Augustine Uses The Terminology Of `` Relations `` And Work...

Augustine uses the terminology of â€Å"relations† to work through the Trinitarian thinking of one substance but three persons. It should be noted that persons is used because of a lack of better terminology. Augustine shows the interworking’s of these three persons in the sphere of relations. Relations such as Father and Son. This relation however does not speak of an inferiority of the Son to the Father but rather it only speaks to the relationship between the two and it helps distinguish the difference but it also holds the unity of the two as well. Then there is the spirit which is referred to as a gift that moves between the Father and the Son. Augustine goes on to refer to the spirit as love. There is also an emphasis on the fact that†¦show more content†¦His reasoning is that perfect love is not just love that one has within oneself nor being the essence of love. The perfect love is having love but also lavishing that love upon another. This brings ab out the duplicity of God because according to the perfection of love God has to lavish it upon something other than Himself but He still lavishes it on Himself, confusing I know. This is where the Triune God comes into the picture. The Triune is the perfect circle of God because it lets God be the perfect disposition of love in that He is love but He also lavishes it upon something â€Å"else.† With this as the basis of his thinking Edwards goes on to describe the Triune God through Augustine’s relations perspective with a little twist. The Father has to lavish His love for it to be perfect and He does this on the Son. So this is easy enough to grasp but then how is love lavished back to the Father? This is where the Spirit comes in. The Spirit is the Love that the Son lavishes back to the Father. So by the end of it there is a complete and perfect picture of love, where love is given and love is also received. When trying to flesh this out I couldn’t distingui sh the difference between Augustine and Edwards until I wrote it out for myself above. The difference is that Augustine was using the relations theory to back up the oneness of God but Edwards focused on the relations theory to strengthen the three in that oneness. There is also a feeling ofShow MoreRelatedThe Doctrine Of The Trinity9485 Words   |  38 Pagesour understanding of Christology. This is the mystery of the Trinity – how is the Godhead fully three persons, and yet one nature? Theophilus was the first to name the ‘triad’ nature of God in his letter To Autolycus in 170 A.D. Tertullian was the first to offer terminology to describe this mystery in Against Praxeas claiming â€Å"the Trinity† involved three ‘persons’ of one substance. This theology emerged from the Biblical witness, even though scripture offers no doctrine of the Trinity itself. Even