Definition of a Person (SPT03)

Synopsis of a Purer Theology Disputation 7, par. 8-13. In which our 17th-century authors define "person" in general and begin to explain how the term applies to God. Sanders and Hurd discuss the Leiden Synopsis's trinitarian theology, focusing on the definition of person in disputation 7.

[@duncanhollands5218]

I love that I can just jump on here and listen to you guys walking through the Leiden Synopsis even though I am 1000s of miles away and hours removed by time. What a world. Thank you for patiently walking us through. Great stuff.

[@duncanhollands5218]

I am also getting way too much self-justification from Sanders's chaotic-order shelving method.

[@mcnairfan78]

Great conversation, you guys!

[@alindsey4]

"rather than how the Father relates to both the Son and Holy Spirit that distinguishes Him"
- I did not really understand the section about 'one-to-one' relations and how the "triangle" model for thinking about trinitarian relations is limited.

[@kahnlives]

This is all Greek to me , but I’m fascinated.

[@neilkearns8192]

My comment is that Gen 1 & 2 together define what a person is, or an essential element to being a person. BEING OF ONE SUBSTANCE IS ESSENTIAL TO BE PERSONS. I take the plural language in regard to both God and man of Gen 1 in parallel to man being the image of God, raises the question of how the both man and God can be both singular and plural/dual. The answer is shown in Gen 2 when woman is built out of man thus completing man as the image of God (when Adam alone "it is not good ... he is not completed). Woman is the same essence, the same material as adam, yet she is distinguishable from him. Adam is still one but he is now complete that he is two. She is materially generated from him. Our theology has led us to understand that Jesus is from eternity, for all eternity, generated from the Father. Now, this generation of woman from man is in the context of the animals, of adam naming the animals. It seems adam is not an animal, yet it is amongs them that he is looking. If Eve had been found amongst the animals, then it would have been because she was an animal. And, if she is an animal, then so too is adam and so he is not really the image of God. He is just an animal. Adam and Eve each separately created beings.... just like the animals. The import of the animal story and the creation of woman out of man, is that the animals were not created this way. It is a unique thing that God is doing with adam and eve. Presumably the animals, male and female of each kind were created separately from separate pieces of the earth. This is not so for adam (and eve). There is only one piece of dust from which adam and eve are created. They are of the same substance. It is this which is essential to them not being animals and being the image of God. One substance is essential to be persons.