V. The reasons why the first production in God is alone termed “generation” are manifold. Some are taken from the inconveniences that would arise from applying the same name to both productions. All the others may be reduced to the fact that the first production alone has a special likeness to the generation of bodies, considered as a natural operation (operatio per modum naturæ), and as a “building up” and “representative” operation. As regards the mode of operation, the likeness rests upon this, that the first production, being carried out by the intellect, is similar to the mode of operation of nature, as opposed to operation by free will; in a more special sense, it proceeds from its principle spontaneously and essentially, and is effected through the fundamental life-force of the Divine Nature. On the part of its tendency the first production possesses the specific type of generation, in as far as in it the communication of life is effected by the expression of an intellectual word and the impression of a real image, and consequently it has essentially the tendency to express and represent, in the most perfect manner, the essence of its principle. Again, it is not only generation really and truly, but generation in the purest and highest sense of the word, because it is free from all the imperfections of material generation, and, most of all, because it perfectly realizes the fundamental idea of all generation, viz. the attestation or representation of what the progenitor is. It produces, in the most sublime sense of the word, a “Speaking Likeness,” in which the whole Essence of the Progenitor is substantially, vitally, and adequately contained and represented. The second production is not named “generation,” because all the elements which stamp the first production as true generation are taken precisely from the specific character of this first production, and are not found in the second.
VI. The first production, being alone a generation, its product may be illustrated in many ways by a comparison with the product of plant generation. The eternal Word is at the same time the Germ, the Flower, and the Fruit of the Divinity: the Germ, because He is the original manifestation of the Divine power; the Flower, as manifesting the Divine beauty and glory; and the Fruit, as concentrating the whole fecundity and the wealth of Divinity, through which all other Divine productions go forth, so that all being, form, and perfection in creation are virtually contained in it. As that which first springs from the root, viz. the stem, produces and supports all the other products, and therefore is called in Latin robur, we understand why the Son is so often called the “Strength (virtus) of the Father.” The analogy of the blossom or flower further illustrates why Holy Scripture represents the Son as the “Figure” or “Face” of the Father, and the analogy of the fruit explains why the Son, and the Son alone, is represented as the “Food” or “Bread of life” of created spirits. Cf. Ecclus. 24:17–24.
VII. The dogmatic name “Procession” (ἐκπόρευσις) is not considered by the Latin doctors as the specific name for the second production in God: they use it for want of another expressing a more definite character. In order to determine its signification they combine it with the term “Spiration,” in the sense of animal breathing, in as far as this indicates partly the mode of operation of the second production (processio sive impulsus amoris, motus ab anima) partly the nature of the act by which it is effected, viz. the transitive mutual love of two Persons (Patris in Filium, Filii in Patrem). The Greek Fathers, on the other hand, use the term ἐκπόρευσις to designate a special form of substantial emanation, analogous to the emanation which takes place in plants side by side with generation, and is effected by the plants themselves and their products, viz. the emission of the vital sap or spirit of life in the form of fluid, oily substances in a liquid or ethereal state, such as balsam and incense, wine and oil, and especially the odour or perfume of the plant which is at the same time an ethereal oil and the breath of the plant. Hence, to designate the active production of the Holy Ghost, the Greek doctors seldom use the name πνίειν (spirare, to breathe); they prefer the expressions προβάλλειν, ἐκπέμπειν, προχέειν, with the corresponding intransitive expressions ἐκφοιτᾶν, ἀναβλύζειν, πηγάζειν. The two conceptions complete and illustrate each other: they show that the procession in God is an emission in the highest sense of the word, viz. the emission of an affection and of a gift, not, however, of a mere affection and an empty gift, but the most perfect and most real outpouring of the substantial love of God, which is at once Substantial Goodness, Holiness, and Happiness, and the crown and complement of the entire Divine Life.
From its analogy with the emission from plants, the name “Procession” (ἐκπόρευσις), besides its principal meaning which refers to the form of the procession as a motion directed outward, receives a twofold secondary meaning, the one relating to the principle, the other to the terminus or object of the motion. This secondary meaning shows the emission as a transmission, and is also applicable to the Holy Ghost. For, as the fluids emitted by a plant proceed immediately from the product of generation (the stem, flower, and fruit), but originally from the principle of generation (the seed or root), and consequently pass through the product of generation; so also in God, the effusion of His Substantial Holiness essentially flows through His Substantial Truth from the principle of the latter. This the Greek doctors convey by the terms προβάλλειν, ἐκπέμπειν and ἐκπορεύεσθαι. And just as the fluids emitted by plants have a particular facility and tendency to spread and diffuse themselves outward, so also the Holy Ghost, in His quality of Effusion and Gift of the Divine Love, and as the completing act of the Divine fecundity within, bears a particular relation to the outward diffusion of Divine Love and donation of Divine gifts, and especially represents the all-filling and all-penetrating power of the Divine Love (Rom. 5:5).
I. If the internal Divine productions are true productions and their products are substantial products, the productions must be conceived as communications of the Divine Nature from one subject to another, consequently as productions of other subjects, who are put in full possession of the Divine Nature and thus are Divine Hypostases and Persons.
1. The perfect actuality of the Divine Life, which requires that its product be nothing but a manifestation of its wealth of life, likewise requires that this manifestation should not take place by producing a perfection in a subject already existing. The production can only tend to communicate the perfection of the producer to another subject; and as it communicates the whole perfection—that is, the essence and nature—of the producer to the produced subjects, the latter are necessarily true receivers, and hence possessors of the Divine Nature and Essence, or Divine Hypostases and Persons.
2. Where there are productions there is also a producing subject (the principle which acts, principium quod), to which the nature (the principle by or through which the subject acts, principium quo) belongs; consequently there is a hypostasis. On the other hand, in every production the product must be really distinct from the producing Principle. But, by reason of the Divine simplicity, there can be such real distinction between the producer and his products as would entail a composition of several realities in the same subject or hypostasis. Consequently the internal productions in God must result in such a distinction between the producers and the products as will oppose the products to the producers as hypostases to distinct hypostases.
3. The products of the Divine productions are substantial products; they are the Divine Substance itself. If, then, by reason of the productions, a difference must still exist between the product and its principle, it can only be that the Substance is possessed by each of Them in a different manner: in other words, that in each of Them the Substance appertains to itself, or subsists, in a different manner. Consequently the Divine productions essentially tend to multiply the modes of subsistence of the Divine Substance, and to make the Divine Substance subsist, not only in one, but in three modes.
Moreover, the three Hypostases in God are also essentially Persons, and Persons of the most perfect kind, because their Substance is the most self-sufficient of all substances, their Nature the most spiritual of all natures, their Essence the noblest of all essences.
II. Assuming that the internal productions in God are the result of His active cognition and volition, it can be strictly demonstrated à priori that there are necessarily three Divine Persons. There cannot be less than three because the communication and manifestation of the Divine Life would be incomplete, if either the intellect or the will remained barren. Nor can there be more than three because, in this case, either other productions would take place besides those admitted by the internal manifestation of knowledge and will; or the productions would not be perfect and adequate manifestations of knowledge and volition; or, lastly, the acts of knowing and willing would be multiplied as well as the products.
The Trinity of the Divine Persons is, therefore, not accidental, but based upon the nature of the Divine fecundity, which would be manifested incompletely in less than three Persons and cannot be manifested in more than three, because in three it manifests and exhausts its full wealth.
III. Likewise, in the above hypothesis, the Three Persons appear essentially in the fixed order of succession determined by their origin as revealed in Scripture. For the production by knowledge supposes, from its nature, but one knowing Person as principle, yet, at the same time, through the intermediation of the fecundity of the knowledge, tends to give fecundity to the love which proceeds from the knowledge. The production by love from its very nature, presupposes the existence of two persons, because, in God, love can only be fruitful in as far as it proceeds from a fruitful knowledge, is essentially mutual love between the first Person and His Image, and takes the form of a gift of two persons to a third. But the order of origin does not imply an order in the Nature, Essence, or Substance of the Persons, because in kind and in number there is but one Nature. In general, the order of origin does not imply that what stands first in the order actually exists, or even is possible, before or without what stands last; or that the last is in any way dependent on or subordinate to the first. For the producing Persons cannot be conceived in their particular being without the relationship to their Product, nor can the first production be conceived without the second, which is consequent upon it; and as the producing Persons are related just as necessarily to their Products as the Products are to Them, the subordination and dependence otherwise existing between Product and Principle is here obviated.
IV. There can be no question of an order of dignity between the Divine Persons, as if the producing Persons possessed either a higher dignity than their Product or authority over it. For, although the character of principle is a true dignity (ἀξίωμα), or rather constitutes the personal dignity and personal being of the Persons Who possess it, still it is no less a dignity for the produced Persons to be the end and object to which the communicative activity of the others is directed essentially, or that the whole being of the Producers is as essentially for the Products as the whole being of the Products is essentially from the Producers. In other words, in God there is no order founded upon degrees of personal dignity, but upon the various ways, determined by the relationships of origin, of possessing the same supreme dignity, viz. the essential possession of the Godhead.
V. The reasons why the first production in God is alone termed “generation” are manifold. Some are taken from the inconveniences that would arise from applying the same name to both productions. All the others may be reduced to the fact that the first production alone has a special likeness to the generation of bodies, considered as a natural operation (operatio per modum naturæ), and as a “building up” and “representative” operation. As regards the mode of operation, the likeness rests upon this, that the first production, being carried out by the intellect, is similar to the mode of operation of nature, as opposed to operation by free will; in a more special sense, it proceeds from its principle spontaneously and essentially, and is effected through the fundamental life-force of the Divine Nature. On the part of its tendency the first production possesses the specific type of generation, in as far as in it the communication of life is effected by the expression of an intellectual word and the impression of a real image, and consequently it has essentially the tendency to express and represent, in the most perfect manner, the essence of its principle. Again, it is not only generation really and truly, but generation in the purest and highest sense of the word, because it is free from all the imperfections of material generation, and, most of all, because it perfectly realizes the fundamental idea of all generation, viz. the attestation or representation of what the progenitor is. It produces, in the most sublime sense of the word, a “Speaking Likeness,” in which the whole Essence of the Progenitor is substantially, vitally, and adequately contained and represented. The second production is not named “generation,” because all the elements which stamp the first production as true generation are taken precisely from the specific character of this first production, and are not found in the second.
VI. The first production, being alone a generation, its product may be illustrated in many ways by a comparison with the product of plant generation. The eternal Word is at the same time the Germ, the Flower, and the Fruit of the Divinity: the Germ, because He is the original manifestation of the Divine power; the Flower, as manifesting the Divine beauty and glory; and the Fruit, as concentrating the whole fecundity and the wealth of Divinity, through which all other Divine productions go forth, so that all being, form, and perfection in creation are virtually contained in it. As that which first springs from the root, viz. the stem, produces and supports all the other products, and therefore is called in Latin robur, we understand why the Son is so often called the “Strength (virtus) of the Father.” The analogy of the blossom or flower further illustrates why Holy Scripture represents the Son as the “Figure” or “Face” of the Father, and the analogy of the fruit explains why the Son, and the Son alone, is represented as the “Food” or “Bread of life” of created spirits. Cf. Ecclus. 24:17–24.
VII. The dogmatic name “Procession” (ἐκπόρευσις) is not considered by the Latin doctors as the specific name for the second production in God: they use it for want of another expressing a more definite character. In order to determine its signification they combine it with the term “Spiration,” in the sense of animal breathing, in as far as this indicates partly the mode of operation of the second production (processio sive impulsus amoris, motus ab anima) partly the nature of the act by which it is effected, viz. the transitive mutual love of two Persons (Patris in Filium, Filii in Patrem). The Greek Fathers, on the other hand, use the term ἐκπόρευσις to designate a special form of substantial emanation, analogous to the emanation which takes place in plants side by side with generation, and is effected by the plants themselves and their products, viz. the emission of the vital sap or spirit of life in the form of fluid, oily substances in a liquid or ethereal state, such as balsam and incense, wine and oil, and especially the odour or perfume of the plant which is at the same time an ethereal oil and the breath of the plant. Hence, to designate the active production of the Holy Ghost, the Greek doctors seldom use the name πνίειν (spirare, to breathe); they prefer the expressions προβάλλειν, ἐκπέμπειν, προχέειν, with the corresponding intransitive expressions ἐκφοιτᾶν, ἀναβλύζειν, πηγάζειν. The two conceptions complete and illustrate each other: they show that the procession in God is an emission in the highest sense of the word, viz. the emission of an affection and of a gift, not, however, of a mere affection and an empty gift, but the most perfect and most real outpouring of the substantial love of God, which is at once Substantial Goodness, Holiness, and Happiness, and the crown and complement of the entire Divine Life.
From its analogy with the emission from plants, the name “Procession” (ἐκπόρευσις), besides its principal meaning which refers to the form of the procession as a motion directed outward, receives a twofold secondary meaning, the one relating to the principle, the other to the terminus or object of the motion. This secondary meaning shows the emission as a transmission, and is also applicable to the Holy Ghost. For, as the fluids emitted by a plant proceed immediately from the product of generation (the stem, flower, and fruit), but originally from the principle of generation (the seed or root), and consequently pass through the product of generation; so also in God, the effusion of His Substantial Holiness essentially flows through His Substantial Truth from the principle of the latter. This the Greek doctors convey by the terms προβάλλειν, ἐκπέμπειν and ἐκπορεύεσθαι. And just as the fluids emitted by plants have a particular facility and tendency to spread and diffuse themselves outward, so also the Holy Ghost, in His quality of Effusion and Gift of the Divine Love, and as the completing act of the Divine fecundity within, bears a particular relation to the outward diffusion of Divine Love and donation of Divine gifts, and especially represents the all-filling and all-penetrating power of the Divine Love (Rom. 5:5).
Seção 35% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.