Thomas explained God the Trinity using the entis analogia in the revelation of the Bible and didn’t try to prove it. The recognition of the Trinity was fundamentally given through revelation, yet it was exposed by means of analogies from anthropology(word and love). When he elucidated the Trinity, he used the psychological analogy of Augustine as the principle, with the Aristotelian philosophy and entis analogia and the medieval analysis of language.
He was focused on the explanation of the person in the Trinity. And The origin and relation of person, the discussion of the person itself, the exposition of the each person, the comparison of essence, relation, and origin with person, the comparison among the persons, and mission of person were discussed in the questions 27-43 of Summa Theologia I. Focusing the explanation of the person in the discussion of the Trinity, he criticized the three erroneous opinions in reference with the Trinity. First of all, the heresies of Arius and Sabellius fell into an error by understanding the procession as the outer procession. Second, Gilbert misunderstood God’s simplicity by separating the deus and divinity. He proposed the relation as auxiliary. But Thomas proposed that essence and person and relation are the same, yet they are distinct one another as the mode of human expression. We didn’t recognize God as it is, but according to the mode of human recognition. Third, he criticized Bonaventura who counted the unbegotteness as the principle of Fatherhood. He proposed the relation as the important principle of Fatherhood.

• 이은선(안양대학교 교수) | Eun Seon Lee