True Belief: The Faith of the Church and the Action of the Trinity in Augustine's De Trinitate

Abstract

<p>Augustine's understanding of the knowledge of God being made manifest in a vision following the resurrection of the dead is consistent with, and an expansion of, his basic epistemological framework where certain knowledge is grounded in the intellectual perception of eternal realities in the light of truth. However, given the eschatological fulfillment of the vision, a considerable problem arises. If the knowledge of God as triune is postponed to eternity, we must ask on what basis Augustine is certain that God is triune, since what Augustine asserts to the true - that God is a trinity - can only be believed and is not yet seen. This thesis examines Augustine's solution to this problem through a close reading of De Trinitate, demonstrating that according to Augustine, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit both order and constitute all of man's thinking (and hence loving) activity. Accordingly, the claims made in faith by the church concerning the triune identification of God can be held to be true because these beliefs are the product of the action of the triune God on the mind of man. Thus the truth of the church's claim that God is triune is understood by Augustine to be guaranteed by the action of the Trinity itself</p>