Into Theology

In this episode, Ian Clary and Wyatt Graham discuss divine persons in Thomas Aquinas's Summa. They talk through why Thomas thinks the word person eminently applies to God, and how it is fitting to use of God, even if the Bible does not use that term. Here is a link to the article I wrote on God's processions, relations, and persons to clarify things from the last episode: https://wyattgraham.com/god-two-processions-four-relations-three-persons/.

In this episode, Wyatt and Ian stumble along trying to keep up with Thomas Aquinas as he explains how the Father, Son, and Spirit relate to one another while remaining the one God of Israel. The Bible tells us that the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son of the Father. So they are distinct yet both remain the one God. How can we talk about this? Thomas summarizes the theological explanation of this reality through his discussion on relations in God. The key is that the word "generation" refers to the procession of the Son, while filiation and paternity describe the relation of Father and Son. But for the Spirit, there is no proper name for the relation. Both the procession and relation use a common word. So the pairing for the Spirit if spiration from the Father and Son and procession (the common term) of the Spirit from both.  Emery writes: "It gives us paternity (the relation of the Father to the Son), filiation (the relation of the Son to the Father), the spiration of the Holy Spirit (the relation of the Father and the Son in respect to the Holy Spirit), and the procession of the Holy Spirit (the relation of the Holy Spirit in respect to the Father and the Son)" (Aquinas, 99–100). He further explains: “Thomas comes back to the linguistic problem which we have in talking about the procession of the Holy Spirit: we must use a common name (‘procession’) to designate both the origin proper to the Holy Spirit and the relations springing from this origin. Whereas, when we are speaking about the mutual reference of the Father and the Son, we can make a linguistic distinction between the procession (‘generation’) and the relations which it founds, (‘paternity’ and ‘filliation’), linguistic constraints compel us to designate the relations by the procession and the action themselves (‘procession’ and ‘spiration’)” (Aquinas 101).

In this episode, Ian and Wyatt talk about the procession of the will in God, namely, that Love of God which we call the Holy Spirit.

In this episode, Wyatt and Ian discuss divine processions, which refer to the how the Father, Son, and Spirit relate to one another. This section of the Summa Theologiae prepares us to talk about the "relations of origin" in God as well as the persons of God: Father, Son, and Spirit.

In this episode, Ian and Wyatt discuss Providence and Predestination in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae---Book 1, Questions 22 to 23.

In this episode, Wyatt and Ian (who pretends to be Matthew Mcconaughey) talk about the Love and Mercy of God in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae---Book I.Q20-21.

In this episode, Wyatt and Ian discuss Thomas Aquinas's view of truth and falseness.

In this episode, Ian Clary and Wyatt Graham discuss both how God knows and how we as creatures know anything. It's a bit technical, we hope to introduce you into the basic notions of how God and his creatures come to know truth which Thomas will discuss in ST I.16.

While the Bible describes God in all sorts of ways, it also tells us that heaven and highest heaven cannot contain him (1 King 8:27). It tells us that God is Spirit, invisible, and immortal. Given what God is, does our language really tell us anything about God? Thomas Aquinas says "yes" it does; and not only that, the biblical authors intend to tell us about God. How? Aquinas surveys the options and concludes we can talk about God in a number of ways, especially through analogical or proportional statements. If you want to learn how to talk about God in a biblical and true way, listen to this podcast as Ian Clary and Wyatt Graham attempt to summarize question 13 of Thomas's Summa Theologicae on the divine names.

In this episode, Drs. Graham and Clary discuss whether or not we can see God's essence directly in heaven. In a surprising turn, Thomas Aquinas says we can see God's essence in heaven. Why does he affirm this when he has already argued we cannot know God's essence (in our life here below)? Because the Bible affirms it: "we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).