b'N O I T C E L F E Rthe term person. Thomas proposed that the interrelationality of the three persons is not just a metaphor, nor does it simply describe the way the divine persons interact in practice. Rather, Thomas insisted that interrelationality is metaphysically real. In other words, for Thomas, like Richard of St. Victor, persons by their very nature are social; a person is an entity that stands apart from but in relationship with other persons. The very notion of a person presumes a community that grounds the relational character of personal identity. Relationality is therefore constitutive of the meaning of person. Put more simply, one cannot speak of a person without implying that there are persons who relate to one another.Thomas, then, followed Richard by defining a person as a subsistent relation. By subsistent Thomas meant that relationality was not a mere accident, that is an optional aspect of personhood. Rather, relationality is part of the very nature of the reality of being a person. In this sense, it is proper to say that the Father is a relation rather than that the Father has a relation with either the Son or Spirit. RELATIONSHIPPersons, inasmuch as they exist at all, always exist in a nexus of relations to other AS ESSENTIALpersons and things. This understanding implies that Gods threeness must be rooted in some single, shared identity of life. This single identity of life for Thomas TO PERSONHOOD was clearly lovethe mutual love that the persons have for one another and their shared giving of themselves to one another in a completely perfect and ultimate By John J. Markey way. By clarifying the notion of person, Thomas demonstrated that it was not a logical contradiction to say that three divine or perfect persons could also share Thomas Aquinas advanced the Western theological tradition of God in twoone single communion of life. significant ways. First, Aquinas inherited the Augustinian psychological model of God, which sought to explain the Trinity through the analogy of the human mind. Thomas felt that this model helped to explain the orthodox formula Three PersonsOne Substance, but that it functioned more as a metaphor than as a precise definition. This article is an excerpt from Who Is God?John J. Markey, OP, is an associate Catholic Perspectives through the Ages,professor of theology and director Aquinas set out to bring philosophical precision and theological clarity to theby John J. Markey. (Winona, MN: Anselmof the Doctorate in Spirituality doctrine of the Trinity, following Augustines method of beginning with theAcademic, 2016), pages 6364. Copyright Program at the Oblate School oneness of God and then trying to understand the threeness of God. Aquinas2016 by Anselm Academic. All rights reserved.of Theology in San Antonio.www.anselmacademic.orgdrew upon Richard of St. Victors explanation of the relational character of 30 AspireVolume 2//Fall 2020 Subscribe today! smp.org/aspire REFLECTION 31'