Thomas Aquinas — Season 1, Episode 4: The Trinity
Documentary, Talk • 53 min • 1 season, 8 episodes
Episode synopsis
In lecture four, we learn Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of God’s will and love, showing that God’s will flows from His perfect knowledge of goodness, leading to His self-love and love for creation. We then examine Aquinas's treatment of the Trinity, exploring how he reconciles the unity of God with the revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the idea that higher beings can perfectly “replicate” themselves internally. The lecture concludes by presenting the Trinity as three subsistent relations within one divine essence—the Father as mind, the Son as self-knowledge, and the Holy Spirit as shared love—revealing God as love itself.
About Thomas Aquinas
In Thomas Aquinas, a seven-hour course, Bishop Robert Barron guides us through a study of the theological and philosophical system of Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Dominican friar who masterfully synthesized Ancient Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine. We examine his Five Ways for demonstrating God's existence, his understanding of divine attributes and the Trinity, and his teachings on creation, providence, and the problem of evil. The course delves into Aquinas's philosophical anthropology, particularly the relationship between body and soul and humanity's creation in God's image. We conclude by studying his ethical framework centered on finding happiness in God as humanity's ultimate goal, and the role of virtues in ordering human life toward God.