‘The More we Wonder’: Union with God, Distance from God, and the Vexing Question of ‘Necessary Reasons’ in Aquinas’s Trinitarian Theology

Scholars have long noted that there is a tension between the strength of Thomas’s arguments for the Trinity and the limits he places on natural reason. Very few, however, have noted a curious pattern: it is often within the same passage that Thomas both seems to prove the Trinity and rules out the p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Higgins, Michael Joseph (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2021
In: Irish theological quarterly
Year: 2021, Volume: 86, Issue: 2, Pages: 147-163
Further subjects:B Word
B filial fear
B Faith and reason
B Thomas Aquinas
B necessary reasons
B Wonder
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Scholars have long noted that there is a tension between the strength of Thomas’s arguments for the Trinity and the limits he places on natural reason. Very few, however, have noted a curious pattern: it is often within the same passage that Thomas both seems to prove the Trinity and rules out the possibility of any such proof. This paper begins by drawing out this pattern. It then proposes that this tension in Thomas’s thought might be a reflection of, and an education into, a deeper tension: the tension between union with God and distance from God that structures the beatific vision into which Thomas’s Trinitarian theology hopes to initiate us.
ISSN:1752-4989
Contains:Enthalten in: Irish theological quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0021140021995906