Summary of The Thomistic Doctrine of the Triune God and Spiritual Life by Gilles Emery, O.P.

Click here for access to Emery’s article. Here are some of my summary notes:

1: The practice of Trinitarian theology is a spiritual exercise of faith.

The study of Trinitarian theology is an exercise of faith because we are dealing first with accepting divine revelation.

This exercise of faith demands, “theological contemplation,” that is, the effort (studium, inquisitio) of the theologian in order to make the revealed truth more manifest to his own mind and to the minds of other believers (1285).

• “Those who propose to teach others, in whatever capacity, should ideally be ‘contemplating’ first. That is to say, they must love the truth for its own sake and find their chief delight in investigating it for their own satisfaction, if they are to be effective in communicating it to others” (Simon Tugwell, Albert and Thomas: Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 254.
• Contemplation is not only the starting point of teaching and preaching the faith; it is also its end. Teaching and preaching the faith are an eminent form of “spiritual sacrifice.” They consist of leading others to the contemplation of God, so that the goal or end of teaching and preaching is reached when others contemplate the objects of faith that a preacher has contemplated (in his study of the mystery of God) and passed on to them.

In exercising our faith in contemplation, we are to elevate our minds above the “easiest” things (corporeal realities & simple doctrines) in order to reach the “most difficult” things (spiritual realities & more complex doctrines).

By prayer, “the soul is purified, elevated toward the spiritual reality of God, and ordered to God by devotion” (1289). The good theologian should ask in prayer for the gift of wisdom, since it allows one to have a right judgment about divine things by a certain connaturality with God.

2: The practice of Trinitarian theology is a spiritual exercise of hope.

The study of Trinitarian theology is an exercise of hope because it is a long and slow process that requires humility and perseverance.

• In his De Trinitate, St. Augustine constantly recalled that God cannot be measured by visible and mortal things. Therefore, in order to grasp God to some extent, man needs a “purification of the mind,” both moral and intellectual, because only purified minds (purgatissimae mentes) can glimpse God (1289). To do Trinitarian theology, a double perfection is required: intellectual and affective.

This exercise of hope “is especially tied to difficulties, tribulations, and adversities” (1288), both in our own study and in encouraging others (1288).

• All Thomists (and all Dominicans) know the famous phrase, contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere (“passing on to others what you have contemplated”): “For even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so is it better to pass on to others the fruits of one’s contemplation than merely to contemplate” (ST II-II, q. 188, a. 6, resp).
• Therefore, a central way of “imitating God” consists in transmitting knowledge of God to others (In De div. nom. 13, lec. 4 (no. 1006)).
• In teaching and preaching the faith, we cooperate with God for the salvation of souls.

3: The practice of Trinitarian theology is a spiritual exercise of love.

The study of Trinitarian theology is an exercise of love because the goal of all study and teaching is to know God and love Him (cf. SCG III, ch. 132 (no. 3047)).

The Christian spiritual life consists, first of all, in the active imitation of the Trinity by our immanent acts of graced knowing and loving God: “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1).

• Here God is considered as the model (exemplar); holy men are made his children by participating in him (participatio sui ipsius) through the gift of the Holy Spirit. God the Father is the model of charity, especially of kindness and mercy, “which are the effects of charity,” insofar as “God has forgiven you in Christ.”
• In this Trinitarian exegesis, Christian life is understood as an imitation of the Father. Among the many topics associated with the imitation of God, fraternal correction is worth a mention: since “God often rebukes sinners by secretly admonishing them with an inward inspiration,” we should “imitate God” in giving a private admonition to our brothers before denouncing them (ST II-II, q. 33, a. 7, obj. 1 and ad 1).

The law of the generosity of being:

• “Every being (starting with physical beings) has a natural inclination not only toward its proper good (either to acquire it, or to rest in it), but also to spread this good to others, that is, to make others participate in its perfection, by a gratuitous superabundance” (1297).
• “bonum diffusivum sui” = “the good is diffusive of self” (Pseudo-Dionysius).
• “Every agent, insofar as it is perfect and in act, produces its like” (ST I, q. 19, a. 2, resp.).
• In a Quodlibet held in Paris between 1268 and 1271, St. Thomas gave this definition of the theologian’s mission (his own mission!) with respect to the cura animarum: “Doctors of theology are like ‘principal artificers’ who inquire and teach how others ought to procure the salvation of souls” (Quodlibet I, q. 7, a. 2, resp.)