32. Trin. 15.3.4–4.6 (CCL 50A:462–67); trans. McKenna, FOTC 45:453–58. (continued)
self, introduced, as it were, by those things that were perceived on the outside where the three things appeared to be of the one substance, that is, the image of the body which is in the memory, the form which is then impressed when the gaze of thought is turned to it, and the attention of the will which joins both together. But this trinity, therefore, as we discovered, also pertains to the outer person because it was brought in from the corporeal things that are perceived on the outside.
In the twelfth, it was seen that wisdom is to be distinguished from knowledge, and, in that which is properly called knowledge (because it is inferior), a certain trinity of its own kind is first to be sought; and it together already pertains to the inner person. Still it is not yet to be called or to be regarded as the image of God. And this subject is treated in the thirteenth book by the recommendation of the Christian faith. But in the fourteenth, we discussed humanity's true wisdom, namely, the wisdom given by a gift of God in the partaking of God in Himself, which is distinct from knowledge. Our argument has now progressed so far that the Trinity appears in the image of God, which the human being is in terms of the mind. This is being renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of the One who created the human being according to His own image (Col 3:10), and so one may perceive wisdom which consists in the contemplation of eternal things.
(4.6) Therefore, let us now seek the Trinity, which God is, in the eternal, incorporeal, and unchangeable things themselves, in the perfect contemplation of which the blessed life (which is none other than eternal life) is promised to us. For not only does the authority of the divine Books proclaim that there is a God, but the whole natural universe itself, which surrounds us and to which we also belong, cries aloud that it has the most exalted Creator of all, who has given us a mind as well as a natural reason.32
Seeking the Good
Serge Lancel has remarked that "the De Trinitate is a mighty river which sweeps powerful ideas along a course that is rich in meanders and swelled by unexpected tributaries."33 Let me highlight a few meanders and tributaries. In the preface of Book 8, Augustine says that he wants "to analyze things in a more inward way" (modo interiore). He begins with an exploration of our experience of the many goods of this life: physical, aesthetic, social, etc. He insists that whenever we know this or that individual good, we at the same time get some sense of the good God who made all these goods. From On the Trinity, Book 8:
32. Trin. 15.3.4–4.6 (CCL 50A:462–67); trans. McKenna, FOTC 45:453–58. 33. Lancel, Saint Augustine, 385.