Source:

Sämtliche schriften und briefe series VI volume 4
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed)
p 2346


Date: autumn 1685 (?)

Translated from the Latin


View this translation in PDF format (10k)

Back to home page


Search texts by category:

METAPHYSICS
MIND, BODY AND SOUL
FREE WILL AND NECESSITY
SCIENCE
POLITICS, LAW AND ETHICS
THEOLOGY

LEIBNIZ: ON THE TRINITY


[A VI 4, p2346]

     This principle, that things which are the same as a single third thing are the same as one another, if taken with the greatest rigour, entails that identity holds good in the divine sphere no less than in the natural. When we say the father is God, and the son is God, and God is one, so the father and so the son, then the father and son would be the same, unless 'God' were taken in the two preceding propositions for a person of the godhead and in the last for the divine nature, i.e. a single absolute substance which we call God. Hence we say that the three persons of the godhead are nevertheless not three Gods, and in this sense we make some distinction between a person of the godhead and God, for if there is a distinction between two voices articulated in the plural, in such a way that one cannot be substituted for the other, there will also be some distinction between the same voices in the singular, since the plural is a repetition of the singular. When the same one who is the father is also said to be the son, the sense is that in the same absolute substance of God there are two relative substances numerically different from each another. So those expressions should be properly explained lest they imply a manifest contradiction. However each expression is literal, since there is no reason why we should say that one is more literal than another, for in human matters there is no example of such a manner of speaking. Let us thus argue from the use of the property. Can we say that the father is the only God? I do not think so, but we can say the father is a participant of the divine nature which is one in number.


© Lloyd Strickland 2007
With thanks to Peter Pike for advice and suggestions