Sect. 107The Appropriation of the Common Names, Attributes, and Operations to Particular PersonsThe Appropriation of the Common Names, Attributes, and Operations to Particular Persons

I. Although all the names, attributes, and operations which do not refer to the personal relations of the Divine Persons are, by reason of the unity of Substance, common to them all, it is, nevertheless, the constant style of Holy Scripture and Tradition to ascribe certain names, attributes, and operations to particular Persons so as to serve to distinguish one Person from another. The process by which something common to all the Persons is attributed as peculiar to one of Them, is called Appropriation (κόλλησις). Such appropriation, of course, does not exclude the other Persons from the possession of what is appropriated to one. Whatever is appropriated is not even more the property of one Person than of another. The only object of appropriation is to lay special stress on, or to bring out more distinctly, the possession of some of the common attributes by one Person, so as to illustrate either this particular Person or the attributes in question, by showing their connection. For this purpose it is sufficient that the Person in question, by reason of His personal character, bears a special relationship to the attribute, and is, therefore, not only its owner but also its representative.

The appropriations are so indispensable that without them it would be impossible to give a vivid picture of the Trinity. They are useful and indispensable to represent each Person as distinguished from the other Persons, since we always associate separate persons with separate properties and operations; they are especially useful and necessary to bring out the Persons of the Father and the Holy Ghost as distinct from the Son Who appeared among us in a human nature with properties and operations exclusively His own; they further serve to distinguish the Divine Persons from other and imperfect beings bearing the same names; this is notably the case in the appellations “Pater æternus,” “Filius sapiens,” “Spiritus sanctus.” The appropriations also help to illustrate and represent the Divine attributes and operations in life-like form, and especially to represent the Divine Unity as essentially living and working in distinct Persons.

II. The appropriations in use in Holy Scripture and in the language of the Church, may be grouped under the following categories:—

1. Of the substantive names, “God” is appropriated to the Father as the “Principle of Divinity;” “Lord” to the Son, as the natural heir of the Father, Who, in the Incarnation, has received from the Father a peculiar dominion over creatures. Hence the Son is commonly called “Son of God,” and the Holy Ghost “Spirit of God,” or “Spirit of the Lord.” The Holy Ghost bears no other appropriated Divine name, because His proper name (Spirit), if not considered as expressing His relationship to Father and Son, is in itself a substantive Divine name, and, in a certain sense, only becomes a proper name by appropriation, viz. inasmuch as, like the air in the wind, the Divine Substance reveals in its spiration the full energy of its Spiritual Nature. In 1 Cor. 12:4, however, “Spirit” may be taken as an appropriation on a line with “God” and “Lord.”

2. The names designating properties of the Divine Being and Life are distributed among the Three Persons either in the form of adjectives (“one,” “true,” “good,”) or of nouns (“unity,” “truth,” “goodness”), so as to correspond with their active or passive relations of origin. The Second and Third Persons receive only positive predicates, because the special nature of Their origin is always taken into account, whereas to the Father, as Ingenerate or Unbegotten, negative predicates are likewise appropriated, e.g. eternity. To the Father are appropriated, in this respect, essential being, then eternity and simplicity, also power and goodness in the sense of productive and radical fecundity, because these attributes shine forth with more splendour in the Unbegotten Principle of the Trinity. To the Son, as the Word and intellectual Image of the Father, is appropriated Truth (objective and formal, § 73) and resplendent Beauty. To the Holy Ghost, as the Aspiration, Pledge, and Gift of the eternal Love, is appropriated Goodness, as well in its objective sense of what is perfect, amiable, and beatifying (§ 74), as in the formal sense of holiness, bounty, and felicity. As, however, unity may be considered under many respects, unity pure and simple is ascribed to the Father, unity of equality to the Son, and unity of connection to the Holy Ghost.

3. With regard to the Divine operations ad extra, the appropriations receive various forms and directions. As regards the power, wisdom, and goodness manifest in all Divine operations, power, as efficient cause, is appropriated to the Father; wisdom, as exemplar cause, to the Son; and goodness, as final cause, to the Holy Ghost. Considering, in analogy with created activity, the order or evolution of the Divine operations, the decree (= resolution, will) to operate is appropriated to the Father; the plan of the work to the Son; the execution and preservation to the Holy Ghost. With regard to the hypostatic character of the individual Persons, the Father is said, by appropriation, to produce the substantial being (= the substance) and the unity of all things by creation, and to perform works of power, such as miracles; the Son is said to give all things their form and to enlighten all minds, likewise to confer dignities and functions; the Holy Ghost vivifies, moves, and guides all things, sanctifies spirits and distributes the charismata.

4. In connection with these, there are other appropriations founded upon the general relation of the creature to God, and especially on the relations of intellectual creatures with their Creator. As all things exist of the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost, so intellectual creatures are made the children of the Father through the Son to Whom they are likened, in the Holy Ghost with Whom they are filled. Thus they also can direct their worship to God the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost, the Son and Holy Ghost being not only the object of worship, but, at the same time, mediators of the worship offered to the Father from Whom They originate and Whose glory They reveal, and with Whom They receive the same worship because They are one with Him. The Father especially is represented as receiving the Divine worship offered to God by the Incarnate Son as High-priest, although the sacrifice of Christ is offered to Himself and to the Holy Ghost as well as to the Father. Here, however, we go beyond simple appropriations, and enter the domain of the mission of the Divine Persons, of which we shall speak in the following section.

A beautiful exposition of appropriations is found at the end of St. Augustine’s De Vera Religione, “Religet ergo nos religio, etc.” See also St. Thom., I., q. 39, arts. 7, 8.