-
Chapter Six: Trinitarian Anthropology
- University of Notre Dame Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Six Trinitarian Anthropology . , .. At the beginning of his Summa Theologiae St. Thomas explains that the proper study of the theologian is God as He exists in Himself and also as the beginning and end of all things, especially the rational creature .1 In fact, the main subject of the long exposition of sacra doctrina that follows is man, because the holy teaching that comes primarily from God is concerned mainly with the relation of man to God. The theologian does not study man as man is in himself—that is the subject of philosophy and its subordinate sciences. In the Summa Aquinas teaches about man sub ratione Dei: man as ordered to God as his beginning and end.2 Man is the work of God’s hands, and God has made man for Himself. Man comes from God and returns to God in the end. In the Prima Pars Aquinas covers the exitus of creatures, especially man, from God. In the Secunda Pars he begins with the consideration of God as the ultimate end that draws man to His perfection, and then he treats the acts and habits that direct man to this end. Finally, in the Tertia Pars, Christ and his sacraments are the way and the means to salvation in God.The theologian looks at man in terms of this dynamic of movement from and to God, and not simply in terms of the constant , unchanging nature of man. From the early days of the Church, theologians have been fascinated with the biblical notion of the creation of man in the image of God because of the key it provides for understanding the relation of man to God. Aquinas was heir to the patristic tradition of reflection D. Juvenal Merriell, C.O. on the text of Genesis :, which bears a more dynamic sense in the Vulgate: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Let us make man to our image and likeness). Scholars of the twentieth century, in particular Ghislain Lafont, have noted that the theme of the imago Dei is a key concept in Aquinas’ theological anthropology and in the structure of the Summa Theologiae.3 It is not that Aquinas harps continually on the idea, but rather that he refers to it at key points in the Summa. He places his extended study of man as image of God (I.) in the section on the creation of man (I.‒): here man is related to God as to his first cause or beginning (principium). Then, after the final section of the Prima Pars (on God’s governance of the world), Aquinas recurs to the idea of the image of God at the very beginning of the Secunda Pars, in which man is now seen as directed to God as his end (finis). In the prologue he introduces the study of human activity toward an end by relating the human act to God’s creative action as an image is related to its exemplar. We have considered the exemplar , God, as the free and autonomous creator in the Prima Pars. Now we turn to study God’s image, man, as a free and autonomous agent.4 Yet because man is created for God, his activity is necessarily directed toward the achievement of his final end, which is the beatific vision of God.5 J.-P. Torrell explains the significance of Aquinas’ reference to the image of God in this prologue: If the human being has God for end, it is because he has been made by Him “to His image and likeness” (Gen. :), and so there results an irresistible attraction inscribed in his very nature to become like Him as an image is like the model to which it has been made.The human person finds his completion in striving to imitate Him more and more. This is why Thomas dwells on the theme of the image of God when he speaks of the creation of man and his nature in the prima pars (q.), and he spontaneously returns to it when he comes to discuss his action. Thus the theme of the image of God provides an organic connection between the prima and the secunda pars.6 Man’s fundamental orientation toward God, his capacity for God, is tied to his creation to the image of God. In explaining why there is a certain aptitude in human nature for the Incarnation of the Son of God, Aquinas says:“the likeness of image is found in human nature...