Current Seminar:
• Augustine's De Trinitate
9/22/2007
Book XIV, Chapters 3-5
David Fleischacker
The Trinity of the Mind remembering itself, knowing itself, loving itself is not really the image of God, "but because it is also able to
remember and understand and love him by whom it was made." (383)
"Whoever loves iniquity hates his own soul." (Ps 11:5)
"So the man who knows how to love himself loves God; and the man who does not love God, even though he loves himself, which is innate in him by
nature, can still be said quite reasonably to hate himself when he does what is against his own interest, and stalks himself as if he were his own
enemy." (384)
"But when the mind loves God, and consequently as has been said remembers and understands him, it can rightly be commanded to love its neighbor as
itself. For now it loves itself with a straight, not a twisted love, now that it loves God; for sharing in him results not merely in its being
that image, but in its being made new and fresh and happy after being old and worn and miserable." (385)
"In seeing itself is sees something changeable"
The Trinity of the Mind needs healing to be made into the unchangeable image of God
"The first stage of the cure is to remove the cause of the debility, and this is done by pardoning all sins; the second
stage is curing the debility itself, and this is done gradually by making steady progress in the renewal of this image." (389)
"So then the man who is being renewed in the recognition of God and in justice and holiness of truth by making progress
day by day, is transferring his love from temporal things to eternal, from visible to intelligible, from carnal to spiritual things; he is
industriously applying himself to checking and lessening his greed for the one sort and binding himself with charity to the other. But his success
depends on divine assistance…" (389)
"For only when it comes to the perfect vision of God will this image bear God’s perfect likeness." (390)
"We shall be like him because we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3:2)
"While now it makes progress through a puzzling reflection in a mirror" (trinity of mind).
"But this is eternal life, as Truth says, that they may know you, he says, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent" (Jn 17:3)
"This is the contemplative wisdom which in my view is specifically distinguished in the sacred writings from knowledge and
is called precisely man's wisdom, though indeed it only comes to him from the one whom the rational and intellectual mind must share in to become
truly wise." (391)
Book XIV, Chapters 3-5
Terence Carlson
Chapter 3
Augustine continues his analysis of the human mind's remembering, understanding and willing itself. For Augustine, this three part
integrated process of the mind reflects the image of God. First, Augustine calls the reader to consider the mind in itself and then God's image
discovered in the mind. Augustine again emphasizes that even when the mind loses its participation in God the mind still reflects the image of
God, even though worn out and distorted. For Augustine, the mind can not achieve so great a good except by being God’s image.
Man sees a trinity, not God, but the image of God by the mind's remembering itself, understanding itself, and loving itself. Augustine
explains that the mind's inner process does not occur from outside or from bodily senses, but from man's inner consciousness. Augustine then
discusses lesser trinities which come from outside man's consciousness, such as bodily images or historical knowledge. All of this information
proceeds in a temporal order and all produce a kind of trinity when they are learned. Augustine stresses that after these matters are known by
the mind another trinity is formed in the consciousness when the subjects are called to mind. This trinity consists of the images created in the
memory when the subjects were learned, the conforming of thought recalling the subjects with a backward look at them, and the will which joins the two
processes together.
Augustine then discusses matters that arise in the consciousness where they were not found before, such as faith and similar matters. He
explores whether faith is outside of consciousness when it is planted by teaching. Augustine makes a distinction between faith and the things
believed by faith. He states, "Faith is not what one believes but what one believes with; what one believes is believed, what one believes with
is seen." Augustine concludes that faith has elements of being outside consciousness because consciousness pre-exists faith and one day faith will
be replaced by sight.
Augustine next debates whether the virtues, like faith, so important in our earthly life, will one day cease to be when man reaches eternal
life. He quotes Tully from his dialogue, "Hortensius", that the four virtues, justice, sagacity, courage, and moderation are not needed in the
afterlife as there are no trials or tribulations. Augustine disagrees stating that justice is the contemplation of the nature that created all,
God, and being subject to this nature in eternal life. Therefore, justice is immortal. Augustine posits that the other three virtues will
still exist in the afterlife, but their activities will no longer be needed. The virtues produce one trinity now and a new trinity in the
afterlife.
Augustine emphasizes that in the knowledge of temporal things, some of the objects precede the awareness of them while some are contemporaneous
with the knowledge of them. In either case, "the knowables begat the knowledge..." The mind is different, as it is not outside
itself. The mind never stopped remembering itself, never stopped understanding itself, and never stopped loving itself. For Augustine,
when the mind turns to itself in thought a trinity is formed. It is this very activity, which man more than anywhere else should recognize as the
image of God.
Augustine concludes this chapter by defending his use of memory to include the mind’s understanding of things present. He quotes Virgil's
Aeneid to make the point that self-awareness, remembering oneself, is a form of memory and yet remaining in the present.
Chapter 4
In this chapter, Augustine stresses that the mind of man is the image of God because it is able to remember, understand, and love God who created
it. Only by doing this, does man become wise. The only true wisdom is to worship the uncreated God. Augustine then uses a series of
biblical texts to illustrate that the beginning of wisdom is the knowledge and love of God. Only by knowing and loving God can man love his
neighbor as himself.
Augustine explains that even when the mind of man is in an evil state of weakness and confusion, it does not lose its natural memory, understanding
and love of itself. The sinful man still walks in the image of God. Augustine emphasizes how much the mind loves itself that even when it is
weak and confused it is still capable of cleaving to God and becoming redeemed. The mind, no matter its sinful state, can always remember God, who
created it. As Augustine states, "Yet it is reminded to turn to the Lord, as though to the light by which it went on being touched in some fashion
even when it turned away from him."
Chapter 5
In this chapter, Augustine emphasizes that the deformed sinful mind of man is only reformed by God who created the image in the first place. He
again quotes biblical texts to reiterate that only God can renew the human mind and recreate the image of God in man. Augustine explains that this
conversion of the mind does not happen in one moment of conversion, but instead occurs in a day by day lifelong renewal. Only in the beatific
vision will this image bear God’s perfect likeness.
Augustine further explains that man’s immortal body in the afterlife will be conformed to the image of God, but only like the Son, who took a body.
Augustine closes this stirring chapter by focusing on the beatific vision and contemplative wisdom of God in the afterlife, which he distinguishes
from mere knowledge.
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