The Summa of Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas volume 1
Concerning the procession, five questions arise:
1. Is there a procession in God?
2. Is there a procession in God that can be called generation?
3. Besides generation, can there be another procession in God?
4. Can this other procession be called generation?
5. Are there only these two processions in God?
Article 1 — Is there a procession in God?
Objections:
1. “Procession” evokes an outward movement. But in God there is neither movement nor outside: there is therefore no procession in God either.
2. Everything that “proceeds” is other than its principle. But in God there is no diversity: on the contrary, there is supreme simplicity. So, no procession in God.
3 . Proceeding from another seems to be opposed to the very notion of a first principle. Now, as shown above, God is the first principle. So there is no place in God for a procession.
In the opposite sense , the Lord says in St. John (8, 42): “I have come out of God. ”
Answer:
Touching divine realities, Holy Scripture uses terms that relate to a procession. Procession which has been understood in various meanings. Some have understood it in the way in which the effect proceeds from the cause: Arius thus said that the Son proceeds from the Father as his first creature, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as their creature both. But in this hypothesis, neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit would be true God, contrary to what is said of the Son, in the first epistle of St. John (5, 20): “That we may be in his true Son : it is true God. ” S. Paul also says of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19): “Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit? ” But it only belongs to God to have a temple.
Others have understood this procession in the sense in which we say that the cause proceeds in its effect, insofar as it moves it or imprints its resemblance on it. So did Sabellius. According to him, God the Father himself is called “the Son” insofar as he took flesh from the Virgin; and he is called “the Holy Spirit” insofar as he sanctifies and vivifies the rational creature. But this goes against the affirmation of the Lord an 5,19): “The Son can do nothing of himself…”; and against so many other passages which show that it is not the Father who is the Son.
Now, upon reflection, Arius and Sabellius took “procession” in the sense of movement towards an external end; so that none of them posed a procession in God himself. But every procession presupposes action. And if, in the case of the action which is carried out on an external matter, there is an ad extra procession; similarly also in the case of the action which remains within the agent himself, there is reason to consider a certain ad intra procession. We see it especially in intelligence, whose act, which is intellection, remains in the knowing subject. In everyone who knows, and from the very fact that he knows, something proceeds within him: namely, the concept of the thing known, proceeding from the knowledge of this thing. It is this concept that speech signifies: it is called “inner verb”, signified by the “oral verb”.
Now, God being above all things, what we affirm about him must be understood, not in the manner of lower creatures, in other words bodies, but by analogy with the highest creatures, it is that is to say with spiritual creatures; and even borrowed from it, this similarity remains lacking in representing divine realities. We should therefore not understand “procession” in the sense in which it occurs in the corporeal world, either by local movement, or by the action of a cause on its external effect: thus heat comes from the hot source and reaches the heated body. It must be understood here in terms of intellectual emanation, such as the intelligible word emanating from the one who speaks and remaining within him. It is in this last sense that the Catholic faith posits a procession in God.
Solutions:
1 . This objection takes “procession” in the sense of a local movement, or of an action which is exerted on an external matter or which tends to an external effect. But we have just said that there is no procession of this kind in God.
2 . What proceeds by procession ad extra, and the principle from which it proceeds, are necessarily diverse. This is no longer the case for what proceeds internally by intellectual process: here on the contrary, the more perfect the procession, the more the term becomes one with its principle. It is clear in fact that the better the thing is known, the more the intellectual conception is intimate to the knower and becomes one with him: for the intellect, precisely insofar as it is in the act of knowing, becomes a single thing with the known. . From then on, divine intellect being at the summit of perfection, as has been said, it necessarily follows that the divine Word is perfectly one with its principle without the slightest diversity.
3. To proceed from a principle as its external and diverse term: yes, this is repugnant to the condition of First Principle. But to proceed as an intimate term, without diversity, by intellectual mode, it is included in the notion of First Principle. Indeed, when we say that the architect is the principle of the building, we evoke in this word “principle” the conception of his art; and this conception would thus be included in the attribute of first principle, if the architect were first principle. Now God, who is the First Principle of things, is to created things what the architect is to his works.
Article 2 - Is there a procession in God which can be called a generation?
Objection:
1. Generation is the change from non-being to being, that is, the opposite of corruption; both have matter as their subject. But none of this suits God. There can therefore be no generation in God.
2 . In God, we said, there is a procession of intellectual fashion. But in us this procession is not called generation. Neither in God, therefore.
3 . Whoever is generated receives the being of his principle; consequently in everything generated, being is received. But no being received is self-subsisting. And as the divine being we have proved is self-subsistent, it follows that the being of no begotten person is the divine being. Therefore there is no generation in God.
On the contrary , we read in Psalm (2:7): “ I have begotten you today .”
Answer:
The procession of the Word in God is called “generation”. To show this, let us distinguish two uses of the word generation. It is first applied in a general sense to everything that is generated and corrupted; in this case, “generation” means nothing other than the passage from non-being to being. We use it secondly, and this time in the literal sense, in relation to the living; in this case, “generation” means “the origin that a living thing draws from its joint living principle”: it is properly called “birth”. This, however, is not enough to be qualified as “begotten”; this name is only properly given to that which proceeds according to the resemblance to the principle. A hair, a strand of hair, does not verify the condition of being begotten, nor of a son; only that which proceeds according to resemblance verifies it; and not according to any resemblance; because the worms generated from animals do not verify a generation, nor a filiation, despite the generic resemblance. For there to be generation in the second sense, it is necessary to proceed according to the specific resemblance, as man proceeds from man; the horse, of the horse.
Therefore, among living things, such as man or animal, which proceed from potency to the act of life, generation includes the two aforementioned modes, change and birth. But in the case of a living person whose life does not pass from potentiality to act, the procession, if it occurs in him, absolutely excludes the first mode of generation; on the other hand, it can verify the notion specific to the living.
This is how the procession of the Word, in God, is due to generation. The Word, in fact, proceeds through a mode of intellectual activity: and this is a “vital” operation; it proceeds “from a joint principle” as we have already said; and “by formal assimilation”, because the concept of intelligence is the similarity of the thing known; and it “subsists in the same nature”, because in God intellection is identical to being, as shown above. This is why the procession of the Word in God takes the name of “generation”, and the Word which proceeds, that of “Son”.
Solutions:
1 . This objection draws argument from generation in the first sense, that which involves the passage from power to action. Thus understood, generation is not found in God, as we have said.
2 . In us, the act of intellection is not the very substance of the intellect: also the word which proceeds in us according to the intellectual operation does not have the same nature as its principle; and consequently it does not properly and completely verify the notion of generation. But the act of divine intellection is the very substance of the knowing subject, as shown above; also the Word proceeds there as a subsistent of the same nature. And for this reason, it is in the literal sense that we say “begotten” and “Son”. Hence it is that Scripture, to designate the procession of divine Wisdom, appeals to notions specific to the generation of the living, those of “conception”, “childbirth”. Thus the book of Proverbs (8, 24) makes divine Wisdom say: “The depths did not yet exist, and I was already conceived. I was born before the hills. ” But for our intellect, we only use the term “conception”, insofar as the word of our intellect maintains a relationship of similarity with the thing known, and not of identity of nature.
3. Not everything that is received is necessarily received in a subject; without which we could not say that all the substance of the created thing is received from God, since there is no subject receiving all the substance. Similarly, what is generated in God receives the being of the one who generates it, without this being being received in a matter or a subject; because this is repugnant to the subsistence of the divine being: it is called “received”, because the proceeding term comes from another, the divine being, and not because it would be distinct from this divine being. The very perfection of the divine being in fact contains both the Word which proceeds intellectually and the principle of the Word, as we have also said, everything that belongs to divine perfection.
Article 3 — Besides generation, can there be another procession in God?
Objections:
1. There is, it seems, no other procession in God than the generation of the Word. Because to admit a second is to give yourself a reason to admit yet another, and so on ad infinitum: but this cannot be admitted. So let's stop at the first: there is only one procession in God.
2 . Besides, each nature has only one way of communicating. The reason is that operations are multiplying and differing in their terms. Now there is only procession in God through communication of the divine nature. And since there is only one divine nature, as was shown above, it follows that in God there is only one procession.
3. If there were to be in God a procession other than the intellectual procession of the Word, it would undoubtedly be the procession of love, which is accomplished by the operation of the will. But this procession cannot be distinguished from the procession proper to the intellect, since in God the will is not distinct from the intellect, as we saw above. In God therefore, there is no other procession than the procession of the Word.
In the opposite sense , we read in St. John that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (15, 26), and that he is himself distinct from the Son (14, 16): “ I will pray to my Father and he will send you another Paraclete . ”. There is therefore in God another procession than the procession of the Word.
Answer :
There are two processions in God: that of the Word, and another. To show this, let us consider that in God there is procession only because of the action which remains in the agent himself, instead of moving towards an external end. And in an intellectual nature, this immanent action is realized in the act of intelligence and in the act of will. The procession of the Word belongs to the act of intelligence. As for the operation of the will, it gives rise in us to another procession: the procession of love, which causes the beloved to be in the magnet, just as the procession of the Word causes the thing said or known to be is in the knower. From then on, in addition to the procession of the Word, another procession is affirmed in God: it is the procession of love.
Solutions:
1 . There is no need to go endlessly in divine processions. Because, in an intellectual nature, the procession ad intra finds its completion in the procession of will.
2 . All that is in God is God, as has been shown. But this is a condition that is not found anywhere else. It is therefore true that the divine nature is communicated in every procession which is not ad extra: but this is not the case with other natures.
3 . Although in God intelligence and will are only one thing, it is nevertheless essential to the will and the intellect that the processions which are accomplished in their respective operations are arranged in a certain order: in fact, not procession of love which does not give order to the procession of a verb, since nothing can be loved by will, which has not been conceived in the intellect. Just as we must consider an order of the Word at the principle from which it proceeds, although in God the intellect and the concept are only the same substance; in the same way, although in God will and intellect are one, the procession of love maintains a distinction of order with the procession of the word, because it is essential for love to proceed from conception of intelligence.
Article 4 — Can the procession of love in God be called generation?
Objections:
1. Yes, it seems, it is a generation. For the being which proceeds in resemblance of nature among the living, we say that it is generated, that it is born. Now that which proceeds in God by way of love, proceeds in resemblance of nature: without which it would be foreign to the divine nature, and we would have there an ad extra procession. Therefore, that which proceeds in God by the mode of love, proceeds as a begotten and born term.
2. Similarity, which is essential to the word, is also essential to love: “Every living being loves his fellow man,” says the Ecclesiasticus (13, 15). If, therefore, by reason of its similarity, it befits the word which proceeds to be begotten and to be born, this also befits, it seems, the love which proceeds.
3 . What does not fit under any species of a genus is not part of that genus. Therefore, from the fact that we verify in God a “procession”, it is necessary that in addition to this generic name, it must have another name, this one specific. But we cannot give any other than that of “generation”. It therefore seems that the procession of love in God is a generation.
On the contrary , if it were so, the Holy Spirit who is the end of this procession of love, would be generated: but S. Athanasius denies this: “The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son; not that it is made, nor created, nor begotten [by them], but it proceeds from them. ”
Answer:
The procession of love, in God, should not be described as generation. We will realize this by the following consideration: between intelligence and will, there is this difference that intelligence is in act from the fact that the thing known is in the intellect by its similarity: the will, it is in act, not because a similarity of the desired is in the willing, but because there is in it an inclination towards the thing desired. It follows that the procession which takes place according to the proper character of the desired thing The intellect is formally assimilative, and for all that it is possible that it is a generation, because he who generates, it is the one similar to himself that he generates. Conversely, the procession which takes place according to the action of the will, it is not under the aspect of assimilation that it appears to us, but rather as an impulse and movement towards an end. This is why that which, in God, proceeds by way of love does not proceed as begotten, as a son, but rather as breath. This word evokes a kind of momentum and vital impulse, in the sense that we say that love moves us and pushes us to do something.
Solutions:
1. Everything in God is one with the divine nature. It is therefore not from the side of this unity that we can grasp the proper reason for this or that procession, in other words what distinguishes one from the other; the proper reason for each of the processions must be taken from the order that they maintain between them. Now this order depends on the specific nature of the will and the intellect. It is therefore according to the specific nature of these two activities that each procession in God receives a name: the name given to a thing, in fact, means the specific nature of this thing. This is why that which proceeds by way of love may well receive the divine nature: we will not, however, say that it is “born”.
2.If the similarity belongs to the word and to love, it is in a different way. It belongs to the verb in the sense that it itself is a similarity of the one who generates it. As for love, it is not that it is itself a similarity; but similarity is the principle of love. It does not follow, therefore, that love is begotten, but that the begotten is the principle of love.
3 . We can only name God by borrowing from creatures, as we said above. And as, in the creature, there is communication of nature only by generation, the procession in God has no other name of species than that of generation. From then on, the procession which is not generation remained without a species name: we can however call it “spiration” since it is the procession of the “Spirit”.
Article 5 — Are there only these two processions in God?
Objections:
1 . Just as knowledge and will are attributed to God, power is also attributed to Him. Therefore, if we conceive two processions in God according to knowledge and will, we must conceive a third according to power.
2 . Goodness is the principle of procession par excellence, since it is said that good is diffusive of itself. We must therefore conceive in God a procession according to goodness.
3 . In God, fertility has more power than in us. Now in us the procession of the word is not unique, but multiple; in fact, from one verb in us proceeds another verb; and likewise of one love, another love. So in God too, there are more than two processions.
On the contrary , there are only two who proceed in God: the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are therefore only two processions in him.
Answer:
In God we can only conceive of procession according to the actions which remain in the agent. Now, actions of this kind, in an intellectual and divine nature, there are only two: intellection and willing. Because sensation, which also seems an operation immanent to the sensing subject, does not belong to intellectual nature; it is moreover not completely foreign to the genre of ad extra actions, since sensation is accomplished by action of the sensible on the sense. It therefore remains that in God, there can be no other procession than that of the word and love.
Solutions:
1. Power is the principle of the action that we exercise on something else; the action evoked by the attribute of power is therefore the action ad extra. Therefore, the procession evoked in this same attribute is not the procession of a divine person; it is only the procession of creatures.
2. According to Boethius, good concerns the essence, and not the operation, except as an object of the will. And as we must conceive of divine processions on account of some action, goodness and attributes of the same kind do not allow us to grasp other processions than those of the Word and Love, insofar as God knows and loves its essence, its truth and its goodness.
3. It is by a single and simple act that God knows everything, and likewise wills everything; we said it above. There cannot therefore be in him a verb proceeding from another verb, nor love proceeding from another love; there is in him only a perfect Word and a perfect Love. And it is in this that his perfect fruitfulness is manifested.