Relations of Opposition

[Isearch]

I have understood that the Divine Persons, according to the Thomistic tradition, aren’t truly distinguished from the Divine Essence; yet they are truly distinct from one another because of their relations to each other. If that were the case, then this raises some questions:

In relations of opposition, is it the case that one attribute (e.g. filiation) couldn’t exist alone and that there must be another attribute (e.g. paternity) in order for it to exist? Is this the reason why, according to the Thomists, the Divine Persons would have to be distinguished from one another?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Can someone please move this to the Philosophy section?

 

[Vico]

I have understood that the Divine Persons, according to the Thomistic tradition, aren’t truly distinguished from the Divine Essence; yet they are truly distinct from one another because of their relations to each other. If that were the case, then this raises some questions:

In relations of opposition, is it the case that one attribute (e.g. filiation) couldn’t exist alone and that there must be another attribute (e.g. paternity) in order for it to exist? Is this the reason why, according to the Thomists, the Divine Persons would have to be distinguished from one another?

Perichoresis is the penetration and indwelling of the three divine persons reciprocally in one another. The basis the one essence of the three persons in God. Procession is never in time and there are always three persons, per St. Thomas Aquinas, S.T. I, Q28, A1:

I answer that, relations exist in God really; in proof whereof we may consider that in relations alone is found something which is only in the apprehension and not in reality. This is not found in any other genus; forasmuch as other genera, as quantity and quality, in their strict and proper meaning, signify something inherent in a subject. But relation in its own proper meaning signifies only what refers to another.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1028.htm#article1