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Work #81 · Late

On the Trinity

Augustine of Hippo
c. 399–419 (composed across two decades) · Late Latin
Theological treatise in fifteen books · Latin Christianity / Augustinian theology

The Trinity in itself, the Trinity in the human mind — the most sustained patristic analysis of God as three persons, one being

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute On the Trinity (Late)
Time · Extent Both
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

On the Trinity

God is eternal in the Boethian sense (anticipated here); created time runs linearly toward the eschaton. The Trinity is timeless in itself; its operations in creation are temporal.

Space

On the Trinity

God is everywhere by essence, presence, and power without being spatially located. Standard Christian-cosmological background.

Matter

On the Trinity

Created good. Not the focus of the treatise.

Observer

On the Trinity

The human mind is the image of the Trinity. Embodied, plural, both active (in reasoning toward God) and passive (in receiving illumination). Knowledge of the Trinity is partial in this life, total in the beatific vision.

Energy

On the Trinity

Standard medieval doctrine of God's continuous sustenance.

Information

On the Trinity

God's knowledge is total and personal. The inscribed record of every creature is in the divine mind. Personal information is conserved across death.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

On the Trinity

The Augustinian psychological analogies have been criticised by Orthodox theologians (especially in the twentieth-century retrieval through Lossky and Zizioulas) as anthropocentric and as the philosophical root of the filioque controversy that split the Eastern and Western churches. Modern Catholic theology has engaged this critique seriously (Rahner's Rule, the social-Trinitarian movement).