Whether the Notional Acts Are to Be Attributed to the Persons?
Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are not to be
attributed to the persons. For Boethius says (De Trin.): "Whatever
is predicated of God, of whatever genus it be, becomes the divine
substance, except what pertains to the relation." But action is one
of the ten genera. Therefore any action attributed to God belongs
to His essence, and not to a notion.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. v, 4,5) that, "everything
which is said of God, is said of Him as regards either His substance,
or relation." But whatever belongs to the substance is signified by
the essential attributes; and whatever belongs to the relations, by
the names of the persons, or by the names of the properties.
Therefore, in addition to these, notional acts are not to be
attributed to the persons.
Obj. 3: Further, the nature of action is of itself to cause passion.
But we do not place passions in God. Therefore neither are notional
acts to be placed in God.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine (Fulgentius, De Fide ad Petrum ii) says:
"It is a property of the Father to beget the Son." Therefore notional
acts are to be placed in God.
_I answer that,_ In the divine persons distinction is founded on
origin. But origin can be properly designated only by certain acts.
Wherefore, to signify the order of origin in the divine persons, we
must attribute notional acts to the persons.
Reply Obj. 1: Every origin is designated by an act. In God there is a
twofold order of origin: one, inasmuch as the creature proceeds from
Him, and this is common to the three persons; and so those actions
which are attributed to God to designate the proceeding of creatures
from Him, belong to His essence. Another order of origin in God
regards the procession of person from person; wherefore the acts
which designate the order of this origin are called notional; because
the notions of the persons are the mutual relations of the persons,
as is clear from what was above explained (Q. 32, A. 2).
Reply Obj. 2: The notional acts differ from the relations of the
persons only in their mode of signification; and in reality are
altogether the same. Whence the Master says that "generation and
nativity in other words are paternity and filiation" (Sent. i, D,
xxvi). To see this, we must consider that the origin of one thing
from another is firstly inferred from movement: for that anything be
changed from its disposition by movement evidently arises from some
cause. Hence action, in its primary sense, means origin of movement;
for, as movement derived from another into a mobile object, is called
"passion," so the origin of movement itself as beginning from another
and terminating in what is moved, is called "action." Hence, if we
take away movement, action implies nothing more than order of origin,
in so far as action proceeds from some cause or principle to what is
from that principle. Consequently, since in God no movement exists,
the personal action of the one producing a person is only the
habitude of the principle to the person who is from the principle;
which habitudes are the relations, or the notions. Nevertheless we
cannot speak of divine and intelligible things except after the
manner of sensible things, whence we derive our knowledge, and
wherein actions and passions, so far as these imply movement, differ
from the relations which result from action and passion, and
therefore it was necessary to signify the habitudes of the persons
separately after the manner of act, and separately after the manner
of relations. Thus it is evident that they are really the same,
differing only in their mode of signification.
Reply Obj. 3: Action, so far as it means origin of movement,
naturally involves passion; but action in that sense is not
attributed to God. Whence, passions are attributed to Him only from a
grammatical standpoint, and in accordance with our manner of
speaking, as we attribute "to beget" with the Father, and to the Son
"to be begotten."
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