38. Trin. 9.2.2 (CCL 50:294); trans. McKenna, FOTC 45:271–72.
Analogical Breakdown
Augustine is never uncritical and recognizes the fragility of the various analogies he proposes. No sooner does he suggest the triad of lover, beloved, and love at the end of Book 8 than at the beginning of Book 9 he demonstrates its inadequacy. From On the Trinity, Book 9: (2.2) We are not yet speaking of heavenly things, not yet about God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but of this imperfect image [of God], but still an image, that is, the human person. For the weakness of our mind perhaps gazes upon this image more familiarly and more easily. Look, when I as the one conducting this inquiry love something, then three things are found: I, what I love, and love itself. For I do not love unless I love a lover, for there is no love where nothing is loved. There are, therefore, three: the lover, the beloved, and the love. But what if I love only myself? In that case aren't there only two, what I love and love? For the lover and the beloved are one and the same when one loves oneself, just as to love and to be loved are likewise one and the same when someone loves himself. For the same thing is being said twice when you say "he loves himself," and "he is loved by himself." For love is not loved unless as already loving something, for where nothing is loved, there is no love. So when anyone loves himself there are just two: love and what is loved, for here the lover and the beloved are one. It does not seem to follow, therefore, that wherever there is love, three things are understood.38
Trinitarian Analogy of Mind,
Knowledge, and Love
In Books 8–14, Augustine proposes various psychological triads. In Book 9, after dismantling the triad of love, he proposes a new interior triad: mind (mens), knowledge (notitia), and love (amor). The first time one reads this (and many similar passages) in On the Trinity, it can sound as though Augustine's logic is simply an intricate word game. It is not. He is carefully testing analogies using very specific criteria, criteria at the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity. In the following passage, he is testing whether this triad of mind, knowledge, and love is what the Trinity is: namely, if each is (i) the same substance, (ii) equal to each of the others, (iii) distinct (but not different) from one another, (iv) mutually inter-related, (v) mutually indwelling, and (vi) united (but without any mixture). From On the Trinity, Book 9:
38. Trin. 9.2.2 (CCL 50:294); trans. McKenna, FOTC 45:271–72.