On the unity of god and the plurality of persons: commentary to the question 9 of "Questiones disputatae de potentia dei" by Thomas Aquinas

The nature of Divine intelligence, its operations and the multiplicity of persons in One were discussed in the context of medieval theology. Thomas Aquinas demonstrates that in spite of unity and simplicity of God’s nature, it is possible to think of internal differences. The person signifies that what exists by way of relation in Trinity. The finite thinking grasps the sense of knowable thing through the internal word, or intention. In the finite intelligence the generated word is different from the intellect, but in God it is identical with His essence. The procession of Persons is an act of first-person action. Cognition and will are the operations of the intellectual nature. God utters his own Word in the act of knowledge and reflects Himself because the God’s thinking is always reflexive. In such operation of infinite thought consists the origin of the persons of divine Trinity.