Set 10: Doctrine of God—Augustine and

the West

TH01

Introduction to TheologySpring Term 2009

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Emphasis on Unity vs Distinctions

Too much emphasis on unity (as in Nicea or even Athanasius) leads to something like Sabellianism. Therefore something like three hypostases is needed. Therefore the formula:

1 ousia, 3 hypostases; or

1 being, 3 distinctive identities; or

1 God, 3 persons; or…

Each hypostasis is the entire divine ousia characterized by a particular generative relation, such as paternity (sonship) or procession.

Key Points:

• One God eternally constituted by three relationships, which are three real identities but not three distinct beings

• A Social Analogy? Helpful but goes too far?

• The idea of “perichoresis”—helpful?

• Icon attributed to Andrei Rublev, c. 1360-1430

Augustine

354-430

6th Century Mosaic

Brief introduction at

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Augustine_Hippo.htm

Augustine 354-430

• Born in North Africa, educated in rhetoric• A teacher of rhetoric in Milan (north Italy), influenced

by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who baptized Augustine in 387

• His mother, Monica, a devoted and somewhat mystical Christian who influences him greatly

• Drawn slowly into Christianity by way of Neoplatonism and Manicheanism

• Definitive biography: Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo• “Autobiography” The Confessions

• The dominant theologian of the Latin-speaking West

• Definitive influence on concepts of self, grace, church, creation, history, and Trinity

• Strongly opposed Arianism and hierarchy in the Trinity. Too strongly?

• “And if He was not made, then He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, then He is of the same substance with the Father. For all substance that is not God is creature; and all that is not creature is God.” de Trin I.9

• Equality of will, authority, greatness, and order.

• Equality of origin, although distinct. Strongly egalitarian.

7. All those Catholic expounders of the divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written before me concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to teach, according to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity.

Yet not that this Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven, but only the Son. Nor, again, that this Trinity descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus when He was baptized; nor that, on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, when "there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind," the same Trinity "sat upon each of them with cloven tongues like as of fire," but only the Holy Spirit. Nor yet that this Trinity said from heaven, "Thou art my Son," whether when He was baptized by John, or when the three disciples were with Him in the mount, or when the voice sounded, saying, "I have both glorified it,and will glorify it again;" but that it was a word of the Father only, spoken to the Son; although the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they are indivisible, so work indivisibly. This is also my faith, since it is the Catholic faith.

De Trinitate 1.4

• The 3 Persons are one in being and one in greatness and will, authority, and action: inseparable action or operation; no priority of wills (of Father over Son) because there is no distinction of wills.

• Works of the Trinity are not divided among the Persons, but may be appropriated (or ascribed) to distinct persons (eg. “the Son is incarnate”). Key principle, “Augustine’s Rule”

Enchiridion 38“But as that created thing which the Virgin conceived and brought forth though it was united only to the person of the Son, was made by the whole Trinity (for the works of the Trinity are not separable), why should the Holy Spirit alone be mentioned as having made it? Or is it that, when one of the Three is mentioned as the author of any work, the whole Trinity is to be understood as working?”

• Reluctant to use “person” at all, but it was traditional

• Person as Subsistent Relation– Person is not a substance– Person is not a property– Person is a relationship within the substance

Augustine on “hypostasis”

They indeed use also the word hypostasis; but they intend to put a difference, I know not what, between ousia and hypostasis: so that most of ourselves who treat these things in the Greek language, are accustomed to say, mian ousian treis upostaseis or in Latin, one essence, three substances? de Trin 5.9

• Memory, Understanding, and Will as faculties of the human soul

• Memory, Understanding, and Will when focused on God

• The “psychological analogy”

• Contrast with “social analogy”

Augustine’s Analogy of the Trinity

http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/rublevs_icon/trinity.htm/map

Augustine on “Old Testament Trinity”

“Yet Scripture at the beginning of that narrative does not say, three men appeared to him, but, ‘The Lord appeared to him.’ And then, setting forth due order after what manner the Lord appeared to him, it has added the account of the three men, whom Abraham invites to his hospitality in the plural number, and afterwards speaks to them in the singular number as one.”

Augustine, de Trinitate II.10.19

“A thing certainly wonderfully ineffable, or ineffably wonderful, that while this image of the Trinity is one person, but the Highest Trinity itself is three persons, yet that Trinity of three persons is more indivisible than this of one.”

de Trinitate 15.23

“But when the sight shall have come which is promised anew to us face to face, we shall see this not only incorporeal but also absolutely indivisible and truly unchangeable Trinity far more clearly and certainly than we now see its image which we ourselves are…”

de Trinitate 15.24

“Filioque”

• The doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

• Added in west to Nicene creed in 6th C, common by 9th.

• Referred to as "double procession."

• East sees this as 2 causes; West sees as co-equality

Athanasian Creed: http://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html

1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;

2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;

4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.

5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.

• 6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.

• 7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.

• 8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.

• 9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.

• 10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.

• 11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.

• 12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.

• 13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.

• 14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.

• 15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;

• 16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

Developments 500-1500

• Refinements of definition, particularly of “person”

• Boethius: “an individual substance of a rational nature”

• Growing acceptance of the idea that God’s existence can be known by reason

• Gradual split between God as known by reason and by revelation

Fresco by Moscaccio, Florence, Santa Maria Novella

Fresco, Italy, unknown artist

Fresco, Italy, unknown artist, 15th century