Beeley on Ayres Augustine

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Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. xiv+360.£50.00; $80.00.

Christopher A. Beeley

Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 66 / Issue 01 / February 2013, pp 99 - 100DOI: 10.1017/S0036930611000706, Published online: 15 January 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0036930611000706

How to cite this article:Christopher A. Beeley (2013). Scottish Journal of Theology, 66, pp 99-100doi:10.1017/S0036930611000706

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SJT 66(1): 99–126 (2013) C Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2013

Book reviews

doi:10.1017/S0036930611000706

Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

2010), pp. xiv+360. £50.00; $80.00.

St Augustine’s doctrine of the Trinity has been the subject of much criticism

over the past century. Lewis Ayres’ Augustine and the Trinity aims to contribute

to the rehabilitation of the great Latin doctor on points of both doctrine and

method.

If the book has a dominant point of view, it is that Augustine’s theologyshould be understood chiefly as an expression of Latin pro-Nicene tradition.

Ayres points, then, to the ways in which Augustine made use of the wider

Latin liberal arts tradition, and more specifically how his use of philosophy

was a rather piecemeal enterprise which gradually unfolded during the

course of his career. Augustine’s work on the Trinity likewise developed

considerably over time, and it was often experimental, including the great

De Trinitate itself.

To my mind the most important part of the book is Ayres’ analysis of DeTrinitate books 5–7, where Augustine takes up the logic and terminology of

trinitarian doctrine in ways which have had a profound impact on subsequent

Western theology. Ayres expertly shows that in these books Augustine is not

so much concerned with ontology as he is with questions of predication

which arise from the biblical text. This non-technical, exegetical approach

is reflective of earlier Latin anti-monarchian traditions, as is what Ayres

regards as Augustine’s clear intent to uphold the traditional doctrine of the

monarchy of God the Father – the view that the Father is the unique source

of the Trinity. On this last point, I would suggest that Augustine’s anti-

monarchianism is characteristic of certain passages as opposed to others,

and that the two sorts of argumentation do not always fit together as neatly

as Ayres supposes; nevertheless, Ayres’ elucidation of these themes has far-

reaching consequences for the study of Augustine’s trinitarian doctrine.

The book’s defining polemic is to oppose the interpretation of Olivier du

Roy who, in a brilliant slip, is named ‘Theodore’ in the index, Theodore

de Regnon being the other great nemesis of current pro-Augustinians. Ayres

refutes Du Roy’s influential claims that in Augustine’s work the incarnationmerely serves as extra assistance for those too weak to ascend to God by reason

alone, and that such an ascent is a participation in the trinitarian structure of

reality based on Plotinian hypostases. To be sure, the incarnate Christ plays

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a central role in Augustine’s work; Augustine’s critique of philosophy from

Confessions to City of God is much sharper and deeper than many have cared

to notice; and his understanding of the relationship between the Trinity

and the psychological structures explored in De Trinitate books 9–14 is nearly

the opposite of what Du Roy believes it is – so far so good. Then we

come to Du Roy’s final claim, that Augustine produced a monistic view of

God in which the distinctions among the three divine persons are relatively

ignored, with support from Augustine’s theory of appropriations. Here Ayres’

response is less than convincing (pp. 227–9 and chapter 10). In short,

to say that Augustine’s handling of trinitarian appropriations is a ‘logical

deduction from scriptural language’ and ‘a mode of teaching employed by

Scripture’ begs the question in significant ways. Even though, in certain texts,

Augustine discusses the Son’s role in the divine economy and his identitywithin the Trinity in ways which are more akin to the Cappadocians and

Hilary of Poitiers, it does not follow that such arguments mitigate others

which do show the monistic tendency which De Regnon and Du Roy have

identified. Augustine’s exegetical choices in the latter passages often run

counter to the plain(er) sense of the biblical text and the exegesis of most

other fourth- and fifth-century pro-Nicene theologians, who consistently

stress the distinctive, eternal propria of each of the three persons, and such

arguments are not explained away simply by aligning Augustine with earlierLatin anti-monarchianism.

This is an important book, but it is not for the faint of heart. Ayres’ prose

is dense and at times abrupt, and the overall discussion is thickly embedded

in the scholarly debates of the last century. Yet that will also be its lasting

strength; for Ayres has succeeded in bringing a vast amount of painstaking

research and helpful new perspectives to the study of Augustine’s trinitarian

theology. Augustine on the Trinity will be of keen interest to any theologian or

advanced scholar who seeks guidance in navigating the vast sea of Augustine’s

theology.

Christopher A. Beeley

Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

[email protected]

doi:10.1017/S0036930612000269

Thomas F. Torrance, Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ, ed. Robert T.

Walker (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsityPress, 2009), pp. 489. $37.00.

This is a companion volume to an earlier superb work on the incarnation

published in 2008. Both posthumous publications consisted of T. F. Torrance’s

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