St. Thomas Aquinas and the Holy Trinity

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I’m reading *Aquinas 101 *and I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around his demonstration/proof/argument for the Trinity. I believe in the Trinity, but I can’t understand St. Thomas’ proof. Can anyone point me to a book or article that might put it more simply? At this point, I feel like I need a picture book almost!
 
Thomas doesn’t technically offer a proof of the Trinity. For the Angelic Doctor, doctrines like these are demonstrable only by special revelation, e.g. Holy Scripture. Nevertheless, he does defend the coherence of the doctrine of the Trinity, and even at times appears to allude to its propriety:

From the Summa:

“The divine processions can be derived only from the actions which remain within the agent. In a nature which is intellectual, and in the divine nature these actions are two, the acts of intelligence and of will. . . . It follows that no other procession is possible in God but the procession of the Word, and of Love.”

Given that God the Father is both personal and supremely good, it is proper to think of Him as loving a person from eternity. This other person is the Son, and the love between them is the Holy Spirit. This Augustinian analogy may be imperfect, but it may help us as we attempt to visualize the divine Trinity.
 
punkforchrist said:
Thomas doesn’t technically offer a proof of the Trinity. For the Angelic Doctor, doctrines like these are demonstrable only by special revelation, e.g. Holy Scripture. Nevertheless, he does defend the coherence of the doctrine of the Trinity, and even at times appears to allude to its propriety:

From the Summa:

“The divine processions can be derived only from the actions which remain within the agent. In a nature which is intellectual, and in the divine nature these actions are two, the acts of intelligence and of will. . . . It follows that no other procession is possible in God but the procession of the Word, and of Love.”

Given that God the Father is both personal and supremely good, it is proper to think of Him as loving a person from eternity. This other person is the Son, and the love between them is the Holy Spirit. This Augustinian analogy may be imperfect, but it may help us as we attempt to visualize the divine Trinity.
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I’m new to philosophy. I was pretty sure I would not get the terminology right!
 
A good way to remember it is that “God has one what (nature) and three whos (persons).” (Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology: Vol. 1, p. 93).

Geisler points out, “Three persons in one essence is no more a contradiction than are three corners on one triangle or three ones in one to the third power . . .”
 
Nature of the Trinity

Aquinas argued that God, while perfectly united, also is perfectly described by Three Interrelated Persons. These three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are constituted by their relations within the essence of God. The Father generates the Son (or the Word) by the relation of self-awareness. This eternal generation then produces an eternal Spirit “who enjoys the divine nature as the Love of God, the Love of the Father for the Word.”

This Trinity exists independently from the world. It transcends the created world, but the Trinity also decided to communicate God’s self and God’s goodness to human beings. This takes place through the Incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus Christ and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (indeed, the very essence of the Trinity itself) within those who have experienced salvation by God.[69]

From wiki. And yes he did believe in the Trinity. He was a Catholic Dominican Priest!!! Order of preachers !!
 
JKirkLVNV said:
I’m reading *Aquinas 101 *and I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around his demonstration/proof/argument for the Trinity. I believe in the Trinity, but I can’t understand St. Thomas’ proof. Can anyone point me to a book or article that might put it more simply? At this point, I feel like I need a picture book almost!
Click to expand...
If I’m not mistaken, Fr, Eric Flood, FSSP, ( Friendly Society of St. Peter ) in one of his monthly letters had given a very understandable explanation of the Trinity based on St.Thomas’s proof. Hope this can help.

PAX DOMINI :signofcross:

Shalom Aleichem
 
This isn’t Thomas Aquinas’ teaching but my own teaching on the Trinity. I have asked for two confessors so please say that it has been developed by Katherine Cribbin, Bradford, England.

Trinity and the Three States of Matter

God created the natural world to reflect certain aspects of his own nature in the same way as he created man in his own image. God can be seen in the three states of matter. God is like a divine element (or compound) that can exist in three different states simultaneously or change between these states. God could specifically be compared to the compound H2O. H2O can exist as water vapour/steam, water and ice.

Water vapour could symbolise the Holy Spirit which is a divine mist and also breath of God. In Genesis the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters in the same way as a mist (Genesis 1:2). In general the Holy Spirit exists in a gaseous state: flame which is the burning of oxygen and fuel (not an expert on flames) and wind which is the movement of air.

Water represents Christ. Water is the source of life on Earth and essential for the survival of all living organisms. The human body is composed of between 55% and 65% water - females have less and children’s bodies are composed of up to 75% water. Yes, Christ is also solid aswell so it is not a perfect analogy.

After Christ’s death at the Crucifixion, “One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” John 19:34. Blood and water were major components of Christ’s body too. He was fully human. According to the divinely revealed image of the Divine Mercy made to Sister Faustina, the water flowing from Christ’s heart makes souls righteous and blood is the life of souls.

ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/image.htm

Water is also used in baptism to represent the breaking of waters over a babies’ head as it travels down the birth canal. It also means that we are born into Christ’s family. Living waters can also be used to represent the Holy Spirit although this is a minor symbol.

God the Father can be symbolised as ice which represents the harshness of God that sent his only son to die on a cross. Ice in the North and South Pole also represents a distant God that does not exist in ordinary human conditions unlike the Holy Spirit and Christ who are closer to humanity.

God also called himself the divine compound in a revelation. The element H2O contains three atoms, one hydrogen and two oxygen atoms that can be joined together or split. Equally, the elements of the Trinity can be joined together or split.

I haven’t got any Biblical quotes for the final one. Please make all references of the Trinity and the Three States of Matter in my name. I’m still waiting for a confessor and one did the dirty on me. As for the divine compound you can quote that in your own name as it is free revelation.
 
God the Father expanded

God the Father could be seen as rock aswell as ice. He is hard. He could be seen as a God of extremities (my theology), a God of polar caps and mountain tops. He is not of this world and exists in heaven hence we say the Our Father. A number of biblical characters had encounters with God the Father on mountain tops. Moses who received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. The stone tablet could represent the teaching of God the Father/ Yahweh of the Old Testament.

“I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to on the mount out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.” Deuteronomy 9:9-10

God the Father also spoke to Peter, James and John on a mountain top at the transfiguration of Christ:
"While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matthew 17:5

Christ also ascended into heaven to be at the right hand of God the Father from the Mount of Olives, where he had gone to pray prior to his crucifixion.

The mountains in this region do not have ice as far as I know. But ice reminds me of the Sierra Nevada in Spain.

Yahweh/God the Father on his own is a harsh and disciplinarian God. Without Christ who is softer, represented by water and blood, we would not experience God’s mercy to the full. But there are aspects of hardness about Christ aswell and also softer aspects of God the Father.
 
An interesting analogy Budgie. Thank you.

I have always appreciated CS Lewis’ analogy of Trinity in his work Mere Christianity.

He depicts the 3 persons in one what of God and our inability to fully understand that concept to different aspects of multiple dimensions. In the 1st dimension we only have up and down, straight lines, those lines could never fully imagine or appreciate a jagged line because a jagged line could never come to be in that dimension. The same as a square in the 2nd dimension can never fully understand a cube and its properties that reside in the 3rd. But he notes that each dimension you go up you are still using the same fundamental components of simpler dimensions. A cube is simply 6 squares, and a square is simply 4 lines.

The same component of person used in a way we can’t fully understand but not any less possible or true because of it. The same component of person combined in a way unfathomable to show something as great as God.

I have found that I like this rendition and it answers something deep inside me. I still search for more understanding but this base has been beneficial for me. Hope in helps in some way.
 
So you see God in dimensions. Some people see him as a triangle and could be compared to Pythagoras’ theorum but not a major expert on pythagoras. A triangle is a more man-made shape and not naturally occuring. Also part of my teaching on the Trinity. (Katherine Cribbin). Divine compound - I got it wrong and is two hydrogen and one oxygen but am writing it up for real.
 
While I appreciate reflections of the Trinity found in natural material objects, I also see such reflections in the way we speak of us as human beings.

Each of us may refer to each other as “you”; each us may refer to ourselves as “me”; and each of us may call ourselves “I.”

The key here is to get past simple label changes to see how each name refers to a different relation to the same object. In this sense one human being with three personal relations to the one human being reflects the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity is apprehensible, though not comprehensible, as one by human reason. But only by relating to God through Jesus and his revelation of God’s inner life, do we have the opportunity to touch on the three personal relations alive in the Holy Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In this manner, and relating to the Trinity both as a whole and to the three Persons, each of us may say of ourselves by analogy:
  • “You” are not the Holy Spirit, but “you” are led to and by Him when “you” assent to truth;
  • In baptizing “me,” the Church of “you” adopted “me” as a member and son (or daughter) and thus brother (or sister) of the Trinity’s Son so each of us may inherit the way of living in the kingdom of the Trinity, i.e. as part of the divine family; and
  • Each “i” of “me” and “you” exists because our dear Heavenly Father loves us, “I” to “I,” Creator to creature.
Thus, as the Holy Trinity continues to create each of us, each of us is marked with “i-me-you.”
 
SkinnyJay said:
An interesting analogy Budgie. Thank you.

I have always appreciated CS Lewis’ analogy of Trinity in his work Mere Christianity.

He depicts the 3 persons in one what of God and our inability to fully understand that concept to different aspects of multiple dimensions. In the 1st dimension we only have up and down, straight lines, those lines could never fully imagine or appreciate a jagged line because a jagged line could never come to be in that dimension. The same as a square in the 2nd dimension can never fully understand a cube and its properties that reside in the 3rd. But he notes that each dimension you go up you are still using the same fundamental components of simpler dimensions. A cube is simply 6 squares, and a square is simply 4 lines.

The same component of person used in a way we can’t fully understand but not any less possible or true because of it. The same component of person combined in a way unfathomable to show something as great as God.

I have found that I like this rendition and it answers something deep inside me. I still search for more understanding but this base has been beneficial for me. Hope in helps in some way.
Click to expand...
The Trinity is in everything: matter, and specifically water (H2O), light, colour, and also dimensions of space (CS Lewis), dimensions of time.
Three states of matter
Three primary colours in light - three lights making up the light of God
Three primary colours in art
Three dimensions of objects (CS Lewis and Skinny Jay)
Past, present, future of time - for example God the Father is the past (Old Testament), Christ is the present (Gospel) and the Holy Spirit is the future (life of the Church) if we take Christ’s life as the central point. God the Father is older and God the Son is younger. Both the past and present are concrete. The future is not concrete and therefore in the air, spurious, still invisible although the Holy Spirit could also denote Ghost.

Thanks for the dimensions Skinny Jay. Don’t nick please.

Any other suggestions.
 
JKirkLVNV said:
I’m reading *Aquinas 101 *and I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around his demonstration/proof/argument for the Trinity. I believe in the Trinity, but I can’t understand St. Thomas’ proof. Can anyone point me to a book or article that might put it more simply? At this point, I feel like I need a picture book almost!
Click to expand...
Thomas’s terminology is very technical. He is hard to read without help. 👍
 
Have you tried reading St. TA’s Compendium Theologica? It is a simplified version of the Summa, and it does have a portion on the Trinity.
 
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