The Theological Epistemology of Augustine's De Trinitate

Luigi Gioia provides a fresh description and analysis of Augustine's monumental treatise, De Trinitate , working on a supposition of its unity and its coherence from structural, rhetorical, and theological points of view. The main arguments of the treatise are reviewed first: Scripture and the mystery of the Trinity; discussion of 'Arian' logical and ontological categories; a comparison between the process of knowledge and formal aspects of the confession of the mystery of the Trinity; an account of the so called 'psychological analogies'. These topics hold a predominantly instructive or polemical function. The unity and the coherence of the treatise become apparent especially when its description focuses on a truly theological understanding of knowledge of God: Augustine aims at leading the reader to the vision and enjoyment of God the Trinity, in whose image we are created. This mystagogical aspect of the rhetoric of De Trinitate is unfolded through Christology, soteriology, doctrine of the Holy Spirit and doctrine of revelation. At the same time, from the vantage point of love, Augustine detects and powerfully depicts the epistemological consequences of human sinfulness, thus unmasking the fundamental deficiency of received theories of knowledge. Only love restores knowledge and enables philosophers to yield to the injunction which resumes philosophical enterprise as a whole, namely 'know thyself'. Contents Abbreviations Introduction 1. Augustine and his Critics I. Anagogy, creationist ontology, and analogy II. Augustine and Western Trinitarian Theology III. Augustine and Modernity IV. The Exercitatio of the incarnation V. Conclusion 2. Against the ‘Arians’: Outline of Books 1 to 7 I. Scripture and the mystery of the Trinity II. Knowledge of God III. The inseparability of soteriology and revelation IV. The logical and ontological categories of the ‘Arians’ V. Conclusion 3. Augustine and Philosophers I. Knowledge of our illness II. Philosophers on happiness III. Philosophers on knowledge of God IV. Philosophy in Augustine’s thought V. Conclusion 4. Christ, Salvation, and Knowledge of God I. The Incarnation II. Christ’s sacri.ce and his mediatory role III. Soteriology and eschatology: the subjective side of salvation IV. Conclusion 5. Trinity and Revelation I. The Trinitarian form of revelation II. God’s invisibility and his unknowability in revelation III. The transition to the inner-life of the Trinity IV. Wisdom and the identity between revealer and revelation V. The rule ‘God from God’ VI. Conclusion 6. The Holy Spirit and the Inner-Life of the Trinity I. Christology and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit II. The Holy Spirit and the unity of the Trinity III. The Holy Spirit and the ‘order’ of the Trinity IV. The identity and the property of the Holy Spirit V. The inner-Trinitarian origin of the Holy Spirit VI. The father, origin of the inner-life of the Trinity 7. Trinity and Ontology I. Ontological categories and Trinitarian theology II. Criticism of substance and person III. An ontological bent in Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity? IV. Augustine’s real understanding of the inner-life of the Trinity 8. Love and Knowledge of God I. Love and knowledge of God as truth II. Love and knowledge of objects of belief III. Love and knowledge of the Trinity IV. Love of love itself V. The theological roots of the argument of book 8 9. Knowledge and its Paradoxes I. Knowledge from the senses II. Illumination III. Intellectual knowledge IV. The mind V. Love’s misleading power VI. Self-charity and epistemology VII. The genesis of self-alienation 10. Wisdom or Augustine’s Ideal of Philosophy I. Science and wisdom II. Philosophy as worship 11. The Image of God I. The characteristics of the image II. Augustine’s doctrine of creation III. Platonic participation and Augustine’s understanding of created being IV. The image in Plotinus and Marius Victorinus V. The image in the De Trinitate Conclusion: The Primacy of Love Bibliography Index Locorum Index of Names A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z