History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 116 - Charles Brittain on Augustine's On the Trinity
11 snips
Feb 17, 2013 AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Three-Part Project To Explain The Trinity
- Augustine's De Trinitate aims to explain the Trinity and provide a human image for conceptualizing it.
- The book combines scriptural exegesis, a theory of relations, and a psychology-based analogy to the human mind.
Different Audiences Read Different Parts
- Medieval readers prized Augustine's work, but modern scholars split it: theologians read scriptural and pastoral parts, philosophers often ignore the relations theory.
- Theological readings often reinterpret Augustine's psychological analogy as ecclesiological rather than cognitive.
Philosophical Tools For A Theological Puzzle
- Augustine integrates post-Aristotelian category theory to explain how a single divine substance can have three coextensive properties.
- He adapts contemporary philosophical categories to address theological puzzles about divine attributes.