148. The Four Appropriations: Divine Attributes to Persons

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Doctrine of Appropriation #

• Definition: Attributing essential divine attributes to particular persons by reason of a likeness between the attribute and what is proper to that person
• Purpose: To manifest the less known (the Trinity and personal properties) through the more known (essential attributes knowable by reason)
• Key Principle: Appropriation does not mean the attribute belongs only to that person, but rather is attributed to make that person known
• Pedagogical Function: Human understanding must be “led by the hand” (manuducitur) from creatures to knowledge of God

First Appropriation: Eternity, Beauty, and Use #

• Eternity → Father: Eternity signifies “not having a beginning” (non principiatum); the Father is “a beginning not from a beginning”
• Beauty/Species → Son: Beauty requires three components:
  • Integrity/wholeness (the Son has perfectly the nature of the Father)
  • Suitable proportion/harmony (the Son as express image of the Father)
  • Clarity/brightness (the Son as Word that enlightens)
• Use/Enjoyment (uti cum gaudio) → Holy Spirit: Signifies the pleasure and enjoyment between Father and Son; the Holy Spirit as the mutual love between them
• Augustine’s Teaching: The Holy Spirit is called the suavitas (sweetness) of the generator and the one generated, poured down upon us with marvelous abundance

Second Appropriation: Unity, Equality, and Concord #

• Unity → Father: Unity is found first in the Father alone, who does not presuppose another person upon which he proceeds
• Equality → Son: Equality implies unity in relation to another; equal means “having one quantity with another.” Equality is first found when the Son is posited as equal to the Father
• Concord (harmony, connection) → Holy Spirit: Implies unity of two things; appropriated because the Holy Spirit proceeds from two (Father and Son)
• Augustine’s Formula: “The three are one on account of the Father, equal on account of the Son, connected on account of the Holy Spirit”

Third Appropriation: Power, Wisdom, and Goodness #

• Power → Father: Power has the notion of a beginning; appropriated by likeness (Father is beginning of whole divinity) and by unlikeness (earthly fathers sometimes lack power)
• Wisdom → Son: Appropriated by likeness (Son as Word = conceived wisdom) and by unlikeness (young sons tend to foolishness)
• Goodness → Holy Spirit: Goodness is reason and object of love; appropriated by likeness (Holy Spirit is love) and by unlikeness (earthly spirits tend toward violent impulse, not true goodness)
• Double Appropriation: Each attribute is appropriated both by reason of likeness to what is proper in the divine persons AND by reason of unlikeness to what is found in creatures

Fourth Appropriation: From (ex), Through (per), and In (in) #

• From → Father: Signifies the efficient cause; the preposition ex can mean material cause (not applicable to God), efficient cause (applicable), or proceeding from opposite (not applicable here). Creatures are from God as maker/creator
• Through → Son: Designates a middle cause or form through which agent operates; all things made through the Son as the Word. Not as instrument but as “a beginning from a beginning”
• In → Holy Spirit: Denotes relation of a container. Things are contained in God in two ways: (1) according to their likenesses in God’s knowledge (appropriated to Son); (2) according to God’s goodness which conserves and governs them (appropriated to Holy Spirit)
• Scriptural Basis: Romans 11:36 - “From him and through him and in him are all things”

Key Arguments #

Why Essential Attributes Can Be Appropriated to Persons #

• Essential attributes (wisdom, power, goodness, eternity) belong to the divine essence itself, not to personal properties
• These attributes are more known to us through reason than personal properties (fatherhood, sonship) which cannot be known by reason alone
• Therefore, it is fitting to use the more known to manifest the less known
• Appropriation maintains the truth that attributes belong essentially to all three while using likeness to reveal personal distinctions

The Distinction Between Appropriation and Error #

• Not Appropriation: Saying an attribute belongs only to one person, or that one person is formally denominated by that attribute alone
• Is Appropriation: Attributing the attribute to manifest the person through a real likeness to what is proper to that person
• Thomas’s Resolution: Essential attributes are too general to properly characterize persons; they require the real personal properties (relations) to truly distinguish the persons
• Example: We cannot say the Father is wise through the Son (erroneous) but rather wisdom is appropriated to the Son by reason of his relationship as Word

The Role of the Four Causes #

• God is a cause only in three senses: (1) as efficient/maker (not material); (2) as exemplary/formal cause (not intrinsic form); (3) as final/end cause
• The four prepositions in Romans 11:36 touch upon three kinds of causality:
  • From: efficient cause (God as maker)
  • Through: exemplary/formal cause (God’s knowledge, wisdom)
  • In: final cause (God as conserving end, goodness)
• This structure reflects how all things relate to God through these causal modes

Important Definitions #

Key Terms #

• Appropriatio (appropriation): Attributing essential attributes to persons to manifest them through likeness
• Eternity (aeternitas): Understood here as “not having a beginning” (non principiatum)
• Species (beauty/form): From Latin “specere” (to see); requires integrity, proportion, and clarity
• Usus/Fruitio: Use or enjoyment; the pleasure of possession
• Suavitas: Sweetness; Augustine’s term for how the Holy Spirit is the sweetness between Father and Son
• Virtus: Can mean both virtue and power, creating translation difficulties
• Concord (concordia): Harmony; unity of two things or hearts

Causal Terminology #

• Ex (from/out of): Can signify material cause, efficient cause, or proceeding from opposite
• Per (through): Designates middle cause or form through which agent operates
• In (in): Designates container; things contained by God in His knowledge or through His conserving goodness

Examples & Illustrations #

The Living Soul Analogy #

• Aristotle distinguishes three souls: living soul (plants), sensing soul (animals), understanding soul (humans)
• Though sensing and understanding souls are also living and sensing, we attribute the function to where it is first found
• Similarly, unity is found first in the Father; equality first appears with the Son; connection is found through the Holy Spirit
• Demonstrates how appropriation attributes to the first instance where something appears

The Glory of the Father #

• Moses asks God to show him His glory
• God responds: “I will show you every good”
• This confirms the connection between glory and goodness as the end of all things
• Distinction: Honor is owed to God as beginning of all things; glory is owed to God as end of all things and as one who receives nothing from another

Personal Relations and Dignity #

• The Father is honored as the beginning not from another; He generates the Son
• The Son is equal to the Father only by being generated as equal
• For equality to exist, a generator must produce one equal to himself
• This illustrates why equality requires the Son and is appropriated to him

Scriptural Examples #

• Romans 11:36: “From him and through him and in him are all things; to him be glory forever”
• Psalm 62:1-2: “O God, you are my God…for you my flesh pines…O God, you are my God, whom I seek”
  • Power and glory may refer to bodily/fleshly seeking (power = resurrection) and spiritual seeking (glory = vision of God)
• Exodus 3:14: “I AM WHO I AM” - appropriated to the Son in context of liberation of human race through incarnation
• Isaiah 42:8: “I will not give my glory to another” - the Father alone is beginning not from another

The Burning Bush #

• Church Fathers interpret burning bush as figure of incarnate Son:
  • Fire = divine nature
  • Bush = human nature
  • Fire not consuming bush = infinite divine nature does not swallow human nature
• Also applies to Blessed Virgin: divine nature becoming flesh in her womb does not destroy her

Notable Quotes #

“It is good to go beyond Thomas. Fine, if you can do it.” — Berquist, citing another philosopher’s response to the challenge of surpassing Thomas Aquinas

“You honor God as the beginning of all things; you glorify him as the end of all things.” — Berquist, synthesizing the distinction between honor and glory

“Even though in its very nature it is not a person, grammatically speaking, anything demonstrable can be called a person.” — Thomas Aquinas (cited by Berquist), on the grammatical attribution of “Who am” (Exodus 3:14) to the Son despite its essential signification

“If I am a father, where is my honor?” — Scripture (Malachi 1:6), cited as proof that honor is owed to the Father as beginning

Questions Addressed #

How Can Essential Attributes Be Attributed to Persons Without Error? #

• Objection: This seems to suggest attributes belong uniquely to persons
• Resolution: Appropriation is legitimate pedagogy because it uses likeness to manifest persons while maintaining that attributes belong essentially to all. We attribute to the first place where something is found (as with the three souls)

Why These Four Specific Appropriations? #

• Structure: Hillary and Augustine established four considerations of God: (1) God as something unchanging in eternity; (2) God as something one; (3) God as something with power; (4) God in relation to His effects
• Each appropriation follows from a consideration: Each uses real similarities between essential attributes and personal properties to manifest the persons

What is the Relationship Between Honor and Glory? #

• Honor: Owed to God as the beginning of all things (principium)
• Glory: Owed to God as the end of all things and as one who receives nothing from another
• Application: The Father, being “a beginning not from a beginning,” receives unique glory because He has received nothing from another
• Scriptural confirmation: Romans 11:36 mentions glory specifically in context of receiving nothing from another (no counselor, no gift given)

How Should Exodus 3:14 (“I AM WHO AM”) Be Understood? #

• Essential Sense: “Qui est” signifies God’s being and can be taken essentially (appropriate to all three)
• Personal Sense: Can be taken relatively to refer to the Son as “the one who is” (generated)
• Context: In context of liberation of human race, prefigures the incarnation where the Son effects liberation
• Grammatical Note: Though “iste” (this) grammatically points to a determinate person, the divine essence signified through “God” is what is actually demonstrated

Can Sin Be Said to Be From God? #

• Thomas’s Response: Only insofar as sin has being is it from God. Sin itself, being nothing, is not from God. Whatever being exists in the act of sinning comes from God; the privation does not
• Related Issue: This distinguishes between the material element of an act (which has being from God) and the formal element of sin (privation of due order, which does not)

Pedagogical Notes #

Berquist emphasizes:

• The importance of distinguishing between what is proper to persons and what belongs essentially
• How linguistic analysis (etymologies, multiple senses of words like “from,” “through,” “in”) clarifies theological truth
• The integration of Aristotelian philosophy (four causes, distinction of souls) with Thomistic theology
• How Scripture itself uses appropriation (e.g., Romans 11:36, Corinthians 1:24)
• The necessity of understanding God as the four kinds of causes to appreciate why the Trinity must be three persons