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to the proclamation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Elements of the Augustinian Trinitarian Theology:
The Notion of Relation, the Psychological Doctrine. Central Tasks of the Systematic Elaboration of the Doctrine
of the Trinity of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Question of Filioque in the Past and at Present.
I. Principal Historico-Theological milestones in the Development of the Trinitarian Dogma up to the
proclamation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
a. Early Testimonies
a.1 Baptismal and Eucharistic Liturgy
A good number of the Church Fathers has recorded the fact that the Trinitarian formula has always been used
in the celebration of the ancient Baptismal Liturgy. Tertullian in his work De Spectaculis, and St. Justin in his
First Apology both understood baptism as a solemn celebration wherein a man formally rejects evil of paganism
and consecrates himself totally to the one true God. In that solemn act of consecration, the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit was invoked over the person/s to be baptized. Eucharistic liturgy is also connected to the Trinitarian
mystery as also testified in the works of Justin and Hippolytus of Rome (Apostolic Tradition)
In brief, the Post-Apostolic Fathers held strongly the doctrine of the one God (monotheism). Likewise,
they also affirmed the divinity of Jesus Christ and by using the language of the New Testament was able to
distinguish between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, was not given much attention,
save for the fact that he was mentioned as God’s spirit who was revealed to men through the person of Christ. So
strictly speaking, there was yet no specifically Trinitarian language and notions in the writings of this age. (cf.The
Development of the Trinitarian Dogma, Jason Dulle)
Justin Martyr, is considered to be the first writer to teach a plurality within the Godhead. In his First
Apology he wrote, “We reasonably worship [Jesus Christ], having learned that he is the Son of the True God
Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third.” Justin’s prime concern was to
establish the relationship of the Father and the Logos. However, Justin turned to subordinate the Son to the Father
as he explained that the Logos is only second to the Father in time and sequence, and in authority but not in will.
(cf. The Development of the Trinitarian Dogma, Jason Dulle) Like the Post-Apostolic Fathers, he did not have an
elaborate doctrine on the Holy Spirit, save for the fact that He [Holy Spirit] seems to be equated with the Logos.
Generally speaking, the other apologists believed and expounded that Jesus (Son) is the Divine Reason,
which existed in God’s intellect, but possessing no personal existence, till He emanated from the God [Father] as
his principal creation. Only then, that the Son receive a personal divine existence. This mode of existence of the
Logos, although different from the Father, is still dependent upon Him [Father]. Simply put, they did not adhere
to the doctrine that the Father and the Logos are coeternal, consubstantial, and coequal.
St. Irenaeus (182-188) - Two matters distinctively differentiate him from the apologists. First, was his assertion that
the Logos ‘coexisted’ with the Father, and therefore, is eternal. Second, is his teaching in which the Spirit is equated
with the Father, or more particularly to God’s Wisdom.
Tertullian- He is most notable for being the first father (Latin) to refer to God as Trinity and as Three Persons in one
substance. In his work entitled Against Praxeas, he stated,
“God is "the ‘Trinity,’ which consists of ‘three persons…. God is ‘one only substance in three coherent
and inseparable (Persons)… The Father and the Son are ‘two separate Persons, two different Beings, and
‘distinct but not separate’. The Son is ‘another’ from the Father ‘on the ground of Personality, not of
Substance-in the way of distinction, not of division."
Although his doctrine on the Trinity is advanced, many of his teachings on the Godhead were erroneous, such as,
when he said that the Three Persons were simply parts of the Godhead:
“The Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole…The Father is…
greater than the Son. The Son of God is a portion of the whole Godhead.”
His writings also reveal that many of his terminologies referring to the Godhead is “subordinationistic.
Origen- Among the Oriental Fathers, he has made the biggest contribution in the development of the Trinitarian
doctrine. He was the first to demonstrate an eternal unity of persons. For him, the Son is not only eternal, but is also
eternally begotten. However, his teaching on the equality of the equality is really inconsistent. In his commentary in
John, he explained, “The Father is the one true God, but…other beings besides the true God…have become gods by
having a share of God…. The Father is the fountain of divinity.”
The council’s contribution to the development of the Trinitarian doctrine is very essential. It definitely rejected the
idea that the Logos was created and non-eternal with the Father, and established that the Logos was of the same
substance/consubstantial (homoousius) with the Father (cf. Compact History of the Church, Alan Schreck. A portion of
the creed clearly states, “…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten generated from the Father, that its, from the being
of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.”
f. Post-Nicene Period
Although Arianism was condemned by the Council of Nicaea, it was able to survive and even flourish through the
emperors who supported and tolerated it. Thus, these years are seen as a period in which the church struggled to preserve
its doctrine which has just been formally defined. Among the prominent persons who tirelessly worked to defend the
Nicene Creed were Athanasius and the Great Cappadocian Fathers. A summary of their teachings is presented below:
“The one God-head subsists in three coequal, coeternal, coessential persons, and this truth is an
incomprehensible mystery. There is communion of substance but distinction of personhood. This trinity
is a perfect, inseparable, indivisible union, and the persons work together in all things. The unique
distinguishing characteristics of the persons are as follows: the Father is unbegotten, the Son is begotten
II. Elements of the Augustinian Trinitarian Theology: The Notion of Relation, the Psychological Doctrine
Although, St. Augustine consider the contemplation of these realities as helpful in the pursuit of God, he honestly
admitted that these are infinitely inadequate to serve as God’s representations.
III. Central Tasks of the Systematic Elaboration of the Doctrine of the Trinity of St. Thomas
Aquinas
1
The Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity, Jason Dulle.
2
The Fathers of the Church, Hubertus Drobner, 419.
By relation is understood the ordination of one thing to another. Or as Chrales Belmonte puts it, “the real
accident whose being (esse) consists in referring one thing to another (esse ad), that is, an accident that stands in
relations to a subject when something real inheres in a subject without changing it but simply referring it to
another.”
The two immanent-divine processions, i.e. generation and spiration, form two pairs of real and mutual
relationships. Consequently, there exist in God four real relations: a.) the relationship of the Father to the Son
(paternity); b.) The relationship of the Son to the Father (filiation); c.) the relation of the Father and of the
Son (as one sole principle) to the Holy Ghost (active spiration, spirare); d.) the relation of the Holy Spirit to
the Father and to the Son (passive spiration, spirari) .7
Opposed relations are essentially distinct from one another. Relations that are opposed to one another
reciprocally eliminate each other. Therefore, the three Persons are equal because they are one and the same God,
however, they are also different inasmuch as they are unique subjects of a real relation, which is opposite to and
distinct from the relations of the other two Persons. 8 Among the four real relations, only three are considered as
opposite to each other, which means that they necessarily exclude each other. Active spiration, though opposed to
the passive, is not opposed to paternity and filiation.
c. The Divine Persons
St. Thomas took as basis for the doctrine of the Divine Persons, the Boecian definition of person as “subsistent
individual of a rational nature”. He affirms that the concept of person is perfectly realized in God, given that
person signifies the most perfect mode of being of a substance. He explained further that the name “person” is
designated to God with reference to the relation of origin, but considered as subsistent. Applied to God, the divine
person is defined as a subsistent individual in the Divine Essence. This means to say that, each divine person is the
single divine nature affected by a personal property that makes s him distinct from the other two Persons. 9
St. Thomas explained further that the divine Persons are the subsistent relations of paternity, filiation and
passive spiration (procession). Simply saying, the relation in God constitutes the Person and is the Person himself.
Everything hinges on the divine relations being both distinct and distinguishing.
d. The Divine Personal Properties (Proprietas) and Notions
By proprietas is defined as a distinguishing property, which belongs to One Divine Person only, and
distinguishes it from the Other Two. There are two Divisions: 1.) Personal or Person-forming (i.e. the three
opposed or person-forming relations of Paternity, Filiation, passive spiration) and 2.) Properties of the Person or
6
cf Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Ludwig Ott, 67.
7
cf. Ibid, 68.
8
cf. Faith Seeking Understanding, Charles Belmonte, 185.
9
cf. Faith Seeking Understanding, Charles Belmonte, 186.
f. The Appropriations
Appropriation is understood as a manner of predication in which the properties and operations of God which
are common to the Three Persons, are attributed to an individual Person.11 The Appropriation serves to make
manifest the differences in the Divine persons.
“In the Scriptures and in the writing of the Fathers, we can classify four divisions of appropriations
namely,
a.) The appropriation of the substantive names of God (Theos=God the Father, Kyrios=God the Son)
b.) The appropriation of the absolute attributes of God (Power, Wisdom, Goodness) St. Hilary (De
Trinitate) Eternity is in the Father, beauty is in the Image (Word); and use (happiness is in the Gift
(Paraclete)
c.) The appropriation of the works of God (causa efficiens, causa exemplaris, causa finalis (Rom
11:36: resolution, execution, completion)
d.) The appropriation of the cult of adoration and sacrifice (the father as recipient, the Son and the
Holy Ghost as mediators)” 12
The misinterpretation of this one fundamental tenet of the faith have caused the separation of some
eastern churches from the Roman See. A prominent figure in this sad event in the history of the Church is Photius
who was then Patriarch of Constantinople. He and his followers accused the Roman Church of teaching that the
Holy Ghost proceeds from two separate principles. What they failed to understand is that the expression ex Patre
Filioque means that the Two Persons as considered as sole principle of the Third Person. The Western church has
used the formula (ex patre filioque) in order to express the distinction between the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, Revelation shows us that the Son and the Holy Ghost are different Persons. This distinction between them
is manifested in their different origins. We know that the Son proceeds from the Father only, whereas, the Holy
Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.15
The Catechism of the Catholic Church also provides an illuminating account on the Holy Spirit found in
#245-248. Briefly speaking, these accounts explains 1.) that the Church recognizes the truth that the Father is the
fount and origin of divinity as articulated by the Council of Constantinople, 2.) about the history and significance
of the Western (Latin) Tradition of Filioque, 3.) that the Eastern formula is in agreement to the faith of the Church
and that it agrees to the Western formula.
Sources:
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Ludwig Ott
Faith Seeking Understanding, Charles Belmonte
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Fathers of the Church, Hubertus Drobner
Patrology vol. I, Johannes Quasten
The Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity, Jason Dulle
New Catholic Encyclopedia
Theses for De Universa Theologia, Fr. Angelo Antonio Brucal
Theses Compilation from the Previous Years.
“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him, the greatest adventure;
and to find Him, the greatest human achievement.”
Augustine of Hippo
15
cf. Faith Seeking Understanding, Charles Belmonte, 182.