Augustine in His Own Words
given to everyone for profit; to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit" (1 Cor 12:7–8). If these two so differ between themselves that wisdom has been attributed to divine things and knowledge to human things, I recognize both in Christ, and everyone who believes in Him agrees with me. And when I read: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), I recognize in the Word the true Son of God, and I recognize in the flesh the true Son of man, and both are united together into one person, God and human, by the ineffable liberality of grace. As [John] goes on to say: "And we saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14). If we refer "grace" to knowledge and "truth" to wisdom, I think that we will not be inconsistent to that distinction between these things that we have commended. For in things that have their origin in time, the supreme grace is that a human being is united with God in the unity of person; but in eternal things the supreme truth is rightly attributed to the Word of God. But that very same one is Himself the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This was done that He Himself might also be in things done for us in time; the same one for whom we are cleansed by the same faith in order that we may contemplate Him unwaveringly in eternal things. . . . Christ, therefore, is our knowledge, and the same Christ is also our wisdom. He Himself plants within us the faith concerning temporal things; He Himself manifests the truth concerning eternal things. Through Him we travel to Him. Through knowledge we stretch out for wisdom; but we do not depart from the same Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3).47
From Image to Likeness
In Book 14, Augustine returns to Book 10's triad of memory, understanding, and will. Here he emphasizes that it is not simply the mind remembering, understanding, and loving itself, but the mind remembering, understanding, and loving God, whose image it is. He also stresses that the journey to God is more than introspection or contemplation; it requires moral reform, it is impossible without grace, and it reaches fulfillment not in this life, but only at the resurrection. Here I have pruned out Augustine's various sidearguments so as to highlight his core argument. From On the Trinity, Book 14:
47. Trin. 13.19.24 (CCL 50A:415–17); my trans., based on McKenna, FOTC 45:404–6. On this, see Lewis Ayres, "The Christological Context of Augustine's De trinitate XIII: Toward Relocating Books VIII–XV," Augustinian Studies 29 (1998): 111–39; Goulven Madec, "Christus, scientia et sapientia nostra: Le principe de cohérence de la doctrine augustinienne," Recherches augustiniennes 10 (1975): 77–85.
On the Trinity 307
(8.11) But we have now finally arrived at that point in our discussion where we can begin to consider the principal part of the human mind, that by which it knows, or can know, God so that we may find within it an image of God. Although the human mind is not of the same nature as God, yet the image of His nature, which is better than any other nature, ought to be sought for and found there within us, where there is the best that our nature has. But we must first consider the mind in itself before it is a partaker of God and before His image is to be found in it. For we have said that, even though the image has become impaired and disfigured by the loss of its participation in God, it nonetheless remains an image of God. For it is His image by the very fact that it has the capacity for Him and can be a partaker of Him; and it cannot be so great a good except that it is His image. Look, the mind remembers itself, understands itself, and loves itself. If we perceive this, we perceive a trinity, not yet God, but now finally an image of God. . . .
(12.15) Now this trinity of the mind is not, properly speaking, the image of God just because the mind remembers itself, understands itself, and loves itself, but because it can also remember, understand, and love the God by whom it was made. And when it does so, it becomes wise; but if it does not, even though it remembers itself, knows itself, and loves itself, it is foolish. Let the mind, then, remember the God to whose image it has been made, and let it understand Him and love Him. Or to express this more briefly, let it worship the uncreated God who created it so that it is capable of Him and can be made a partaker of Him. For this reason, it is written: "Behold, the worship of God is wisdom" (Jb 28:28). Not by its own light, but by a participation in that highest light, will the mind be wise, and where the eternal light is, there it will reign in blessedness. This is spoken of as humanity's wisdom, but it is really God's. This then is true wisdom. Now if it were only human, it would be vain. . . .
(12.16) The uncreated nature of the One who has made all natures, both great and small, is undoubtedly more excellent than those which that uncreated nature has made, and, therefore, than this, too, of which we are speaking, namely, the rational and intellectual nature that is the human mind, and that has been made to the image of Him who made it. But the nature more excellent than all the others is God. And, indeed, "He is not far from any one of us," as the Apostle says, adding: "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:27–28). If this were said with regard to the body, it could also be understood of this corporeal world, for we also live and move and have our being in Him in terms of our body. But the text must be understood in a more excellent and, at the same time, an invisible and intelligible way, namely, with respect to the mind that has been made to His image. For what is not
"in Him," about whom it is divinely written: "For from Him and through Him and in Him are all things" (Rom 11:36)? So if all things are in Him, in whom can the living live and the moving move other than Him in whom they are? Yet not everyone is with Him in that way it was said: "I will always be with you" (Ps 72:23). Nor is He Himself with all things in the way that we say [in the Eucharist]: "The Lord be with you." Humanity's great wretchedness, therefore, is not to be with Him, without whom we cannot exist. For undoubtedly we are not without Him in whom we are, and yet if we do not remember Him nor understand Him nor love Him, then we are not with Him. . . .
(14.18) But when the mind loves God and consequently (as we have said) remembers and understands Him, then with respect to one's neighbor, it is rightly commanded to love one's neighbor as oneself. For the mind no longer loves itself perversely but rightly when it loves God, by partaking in the One in whose image it not only exists, but is also renewed so as not to grow old, is reformed so as not to be disfigured, and is beatified so as not to be unhappy. . . .
(17.23) This renewal, of course, is not brought about in a single moment of some conversion, the way baptism brings about a renewal in a single moment through the remission of all sins, for with baptism there does not remain even one sin, however small, that is not forgiven. Just as it is one thing to be free from fevers and another thing to recover from the weakness that results from fevers, and just as it is one thing to remove an arrow that pierced the body and another thing to heal the wound that it inflicted through some treatment that follows, so too the first step in a cure is to remove the cause of the disease, and that is done through the remission of all sins; the second step is to heal the disease itself, and that is done gradually by making progress in the renewal of this image. These two things are pointed out in the Psalm where we read: "Who forgives all your faults"—that takes place in baptism; it continues on: "Who heals all your diseases" (Ps 102:3)—that takes place by daily advances as this image is renewed. The Apostle spoke quite plainly about this subject when he said: "Even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16). But one "is renewed in the knowledge of God," that is, "in justice and holiness of truth," according to the testimonies of the Apostle which I have just cited. Whoever, then, is being renewed in the knowledge of God and in justice and holiness of truth by making progress day by day transfers his love from the temporal to the eternal, from the visible to the invisible, from the carnal to the spiritual, and constantly tries to restrain and to lessen the desire for the first ones and tries to bind himself by love to the latter ones. But one does so in proportion to the divine help that one receives, for the word of God is: "Without me you