Current Seminar:
• Augustine's De Trinitate
7/29/2006
Book IV, Introductory Essay, Chapters 1-2
Terence Carlson
In his introductory essay to Book IV, Edmund Hill, the translator of this edition, emphasizes that this book is one of the most
difficult to comprehend and also one of the most important in the whole of The Trinity. Hill states, that in this book,
Augustine engages in some of his most beautiful as well as some of his roughest writing.
Hill asks how this book fits into the general development of Augustine’s theme in the Trinity. Book II focuses on whether
any of the divine persons of the Trinity, and if so which, appeared to humanity in the Old Testament theophanies. Book III dealt
with whether angels were employed in producing these theophanies. Hill states that Augustine’s stated goal for Book IV is to decide
whether one could talk of the divine persons being sent in the Old Testament, and if not, what was special and unique about their being sent
in the New Testament. It takes Augustine quite a while to address his stated goal, as the first four chapters address Christ’s
mediation on behalf of fallen humanity.
For Augustine, the mission of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, was to be the mediator between man and God. Augustine
argues that in order to fulfill this mission, He had to be incarnate and to offer himself as an acceptable sacrifice on our behalf.
The Son of God cannot meaningfully be said to have been sent until He began to accomplish this mission. He did not do this until
the New Testament.
Augustine asserts that the most important definition of the divine mission is making known to humanity the eternal processions: “being
sent, for the Son, means his being known by men to be from the Father.” The heart of the divine mission lies in the eternal
generation of the Son and procession of the Spirit, and the missions open up the essence of the mystery for human contemplation. Augustine
will not attempt such contemplation until Book IX.
Besides describing what the Son of God was sent for, Book IV illustrates the difference in kind between his mission and the mission of the
angels in Book III.
In the first two chapters of Book IV, Christ’s mediation is presented as the restoration of harmony to a world made discordant by
sin. Augustine addresses a problem that the ancient world had been wrestling with for centuries. How do you link or reconcile the One,
the primal and ultimate reality, with the multiplicity of the world as we experience it? How did the many proceed from the One
originally and how could they be reconciled with it?
In the Prologue to Book IV, Augustine stresses that he realizes his sinfulness and his own weaknesses and implores God to pull him out
of his pitiful condition. He has put knowledge of his own weakness above knowledge of the world. Augustine realizes the falsities
of the human heart and asks that no such fancies spill into his writings. He beseeches God to lead him to the Truth through the
Incarnate Word, His Son.
In Chapter 1, Augustine asserts that God sends man signals to warn us that what we truly seek- union with God- is not found on
earth. God instructs us on the utter emptiness of our own strength so that we rely on His strength. Christ died for us while
we were still sinners from pure grace, freely given. Augustine states that the death and resurrection of Christ is the sacrament of
our spiritual death and resurrection and the model of our bodily death and resurrection.
In Chapter 2, Augustine further discusses the mediating role of Christ by an analysis of the symbolism of the number 6, treated as
symbolic of time. The chapter ends with a prayerful consideration of the mystery and beauty of Christ’s mediating unifying role.
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