rojo

Tesa Mejia
Prof. Macchia
PLST 570
7 April 14
Augustine
From the beginning of Scriptures Augustine believes that the triune nature of God has been revealed, we were created in the “our” image of God (37). When thinking and describing the monad of God, the triad must also be spoken of, unless the triune nature was not perfect until the creation of the Son. We will first see Augustine defend the ideas of the Trinity through the use of Scripture, the important and ultimate tool. Then we will see him use reason, or rational to show and defend the ides of Trinity.
JESUS
The defense of Jesus Christ as God is looked within the major and primary description of the Word of God, or Son of God, which is in John 1:1. This Augustine says, gives all the evidence needed in proving that the Son, Jesus, is indeed God, and is the same substance of God. He was in the beginning with the Father, and therefore he was not made like creation, but has always existed just like the Father. “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things, and we by Him,” can only mean that all things were made by Jesus (69). It is in a way an A equals B equation, for A the Father created all things so therefore B, the Son who created all things must be equal to the Father. For if this equation is not true then all things were actually not created by the Father, and the Son was then created by the Father, and could not have created all things as claimed in the Scriptures (70). Jesus is not less than the Father or beneath the Father as claimed by other, but came as a servant to do the will of the Father, obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross as Philippians 2:8 says, doing all of the one who sent him (90). He “made a passage to the kingdom of God to life eternal for His Church, to which He is so the Head as to make the body also immortal,” Jesus was there from the beginning and was used for Gods work and will in order for us to united to the Father (92). However, Jesus was not given anything once he was incarnated, but was “begotten that He might be” (pg. 94). As seen in the teachings of Athanasius, Augustine too sees this role of Son needed for a Father to be a Father, and a Father in order for there to be a son, and this is played out in God and in the Son. Jesus was “less” than the Father because he had this human form, the Incarnation, which created limits that are not part of God’s nature, but like stated earlier, he did so for the redemption of man. Jesus even describes in Scripture as being sent from and by the Father, and all things are given from Father above (113). Augustine emphasizes that there must be understanding of God's love and grace for us, and because of our sinful and “dark” nature the Word came to enlighten us and to cleanse us. Becoming flesh and through his one death and resurrection we were able to have a double death and resurrection of our sinful soul and sinful body due to inwardly sin (191). Our old self died with Christ, and we are now “justified by being made one in the one righteous One,” Jesus interceded for us, and because he is one with Father, we are now also one with the Father (200). He did so voluntarily, as stated in John 17:18f, he is able to lay down his life and take it as he pleases, but he became one of us to understand and be understood. We are then freed from death, knowing the truth, that Jesus was born, died, rose from the dead and ascended from earth to heaven, will set us free. (215).
HOLY SPIRIT We see that the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father, because the Father originally gave all things given by Jesus to him, and Jesus then gave the Holy Spirit, “a helper” for when he was to return to the Father. Although, the Son and the Spirit are not given in the same way, the Son begotten through the Incarnation, and the Spirit sent through different ways in different seasons, has caused confusion in the status of the Sprit to the Son. They are equal and in need of each other as seen within the process of Incarnation in which the Spirit came upon Mary and she then conceived the Word incarnate, Jesus (116). The Spirit was needed in different times and in different forms, such a the descending of the dove and the fire on the day of Pentecost, however the Spirit remained God, not God and one of the forms as the Son was not the Son and the Lamb of God or the Rock (121). Just as the Father and Son are the beginning of the Holy Spirit, not two but one beginning, the Spirit is one beginning, having been originated from nothing, being then the once creator, who is the one God (247).
TRINiTY
In the Trinity, he claims that there is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit equating to one God, and the same substance. Recognizing that the Son was begotten of the Father, yet is not the Father and vice-versa. The Holy Spirit also is not the Father or the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and Son, and co-equal with the Father and the Son (64). He disputes the ideas that claim the trinity came into being born of the Virgin Mary, or having been descended upon Jesus in his baptism, but has been alive and well in its own nature, but as one. They are three modes that are in one substance that cannot be divided (65). The trinity was involved in the Incarnation of the Word; the Father sent the Son by his Word; the Word of God is the Son of God, which is God Himself; the Spirit of God then having rested upon Mary to conceive the child Jesus; Jesus who is the Son of God, who is the Word, having been before the beginning of time with God (117). One is not greater than the other, but are equal to one another, having different “agendas” to the will of the Father. In Scripture when the Father is described not only is it of the Father, but of the Son and Spirit as well, they are invisible, unchanging, and immortal. Although the Son is to be seen as mortal and changeable because of the Incarnation, he showed through that that the body is mortal, yet the soul is not. This is then the defense of the invisible, unchanging, and immortal nature of the Trinity, for though they took many forms that were able to be seen by human eyes, they were not truly seen, for the soul cannot be seen and cannot be killed (126-127). Augustine believes that God is without self-cause, rather, God has always been and thus the idea of cause and effect does not apply to an infinite being (59). There is evidence in the Old Testament of “God's face” having been seen by the likes of Adam and Cain whom hid themselves from the face of God, and Abraham in which the Lord appeared. Yet in the instance of Abraham and then in Lot we see that there had been many figure or persons and were at points in the story only described as one Lord (130 & 134). However, Augustine defends these appearances as times in which God showed his triune nature through creatures such as angels in the Old Testament, and other creature-like forms in the New Testament (182). Augustine sees that the Father, Son, and Spirit occupy their own space in time and uses an analogy in order to help clarify this idea, “as when I name my memory, and intellect, and will, each name refers to each severally, but yet each is uttered by all three” (225). This is the very nature of the Trinity, having Father son and Spirit each referred to as their own but inseparable. Another example he gives is like that of a body that has many parts, so is God, who is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and one cannot be the trinity, because although one has the essence of the all three, they are not the comprehensive person of the other two (262). To talk about God is to talk about the Trinity, but to talk about the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Spirit alone is not to talk about God alone. We also do not talk about the three-ness of the Trinity because no where in Scripture is this idea of three discussed and because it is contradicted, for as it says in Deuteronomy 6:4 that the Lord God is only one God (282). To truly understand the trinity and to love God, we must first want to know him and have faith in the knowledge we acquire, and although knowledge and understanding of the Trinity may not come fully to us we may still love the Trinity through the unknown. For we know the omnipotent God, who through has occurred, but at the end of the day we must believe before we can try to understand (300). To love is to hold on to the truth in order for us to live righteously, not a selfish love, but one that is willing to die for our brother as Christ died for us. Loving ones brother Augustine says, is showing love for God, because God is love of God and is God, and as the scriptures say, to love is to know God (309). Augustine then cleverly relates love to Trinity as stating that within love there are three parts: “he that loves, and that which is loved, and love” (312). Augustine also sees this idea of the trinity through the mind; the mind is in itself, the mind knows itself, and loves itself (322). He then makes a connection to the Trinity y such as the mind, love, and knowledge, all knowing each other, loving each other, and knowing each other, all interconnected, and having to be interconnected as seen through the previous examples. However, the love of the mind is the desire of knowledge, and therefore the unknown cannot be loved (336). It is about faith, for through faith we are able to see the unseen and are able to make sense of it through knowledge and conscience (409). Augustine truly believes that through human rational seen in the mind that loves and knows itself we are able to believe and have faith in the unseen, and can know without seeing, and can even love without seeing. For we have not seen God, the Father, the Son or the Spirit, although we have seen their creatures in which they have become, we can begin to know and love the Trinity, God without seeing them. For we “see” the truth through Scripture and throughout the world, and thus must have the faith to “see” the unseen. Faith in God, Augustine says is all that is necessary in life, for nothing is good in life and nothing will be able to bless man, other than God (418). However, Augustine says that man cannot attain blessedness unless through immortality which was given to us through the Incarnation.