Current Seminar:
• Augustine's De Trinitate
12/16/2006
Summary of Forward to Books IX-XIV
Kieran Dickinson
Introduction
According to translator and editor, Edmund Hill, Books IX to XIV of De Trinitate elucidate the image of God in man with a focus on the divine
processions in the godhead. While man is made in God’s image, and not vice versa, by analogy to certain trinities of man’s metal processes, St.
Augustine hopes to illuminate the processions of the divine trinity. The drawing and development of such analogies is the primary subject matter of
Books IX to XI. Later, in Books XII to XIV, St. Augustine explores the psyche – that is, the structure of the functions of the mind – and its
history, including a fascinating and practical discussion of sin and redemption. St. Augustine’ argument culminates in Book XIV, where he shows
that the final and perfect image of God in man is to be found not merely in the mind’s remembering, understanding, and loving of itself (one of the
mental trinities discussed in Books X and XI), but in the mind’s remembering, understanding, and loving of God.
Mental Trinities and the Divine Processions
De Trinitate is a work of dogmatic theology, and as such it aims to shed light on a dogma of the faith, which is taken on faith as being
true. Here, the dogma can be summed up as follows: the Son is eternally begotten of the Father in total equality of nature; He proceeds eternally
from the Father by way of generation as the Word of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle of
origin. As his means of elucidating this dogma, St. Augustine turns in Books IX-XIV to explorations of possible mental and psychological analogies
for the Trinity.
The first mental trinity St. Augustine develops is that of mens (mind, the Father), notitia sui (knowledge of itself, Son), and amor
sui (love of itself, Holy Spirit). This mental trinity allows St. Augustine to explore the meaning of “word” as used in the prologue to St.
John’s gospel. We think in terms of ideas. We express our thoughts in terms of words; the initial word, however, is a mental word, which
precedes the spoken word. The mental word is comparable to the Logos, which is seen as God’s word or idea of himself. (“Have you been so long
with me, Philip, and still you do not know me? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”) Mental words or ideas are often spoken of
using birth language, e.g., to “conceive” of an idea, and this is helpful for purposes of analogies to the Holy Trinity insofar as the orthodox faith
holds that the Son is begotten of the Father. As for self-love, according to St. Augustine it proceeds from the mind and the self-knowledge of the
mind, by the principle that we love what we know. A benefit to this analogy is that it shows the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father and
the Son, and it also shows the Holy Spirit proceeding without being begotten.
After discussing this first mental trinity, St. Augustine settles on a second mental trinity of mind (in the sense of “remember,” e.g., “mind your
manners” or “mind yourself”) (Father), understanding (Son), and will (Holy Spirit) as the most fitting psychological analogy for the Holy
Trinity. How does this trinity function? As soon as the mind “minds” itself or remembers itself, this act of self-minding breeds the second
mental act, which is the mind understanding itself, thinking itself with the mental word of self-understanding, saying “Me.” In our own minds,
when we come to understand that something is true, it can be said that a “mental word,” which is beyond language, forms. For St. Augustine, the
memory is a kind of repository of data, always actual but not always active, which the mind brings to the surface, reflects, and makes sense of through
acts of understanding. The mental word is a mentally visible replica of an object of understanding latent in the memory. Thus, for one who
has been to Table Mountain, the memory of a 3,000 foot high plateau overlooking the confluence of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans is always there, but it
is latent until called to mind. Will comes into play insofar as acts of will are necessary to bring the attention (or thought) to bear on the
memory and thus lay the conditions for acts of understanding to form.
Hill points out that there are some significant advantages to the use of this mental trinity as an analogy for the Holy Trinity:
[T]his way of talking helps us to understand the real inseparability and equality of the Father and the
Son. If memory is only activated into an act of remembering by generating a mental word in an act of understanding, and if it is only through
this mental word that we have access to the memory; then it is only by uttering his Word, that is generating his Son, that the Father realizes himself
as Father, and it is only through his Word, co-equal to him, that we can have access to the Father. Eternal, active divine self-expression
generates eternal active self-expression, and only in that self-expression is the self-presence so to say realized and also made open or available to
our participation.
Hill is less convinced of the aptness of the analogy of will to the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine states that the Holy Spirit as bond or
communion between Father and Son is like the acts of will that keep a mental word, which is generated as an off-spring from memory by thought, in
being by continuing to think about it. This analogy fails insofar as the procession of the Holy Spirit is consequent on the procession of the
Son and not a prerequisite of it. The orthodox understanding of this point is that the Holy Spirit proceeds as an eternal act of divine
self-loving or self-willing, issuing eternally from the divine self-presence in self-expression and by so proceeding joining the two together and
being their communion.
A Brief History of the Image of God in Man
From this discussion of mental trinities, St. Augustine moves on in Books XII and XIII to a discussion of how God’s image can be seen in man’s psyche,
how this image has been warped by sin, and how it has been redeemed in Christ.
For St. Augustine, the psyche is the super-structure of the functions of the mind or soul. Above and within itself, the mind is able to know God,
and open itself to and come into contact with the truth. Below and outside itself, the mind opens itself through its bodily senses to the physical
universe. Following St. Paul, St. Augustine equates the higher, inward aspect of the mind with the “inner man” and the lower, outward aspect of
the mind with the “outer man.” The inner man is directed to God while the outer man is directed to the world.
To understand St. Augustine’s account of the history of the image of God in man, it is necessary to understand a number of terms he
uses. Mens, which Hill renders as “mind,” generally refers to the activities of the inner man. These activities are sapientia,
or contemplation of eternal truth, and scientia, or knowledge of temporal things. Next, animus, which Hill renders as
“consciousness,” means the soul of man insofar as it is rational. Anima, which Hill renders as “soul,” means the soul in general, and it
includes the soul that animals have.
With these terms in mind, it is possible to understand St. Augustine’s application of his model of the psyche to the story of the fall of
man. Sapientia is identified with Adam; scientia with Eve; and the inner man with the serpent. Thus, St. Augustine suggests
sin is not a breach of an arbitrary regulation but a turning away from God through pride and self-love. Sin disrupts the divine order that
should be manifest in the psyche. Whereas man is intended to be under God’s dominion and, in turn, to himself dominate (as a steward of) the
material world, by rejecting the Lordship of God and seeking to be his own master man shows that he is in fact dominated by the material
world. Unless man opens himself to God, the self-centered self loses its self-possession and coherence, and it scatters itself in the world of
material things.
Christ’s coming in the flesh and his crucifixion and resurrection permit the redemption of the human psyche: right order can be restored through a
movement of bottom to top. The sciential function must consent in faith to the word made flesh and begin to control the appetites of the outer
man by the exercise of virtue. This permits the highest sapiential function to be released for the loving contemplation of the divine.
In other words, by sending the Son in the flesh, God counters the downward and fleshy movement of the soul by which man fell. God reaches
down to the lower reaches of man’s soul, when sinful man finds himself lost, and pulls man up to the higher reaches of the soul. This movement
begins with the humiliation of the mind in believing in the incarnation and in the death of God on the cross. The divine image, always latent
in man but not always present, is activated by minding, understanding, and loving God. In becoming ourselves, we become like God, and in becoming
like God, we become ourselves.
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