This site documents the Divine Mind:
the Universe that enables us to create ourselves
page 8: The theology of the Trinity
page 8: Contents
8.1: Augustine, Aquinas and Lonergan: the traditional Trinity8.2: Augustine: On the Trinity
8.3: Aquinas: person, relationship and distinction
8.4 Lonergan: proportionate and transcendent being and knowledge
8.5: From Trinity to Universe
8.6: From actus purus to the quantum of action
8.7: Personality
8.1: Augustine, Aquinas and Lonergan: the traditional Trinity
The existence of the modern initial singularity is in the first instance a consequence of the general theory of relativity, but it has very ancient roots in the Hebrew notion of the one God, monotheism. Monotheism carried over into Christianity but was modified by a remarkable theological development: the sole Hebrew God Yahweh became a member of the Christian Trinity. There emerged, within the Christian God, three really distinct divine persons, Father (Yahweh), Son (Jesus of Nazareth) and the Holy Spirit. Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, New Testament - Wikipedia, Dale Tuggy: History of Trinitarian Doctrines
The gradual reception of the new doctrine raised a serious problem for theologians: how were they to reconcile the Hebrew unity of Yahweh with the triplicity of the Christian Trinity? The doctrine of the Trinity, based on the New Testament, was definitively established as a theological fact by the Nicene Creed. Initially this was considered one of the many mysteries associated with a transcendent God, but explanations slowly emerged. The theological reconciliation began a century after the Nicene Council with Augustine and was further developed in the thirteenth century by Thomas Aquinas and in the twentieth century by Bernard Lonergan. Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, Augustine (419, 1991): The Trinity
this page 8: toc8.2: Augustine: On the Trinity
Saint Augustine (354-430) was one of the most prolific and influential Fathers of the Church. He was a Berber from North Africa educated in Latin and spent his early life seeking administrative positions in the Roman Empire. His mother, Monica, was a staunch Christian. Under her influence he eventually became a Christian, a priest and a bishop and devoted his life to consolidating and expanding Christian doctrine and attacking heresies. On the Trinity, written between 400 and 428, eventually became his most influential theological work. Saint Monica - Wikipedia, Augustine of Hippo - Wikipedia, On the Trinity - Wikipedia
One of his starting points is the statement in Genesis: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. He assumed that the word image here refers to the cognitive powers that we share with God, and so sought elements of triplicity in human psychology as a starting point for a model of the Trinity. Genesis 1:27: God creates humans
He saw a New Testament confirmation of this idea in John's Gospel, which states: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John, 1:1), Tornau explains:
Augustine deploys what we may call his philosophy of the mind most fully in his great work on Nicene Trinitarian theology De trinitate. Having removed apparent Scriptural obstacles to the equality and consubstantiality of the three divine persons (bks. 1–4) and having set out the grammar, as it were, of adequate speaking about the Trinity by distinguishing absolute and relative propositions about God and the three Persons (bks. 5–7), he turns to an analysis of the human mind as an image of God (bks. 8–15).In the later books of De Trinitate and in the sermons on the Trinity, Augustine frequently refers to a phenomenon called “inner word”, which he uses to explain the relation of the inner-Trinitarian Word or Logos from the Prologue of John (John 1:1) to Christ incarnate. Just as the spoken word signifies a concept that we have formed within our mind and communicates it to others, so Christ incarnate signifies the divine Logos and admonishes and assists us to turn to it (cf. De trinitate 15.20). In De trinitate Augustine expands this to a theory about how the inner word or concept is formed (14.10; 15.25; cf. 15.43). The inner word is generated when we actualize some latent or implicit knowledge that is stored in our memory. Christian Tornau: Saint Augustine
Augustine wrote that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son rather than the Father alone. Later this difference was to become a bone of contention between the Latin and Greek Churches which ultimately contributed to the East-West schism of 1054. Its importance as an issue has faded with time, and since there is no way scientific way to decide the issue, it must remain a political rather than a theological question. History of the filioque controversy - Wikipedia
this page 8: toc8.3: Aquinas: person, relationship and distinction
The human psychological analogue of the procession of the Son from the Father is therefore the mental image each one of us has of ourselves. The love between parents and children, usually understood as a mental accident in ourselves becomes, in the Trinity, a third person. The Holy Spirit is understood to be the divine manifestation of the love of the Father for the Son. Aquinas points out that this process does not have a special name. Aquinas, Summa, I, 27, 1: Is there procession in God?
Aquinas derived all the traditional properties of God from the conclusion that God is pure act, actus purus, a consequence of a proof for God's existence which he derived from Aristotle. The Trinity, on the other hand, was introduced into theology by the writers of the New Testament and cannot be understood as a consequence of the pure actuality of the divinity. It is an article of faith rather than a conclusion from Aristotle's cosmology. Augustine's approach to the Trinity was built from the idea that there are psychological similarities between humanity and divinity apparent in Genesis and John's Gospel. In Augustine's time the doctrine of the Trinity, although asserted in the Nicene Creed written in 325, 75 years before he began to write On the Trinity, was still relatively new to theologians. By the time of Aquinas, writing in the thirteenth century, the doctrine was well established, not least due to Augustine's work. Aquinas was able to produce a clear account of the Trinity in the First Part of the Summa. Aquinas, Summa, I, 2, 3: Does God exist?, Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 7: Is God altogether simple?, Trinity - Wikipedia
One consequence of Augustine's work was the appearance of the Athanasian Creed which provided a clear summary of the doctrine.
This Creed reads in part:
And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. . . . So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God.
This led to the graphic
So far we have three identical persons generated within the initial divinity of pure action. The next step in the model is the idea that the distinctions of the persons are maintained by the relations between them. Once again the principle is invoked that while relationships between created beings are accidents, in God they are substantial, part of the essence of God. Aquinas, Summa, I, 40, 2: Do the relations distinguish and constitute the persons?
this page 8: toc8.4: Lonergan: proportionate and transcendent being and knowledge
A third theological stage in the modelling the Trinity was the twentieth century work of Bernard Lonergan. Lonergan built on his study of Aquinas's use of the term Verbum and his treatise Insight on human knowledge to add further detail to the meaning of the phrase the word of God. Bernard Lonergan (1997): Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas, Lonergan (1992): Inight: A Study of Human Understanding, Lonergan (2007): The Triune God: Systematics, Lonergan (2009): The Triune God: Doctrines
Loneran continues in the tradition of a psychological analogy of the Trinity established by Augustine and Aquinas. Since I am interested in using the Trinity as a starting point for the differentiation of the divine initial singularity (aka God) into the Universe, this motivates my feeling that my best chance of producing a comprehensive theory of everything that begins with God and ends with the current state of the Universe is to take a cognitive approach.
This approach is further motivated by the idea that the modern understanding of quantum theory is not so much as a physical theory as a theory of computation and comunication which has, but is not limited to, applications in physics. Nielsen & Chuang (2016): Quantum Computation and Quantum Information
In his book Insight Lonergan introduces a distinction between proportionate and transcendent being and knowledge. This idea is implicit in the work of Augustine and Aquinas who feel that an understanding of divinity is beyond the human intellect. Lonergan's core idea is that being is the object of intelligence and that human knowledge is constrained to proportionate, that is created, being. Since he writes as a Catholic he sees transcendent being (divinity) as essentially beyond our comprehension until we achieve the beatific vision in the life hereafter. Aquinas, Summa, II, I, 3, 8: Is human blessedness the vision of the essence of God?
This view seems consistent with the ancient understanding of Aquinas and his contemporaries, following Aristotle, that intellectual knowledge is associated with immmateriality. Aquinas agues that God is omniscient, that is maximally knowledgeable, because they are maximally immaterial. Aquinas, Summa: I, 14, 1: Is there knowledge in God?
The modern understanding of memory, knowledge and understanding is diametrically opposed to this view. Since the invention of writing, it has bcome clear that the complex knowledge that we transmit by speech can only be represented by complex systems of symbols like this writing, and that the number of symbols required is propotional to the quantity of information to be represented. We have learnt that information is a physical entity, and that the matter that comprises the Universe has detailed structure down to the microscopic level level of fundamental particles and the quantum of action. Matter is therefore capable of representing and processing immense amounts of information. A million million protons, placed side by side, cover about one millimetre. A cell, invisibly small, may contain as much detailed information as a large library. From this point of view it makes no sense than an absolutely simple immaterial being can be omniscient. To represent everything it must be, in reality, identical to the material Universe. Rolf Landauer (1999): Information is a Physical Entity
Since from the modern point of view, a completely simple system, like a blank sheet of paper, carries no information it provides nothing to be understood. The ancient view, on the other hand, is that such a system represents meaning but understanding it is beyond our powers. Here I propose a methodological position I call the heuristic of simplicity. The idea is that if a system has only n components (symbols), there are at most n! possible permutations of these components to be undestood. The first procession of the Trinity, for instance, which yields the Father and the Son, provides us with only two data points to to understood, well within our capacity. Later we shall introduce the qubit, a two state quantum system, which contains in essence all there is be to known about quantum mechanics. Wojciech Hubert Zurek: Quantum origin of quantum jumps: breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical
this page 8: toc8.5: From Trinity to Universe
I take the theological insights developed to explain how three could be seamlessly combined into one without breaking the unity of the one as a starting point for the creation of our immensely complex Universe from a single initial singularity. Two features of the traditional theology stand out.
First Augustine based his model of the Trinity on his understanding of human psychology which used combination of intellect and desire to explain understanding and motivation. This led me to suspect that a divine Universe might best be understood by through cognitive model that combines physics and theology. Theology is the traditional theory of everything. In this I am following Aristotle who worked his way from physics to metaphysics 2300 years ago.
Second, the idea, proposed by Aristotle and introduced to Christianity by Thomas Aquinas that god is pure undifferentiated action provides a starting point which is very convenient from a quantum theoretical point of view. Although the Christian Trinity is limited for dogmatic reasons to three, the idea that divinity proceeds from divinity (the action of action is to act) provides a process to take a zero entropy initial singularity to the immensely complex Universe we inhabit. The formation of the Trinity might be extended without difficulty to any number of persons, from three to a countable infinity like the natural numbers. Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, Aristotle: Metaphysics book XII: The life of God: 1072b14 sqq
this page 8: toc8.6: From actus purus to the quantum of action
Aquinas argues since that God is in no sense contained and so has no boundary, they are infinite. This idea is consistent with the notion of pure act, but the existence of three distinct persons in God would seem to require some sort of boundary to define their difference. Aquinas, Summa: I, 7, 1: Is God infinite?
This doctrine, as summed up in Shield of the Trinity. This presents a logical problem insofar the doctrine claims that the three persons are identically God while being clearly distinct from one another. Augustine and Aquinas solved the problem of distinction with the Aristotelian category of relationship. From a physical point of view this problem can be solved by assuming that the Trinity defines a space. The defining property of a space is that it enables identical elements to exist independently, being distinguished by occupying different points in the space. From this point of view, the Trinity might be seen as a three dimensional space with three orthogonal dimensions, each of which is not the other but which are nevertheless one space. On page 9: The active creation of Hilbert space I suggest that the natural children of a quantum initial singularity are the orthonormal basis vectors of a complex Hilbert space, each of which represents a quantum of action.
Traditionally, God is all that there is. There is nothing outside God. This suggests that if the persons of the Trinity are anywhere, they are inside God. From this point of view the Universe, an infinite extension of the Trinity, is to be understood as inside God, the intial singularity. Here we see a logical boundary on both the Universe and God.
Aquinas understands that the omnipotence of God means that they can do anything that does not involve a contradiction. From a scientific point of view, we hold this to be true of the Universe. If we come across an apparent contradiction, we are led to look further to see how consistency is maintained. In the physical case, for instance, there are many contradictions arising from the notion of infinity. These are resolved when we apply quantum mechaics, which shows us that the world is not gemoetrically continuous, but rather logically continuous, like a Turing machine. Each step in this machine, or any computing machine, including the Universe, proceeds by contact and by discrete logical steps, quanta of action. Aquinas, Summa I, 25, 3: Is God omnipotent?
Approximating the mass of the Universe as 1053 kilograms and using Einstein's relation E = mc2 and the Planck Einstein relation f = E/h, we guess that the total activity in the Universe is approximately 10100 quanta per second. Aristotle records that Thales said the world is full of divinities. Was he on the right track? Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on Aristotle De Anima 411a8 sqq
It may seem counterintuitive to identify the quantum of action, the smallest possible event in the Universe, with the traditional divinity, the largest imaginable being. The resolution of this conundrum lies in the idea that the Universe is best understood as a mind and the quantum of action not as a physical object in spacetime but as a logical operator, an element of a cosmic information processing system. This view is supported by the idea that quantum mechanics is best understood as a model of information processing in the Universe, that is computation and communication. Nielsen & Chuang (2016): Quantum Computation and Quantum Information
this page 8: toc8.7: Personality
The interface between physics and theology revolves around the definition of person. Aquinas accepted the definition coined by Boethius: A person is an individual substance of a rational nature. In what follows I prefer the idea that a person is an entity capable of taking part in a conversation, that is a communication source capable of sending and receiving messages. This idea is treated in detail on Cognitive cosmology page 11: Quantization: the mathematical theory of communication. Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1: The definition of "person"
In each case, the person is truly divine, that is truly pure act, so the processions of the persons may be conceived as pure actions producing pure actions, gods producing gods. This process is limited to the production of three persons by the Christian dogma of the Nicene Creed. If, however, we accept that every action may produce action, there is no limit to this process. With this historical psychological and metaphysical picture of the Trinity in mind, we can now turn to a more quantum mechanically oriented discussion of the multiplication of the quantum initial singularity into the Universe.
this page 8: toc(Revised Tuesday 6 August 2024)
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Notes and references
Further reading
Books
Augustine (419, 1991), and Edmond Hill (Introduction, translation and notes), and John E Rotelle (editor), The Trinity, New City Press 399-419, 1991 Written 399 - 419: De Trinitate is a radical restatement, defence and development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Augustine's book has served as a foundation for most subsequent work, particularly that of Thomas Aquinas.
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Lonergan (1992), Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding'
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Lonergan (1997), Bernard J F, and Robert M. Doran, Frederick E. Crowe (eds), Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan volume 2), University of Toronto Press 1997 Jacket: 'Verbum is a product of Lonergan's eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan's theology . . .. Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan's work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind.'
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Lonergan (2007), Bernard J F, and Michael G Shields (translator), Robert M Doran & H Daniel Monsour (editors), The Triune God: Systematics (Collected Works, volume 12), University of Toronto press 2007 De Deo trino, or The Triune God, is the third great instalment on one particular strand in trinitarian theology, namely, the tradition that appeals to a psychological analogy for understanding trinitarian processions and relations.
The analogy dates back to St Augustine but was significantly developed by St Thomas Aquinas. Lonergan advances it to a new level of sophistication by rooting it in his own highly nuanced cognitional theory and in his early position on decision and love. . . . This is truly one of the great masterpieces in the history of systematic theology, perhaps even the greatest of all time.'
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Lonergan (2009), Bernard J F, and Robert M Doran and H Daniel Monsour (eds), The Triune God: Doctrines (Volume 11 of Collected Works), University of Toronto Press 2009 Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), a professor of theology, taught at Regis College, Harvard University, and Boston College. An established author known for his Insight and Method in Theology, Lonergan received numerous honorary doctorates, was a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971 and was named as an original members of the International Theological Commission by Pope Paul VI.
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Nielsen (2016), Michael A., and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2016 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002.
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Links
Aquinas, Summa I, 25, 3, Is God omnipotent?, '. . . God is called omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible absolutely; which is the second way of saying a thing is possible. For a thing is said to be possible or impossible absolutely, according to the relation in which the very terms stand to one another, possible if the predicate is not incompatible with the subject, as that Socrates sits; and absolutely impossible when the predicate is altogether incompatible with the subject, as, for instance, that a man is a donkey.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 2, 3, Does God exist?, ' I answer that the existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause. . . . The third way is taken from possibility and necessity . . . The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. . . . The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 27, 1, Is there procession in God?, 'As God is above all things, we should understand what is said of God, not according to the mode of the lowest creatures, namely bodies, but from the similitude of the highest creatures, the intellectual substances; while even the similitudes derived from these fall short in the representation of divine objects. Procession, therefore, is not to be understood from what it is in bodies, either according to local movement or by way of a cause proceeding forth to its exterior effect, as, for instance, like heat from the agent to the thing made hot. Rather it is to be understood by way of an intelligible emanation, for example, of the intelligible word which proceeds from the speaker, yet remains in him. In that sense the Catholic Faith understands procession as existing in God.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1, A person is an individual substance of a rational nature, ' I answer that, Although the universal and particular exist in every genus, nevertheless, in a certain special way, the individual belongs to the genus of substance. . . . . And so it is reasonable that the individuals of the genus substance should have a special name of their own; for they are called "hypostases," or first substances. Further still, in a more special and perfect way, the particular and the individual are found in the rational substances which have dominion over their own actions; and which are not only made to act, like others; but which can act of themselves; for actions belong to singulars. Therefore also the individuals of the rational nature have a special name even among other substances; and this name is "person." Thus the term "individual substance" is placed in the definition of person, as signifying the singular in the genus of substance; and the term "rational nature" is added, as signifying the singular in rational substances.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 7, Is God altogether simple?, 'I answer that, The absolute simplicity of God may be shown in many ways. First, from the previous articles of this question. For there is neither composition of quantitative parts in God, since He is not a body; nor composition of matter and form; nor does His nature differ from His "suppositum"; nor His essence from His existence; neither is there in Him composition of genus and difference, nor of subject and accident. Therefore, it is clear that God is nowise composite, but is altogether simple. . . . ' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 40, 2, Do the relations distinguish and constitute the persons?, ' . . . the distinction of the divine persons is not to be so understood as if what is common to them all is divided, because the common essence remains undivided; but the distinguishing principles themselves must constitute the things which are distinct. Now the relations or the properties distinguish or constitute the hypostases or persons, inasmuch as they are themselves the subsisting persons; as paternity is the Father, and filiation is the Son, because in God the abstract and the concrete do not differ. . . ..' back |
Aquinas, Summa, II, I, 3, 8, Is human blessedness the vision of the essence of God?, ' I answer that, Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence. To make this clear, two points must be observed. First, that man is not perfectly happy, so long as something remains for him to desire and seek: secondly, that the perfection of any power is determined by the nature of its object. . . . Consequently, for perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God as with that object, in which alone man's happiness consists ' back |
Aquinas, Summa: I, 14, 1, Is there knowledge in God?, ' I answer that, In God there exists the most perfect knowledge. . . . it is clear that the immateriality of a thing is the reason why it is cognitive; and according to the mode of immateriality is the mode of knowledge. Hence it is said in De Anima ii that plants do not know, because they are wholly material. But sense is cognitive because it can receive images free from matter, and the intellect is still further cognitive, because it is more separated from matter and unmixed, as said in De Anima iii. Since therefore God is in the highest degree of immateriality as stated above (Question 7, Article 1), it follows that He occupies the highest place in knowledge.' back |
Aquinas, Summa: I, 2, 3, Does God exist?, 'I answer that, The existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . ' back |
Aquinas, Summa: I, 7, 1, Is God infinite?, ' I answer that, All the ancient philosophers attribute infinitude to the first principle, as is said (Phys. iii), and with reason; for they considered that things flow forth infinitely from the first principle. . . . .. Now being is the most formal of all things, as appears from what is shown above (I:4:1 Objection 3). Since therefore the divine being is not a being received in anything, but He is His own subsistent being as was shown above (I:3:4), it is clear that God Himself is infinite and perfect.' back |
Aristotle, Metaphysics XII: vii, The divine life of the prime mover, ' On such a principle, then, depend the heavens and the world of nature. And it is a life such as the best which we enjoy, and enjoy for but a short time (for it is ever in this state, which we cannot be), since its actuality is also pleasure. . . . Therefore the possession rather than the receptivity is the divine element which thought seems to contain, and the act of contemplation is what is most pleasant and best. If, then, God is always in that good state in which we sometimes are, this compels our wonder; and if in a better this compels it yet more. And God is in a better state. And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God.' 1072b14 sqq. back |
Aristotle: Metaphysics book XII, The life of God: 1072b14 sqq, 'Such, then, is the first principle upon which depend the sensible universe and the world of nature. And its life is like the best which we temporarily enjoy. It must be in that state always (which for us is impossible), since its actuality is also pleasure. . . . .If, then, the happiness which God always enjoys is as great as that which we enjoy sometimes, it is marvellous; and if it is greater, this is still more marvellous. Nevertheless it is so. Moreover, life belongs to God. For the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and the essential actuality of God is life most good and eternal. We hold, then, that God is a living being, eternal, most good; and therefore life and a continuous eternal existence belong to God; for that is what God is.' back |
Athanasian Creed - Wikipedia, Athanasian Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Athanasian Creed, also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed and sometimes known as Quicunque Vult (or Quicumque Vult), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes", is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity.' back |
Augustine of Hippo - Wikipedia, Augustine of Hippo - Wikipedia, ' Augustine of Hippo, Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.' back |
Brain size - Wikipedia, Brain size - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The size of the brain is a frequent topic of study within the fields of anatomy and evolution. Brain size is sometimes measured by weight and sometimes by volume (via MRI scans or by skull volume). Neuroimaging intelligence testing can be used to study the size of the brain in males and females. One question that has been frequently investigated is the relation of brain size to intelligence.' back |
Christian Tornau (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Saint Augustine, ' Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority in theological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Ages and remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtually uncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views on sin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly be overrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancient philosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fierce criticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, been vigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from various (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints.' back |
Dale Tuggy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), History of Trinitarian Doctrines, ' The New Testament contains no explicit trinitarian doctrine. However, many Christian theologians, apologists, and philosophers hold that the doctrine can be inferred from what the New Testament does teach about God. But how may it be inferred? Is the inference deductive, or is it an inference to the best explanation? And is it based on what is implicitly taught there, or on what is merely assumed there? Many Christian theologians and apologists seem to hold it is a deductive inference. In contrast, other Christians admit that their preferred doctrine of the Trinity not only (1) can’t be inferred from the Bible alone, but also (2) that there’s inadequate or no evidence for it there, and even (3) that what is taught in the Bible is incompatible with the doctrine.' back |
Genesis I:27, God creates humans, ' 27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ' back |
Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Hebrew Bible . . . is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic. The term closely corresponds to contents of the Jewish Tanakh and the Protestant Old Testament (see also Judeo-Christian) but does not include the deuterocanonical portions of the Roman Catholic or the Anagignoskomena portions of the Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments. The term does not imply naming, numbering or ordering of books, which varies (see also Biblical canon).' back |
Hindu - Wikipedia, Hindu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In 1995, while considering the question "who are Hindus and what are the broad features of Hindu religion", the Supreme Court of India highlighted Bal Gangadhar Tilak's formulation of Hinduism's defining features: |
History of the filioque controversy - Wikipedia, History of the filioque controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The history of the filioque controversy is the historical development of theological controversies within Christianity regarding three distinctive issues: the orthodoxy of the doctrine of procession of the Holy Spirit as represented by the Filioque clause, the nature of anathemas mutually imposed by conflicted sides during the Filioque controversy, and the liceity (legitimacy) of the insertion of the Filioque phrase into the Nicene Creed. Although the debates over the orthodoxy of the doctrine of procession and the nature of related anathemas preceded the question of the admissibility of the phrase as inserted into the Creed, all of those issues became linked when the insertion received the approval of the Pope in the eleventh century.' back |
On the Trinity - Wikipedia, On the Trinity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'On the Trinity (Latin: De Trinitate) is a Latin book written by Augustine of Hippo to discuss the Trinity in context of the logos. Although not as well known as some of his other works, it is arguably his masterpiece and of more doctrinal importance than the Confessions or City of God. . . . Arthur West Haddan inferred from [the] evidence that it was written between 400, when he was forty-six years old and had been Bishop of Hippo about four years, and 428 at the latest; but it probably had been published ten or twelve years earlier, in around 417.' back |
John the Evangelist, The Gospel of John (KJV), ' In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.' back |
New Testament - Wikipedia, New Testament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The New Testament (Koine Greek: Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Hē Kainḕ Diathḗkē) is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament. Unlike the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, of which Christians hold different views, the contents of the New Testament deal explicitly with 1st century Christianity, although both the Old and New Testament are regarded, together, as Sacred Scripture. The New Testament has therefore (in whole or in part) frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world, and both reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology.' back |
Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Nicene Creed (Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Νίκαιας, Latin: Symbolum Nicaenum) is the profession of faith or creed that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It forms the mainstream definition of Christianity for most Christians. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea (present day Iznik in Turkey) by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325. The Nicene Creed has been normative for the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Anglican Communion, and the great majority of Protestant denominations.' back |
Observable Universe - Wikipedia, Observable Universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The observable universe is a spherical region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because electromagnetic radiation from these objects has had time to reach the Solar System and Earth since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.' back |
Rolf Landauer (1999), Information is a Physical Entity, 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back |
Saint Monica - Wikipedia, Saint Monica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Monica (c. 332 – 387) was an early North African Christian saint and the mother of Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, particularly the suffering caused by her husband's adultery, and her prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son, who wrote extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his Confessions. Popular Christian legends recall Monica weeping every night for her son Augustine.' back |
Shield of the Trinity - Wikipedia, Shield of the Trinity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Shield of the Trinity or Scutum Fidei is a traditional Christian visual symbol which expresses many aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity, summarizing the first part of the Athanasian Creed in a compact diagram. In late medieval England and France, this emblem was considered to be the heraldic arms of God (and of the Trinity).' back |
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle De Anima 411a8 sqq, ' And some say that the soul is intermingled generally with the Universe. That is perhaps why Thales thought that the whole world was full of divinities. § 192 This, however, involves several difficulties. For why does the soul in fire and air not result in an animated being, whereas it does so in composite beings? . . . " back |
Trinity - Wikipedia, Trinity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Basil the Great account for the Trinity saw that the distinctions between the three divine persons were solely in their inner divine relations. There are not three gods, God is one divine Being in three persons. Where the Cappadocian Fathers used social analogies to describe the triune nature of God, Augustine of Hippo used psychological analogy. He believed that if man is created in the image of God, he is created in the image of the Trinity. Augustine's analogy for the Trinity is the memory, intelligence, and will in the mind of a man. In short, Christians do not have to think of three persons when they think of God; they may think of one person.' back |
Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, lit. 'that which moves without being moved' or prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 (Greek: Λ) of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He equates this concept also with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. ' back |
Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Quantum origin of quantum jumps: breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical, 'Submitted on 17 Mar 2007 (v1), last revised 18 Mar 2008 (this version, v3)) Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus, and then further on – to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide framework for the “wavepacket collapse”, designating terminal points of quantum jumps, and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates.' back |