Augustine. On the Trinity, Books 8-15.

Meconi, David Vincent

Edited by Gareth B. Matthews and translated by Stephen McKenna. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xxxiv + 227 pp. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $20.00--St. Augustine tells us that he worked on the De Trinitate (DT) on and off between 400 and 416. The aim of this work is basically twofold: to examine both how the absolute monotheism of Christianity can speak of three divine persons (books 1-7) as well as to examine how humanity images this triune God (8-15). A rare treasure of theology and psychology, the DT has shaped most of the West's talk about the Trinity. For how we read Scripture's often oblique references to the Trinity, how we understand the Trinitarian relations within God as well as what it means that the human person is created in this divine image, have been largely determined by Augustine. Given the importance and influence of the DT, it is curious that an English edition did not appear until the late nineteenth century when Philip Schaff included Arthur West Haddan's translation in the 1887 Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series. Since then only two more full English translations have appeared: Stephen McKenna's in 1963 and Edmund Hill's in 1991.

Relying upon McKenna's translation, Gareth B. Matthews of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has edited Augustine's DT for the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series. This edition contains a short introduction by Matthews (pp. ix-xxix), a suggested list of works for further reading (pp. xxxi-xxxii), a summary of DT 1-7 (pp. xxxiii-xxxiv), followed by the whole of books 8-15 (pp. 3-224), which is primarily where Augustine strives to show how the human mind reflects its triune creator. Matthews opens by examining eleven major points found in these latter books: fides quaerens intellectum, the problem of other minds, mental trinities, mental language, mind-body dualism, sense perception, illumination, happiness, the learning of language, divine simplicity, and skepticism and the cogito (pp. xii-xxvi). These sections are brief explorations into the complex themes running throughout the DT and Matthews repeatedly highlights the originality of Augustine's thinking here, careful to show how he goes well beyond former non-Christian philosophers when speaking about God as well as beyond other theologians who set out to elucidate the Trinity (for example, Hilary of Poitiers and Marius Victorinus).

Matthews's introduction pays special attention to the influence Augustine played on later thought. For example, DT 8 taught Anselm the interplay between faith and knowledge in theistic inquiry. Augustine here relies on mental representation to free the searcher from the problematic paradox of loving someone he has not yet met: even to be able to think of someone (for example, the Apostle Paul), is enough to "know" him enough to begin to love him. Descartes receives the most attention in the examination of Augustine's influence. Although he denies having first read Augustine's version of the cogito as found at DT 15--si fallor, sum--Descartes's reliance on the move from mental certainty to existential actuality is clearly Augustinian in formulation.

In picking up this work, two major problems quickly become obvious. Matthews's previous books and essays on Augustine have been as comprehensive as they have been illuminating but here he unfortunately limits his commentary to brief sound bites; in fact, his entire commentary is limited to only twenty-one pages. The reader is left wanting to hear more from him. Second, one wonders why Cambridge decided simply to reissue McKenna's 1963 translation as found in the Catholic University of America's The Fathers of the Church series. Matthews justifies this move by stating that other available translations are either "antiquated" or too free in their renderings (p. xxxi). Despite this criticism, however, Edmund Hill's The Trinity (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1991), with its extensive commentary and helpful notes, much better captures the language and intent of Augustine. There are not many philosophical projects greater than examining how the human person mirrors the divine and, as such, the Cambridge series is to be commended for including Augustine's DT, but this classic deserves more attention than they are apparently willing to give.--David Vincent Meconi, S.J., University of Innsbruck.