Augustine’s De Trinitate

 This excerpt from Yves Congar's book, 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit' (vol. 3,
Part B - chapter 1: Augustine) outlines Saint Augustine's understanding of the
person and role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the other two persons of the
Most Holy Trinity.
 (Inspiration of St. Augustine’s Book) Here we shall consider, although not
exclusively, Augustine's De Trinitate, which he began in 399 and handed over
to the public in 419. He was not the first Christian in the West to write about
the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. He knew the writings of Tertullian and had read
the treatise on the Trinity by Hilary of Poitiers (+366), which he quotes. There
can also be no doubt that he knew Marius Victorinus, who was greater
influenced by Plotinus (see Volume 1, p. 77). He had heard Ambrose of Milan
and had probably read his De Spiritu Sancto (c. 381), which was in many
places inspired by Basil the Great and literally by Didymus the Blind and
which transfers into Latin thought an exegesis of several passages in the Bible
originally made by the Greek Fathers.
 Augustine discovered the Trinity in the works of the Neo-Platonists before he
discovered the incarnation in the letters of Paul. His approach was not purely
theoretical. It was rather the beginning of a very deep existential conversion. As
a priest and bishop, dedicated to meditating on the Scriptures and to studying
and analyzing them with the aim of defending the Christian faith, Augustine
kept at heart to his original direction, which differed from that of the Greek
Fathers, who spoke of a Tri-unity connected with its economic revelation.
 Augustine, on the other hand, was fundamentally concerned with a Deus-
Trinitas thought of in a static manner, independently of the incarnation and the
economy of salvation. Du Roy therefore says: 'Augustine's special contribution
to Western theology consists of this representation of God who is one in his
essence and who deploys the Trinity of his inner relationships in the knowledge
and love of himself. This was the logical conclusion of a Neo-Platonism
applied to a deep reflection about faith before being converted.
 Augustine was naturally loving and always gave priority to charity. As a pastor
and teacher living in the midst of Donatists, he elaborated an ecclesiology at
two levels, that of the sacramentum and that of unitas-charitas-Columba, in
which the Spirit was the principle of life, unity and effectiveness to save. Even
in his early writings, he called the Spirit charitas. This idea emerges from the
first evidence of his interest in a theology of the Holy Spirit. It can be found,
for example, in his preaching and his commentaries on Scripture. (29) It is
clearly present in De Trin. VI, 5, 7. Augustine concludes: 'They are three, the
 one loving the one who has his being from him, the other loving the one from
whom he has his being, and that love itself.
 Augustine's aim was to guarantee the perfect consubstantiality of the three
Persons. He made sure of this by making the distinction between them consist
in the relationship which opposes them correlatively to each other and which is
a relationship of procession.
 The Images of the Trinity - For Augustine, it was a search in faith, one which
becomes deeper by an existential conversion to be conformed once again to the
image of God by thinking of him and loving him. Augustine continued, in
Books VIII to XV of his De Trinitate, to look for an understanding of what
Christians believed and he did this on the basis of the images of the Triad that
could be found in the human spirit and its activity.
 The distinction between persons according to scripture and tradition (the usual
starting place for Augustine) lies in causation. The Father is the principle of the
Godhead and alone is unoriginated. The Son is both begotten from eternity and
sent into the world in time by the Father. The Spirit both proceeds eternally
from God and is given temporally to the Church.
 God is ineffable mystery. In the blessed life that awaits the faithful, we hope to
see God as God is insofar as we will then be conformed to God’s likeness
perfectly. Yet, in this life, as the image of God is renewed in us by faith and
sanctification, we can begin to understand, as it were, “through a mirror in an
enigma” Thus, Augustine proposed to understand the distinction between
persons according to reason in terms of a category that is neither substance nor
accident, i.e., eternal and immutable relation.
 Augustine gave classic expression to the psychological analogy of the Trinity
in which the unity of essence is likened to the rational part of the human soul,
composed as it is of “the mind, and the knowledge by which it knows itself,
and the love by which it loves itself.” to which he compares the persons of the
Trinity.
 Why Augustine Centered His Life on the Trinity? - In the first paragraph of
Confessions, Augustine penned his now famous line, “You stir man to take
pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart
is restless until it finds its rest in you.” This phrase is a fitting summary of
Augustine’s theology. First, it reveals that man is utterly restless without God,
lost and wandering. Second, it reveals that only God can provide true rest for
the human heart. Augustine finds great comfort and affection in the character,
nature, and works of God. Augustine’s understanding of life and conversion is
tethered to the salvific work of the triune God in his own life. He can only
 make sense of his salvation through the lens of God’s sovereignty and
redemptive purposes, through the work of the Godhead. For Augustine, the
whole of theology and life flow from God. Reflecting on his own
transformation, Augustine confesses, “You, my God, brought that about. . . .
How can salvation be obtained except through your hand remaking what you
once made?”
 Understanding God as triune is a theology-driving, awe-inspiring, life-giving
truth.
 Augustine poetically states in Confessions that God is “the life of souls, the life
of lives. You live in dependence only on yourself, and you never change, life of
my soul.” The triune God revealed in the Scriptures, confessed by the creeds,
and experienced through the life-altering work of the Holy Spirit was a reality
that Augustine could not escape. And once he was gripped by God, Augustine’s
theology and life were subject to him.
 For us, the Trinity is sometimes assumed, overlooked. We say, “The Trinity.
Ah, of course: three-in-one. Water, snow, ice. Got it.” The Trinity becomes a
dusty Sunday school fact, not a fresh-every-day source of wonder.
Understanding God as triune is a theology-driving, awe-inspiring, life-giving
truth.
 The triune God is reclaiming his kingdom and redeeming all things, including
you and me. The gospel has an inescapably Trinitarian shape. The Father has
chosen to reveal his love to us through the sacrifice of the Son and the sending
of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:9–14).
 As Alister McGrath has said, “God is both the goal of our journey and the
means by which we find him.”
 In the time of St. Augustine there were many people, as there are now, who
were trying to disprove the Trinity. There were those who were Tri-Theists and
they thought that the Trinity consisted of three different gods. Then there were
the Arians who believed that since the Son was begotten, that He was somehow
less than the Father. Lastly there were those who misconstrued the teachings of
scripture and the Church based on a faulty use of reason. The believers in these
three things are those to whom St. Augustine addressed his treatise on the
Trinity.
 It would seem on the surface that issues between faith and reason would
ultimately collide, but this does not need to be the case. Reason is based on the
limitations of man, and is of itself a system of belief. Any system of belief has
some faith to it whether it is in you or in God. St. Augustine goes on to explain
how scripture is like milk to an infant and will help nourish us. However there
are some things about God which we will not be able to understand because our
minds are unable to comprehend it. If we understand Him then He is not God.
 We can debate to grasp a better understanding, but Christ Himself said that He
and the Father are one. Faith and reason can coexist and those that fail to
realize that are fooling themselves.
 When making his point, St. Augustine looks to the example of St. Paul the
Apostle. The Apostle Paul was a man of great faith and of great reason. The
great Apostle said things like “there is one Father and in Him all things. There
is one Lord Jesus Christ and in Him all things.” (1 Corinthians 8:6). This would
assume that Paul thought they were of equal authority and are one. To think
anything else would be intellectually dishonest. In matters such as these, we
have a great example of faith and reason in scripture, and how to use reason for
the glory of Christ.
 In regard to sacred scripture, St. Augustine is of the opinion that scripture
should be used to prove the faith. This is just as relevant today as it was in His
day, especially in regards to dialogue with other Christians. Scripture should be
used as a point of reference and through the work of the Holy Spirit those
arguing against the faith will eventually find something they are unable to
argue against. In scripture there will be some things that reason is unable to
explain, something that unbelievers will be unable to doubt, and it will tear
down the wall they have built. This will hopefully lead them to the truth that is
found in Christ.
 I’ll bet many of you know the old story of St. Augustine walking along the
beach one day, taking a break from writing his treatise on the Trinity.The great
scholar just couldn’t get his mind around this great mystery. The story goes
that he saw a little boy digging a hole in the sand, and then running to the
ocean, filling up his hands with the seawater, running back to the hole and
emptying the water into the hole. Augustine watched as the child went back
and forth several times. Finally he said to the boy, “What are you doing?” The
boy said, “Trying to fill that hole with the ocean.” And Augustine said, “You’ll
never fit the ocean in that hole.” And the boy said, “Neither will you be able to
fit the Trinity into your mind.”
 It’s true that the concept of God as three “Persons” is a mystery. And yet if we
reflect on it, we can see also that it is the way that God has been revealed to us,
as Father or Creator; as the Son, Jesus; and as the Holy Spirit or the Advocate.
It’s also clear that one of the fundamental attributes of the Trinity is that it is
about relationship between those three, and with us.
 Augustine’s goal is to not to prove the doctrine the Trinity given his
presupposition that faith precedes understanding and that understanding must
inform faith. His ‘De Trinitate’ represents an exercise in understanding what it
means to say that God is at the same time Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.
 For Augustine the doctrine of Trinity is already revealed in Scriptures but it
may be clarified using an adopted philosophical framework which in his case is
 Neo-Platonism. He assumes that man is made in the image of God on the basis
of Scripture. He proceeds to explain how the Trinitarian structure of the inner
man illuminates our understanding of the Trinity. His approach is arguably
circular, but this is acceptable so long as we accept that his end goal is to
explain the Trinity rather than to prove the Trinity.
 Analogies of the Trinity - Having defended the distinctions of the persons in
the Godhead, Augustine proceeds to search out for analogies that will
illuminate the relationships within the Godhead. He begins with the observation
that love has a Trinitarian form of “the lover, that which is loved, and love”.
Augustine cautions that this analogy of love is imperfect and concludes “we
have found, not the thing itself, but where it is to be sought”.
 St Augustine of Hippo was a theologian and philosopher in the early Church. He is
viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity. Augustine
wrote De Trinitate to try and correct the heretical teachings on the Trinity that were
arising at the time.
 He sought to define the Trinity and ensure that the three Persons were understood and
given equality with regards to greatness. He stated that two parts of the Trinity are equal
in power to the third part, eg: the greatness of the Father + the greatness of the Holy
Spirit = the greatness of the Son
 No one part is greater than another or the sum of the other two. They are not the same nor
are they separate, in fact they share the same nature. Augustine used the idea and notion
of love to explain the Trinity and its three parts - he that loves, and that which is loved,
and love. Love has three parts:

 the Person that loves

 the Person who is loved
 the act of love itself
 ...the Trinity does not work indivisibly, but the Father does some things, the Son other
things, and the Holy Spirit yet others: or else, if they do some things together, some
severally, then the Trinity is not indivisible. De Trinitate 8:10
 We all know of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. However, it turns
out that in our Catholic faith, there’s an even holier family: the Blessed Trinity.
Unfortunately, the Trinity is also the deepest mystery of our faith. It is
practically unmentioned in the Bible, and not many saints have written about it.
In fact, there is a story of how St. Augustine had a dream the night before he
was supposed to speak about the Trinity. In the dream, he was walking on a
beach, and saw a young boy digging a hole in the sand. The boy would grab a
seashell, fill it up from the waves, and then pour it into the hole. Augustine
approached the boy and asked him what he was doing. “I’m trying to empty the
ocean into my hole,” the boy replied. When Augustine responded that that was
 impossible, the boy answered, “Not as impossible as you trying to explain the
Holy Trinity.
 An understanding of the Trinity goes far beyond Scripture. In one of his first
homilies as pope, St. John Paul II posed the most important thing for people to
know in their earthly life: Who God is, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
This statement left many taken aback, for it is not easy to understand these
things. Thankfully, JPII elaborated: “God in His deepest mystery is not a
solitude, not a loner, He is a family, because He has in Himself fatherhood,
sonship, and the essence of familial love, which is the Holy Spirit.”
 In conclusion, there are several important things to remember when it comes to
understanding the Trinity and how it relates to us. Pray to God to know Him
better, because once we know Him, we can love Him even more perfectly.
Reflect not so much on what God has done, but more on why He has done
those things. This will also help us to love Him more perfectly. Without the
Trinity, Catholicism as we know it would not exist. For without the Trinity,
how could we pray? Without the Trinity, how could we be baptized, or
participate in any of the sacraments? Without the Trinity’s perfect example of
family and love, how could we love? What would we have to hope for without
the hope of adoption into God’s perfect family, the Trinity? Therefore, to
understand and appreciate the Trinity is not only what it is to be Catholic, but
what it is to be human. The Trinity is the deepest, most obscure mystery of our
Faith. It is also the most important part of our entire lives, whether we realize it
or not.
 This article was written by Columnist Mitchell Brost
Sources:
Chief Truths of the Faith by Father John Laux, M.A., copyright 1934 Benizger
Brothers, New York; copyright 1990 by TAN Books
God’s Family and Ours: The Church and the Trinity talk by Dr. Scott Hahn,
Copyright 2017 by Augustine Institute
 The great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30 years
working on his treatise De Trinitate [about the Holy Trinity], endeavoring to
conceive an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine in The Four Doctors

of the Western Church

Works
The City of God
 Confessions
On Christian Doctrine
Soliloquies
Enchiridion
On the Trinity

Influences and followers

Plotinus
Saint Monica
Ambrose
Possidius
Anselm
Aquinas
Bonaventure
Luther
Calvin
Jansen
Newman

 On the Trinity (Latin: De Trinitate) is a Latin book written by Augustine of

Hippo to discuss the Trinity in context of the logos. Although not as well
known as some of his other works, it is arguably his masterpiece and of more
doctrinal importance than the Confessions or City of God.[1]
 It is placed by him in his Retractationes among the works written (meaning
begun) in AD 400. In letters of 410 and 414 and at the end of 415, it is referred
to as still unfinished and unpublished. But a letter of 412 states that friends
were at that time asking to complete and publish it, and the letter to Aurelius,
which was sent with the treatise itself when actually completed, states that a
portion of it, while still unrevised and incomplete, was in fact surreptitiously
made public. It was still in hand in 416: in Book XIII, a quotation occurs from
the 12th Book of the De Civitate Dei; and another quotation in Book XV, from
the 90th lecture on Saint John.