Thomas Aquinas and Features of Missions

Thomas Aquinas and Features of Missions

In his treatise on the Trinity, Saint Thomas Aquinas suggests that the most fitting way to understand systematically Christian belief in the Triune God is to begin with processions and conclude with the missions. That is to say that Thomas correlates the immanent and the economic Trinity. In the section of Chapter 15 that deals with the category ‘Mission’ (pp. 364-68), Thomas explains, “A divine person’s mission will have two constitutive features: (1) this person’s eternal procession; and (2) the divine person’s relation to the creature to who this person is made present in a new way.” In a short essay, explain what Thomas means regarding these two constitutive features of the missions. Your essay should engage in a close reading of this section and be informed by your exploration of Thomas’ understandings of procession, relation, person, and mission in the Trinity. Your essay should run no more than 500 words