The Trinitarian Vision of Jonathan Edwards and David Coffey By S ...

psychological model, it features prominently in the thought of central Western theological figures such as Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) and Bonaventure (1217–1274).¹⁴ Stated succinctly, the mutual love model posits that the Father from eternity generated the Son and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from and subsists as the mutual love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father.

Five elements tend to characterize the Augustinian mutual love tradition in its various historical expressions. These characteristics form a gestalt. The first is the tendency for theologians within this tradition to employ the mental aspects of the mind, such as memory, understanding, and will, to illustrate the immanent Trinity. Recourse is had to the mind and its functions because they are thought to be the imago Dei (image of God). The three mental capacities correspond respectively to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The mutual love model is often presented as a variation of the psychological model. Although it historically developed as a variant of the psychological analogy and the intellectual processions of knowledge and will are assumed, the mutual love model is in fact fundamentally different from the psychological model. Chapter 2 picks up the discussion of the interpersonal nature of the mutual love model versus the intrapersonal character of the psychological one. However, at this point, my purpose is to detail the broad historical antecedents of Edwards and Coffey’s thought. Second, the Father is identified as the source of divinity. He is the fons et origo (source and origin) of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Third, the Father’s generation of the Son is in terms of the act of intellection. The generation of the Son corresponds to the generation of an idea or a word in the mind by the act of the understanding. Fourth, the procession of the Holy Spirit coincides with the highest exertion of the will, which in Augustinian psychology and trinitarian theology is identified as love. In particular, the mutual love model takes its name from the concept that the Holy Spirit subsists as the mutual love of the Father and the Son. Fifth, the activities of the divine persons in the economy of redemption correlate with the immanent processions of the divine persons.

The trinitarian theologies of Augustine and Aquinas serve as representatives of the trinitarian mutual love tradition. The reason for selecting