To the Image of the Trinity

A Study in the Development of Aquinas' Teaching

One of the most thought-provoking ideas that the Bible presents is the notion that man has been created in the image of God. Since the age of the Fathers of the Church, in particular since Augustine, Catholic theologians have seen the image of God as an image of the Trinity. Thomas Aquinas inherited...

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Bibliographic Details
Author:Donald Juvenal Merriell
Published: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, 1990
Series:Studies and Texts
Volume:96
Total Pages:X-266
Format:Book
Topic:- Doctrine > Man > [Image de Dieu] > [Image de la Trinité]
- Influence and Survival > The Middle Ages (430-1453) > Influence on the various authors and writings > Thomas of Aquin (+/- 1225-1274)
Status:Needs Review
Description
Summary:One of the most thought-provoking ideas that the Bible presents is the notion that man has been created in the image of God. Since the age of the Fathers of the Church, in particular since Augustine, Catholic theologians have seen the image of God as an image of the Trinity. Thomas Aquinas inherited and developed this tradition in his own teaching. Augustine's De Trinitate is the foundation on which Thomas built. Augustine conceived of the image of the Trinity as the mind's acts of remembering, knowing, and loving God, but at the end of that work he emphasized the analogy between the formation of the inner word and of love in the mind on the one hand and the external processions of the Word and the Holy Spirit in God on the other. By examining in depth the principal passages on the image in the Scriptum super Sententiis, the De veritate, and the Summa theologiae, we find that the development of Thomas' position is largely based on the appropriation of Augustine's conception of the image in terms of the two processions. Although Thomas does not explicitly apply this notion of the image to the spiritual life, it is clear that the image of the trinity as he conceives it is the foundation of man's nature that makes him capable of being raised to participate in the eternal life of the Trinity.

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