Whether the Hypostases Remain If the Relations Are Mentally Abstracted
from the Persons?
Objection 1: It would seem that the hypostases remain if the
properties or relations are mentally abstracted from the persons. For
that to which something is added, may be understood when the addition
is taken away; as man is something added to animal which can be
understood if rational be taken away. But person is something added to
hypostasis; for person is "a hypostasis distinguished by a property of
dignity." Therefore, if a personal property be taken away from a
person, the hypostasis remains.
Obj. 2: Further, that the Father is Father, and that He is someone,
are not due to the same reason. For as He is the Father by paternity,
supposing He is some one by paternity, it would follow that the Son,
in Whom there is not paternity, would not be "someone." So when
paternity is mentally abstracted from the Father, He still remains
"someone"--that is, a hypostasis. Therefore, if property be removed
from person, the hypostasis remains.
Obj. 3: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. v, 6): "Unbegotten is not
the same as Father; for if the Father had not begotten the Son,
nothing would prevent Him being called unbegotten." But if He had not
begotten the Son, there would be no paternity in Him. Therefore, if
paternity be removed, there still remains the hypostasis of the
Father as unbegotten.
_On the contrary,_ Hilary says (De Trin. iv): "The Son has nothing
else than birth." But He is Son by "birth." Therefore, if filiation
be removed, the Son's hypostasis no more remains; and the same holds
as regards the other persons.
_I answer that,_ Abstraction by the intellect is twofold--when the
universal is abstracted from the particular, as animal abstracted from
man; and when the form is abstracted from the matter, as the form of a
circle is abstracted by the intellect from any sensible matter. The
difference between these two abstractions consists in the fact that in
the abstraction of the universal from the particular, that from which
the abstraction is made does not remain; for when the difference of
rationality is removed from man, the man no longer remains in the
intellect, but animal alone remains. But in the abstraction of the
form from the matter, both the form and the matter remain in the
intellect; as, for instance, if we abstract the form of a circle from
brass, there remains in our intellect separately the understanding
both of a circle, and of brass. Now, although there is no universal
nor particular in God, nor form and matter, in reality; nevertheless,
as regards the mode of signification there is a certain likeness of
these things in God; and thus Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 6)
that "substance is common and hypostasis is particular." So, if we
speak of the abstraction of the universal from the particular, the
common universal essence remains in the intellect if the properties
are removed; but not the hypostasis of the Father, which is, as it
were, a particular.
But as regards the abstraction of the form from the matter, if the
non-personal properties are removed, then the idea of the hypostases
and persons remains; as, for instance, if the fact of the Father's
being unbegotten or spirating be mentally abstracted from the Father,
the Father's hypostasis or person remains.
If, however, the personal property be mentally abstracted, the idea of
the hypostasis no longer remains. For the personal properties are not
to be understood as added to the divine hypostases, as a form is added
to a pre-existing subject: but they carry with them their own
_supposita,_ inasmuch as they are themselves subsisting persons; thus
paternity is the Father Himself. For hypostasis signifies something
distinct in God, since hypostasis means an individual substance. So,
as relation distinguishes and constitutes the hypostases, as above
explained (A. 2), it follows that if the personal relations are
mentally abstracted, the hypostases no longer remain. Some, however,
think, as above noted, that the divine hypostases are not
distinguished by the relations, but only by origin; so that the Father
is a hypostasis as not from another, and the Son is a hypostasis as
from another by generation. And that the consequent relations which
are to be regarded as properties of dignity, constitute the notion of
a person, and are thus called "personal properties." Hence, if these
relations are mentally abstracted, the hypostasis, but not the
persons, remain.
But this is impossible, for two reasons: first, because the relations
distinguish and constitute the hypostases, as shown above (A. 2);
secondly, because every hypostasis of a rational nature is a person,
as appears from the definition of Boethius (De Duab. Nat.) that,
"person is the individual substance of a rational nature." Hence, to
have hypostasis and not person, it would be necessary to abstract the
rationality from the nature, but not the property from the person.
Reply Obj. 1: Person does not add to hypostasis a distinguishing
property absolutely, but a distinguishing property of dignity, all
of which must be taken as the difference. Now, this distinguishing
property is one of dignity precisely because it is understood as
subsisting in a rational nature. Hence, if the distinguishing
property be removed from the person, the hypostasis no longer
remains; whereas it would remain were the rationality of the nature
removed; for both person and hypostasis are individual substances.
Consequently, in God the distinguishing relation belongs essentially
to both.
Reply Obj. 2: By paternity the Father is not only Father, but is a
person, and is "someone," or a hypostasis. It does not follow,
however, that the Son is not "someone" or a hypostasis; just as it
does not follow that He is not a person.
Reply Obj. 3: Augustine does not mean to say that the hypostasis of
the Father would remain as unbegotten, if His paternity were removed,
as if innascibility constituted and distinguished the hypostasis of
the Father; for this would be impossible, since "being unbegotten"
says nothing positive and is only a negation, as he himself says. But
he speaks in a general sense, forasmuch as not every unbegotten being
is the Father. So, if paternity be removed, the hypostasis of the
Father does not remain in God, as distinguished from the other
persons, but only as distinguished from creatures; as the Jews
understand it.
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