Abstract

Osanna Rickmann:
The Human Relation to God as an Image of the Innertrinitarian Processions and Relations
(FKTh 2015-1, p. 1–21)

According to Aquinas the image of the Trinity contains, as soon as perfectioned by grace, both a proper similarity to the divine subsistent relations and to the processions of the divine persons. Faith and charity are shaped upon the trinitarian personal properties of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and therefore give access to God in a way that mirrors their eternal relation to the Father. The freedom of their relation to the Father is mirrored in the image by the fact that knowing and loving God are immanent acts flowing from the acting person as of a direct principle. Therefore it could be possible to explain the relation between freedom and grace by referring it to the mystery of the Trinity: As divine processions (immanent acts) and relations cannot be separated in God, the image of the Trinity cannot be perfect without containing a similiarity to both.