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Soukup, Paul A.
Thinking, Talking, and Trinitarian Theology: From
Augustine to Aquinas on Communication.
Nov 86
30p.; Paper presented et the Annual Meeting of the
Speech Communication Association (72nd, Chicago, IL,
November 13-16, 1986).
Speeches/Conference Papers (150)
Viewpoints (120)
ABSTRACT
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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the
Paper Presented at
72nd Annual Speech Communication Association Convention
Chicago, IL, November 1986
Paul A. Soukup
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."
ABSTRACT
foundation.
history of the word as a metaphor for the Word, noting how later
the Word becomes the model for any word.
Such is the
Gospel according to John opens, "In the beginning was the Word:
page 4
the Word was with God and the Word was God." Thus begins
the
strands of the word and fuses them into a metaphor that remained
Medieval communication
page 5
Not only
Augustine
All knowledge is
page 6
tangible world, with its words (and signs), and the world of
ideas, a world he ultimately inherits from Plato.
If knowledge could
But even
Borrowing the
Logos philosophy which had entered the Christian milieu from the
Gospel of John's poetic prologue and embroidered by the thought-
only God's creative word, but also the Word that redeemed human
page 7
Since all is
ideas.
But if all things are what they are
because they resemble something else, then there must
be a Resemblance and by participating in it all like
things are alike.
This primary Resemblance is none
other than the Word."4
.
u.
for he is
page 8
or figurative:
First,
This distinction
page 9
At least
language.
acoustic word.
(Augustine makes a
10
Tn
page 10
and intimate,
(whether
Such forms
the word, Augustine calls to our attention the fact that the
human word is the image of the divine Word and as such gives
within the human mind an image of the Incarnation and an insight
into the Trinity:
11
page 11
Augustine considers
Note also
is
In a sense,
This interpretation is
"In seeing
12
This is
page 12
language.
term "aenigma."
"Something resembling the real thing is taken, and the words that
N14
applied metaphorically to
The importance of
13
page 13
This
The metaphor of the word also gets adapted and changed over the
centuries.
Anselm
but also takes on the whole linguistic outlook that defined the
possibility of talking about God.
14
page 14
Human
In the same
As he develops this
notion, pointing out its limitations in the ways that the creator
By
For we
15
page 15
Anselm recognizes that the first two kinds of expression are tied
to specific languages.
Anselm
It is a question of
16
page 16
Gone are
There
Anselm's thought.
There is a
Augustine at
nor expression.19
The speaking of
Not
17
page 17
Peter Lombard
Insofar as this
Even when they did not seek the same goal in their
The metaphor had marked out the trail too clearly not to be
followed at least part way.
18
page 18
Thomas Aquinas
The notion and scope of the inner word and its metaphorical
to the metaphor.
And
The Thomistic
related to the outer word as efficient and final cause and "the
19
are products of
page 19
In addition, inner
definitions and
judgments.
There is no understanding
until there is an inner word, "a product and effect of the act of
understanding,
that communication.
20
page 20
The condition of
the Word of God and both suggest for Thomas the ideal of
communication--the immediate bringing forth of a perfect image of
the intellect without the diminishing of the intellect.
21
page 21
1128
Therefore, in the
rhetorical vision.
22
He
page 22
Thomas
No longer is there a
Aquinas is preoccupied with the idea of the word and bases the
hymn on his theology of the Word.
Credo quicquid dixit dei filius:
Nichil ueritatis uerbo uerius.
23
page 23
The
problem for Thomas since his theology was not rhetoric nor was it
mere speculation--it was, rather, the "queen of the sciences"--as
The looseness
what
24
page 24
a conceit in hymnody.
nonetheless.
Conclusion
The shifting metaphorical relation between the Word and word
The
Within this
concrete.
?5
page 25
26
page 26
1.
For a contemporary treatment of the problematic and for a
contrasting treatment of the Augustinian world-view and the
current one, see W. R. Johnson, "St. Augustine and Barthes:
4.
trans.
L.E.M. Lynch.
210-211.
6.
Clark, p. 52.
7.
A Stud
8.
Clark, p. 55.
27
in the
Yale
page 27
9.
Colish, p. 31.
10.
Augustine, The Works of Aurelius Augustinus, vol. VII, On The
Trinity, Trans, A.W. Haddan (Edinburgh:
T & T Clark, 1873), IX,
x, 15, p. 235.
11.
13.
Clark, p. 55.
14.
Colish, p. 17.
15.
Augustine,:The Works of Aurelius Augustinus, vol. IX, On
Christian Doctrine, trans, J.R. Shaw (Edinburgh:
T & T Clark,
16.
Colish, p. 84.
17.
18.
28
Open
page 28
19.
George
Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and
Secular Tr..dition from Ancient to Modern Times, (Chapel Hill:
20.
tertia,
23.
Lonergan, p. 4.
24.
Lonergan, p. 10.
25.
26.
27.
Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Contra Gentiles, trans, the English
Dominican Fathers, (London:
Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd, 1929) ,
XI, pp. 48-49.
28.
De Veritate Q X,
a.
7.
29
page 29
29.
30.
Walter Ong, SJ, "Wit and Mystery: A Revaluation in Mediaeval
Latin Hymnody," Epteculum, 22, no. 3 (1947), p. 318.
31.
Ong, p. 324.
32.
prolog., Q. 1, a. 5
acl
3.
'30