Thank you for subscribing to Annotated Thomist...check back each day for a new section of St. Thomas' corpus, annotated and summarized. (FREE TRIAL FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!!!)
AT is also available to donors of $10 or more on Patreon along with all of the other benefits (daily bonus videos, bonus articles, PDFs, etc.
If you need more personalized help reading the Summa, I am available for 1-on-1 sessions, here.
cf., Sent.I.D25.Q1.A3, QDePot.Q8.A3.Rep11
In this question, we ought to provide a solution that is between two opposed errors. First, there are those who wish to say that the name "person" has a real unity between the three Divine persons. In this case, we would destroy the distinction of the persons. Second, there are those who wish to say that the name "person" is a generic term in the Divinity, thus placing genus/species in the Divinity, which was already excluded above and is repugnant to the simplicity of the Divinity.Â
Yet, we clearly need to reject both of these solutions.
In order to solve this problem, we ought to begin by distinguishing between a "real community" (*communitatis rei*) and a "rational community" (*communitatis rationis*). In another place, St. Thomas states it thus,Â