The Theme of Love in Augustine's de Trinitate
The Theme of Love in Books VIII – XV of Augustine’s De Trinitate
The structure of Augustine’s De Trinitate conforms to the rule that “authority takes precedence over reason.” Having expounded upon the scriptural revelation of God, in the latter half of his grand exposition on the Trinity the Church Father attempts to draw from things here knowable an analogy befitting of God. Yet in his pursuit for an analogy depictive of the true God both the precondition from which he begins and the conclusion with which he closes is that one cannot say anything truer nor more expressive of God than that he is Love personified. Love is an elementary theme in Augustine’s De Trinitate, because the Trinity speaks to us of the miracle of love. We cannot say anything higher or better of the ‘inwardness of God’ than that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and therefore that He is love in Himself, without and before us, and without being forced to love us.
Augustine’s theology is irreducibly an interpretation of divine love, and in books 8 to 15 of De Trinitate he seeks to emphasise two conceptions upon which his theology is grounded: that God is love and that love, in turn, is God.
God is Love
Augustine is never interested in cold theological discussion. He is not principally a theologian but a contemplative chronicling his spiritual journey in theological language. His desire remains always the ongoing pursuit of the love of God, thus the theological enquiry from which all his work proceeds is how one comes to love that which one does not know. “But who can love what he does not know? [What] I am asking is whether something can be loved which is unknown, because if it cannot then no one loves God before he knows him.” For Augustine, it is through the veiled image of the divine in things here experienced that one discovers things transcendent, a disposition inspired by St. Paul: “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they
The structure of Augustine’s De Trinitate conforms to the rule that “authority takes precedence over reason.” Having expounded upon the scriptural revelation of God, in the latter half of his grand exposition on the Trinity the Church Father attempts to draw from things here knowable an analogy befitting of God. Yet in his pursuit for an analogy depictive of the true God both the precondition from which he begins and the conclusion with which he closes is that one cannot say anything truer nor more expressive of God than that he is Love personified. Love is an elementary theme in Augustine’s De Trinitate, because the Trinity speaks to us of the miracle of love. We cannot say anything higher or better of the ‘inwardness of God’ than that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and therefore that He is love in Himself, without and before us, and without being forced to love us.
Augustine’s theology is irreducibly an interpretation of divine love, and in books 8 to 15 of De Trinitate he seeks to emphasise two conceptions upon which his theology is grounded: that God is love and that love, in turn, is God.
God is Love
Augustine is never interested in cold theological discussion. He is not principally a theologian but a contemplative chronicling his spiritual journey in theological language. His desire remains always the ongoing pursuit of the love of God, thus the theological enquiry from which all his work proceeds is how one comes to love that which one does not know. “But who can love what he does not know? [What] I am asking is whether something can be loved which is unknown, because if it cannot then no one loves God before he knows him.” For Augustine, it is through the veiled image of the divine in things here experienced that one discovers things transcendent, a disposition inspired by St. Paul: “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they
Bibliography: * St. Augustine, Confessions translated from the Latin by Chadwick, H. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. * St. Augustine, De Trinitate translated from the Latin by Hill, E. New York: New City Press, 1991. * Barth, K. Church Dogmatics I.2: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Authorised English Translation. London: T&T Clark Ltd., 1956. * Burnaby, J. Amoi Dei: A study of St. Augustine’s teaching on the Love of God as the motive of Christian Life. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1938. * Charter, G. The Analogy of Love: Divine and Human Love at the Center of Christian Theology. Devon: Imprint Academic, 2007. * Demacopoulos, G. E. & Papanikolaou, A. “Augustine and the Orthodox: ‘The West’ in the East” in Orthodox Readings of Augustine edited by Demacopoulos, G. E. & Papanikolaou, A. New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008. * Kelly, A. The Trinity of Love: A Theology of the Christian God. Delaware: Michael Glazier Inc., 1989. * O’Donnell, J. J. The Mystery of the Triune God. London: Sheed & Ward Ltd., 1988. * Rahner, K. The Trinity translated from the German by Donceel, J. London: Burns & Oates, 1970. * Turner, D. The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. [ 2 ]. Barth, K. Church Dogmatics I.2: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Authorised English Translation (London: T&T Clark Ltd., 1956) p. 377 [ 3 ] [ 4 ]. Charter, G. The Analogy of Love: Divine and Human Love at the Center of Christian Theology (Devon: Imprint Academic, 2007) p. 57 [ 5 ] [ 8 ]. O’Donnell, J. J. The Mystery of the Triune God (London: Sheed & Ward Ltd., 1988) p. 94 [ 9 ] [ 10 ]. Ayres, L. Nicaea and its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) p. 381 [ 11 ] [ 12 ]. Kelly, A. The Trinity of Love: A Theology of the Christian God (Delaware: Michael Glazier Inc., 1989) p. 119 [ 13 ] [ 16 ]. Turner, D. The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) p. 98 [ 17 ] [ 26 ]. Burnaby, J. Amoi Dei: A study of St. Augustine’s teaching on the Love of God as the motive of Christian Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1938) p. 129 [ 27 ]