On the Holy Trinity
Classic translation
5th c. · Dogmatic & Doctrinal · English translation, 1890
Source edition: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I (ed. Philip Schaff, 1886–90)
Cover art: The Founding of the Lavra — Mikhail Nesterov (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
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Contents
- On the Holy Trinity
- Introductory Essay
- Translator’s Preface
- The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures…
- Introduction
- 1. This Work is Written Against Those Who Sophistically Assail the Faith of the…
- 2. In What Manner This Work Proposes to Discourse Concerning the Trinity
- 3. What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of…
- 4. What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the Trinity
- 5. Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three are One God…
- 6. That the Son is Very God, of the Same Substance with the Father. Not Only…
- 7. In What Manner the Son is Less Than the Father, and Than Himself
- 8. The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the…
- 9. All are Sometimes Understood in One Person
- 10. In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the Father…
- 11. By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the Son is Now Equal…
- 12. In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which the…
- 13. Diverse Things are Spoken Concerning the Same Christ, on Account of the…
- The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those…
- Introduction
- Preface
- 1. There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech…
- 2. That Some Ways of Speaking Concerning the Son are to Be Understood According…
- 3. Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit are to Be Understood According to the…
- 4. The Glorification of the Son by the Father Does Not Prove Inequality
- 5. The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent…
- 6. The Creature is Not So Taken by the Holy Spirit as Flesh is by the Word
- 7. A Doubt Raised About Divine Appearances
- Chapter 8.—The Entire Trinity Invisible
- 9. Against Those Who Believed the Father Only to Be Immortal and Invisible. The…
- 10. Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the Fathers, or Any…
- Chapter 11.—Of the Same Appearance
- 12. The Appearance to Lot is Examined
- 13. The Appearance in the Bush
- 14. Of the Appearance in the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire
- 15. Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in that Appearance or…
- 16. In What Manner Moses Saw God
- 17. How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of…
- Chapter 18.—The Vision of Daniel
- The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed.
- Introduction
- Preface
- 1. What is to Be Said Thereupon
- 2. The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal Change. This is Shown…
- Chapter 3.—Of the Same Argument
- 4. God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the…
- 5. Why Miracles are Not Usual Works
- 6. Diversity Alone Makes a Miracle
- 7. Great Miracles Wrought by Magic Arts
- 8. God Alone Creates Those Things Which are Changed by Magic Art
- 9. The Original Cause of All Things is from God
- 10. In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist
- 11. The Essence of God Never Appeared in Itself. Divine Appearances to the…
- Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son…
- Introduction
- Preface
- 1. We are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The Incarnate…
- 2. How We are Rendered Apt for the Perception of Truth Through the Incarnate…
- 3. The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes with Our…
- 4. The Ratio of the Single to the Double Comes from the Perfection of the…
- 5. The Number Six is Also Commended in the Building Up of the Body of Christ…
- 6. The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to…
- 7. In What Manner We are Gathered from Many into One Through One Mediator
- 8. In What Manner Christ Wills that All Shall Be One in Himself
- Chapter 9.—The Same Argument Continued
- 10. As Christ is the Mediator of Life, So the Devil is the Mediator of Death
- 11. Miracles Which are Done by Demons are to Be Spurned
- 12. The Devil the Mediator of Death, Christ of Life
- 13. The Death of Christ Voluntary. How the Mediator of Life Subdued the…
- Christ the Most Perfect Victim for Cleansing Our Faults. In Every Sacrifice…
- 15. They are Proud Who Think They are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to Be…
- 16. The Old Philosophers are Not to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection…
- 17. In How Many Ways Things Future are Foreknown. Neither Philosophers, Nor…
- 18. The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order that We Being Cleansed by Faith…
- 19. In What Manner the Son Was Sent and Proclaimed Beforehand. How in the…
- 20. The Sender and the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the…
- 21. Of the Sensible Showing of the Holy Spirit, and of the Coeternity of the…
- He proceeds to refute those arguments which the heretics put forward, not out…
- Introduction
- 1. What the Author Entreats from God, What from the Reader. In God Nothing is…
- 2. God the Only Unchangeable Essence
- 3. The Argument of the Arians is Refuted, Which is Drawn from the Words…
- 4. The Accidental Always Implies Some Change in the Thing
- 5. Nothing is Spoken of God According to Accident, But According to Substance…
- 6. Reply is Made to the Cavils of the Heretics in Respect to the Same Words…
- 7. The Addition of a Negative Does Not Change the Predicament
- 8. Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of Each Person…
- 9. The Three Persons Not Properly So Called [in a Human Sense]
- 10. Those Things Which Belong Absolutely to God as an Essence, are Spoken of…
- 11. What is Said Relatively in the Trinity
- 12. In Relative Things that are Reciprocal, Names are Sometimes Wanting
- 13. How the Word Beginning (Principium) is Spoken Relatively in the Trinity
- 14. The Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy Spirit
- 15. Whether the Holy Spirit Was a Gift Before as Well as After He Was Given
- 16. What is Said of God in Time, is Said Relatively, Not Accidentally
- In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the…
- Introduction
- 1. The Son, According to the Apostle, is the Power and Wisdom of the Father…
- 2. What is Said of the Father and Son Together, and What Not
- 3. That the Unity of the Essence of the Father and the Son is to Be Gathered…
- Chapter 4.—The Same Argument Continued
- 5. The Holy Spirit Also is Equal to the Father and the Son in All Things
- 6. How God is a Substance Both Simple and Manifold
- 7. God is a Trinity, But Not Triple (Triplex)
- 8. No Addition Can Be Made to the Nature of God
- 9. Whether One or the Three Persons Together are Called the Only God
- 10. Of the Attributes Assigned by Hilary to Each Person. The Trinity is…
- He resolves the question he had deferred, and teaches us that the Father, the…
- Introduction
- 1. Augustin Returns to the Question, Whether Each Person of the Trinity by…
- 2. The Father and the Son are Together One Wisdom, as One Essence, Although Not…
- 3. Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom…
- 4. How It Was Brought About that the Greeks Speak of Three Hypostases, the…
- 5. In God, Substance is Spoken Improperly, Essence Properly
- 6. Why We Do Not in the Trinity Speak of One Person, and Three Essences. What…
- He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the…
- Introduction
- Preface.—The Conclusion of What Has Been Said Above. The Rule to Be Observed in…
- 1. It is Shown by Reason that in God Three are Not Anything Greater Than One…
- 2. Every Corporeal Conception Must Be Rejected, in Order that It May Be…
- 3. How God May Be Known to Be the Chief Good. The Mind Does Not Become Good…
- 4. God Must First Be Known by an Unerring Faith, that He May Be Loved
- 5. How the Trinity May Be Loved Though Unknown
- 6. How the Man Not Yet Righteous Can Know the Righteous Man Whom He Loves
- 7. Of True Love, by Which We Arrive at the Knowledge of the Trinity. God is to…
- 8. That He Who Loves His Brother, Loves God; Because He Loves Love Itself…
- 9. Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled from Love Itself of the Unchangeable…
- 10. There are Three Things in Love, as It Were a Trace of the Trinity
- He instructs us that there is a kind of trinity discernible in man, who is the…
- Introduction
- 1. In What Way We Must Inquire Concerning the Trinity
- 2. The Three Things Which are Found in Love Must Be Considered
- 3. The Image of the Trinity in the Mind of Man Who Knows Himself and Loves…
- 4. The Three are One, and Also Equal, Viz. The Mind Itself, and the Love, and…
- 5. That These Three are Several in Themselves, and Mutually All in All
- 6. There is One Knowledge of the Thing in the Thing Itself, and Another in…
- 7. We Conceive and Beget the Word Within, from the Things We Have Beheld in the…
- 8. In What Desire and Love Differ
- 9. In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word…
- 10. Whether Only Knowledge that is Loved is the Word of the Mind
- 11. That the Image or Begotten Word of the Mind that Knows Itself is Equal to…
- 12. Why Love is Not the Offspring of the Mind, as Knowledge is So. The Solution…
- That there is yet another and a more manifest trinity to be found in the mind…
- Introduction
- 1. The Love of the Studious Mind, that Is, of One Desirous to Know, is Not the…
- 2. No One at All Loves Things Unknown
- 3. That When the Mind Loves Itself, It is Not Unknown to Itself
- 4. How the Mind Knows Itself, Not in Part, But as a Whole
- 5. Why the Soul is Enjoined to Know Itself. Whence Come the Errors of the Mind…
- 6. The Opinion Which the Mind Has of Itself is Deceitful
- 7. The Opinions of Philosophers Respecting the Substance of the Soul. The Error…
- 8. How the Soul Inquires into Itself. Whence Comes the Error of the Soul…
- 9. The Mind Knows Itself, by the Very Act of Understanding the Precept to Know…
- 10. Every Mind Knows Certainly Three Things Concerning Itself—That It…
- 11. In Memory, Understanding [or Intelligence], and Will, We Have to Note…
- 12. The Mind is an Image of the Trinity in Its Own Memory, and Understanding…
- That even in the outer man some traces of a trinity may be detected, as e.g…
- Introduction
- 1. A Trace of the Trinity Also In the Outer Man
- 2. A Certain Trinity in the Sight. That There are Three Things in Sight, Which…
- 3. The Unity of the Three Takes Place in Thought, Viz. Of Memory, of Ternal…
- 4. How This Unity Comes to Pass
- 5. The Trinity of the Outer Man, or of External Vision, is Not an Image of God…
- 6. Of What Kind We are to Reckon the Rest (Requies), and End (Finis), of the…
- 7. There is Another Trinity in the Memory of Him Who Thinks Over Again What He…
- Chapter 8.—Different Modes of Conceiving
- 9. Species is Produced by Species in Succession
- 10. The Imagination Also Adds Even to Things We Have Not Seen, Those Things…
- Chapter 11.—Number, Weight, Measure
- After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a…
- Introduction
- 1. Of What Kind are the Outer and the Inner Man
- 2. Man Alone of Animate Creatures Perceives the Eternal Reasons of Things…
- 3. The Higher Reason Which Belongs to Contemplation, and the Lower Which…
- 4. The Trinity and the Image of God is in that Part of the Mind Alone Which…
- 5. The Opinion Which Devises an Image of the Trinity in the Marriage of Male…
- 6. Why This Opinion is to Be Rejected
- 7. How Man is the Image of God. Whether the Woman is Not Also the Image of God…
- 8. Turning Aside from the Image of God
- 9. The Same Argument is Continued
- 10. The Lowest Degradation Reached by Degrees
- 11. The Image of the Beast in Man
- 12. There is a Kind of Hidden Wedlock in the Inner Man. Unlawful Pleasures of…
- 13. The Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that the Mind Was Signified by the…
- 14. What is the Difference Between Wisdom and Knowledge. The Worship of God is…
- 15. In Opposition to the Reminiscence of Plato and Pythagoras. Pythagoras the…
- He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian…
- Introduction
- 1. The Attempt is Made to Distinguish Out of the Scriptures the Offices of…
- 2. Faith a Thing of the Heart, Not of the Body; How It is Common and One and…
- 3. Some Desires Being the Same in All, are Known to Each. The Poet Ennius
- 4. The Will to Possess Blessedness is One in All, But the Variety of Wills is…
- Chapter 5.—Of the Same Thing
- 6. Why, When All Will to Be Blessed, that is Rather Chosen by Which One…
- 7. Faith is Necessary, that Man May at Some Time Be Blessed, Which He Will Only…
- 8. Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality
- 9. We Say that Future Blessedness is Truly Eternal, Not Through Human…
- 10. There Was No Other More Suitable Way of Freeing Man from the Misery of…
- 11. A Difficulty, How We are Justified in the Blood of the Son of God
- 12. All, on Account of the Sin of Adam, Were Delivered into the Power of the…
- 13. Man Was to Be Rescued from the Power of the Devil, Not by Power, But by…
- 14. The Unobligated Death of Christ Has Freed Those Who Were Liable to Death
- Chapter 15.—Of the Same Subject
- 16. The Remains of Death and the Evil Things of the World Turn to Good for the…
- 17. Other Advantages of the Incarnation
- 18. Why the Son of God Took Man Upon Himself from the Race of Adam, and from a…
- 19. What in the Incarnate Word Belongs to Knowledge, What to Wisdom
- 20. What Has Been Treated of in This Book. How We Have Reached by Steps to a…
- He speaks of the true wisdom of man, viz. that by which he remembers…
- Introduction
- 1. What the Wisdom is of Which We are Here to Treat. Whence the Name of…
- 2. There is a Kind of Trinity in the Holding, Contemplating, and Loving of…
- 3. A Difficulty Removed, Which Lies in the Way of What Has Just Been Said
- 4. The Image of God is to Be Sought in the Immortality of the Rational Soul…
- 5. Whether the Mind of Infants Knows Itself
- 6. How a Kind of Trinity Exists in the Mind Thinking of Itself. What is the…
- 7. The Thing is Made Plain by an Example. In What Way the Matter is Handled in…
- 8. The Trinity Which is the Image of God is Now to Be Sought in the Noblest…
- 9. Whether Justice and the Other Virtues Cease to Exist in the Future Life
- 10. How a Trinity is Produced by the Mind Remembering, Understanding, and…
- 11. Whether Memory is Also of Things Present
- 12. The Trinity in the Mind is the Image of God, in that It Remembers…
- 13. How Any One Can Forget and Remember God
- 14. The Mind Loves God in Rightly Loving Itself; And If It Love Not God, It…
- 15. Although the Soul Hopes for Blessedness, Yet It Does Not Remember Lost…
- 16. How the Image of God is Formed Anew in Man
- 17. How the Image of God in the Mind is Renewed Until the Likeness of God is…
- 18. Whether the Sentence of John is to Be Understood of Our Future Likeness…
- 19. John is Rather to Be Understood of Our Perfect Likeness with the Trinity in…
- He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and…
- Introduction
- 1. God is Above the Mind
- 2. God, Although Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the…
- 3. A Brief Recapitulation of All the Previous Books
- 4. What Universal Nature Teaches Us Concerning God
- 5. How Difficult It is to Demonstrate the Trinity by Natural Reason
- 6. How There is a Trinity in the Very Simplicity of God. Whether and How the…
- 7. That It is Not Easy to Discover the Trinity that is God from the Trinities…
- 8. How the Apostle Says that God is Now Seen by Us Through a Glass
- 9. Of the Term ‘Enigma,’ And of Tropical Modes of Speech
- 10. Concerning the Word of the Mind, in Which We See the Word of God, as in a…
- 11. The Likeness of the Divine Word, Such as It Is, is to Be Sought, Not in Our…
- Chapter 12.—The Academic Philosophy
- 13. Still Further of the Difference Between the Knowledge and Word of Our Mind…
- 14. The Word of God is in All Things Equal to the Father, from Whom It is
- 15. How Great is the Unlikeness Between Our Word and the Divine Word. Our Word…
- 16. Our Word is Never to Be Equalled to the Divine Word, Not Even When We Shall…
- 17. How the Holy Spirit is Called Love, and Whether He Alone is So Called. That…
- 18. No Gift of God is More Excellent Than Love
- 19. The Holy Spirit is Called the Gift of God in the Scriptures. By the Gift of…
- 20. Against Eunomius, Saying that the Son of God is the Son, Not of His Nature…
- 21. Of the Likeness of the Father and of the Son Alleged to Be in Our Memory…
- 22. How Great the Unlikeness is Between the Image of the Trinity Which We Have…
- 23. Augustin Dwells Still Further on the Disparity Between the Trinity Which is…
- 24. The Infirmity of the Human Mind
- 25. The Question Why the Holy Spirit is Not Begotten, and How He Proceeds from…
- 26. The Holy Spirit Twice Given by Christ. The Procession of the Holy Spirit…
- 27. What It is that Suffices Here to Solve the Question Why the Spirit is Not…
- 28. The Conclusion of the Book with a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude of…