Scholars have long noted that there is a tension between the strength of Thomas’s arguments for the Trinity and the limits he places on natural reason. Very few, however, have noted a curious pattern: it is often within the same passage that Thomas both seems to prove the Trinity and rules out the possibility of any such proof. This paper begins by drawing out this pattern. It then proposes that this tension in Thomas’s thought might be a reflection of, and an education into, a deeper tension: the tension between union with God and distance from God that structures the beatific vision into which Thomas’s Trinitarian theology hopes to initiate us.

中文翻译：

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“我们想知道的更多”：与上帝的结合，与上帝的距离，以及阿奎那三位一体神学中“必要原因”的棘手问题

长期以来，学者一直指出，托马斯对三位一体论证的力量与他对自然理性的限制之间存在着张力。然而，很少有人注意到一个奇怪的模式：托马斯似乎都证明了三位一体并排除了任何此类证明的可能性，通常都在同一段落中。本文首先提出了这种模式。然后提出，托马斯思想中的这种张力可能是对更深层次张力的反映和教育：与上帝的联合与与上帝的距离之间的张力构成了托马斯三位一体神学希望向我们发起的美好愿景。