Personality (2)
Personality is an attribute of conscious beings only, and thus distinguishes individuals from each other. In the Trinity it is simple and absolute, so that the three persons of the godhead are not three beings, since they have a common consciousness. In man it is compound, consisting of a boldy and a soul, which are not homogeneous, as are the three divine persons, and yet constitute but a single being, inasmuch as the consciousness essentially resides in the soul, which is therefore per se the real person, and remains such after the separation from the body. In Jesus Christ there was a double or complex personality, because he had a complete human soul (as well as body), and was also filled hypostatically with the divine spirit. He consequently may be said to have had a sort of double consciousness; for the divine spirit did not always communicate everything to the human spirit, and the latter could not be commensurate with the former. Yet he was not two persons, inasmuch as the two natures were indissolubly blended, and the twofold personality likewise. The partial lack of homogeneity between the divine and the human spirit in him did not negative this, just as the still greater dissimilarity between human flesh and soul does not negative unity in man.
