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Whether the word ‘person’ should be said of God?

Link: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~ST.I.Q29.A3

cf., Sent.I.D23.Q1.A2, QDePot.Q9.A3

Next, we ask whether that which we defined in A. 1-2 is becoming of God, i.e., is it fitting to attribute this to God, or would it be against reason/dignity.

The reply to this question is simple. Any name can be predicated of God if it denotes some sort of perfection, either in its proper sense if it is a simply simple perfection (i.e., the ratio of the name does not designate limitation, but only the manner in which it exists among creatures) or in an improper/metaphorical sense if it is a mixed perfection (i.e., the ratio of the name designates some sort of limitation). 

Now, the ratio of personhood does not designate any imperfection, thus, it can be predicated of God. 

We can see this both from the generic and specific aspects of the term. Generically, the term signifies an intellectual nature, which is most perfect. Specifically, the term signifies such intellectual nature as self-subsisting, which is a most perfect mode of existence. Thus, it signifies a most perfect nature existing in a most perfect mode. 

As a n.b., this is why the purification of Boethius' concept that was effected in A. 1 was so vital, for, while "person" is said properly of God, defining person in such a way as to include certain aspects that are present among creatures, while it may be useful pedagogically, obscures the propriety wherein we may predicate such and such a term to God. 

Thus, St. Thomas says in his Sentences commentary, 

> I answer that the name "person" belongs properly to God, yet not in the same way as it is in created things, but in a certain nobler way—as is the case with all other things that are said of God and created things. For the account of "person" is preserved in the divine insofar as it is what has existence through itself subsisting in an intellectual nature. (Sent.I.D23.Q1.A2.C)

Respondeo: Person signifies what is most perfect in all nature—that is, a subsistent individual of a rational nature. Hence, since everything that is perfect must be attributed to God, forasmuch as His essence contains every perfection, this name person is fittingly applied to God; not, however, as it is applied to creatures, but in a more excellent way; as other names also, which, while giving them to creatures, we attribute to God; as we showed above when treating of the names of God (Q. 13, A. 2).

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