132. The Proper Names of the Father in Divine Theology

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Problem of Fatherhood as a Relational Name #

• The Objection: How can ‘Father’ properly name a divine person if a person is an individual substance, yet father signifies a relation?
• The Issue: Among creatures, relations do not subsist; they inhere in substances
• The Solution: In God, relations subsist in the divine nature itself, constituting the divine persons

Why ‘Father’ Rather Than ‘Generator’ #

• Aristotle’s Principle: Names should be taken from the perfection and end of a thing, not from its becoming
• Generation signifies the act of coming-to-be (imperfect)
• Fatherhood signifies the completion of generation (perfect)
• Application: Just as we prefer ‘wisdom-lover’ to ‘philosopher’ because wisdom is the end and perfection, we prefer ‘Father’ to ‘Generator’

The Univocity Problem: Essential vs. Personal Predication #

• Objection: Is ‘father’ used univocally when we say both ’the Father’ (personal) and ‘God is our father’ (essential)?
• Thomas’s Answer: No—the perfect definition of fatherhood is found in the divine persons (Father and Son sharing one nature); all other uses are by remote likeness
• The Key Principle: A name is said first of that in which its complete definition is found perfectly, then of those in which it is found imperfectly by likeness

The Hierarchy of Meanings of ‘Father’ Applied to God #

The lecture identifies five distinct senses in which God is called ‘father’:

1. Fatherhood by footprint (ἴχνος—irrational creatures): Remote likeness based on divine creative action

   • Reference: Job 38:28—“Who is the father of the rain?”

2. Fatherhood by image (εἰκών—rational creatures): Likeness through reason and intellect

   • Reference: Deuteronomy 32:6—“Is he not your father who possesses and made and created you?”

3. Fatherhood through grace (κοινωνία divine nature—adopted sons): Sharing in divine nature through supernatural grace

   • Reference: Romans 8:16-17—“The Spirit renders testimony that we are sons of God, and if sons, also heirs”
   • Connection to 2 Peter on becoming “consortes divinæ naturæ” (sharers in divine nature)

4. Fatherhood through glory (δόξα—the blessed): Possession of the eternal inheritance

   • Reference: Romans 5:2—“Let us glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God”

5. Fatherhood eternally personal (the proper and perfect meaning): The Father’s relation to the Son as one nature

   • This is the primary, unqualified sense in which fatherhood is said

Why the Eternal Father-Son Relation Has Priority #

The Principle of Precedence: The eternal is before the temporal

• The Father’s fatherhood of the Son (from eternity) precedes in dignity and definition His fatherhood of creatures (in time)
• All creaturely sonship participates in and derives from the archetype of divine sonship

Why Divine Generation is More Perfect than Creaturely Generation:

• In divine generation: The generated shares the same nature numerically with the one generating (Father and Son are one divine nature)
• In creaturely generation: The generated shares the same nature only in kind and species, not individually
• This numerical identity makes divine fatherhood more truly fatherhood and more perfectly fatherhood

The Objection from Common Understanding #

• Claim: The general is known before the particular; ‘Father’ taken essentially (common to the Trinity) should be prior to ‘Father’ taken personally
• Response: Although God is understood implicitly in understanding the Father, the reverse is not true. One can understand God without understanding the Father personally, as the philosophers did. But common things that imply regard to creatures are said after those proper things which regard personal relations

Key Arguments #

Against ‘Father’ as a Proper Personal Name #

1. Relation vs. Substance objection

   • Father signifies relation
   • Person is individual substance
   • Therefore, Father cannot properly name a person
   • Response: In God, the relation subsists in the divine nature, unlike creatures where relations are non-subsisting accidents

2. ‘Generator’ is more common objection

   • Generator applies more broadly (every father generates, but not every generator is a father)
   • More common names are more properly said of divine things
   • Therefore, ‘Generator’ should be preferred
   • Response: Names should derive from perfection and end; fatherhood signifies completion, generator signifies becoming

3. Metaphorical speech objection

   • My thoughts are metaphorically my children; I am metaphorically their father
   • Therefore, fatherhood is metaphorical in God too
   • Response: Human thoughts do not subsist in human nature; divine thoughts (the Word) do subsist in divine nature. Hence, divine sonship is proper, not metaphorical

4. Priority of creaturely generation objection

   • Generation seems truer where there is diversity of essence (creatures)
   • In God, there is no such diversity
   • Therefore, fatherhood is said of creatures before God
   • Response: Generation is more perfect where the generated shares numerically the same nature. This numerical identity marks divine generation as more truly generation

Thomas’s Structural Solution #

Distinction between nominal etymology and semantic meaning:

• The name ‘beginning’ (ἀρχή) is taken from priority and beforeness (etymology)
• But it does not signify priority; it signifies origin or that from which something proceeds
• This distinction protects the Trinity from the heretical implication that the Father is temporally or essentially before the Son

Application to fatherhood:

• Although fatherhood derives its name from human generation (etymology)
• It does not signify the same reality in God and creatures
• Rather, it properly signifies the divine personal relation, and is said of creatures by remote analogy

Important Definitions #

Fatherhood (Paternitas) #

• In creatures: A non-subsisting accident or relation that inheres in a substance; does not constitute the person
• In God: A subsisting relation that constitutes the divine person; the relation is the reality of the person
• Signification: The completion (perfectio) of generation, not the act of generating itself

Relation (Relatio) #

• Essential property: That by which one is distinguished from another
• In the Trinity: The relations (paternity, filiation, passive spiration, active spiration) constitute the distinction of persons
• Mode of subsistence: In God, relations subsist “per modum substantiæ”—as if substantial rather than accidental

Beginning (Ἀρχή/Principium) #

• Etymology: Taken from beforeness and priority
• Proper signification: That from which something proceeds or originates
• Theological use: The Father is the beginning of the Son and Holy Spirit as origin, without implying temporal or essential priority

Generation (Generatio) #

• Perfection marker: Takes its species from its end, which is the form of the thing generated
• Univocal generation (in God): Where the generated shares the same nature numerically
• Equivocal generation (in creatures): Where the generated shares the same nature only in kind or species

Examples & Illustrations #

The Artist and the Artifact #

• The artist’s thought precedes the exterior work in the order of intention and causation
• The thought is not temporally before but logically prior
• Similarly, the divine Word (Son) proceeds from the Father’s understanding before creatures are made according to that thought
• This illustrates how the Son can be the origin of creatures without temporal priority

Human Fatherhood vs. Divine Fatherhood #

• Human case: Father and son share the same specific human nature but not individually
• Divine case: Father and Son share the same divine nature numerically and individually (not two divine natures)
• Implication: “Everything that is the Father’s is mine” (from Scripture) cannot be said of human son and father

The Comparison of Statues #

• One statue of Washington can be more like Washington than another statue
• This shows we can speak of degrees of likeness and comparison even between things of different kinds
• Applied to fatherhood: We can say God is more truly father to the Son than to creatures, though not in the same univocal sense

Naming by Perfection #

• Better to call a person a “lover of wisdom” than a “philosopher” (lover of natural philosophy or logic)
• Better to call humans “rational animals” than “animals”
• Better to call the first divine person “Father” than “Generator”
• Principle: Name things from their most perfect aspect and ultimate end

Notable Quotes #

“Generation signifies as it were in coming to be. But fatherhood signifies the completion of the generation. And therefore more is it a name of a divine person father than the one… generator.”

“The proper name of each person signifies that by which that person is distinguished from all others.”

“In divine things a distinction of the one generated from the one generating by relation only pertains to the truth of divine generation and fatherhood.”

“The relation which this name father signifies is a subsisting person… this name person in God signifies a relation as subsisting in the divine nature.”

“Before a name is said of that in which the whole meaning of the name is found perfectly… then of that in which it is saved by something, but not by the whole.”

“All imperfect things take their origin from perfect things” (quoting Aristotle, Physics IX).

Questions Addressed #

Q: Can ‘Father’ properly be a name of a divine person when a person is substance and father signifies relation? #

A: Yes, because in God relations subsist in the divine nature itself, unlike in creatures where relations are non-subsisting accidents. The subsisting relation of fatherhood constitutes the divine person, not an accident inhering in an external substance.

Q: Why prefer ‘Father’ to ‘Generator’? #

A: Because names should be taken from perfection and end. Generation signifies the act of coming-to-be (imperfect); fatherhood signifies the completion of generation (perfect). By Aristotle’s principle, we name things from their perfection and end.

Q: Is fatherhood metaphorical in God as it is in creatures? #

A: No. In creatures, fatherhood is metaphorical because human thoughts do not subsist in human nature. In God, the divine Word subsists in the divine nature; hence divine fatherhood is proper, not metaphorical.

Q: Is ‘Father’ said first essentially (of God in general) or personally (of the first divine person)? #

A: Although ‘Father’ can be taken essentially, it is said first and properly personally. The perfect definition of fatherhood is found in the eternal personal relation of Father to Son; all uses relative to creatures are by remote likeness. The eternal precedes the temporal in dignity and definition.

Q: How can ‘Father’ apply to both the Son relation and to creatures if not univocally? #

A: By analogy through a hierarchy of likeness. The perfect, complete meaning is found in the divine persons; creaturely fatherhood participates in this by increasingly remote degrees of likeness (footprint, image, grace, glory). There is an order and proportion among them, making comparison possible without univocity.

Connections and Context #

Methodological Principle #

• The distinction between what a name is taken from (etymology) and what it signifies (meaning) is crucial for theological language
• This protects the Trinity from heretical misreadings when using terms borrowed from created reality

Theological Integration #

• The hierarchy of meanings shows how all creation participates in and derives from the archetype of divine fatherhood
• Grace and glory increase the creature’s likeness to the Son, drawing the creature closer to the perfection of sonship
• This establishes an organic unity: all fatherhood flows from and is modeled on the eternal Father-Son relation