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Writer's pictureChristian B. Wagner

Whether There are Notions in God?

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cf., Sent.I.D33.Q1.A2


While we have already studied processions, principles, relations, and persons, here, we must study the concept of "notions." 


This question is concerned with the relations what question 12 was concerned with concerning the essence, i.e., how the persons are knowable to us and consequently (as in Q. 13) how they are named by us. 


As to this article, the most relevant considerations are present in ST.I.Q3.A3.Rep1, as stated in the text of the article. 


In naming God, we must "shift" back and forth from concrete names and abstract names. Why? As the Angelic Doctor states in the body of the text, the abstract and concrete each have imperfections when predicated of created things. For example, if we were to say the term "wisdom," we would be stating something that is abstract and with no subsistence, yet with none of the imperfections that are present in concrete iterations of wisdom. On the other hand, if we were to say "wise," we would be stating something that is concrete and subsistent, yet without the purity that comes from an abstract term. 


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