| DmitryChernikov.com |
| As we have seen, the Trinity may be thought of as essence (the Father), self-knowledge (the Son), and self-love (the Holy Spirit). This is the most general way of looking at It. I believe, however, that it is not the only one. The Trinity, it appears to me, is, like so many things, "quadriform," that is, it may be looked upon from the point of view of the 4 temperaments: the Rational or NT, the Idealist or NF, the Artisan or SP, and the Guardian or SJ.
From the Rational point of view, the Father is the Knower, the Son is the Known, and the Holy Spirit is that through which the Father knows the Son. Thus, we can say that God knows Himself through Himself: "Since therefore God has nothing in Him of potentiality, but is pure act, His intellect and its object are altogether the same; so that He neither is without the intelligible species, as is the case with our intellect when it understands potentially; nor does the intelligible species differ from the substance of the divine intellect, as it differs in our intellect when it understands actually; but the intelligible species itself is the divine intellect itself..." (ST, I, 14, 2) From the Idealist perspective, the Father is that who Rejoices, the Son is that in Whom the Father rejoices, and the Holy Spirit is the Joy that the Father feels. (I must admit that I suspect that the "general" elucidation of the Trinity above also sounds suspiciously like an Idealist idea of God. The Idealist's ultimate goal is identity, and love unites the Father and Son into one, infinitely deep, God. If anyone has any suggestions, by all means, let me know.) Artisan: the Father is the Giver, the Son is the Heir, the Holy Spirit is the Son's Inheritance. In other words, the Father gives the Holy Spirit, His love, everything He has, to the Son. Finally, the Guardian conception of God is as follows: Here the Father is the Law Unto Himself, the Son is the Judge, and the Holy Spirit is the Exalter of God, lifting Him up into infinite greatness and rank and status. That is, the Son judges the Father to be perfect and exalts Him to high heavens. We can summarize what we have stated in the following table:
(* Peace is "passive" happiness, contentment, satisfaction of desires; joy, on the contrary, is "active" happiness, taking delight in the good possessed.) Aquinas gives two names for the Holy Spirit: Love and Gift. In fact, as we see, each Person has five names; e.g., the Holy Spirit is Love, Truth, Joy, Gift, and Exalter. The Son is Image, Object of Knowledge, Beloved (He in Whom the Father is "well pleased" (Mt 3:17)), Heir, and Judge. These names pertain to God's essence. What about God in relation to the world? Every one of us can be an adopted son or daughter of God, yet because we are imperfect, some changes in the table above would be in order. Thus, humans are still the known, but there is more or less being or goodness in us, and consequently correspondingly more or less there is to know. God can rejoice over us or grieve over us. He can bestow grace or take it away, according to His pleasure. And He can exalt, or He can show contempt. It is clear that examining the quadriformity of things, especially with the help of the most well-developed theory dealing with it, namely, the temperaments theory, is an extremely fruitful approach to solving philosophical problems. December 19, 2006 |