QUESTION FOR THEOLOGIANS
I’m not trained in theology and would appreciate responses by persons who do have qualifications. If my numbered statements are in error, I would be happy to be corrected.
My understanding of Christian doctrine:
1. God is one but triune. The three persons of the Trinity are distinct but not separate.
2. “The Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son” (Catechism of the Catholic Church para. 255).
3. Each person is assigned a name, quality, status, role, function, or operation, and this attribution is known as ‘appropriation.’ The qualities and names thus appropriated are attached to one person but belong essentially to all the persons because God is one. The appropriations, for example, identify the Father as particularly characterized by omnipotence and the first principle of all things, the Son by wisdom and as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit by love, inspiration, and sanctification.
4. When one person of the Trinity ‘acts’ or ‘operates’ in accordance with the assigned appropriation, the operations do not belong exclusively to the person who is the subject of appropriation. No person of the Trinity can act individually or independently. The operations thus appropriated belong essentially to all the persons. “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation” (CCC 258).
5.Although he is said to be a distinct person, the Son is not a discrete entity that you can detach; he comes with the Father and the Spirit, who are ‘wholly’ in him by nature and inseparable as a person.
6. Jesus of Nazareth is said to be one person with a human nature and a divine nature (the second person of the Trinity). The second person (the Word) “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
7. There is also a clause somewhere in the CCC that says the Son always operates with the Spirit.
8. On the basis of the doctrine that, of the three persons of the Trinity, only the second person (the Word) became flesh and was operative in Jesus of Nazareth, I have this question:
QUESTION: How could the second person operate separately in Jesus in light of the doctrine of the inseparability of the distinct persons and that “the whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons … it has only one and the same operation” (CCC 258)?
I’m not trained in theology and would appreciate responses by persons who do have qualifications. If my numbered statements are in error, I would be happy to be corrected.
My understanding of Christian doctrine:
1. God is one but triune. The three persons of the Trinity are distinct but not separate.
2. “The Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son” (Catechism of the Catholic Church para. 255).
3. Each person is assigned a name, quality, status, role, function, or operation, and this attribution is known as ‘appropriation.’ The qualities and names thus appropriated are attached to one person but belong essentially to all the persons because God is one. The appropriations, for example, identify the Father as particularly characterized by omnipotence and the first principle of all things, the Son by wisdom and as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit by love, inspiration, and sanctification.
4. When one person of the Trinity ‘acts’ or ‘operates’ in accordance with the assigned appropriation, the operations do not belong exclusively to the person who is the subject of appropriation. No person of the Trinity can act individually or independently. The operations thus appropriated belong essentially to all the persons. “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation” (CCC 258).
5.Although he is said to be a distinct person, the Son is not a discrete entity that you can detach; he comes with the Father and the Spirit, who are ‘wholly’ in him by nature and inseparable as a person.
6. Jesus of Nazareth is said to be one person with a human nature and a divine nature (the second person of the Trinity). The second person (the Word) “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
7. There is also a clause somewhere in the CCC that says the Son always operates with the Spirit.
8. On the basis of the doctrine that, of the three persons of the Trinity, only the second person (the Word) became flesh and was operative in Jesus of Nazareth, I have this question:
QUESTION: How could the second person operate separately in Jesus in light of the doctrine of the inseparability of the distinct persons and that “the whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons … it has only one and the same operation” (CCC 258)?
