Metaphysics of the Trinity

Metaphysics of the Trinity by Augustine

In order to try to grasp the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity Saint Augustine presents to us it’s Metaphysics.

The Catholic Church believes that God reveals Himself to us in three ways: Sacred Scripture, Creation and Tradition. Scripture: “Then God said…” (Genesis 1:3) and “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…All things came to be through Him without Him nothing came to be (John 1:1-3) and “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14) Creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder’s craft (Ps 19:2). Let the heavens and the earth sing praise, the seas and whatever moves in them!” (Ps 69:35) Tradition: “I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you.” (1 Cor 11:12) and “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread… (1 Cor 11:23)

Saint Augustine began his work On the Trinity in approximately 419. This was after the Church has solemnly declared the doctrine of the Trinity. Many people were attempting to deny the doctrine of the Trinity by declaring it to be unbounded in Sacred Scripture. The great challenge came from the idea of the Trinity as presented by Arius. Arianism was very concerned with the authority of the Father. Arius promoted this so far as to make the Son lesser than the Father. The Son was begotten and since He was begotten, He must have been created. As something created, there was a time before He was created. This heresy was so prevalent in the Church that Saint Jerome said: “The whole world groaned and marveled to find itself Arian.” (Church History Notes)

Augustine sought to dispel this heresy and to show how each member of the Trinity has the same essential nature and how the Trinity was a necessary reality of God.

In the first four books On the Trinity Saint Augustine present the Biblical foundations for the Trinity. Books five through seven are the metaphysical and epistemological explanation for the Trinity and books eight through fifteen deal with the human mind. (Matthews, Augustine on the Trinity) The concept of the Trinity is revealed by God in the very beginning of Scripture. God uses the plural in referring to Himself. “Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) Saint Augustine argues that not only does God reveal His plurality of persons in the very beginning with His creation of man but also reveals to us that man is His image and likeness. Therefore what is true of God will be seen to a lesser degree, in man. (Matthews)

The use of Metaphysics is essential in any discussion of such a mystery as the Trinity. Metaphysics is called such because it deals with what the Greek word “meta” defines as that which is beyond the physical and sensible. (Klauder, The Wonder of the Real) Metaphysics would ask, “why the human person at all, much less his relation to nature. (Klauder) Metaphysics is the science of being and in the concept of the Trinity, Saint Augustine is contemplating being itself.

Book Eight in On the Trinity begins by stating some simple example of the Trinity. Saint Augustine states that human nature is similar to the Trinity in that there is one life yet three essential dimensions, namely: being, knowing and willing. “A body moves and is moved. We cannot see into a person’s mind when their mass moves us but we perceive something present in that mass such as is present to us.” (Mathews) Augustine presents the mover, the moved and the stimulus or creative force of the movement.

Saint Augustine uses an argument from grammar to prove that God must have a three-part nature. He examines Love. In order to have love, there must be a lover, a loved, and the action of love. Since God is love, and he loves Himself, he must have the three natures. In order to be love, God must at the same time be the object, the subject and the verb. God is the highest love, love have three parts, and therefore God must have three parts (Matthews).

Augustine repeats this basic line of reasoning for the ideas of Word and Knowledge. Words are spoken. Once spoken, they are heard. The word however must come from an idea which originated inside the mind. (Matthews) He relates this to the Trinity in this fashion: In order for there to be the word or logos (Jesus), there must be the speaking of the word (the Spirit) and the Speaker (the father). There is no before and after here. There is no speaker until there is the speaking and there is no word until it is spoken by the speaker, or creator of the word. In this