God the Trinity
Aquinas occupies a prominent place in today’s discussions of Trinitarian theology. Each of the seven sections of this chapter deals with an aspect that is or should be present in any reception of Aquinas’ doctrine of the Trinity: the centrality of Trinitarian faith in Aquinas’ theology; the nature and purpose of Aquinas’ Trinitarian theology; the cardinal place of the economy of salvation; the relationship between Trinitarian processions and missions; the organization of the ‘treatise’ on God in the Summa theologiae; the divine persons as ‘subsisting relations’; the Son as Word and Image, and the Holy Spirit as Love and Gift. In Aquinas, Trinitarian doctrine provides the interpretive framework for understanding all other theological topics (from creation to eschatology).