The Theological Epistemology of Augustine's De Trinitate

by Luigi Gioia, OSB

Overview

Luigi Gioia provides a fresh description and analysis of Augustine's monumental treatise, De Trinitate, working on a supposition of its unity and its coherence from structural, rhetorical, and theological points of view. The main arguments of the treatise are reviewed first: Scripture and the mystery of the Trinity; discussion of "Arian" logical and ontological categories; a comparison between the process of knowledge and formal aspects of the confession of the mystery of the Trinity; an account of the so called "psychological analogies." These topics hold a predominantly instructive or polemical function. The unity and the coherence of the treatise become apparent especially when its description focuses on a truly theological understanding of knowledge of God: Augustine aims at leading the reader to the vision and enjoyment of God the Trinity, in whose image we are created. This mystagogical aspect of the rhetoric of De Trinitate is unfolded through Christology, soteriology, doctrine of the Holy Spirit and doctrine of revelation. At the same time, from the vantage point of love, Augustine detects and powerfully depicts the epistemological consequences of human sinfulness, thus unmasking the fundamental deficiency of received theories of knowledge. Only love restores knowledge and enables philosophers to yield to the injunction which resumes philosophical enterprise as a whole, namely "know thyself."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199553464
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2009
Series:	Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Luigi Gioia, OSB, was a member of Christ Church, Oxford, between 1998-2003. He has held his current role of Director of Studies at the Abbey of Maylis since 2004.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Augustine and his Critics2. Against the 'Arians'3. Augustine and Philosophers4. Christ, Salvation, and Knowledge of God5. Trinity and Revelation6. The Holy Spirit and the Inner Life of the Trinity7. Trinity and Ontology8. Love and Knowledge of God9. Knowledge and Sin10. Wisdom or Augustine's Ideas of Philosophy11. The Image of GodConclusion