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The Structure of the Trinity in Augustine KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 The Structure of the Trinity in Augustine HAN Byung-Soo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Dogmatics Jeonju University, South Korea I. Introduction II. Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity 1. Augustine, the Crowner of the doctrine of the Trinity 2. Epistemology 3. The Structure of the Trinity III. Conclusion Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology Vol. 52 No. 4 (2020. 11), 97-125 DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2020.52.4.004 98 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 Abstract This paper explores the structure of the Trinity, a most particular point of Augustine’s thought on the doctrine, in comparison with Calvin and in dialogue with his followers, like Ussher. Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity has been influential to the medieval ages, Reformation and Orthodox eras, even up to now. His perceptive structure of the Trinity, however, has not been duly highlighted. Even Calvin, con- fessing Augustine as his theological wholeness, did not sufficiently pay attention to this structure of the Trinity. Augustine convoyed the faith of all the poius catholic fathers, that is, “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they are indivisible, so work indivisibly.” Augustine understood the Trinity in the tripartite structure; according to God Himself (secundum substantiam, ad se ipsum, secundum essentiam), according to the mutual relation (secundum relativum, ad unvicem atque ad alterutrum), and according to accident or creature (secundum accidens, ad creaturam). This structure is quite condusive to interpreting Scripture, especially, its abstruse texts seemingly contradictive and the unity of the Old and the New Testaments. James Ussher’s work shortly states Augustine’s structure of the Trinity, but this paper goes further by more minute analysis and more detailed explication. Keywords Trinity, Augustine, Substance, Relation, Creature, Structure The Structure of the Trinity in Augustine DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2020.52.4.004 99 I. INTRODUCTION An essential problem of misunderstanding Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity is the insufficient attention given to the simultaneous consideration of the substantial unity, the personal uniquenesses of the Trinity, and the indivisibility of the Trinity in the external work. In addition, the recent scholarship on this doctrine of Augustine overlooks this structure of the Triune God as found in Augustine.1 Some insights of Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity are found in Lombardus,2 Calvin,3 and some theologians of the 17th century.4 Most of them, however, 1 Evan F. Kuehn, “The Johannine Logic of Augustine’s Trinity: A Dogmatic Sketch,” Theological Studies 68-3 (2007), 572-94; Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Goerge Rudebusch, “Aristotelian Predica- tion, Augustine and the Trinity,” Thomis: a Speculative Quarterly Review 53-4 (1989), 587-97; Edward Howells, “Appropriating the Divine Presence: Reading Augustine’s On the Trinity as a Transformative Text,” Spiritus 11-2 (2011), 200-23; C. Pecknold, “How Augustine used the Trinity: Functionalism and the Development of Doctrine,” Anglican Theological Review 85-1 (2003), 127-41; Martin Westerholm, “The Work of the Trinity and the Knowledge of God in Augustine’s De Trinitate,” International Journal of System- atic Theology 15-1 (2013), 5-24; Drayton Benner, “Augustine and Karl Rahner on the Relationship between the Immanent Trinity and the Economic Trinity,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 9-1 (2007), 24-38. 2 The main frame of the doctrine of the Trinity in Petrus Lombardus, a medieval follower of Augustine, depends on Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity. Concerning the substance of God, Lombardus says that “whatsoever is said of that most eminent and divine loftiness in respect to itself, is said in respect to substance, but that which is said in relation to anything, is not said in respect to substance, but relatively” and, concerning the relations among three persons, that “the Father is called the Father, or the Son the Son, not according to the essence, but according to the relation,” citing Augustine’s De Trinitate, V.v.6. Lombardus argues that, according to the creature, “God as the Lord, the Creator, and the Shield, who are called concerning all persons, are called from time and relatively in respect to the creature.” Petrus Lombardus, Sententiae in IV Libris Distinctae (Roma: Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas Grottaferrata, 1971), I.xxii.5., I.xxviii.5. 3 Calvin thought that Augustine’s point of view was far safer than any other’s in the Trinity and “our totality”(totus noster). John Calvin, Institutio 1559, Opera quae Supersunt omnia (CO), Vol. II., ed., G. Baun, E. Cunitz, E. Reuss (Brunsvigae: C.A. Schwetschke, 1863), I.xiii.19; idem, De Aeterna Dei Praedestinatione, CO, Vol. VIII, 266. 4 Muller says that “this fundamentally Augustinian model (the essential equality of the divine persons, double procession, and the removal of all subordination except in the order of the procession and operation of the persons), ensconced in the medieval conciliar tradition and refined by the medieval doctors, can be found in short form in the 100 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 neglected to embrace Augustine’s structure of the Trinity, except James Ussher (1581-1656), an Ireland Archbishop.5 This paper is intended to illuminate, a most monumental point of Augustine’ thought on the Triune God, namely, the structure of the Trinity, in comparison with Calvin and in dialogue with some followers of this father like Ussher. To wholly restore Augustine’s whole doctrine of the Trinity by rediscovering his structure of the Trinity is probably condusive to acquiring the best frame for interpreting the Holy Scripture, to preserve the unity of Old and New Testaments, and to recover the Author of the Bible.6 II. AUGUSTINE’S DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 1. Augustine, the Crowner of the doctrine of the Trinity The doctrine of the Trinity is the most immense of all the doctrines, the very foundation of theology in the Christian religion7 for Augustine, the crowner of the doctrine of Trinity.8 All the Christian thought of Calvin and his contemporaries.” Richard A. Muller, The Triunity of God, Post- Reformation Reformed Dogmatics vol. IV (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 84. 5 Augustine’s peculiar structure of the Trinity is rediscovered by James Ussher and Kim Young Kyu. The theme of this paper is inspired by Kim. James Ussher, A Body of Divinity, or the Summe and Substance of Christian Religion (London, 1647), and Kim Young Kyu, Augustine’s Doctrine of the Trinity (Seoul: RIBRT, 2005). 6 These are the ultimate concern of all apologetic church fathers. Tertvllian, Adversvs Marcionem, Corpvs Christianorvm, Series Latina (CCSL), vol. I (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954), I.xix.4-5; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, The Fathers of the Church, vol. VI (Washington: Catholic Uni., 1965), iii, xxxv, cvi. 7 William G. T. Shedd, “Introductory Essay” in Augustine, On the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 15-23. Also see Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol.2. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 288 (hereafter, 2:288). 8 According to Bavinck, “Augustine completed what Tertullian began… All subordinationism is banished” by him. Furthermore, “The West aligned itself with Augustine and, while it developed his trinitarian views on some points, did not introduce any changes in them nor add anything new to them.” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:287-288. Berkhof also insists that “the western conception of the Trinity reached its final statement in the great work of Augustine,De Trinitate.” Louis Berkhof, The Structure of the Trinity in Augustine 101 doctrines are grounded on the doctrine of the Trinity, because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not separated in the whole external work (opera omnia ad extra) of God. Augustine, thus, mentions that the Triune God is the highest good (summum bonum)9 and at the same time the good of all good(bonum omnis boni).10 In him, the doctrine of the Trinity is the essence of his theology and his faith and life.11 Above all, Augustine applies his thought of the Trinity as the conclusive proof regarding the unity of Old and New Testaments, in interpreting the Holy Scripture.12 For the Triune God Himself is the one and only author of the Holy Scripture as well as its fulfillment and end.13 On account of this, we should not fail to notice in his doctrine of the Trinity that “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they are indivisible, so work indivisibly,”14 and that there is a significant structure or category in Augustine’s Trinity, distinguished according to essence (secundum essentiam, secundum substantiam, ad se ipsum), to the mutual relation (secundum relativum, ad invicem atque ad alterutrum), and to accident (secundum accidens).15 History of Christian Doctrines (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1975), III.i.4. However, their concern does not reach at the epistemological background or the structure of Trinity, which made Augustine’s doctrine of Trinity suitable for what they said. 9 Augustine, De Trinitate, CCSL, Vol. L., I.ii.4, I.x.20. 10 Augustine, De Trinitate, I.iii.5, VIII.iii.4. Because of this significance of the Trinity, he is not ignore to note that “no other subject is more dangerous (periculosius) in its error, more laborious (laoriosius) in its inquiry, and more profitable fructuosius( ) in its discovery, rather than the unity of Trinity (unitas trinitatis).” 11 Augustine, De Trinitate, I.viii.18; idem, Retractationes,CCSL, Vol. LVII, I.i.4; “The original region of the supreme happiness of a living creature is God Himself.” Calvin also agrees with Augustine, saying that God is the fountain of every good. The more detailed explanation of God as the supreme goodness is found in Polanus.
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