The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification
10 Creation as the Unifying Prologue ly throughout creation.29 Although evidence of the Trinity is discernible in creatures, are we able to delineate the proper action of each divine person? Are we able to predicate bestowal of all existence to the Father, the nature of what something is to the Son, and the continual sustaining of a creature's being to the Holy Spirit? One noted authority does just that. Commenting on the letter to Nebridius mentioned above (ep. 10), Serge Lancel writes that, "Each of these three dimensions—or properties—of the substance refers to one of the persons of the Trinity: the first, existence [esse] makes known the Principle (or Cause) of nature and relates to its creator, the Father; the second, Form [species], refers to the Son, while one must recognize in the Holy Ghost the Permanence [manentia] in which all things are."30
Although he fails to admit that Augustine nowhere puts forth such a crisp equation as he suggests here, Lancel's interpretation does hold up when we examine other primary texts. First, it is clear that ontological primacy lies with the Father. All that exists does so because of his willingness to impart existence.31 The Father is the agent, with all esse attributed to him. Accordingly, Genesis's depiction of God's "rest" on the seventh day must be understood to imply the heavenly sovereignty in creating and not in the Father's ceasing to create. The Father is at work (cf. John 5:17) during every temporal moment because every contingent creature necessarily relies on an existence that it cannot possess through its own nature.32
29. Trin. 6.10.12: "Oportet igitur ut creatorem per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspicientes trinitatem intellegamus cuius in creatura quomodo dignum est apparet uestigium"; CCL 50.242.
30. Serge Lancel, St. Augustine, translated by Antonia Nevill (London: SCM Press, 2002), 133.
31. Cf. uera rel. 31.58. 32. Cf. Gn. adu. Man. 1.22.33; conf. 13.24.35-37. John 5:17 is Augustine's corrective to a possible deistic reading of his other beloved passage when discussing creation, Sir 18:1, "he created all things simultaneously together." In a single moment God initially brought about all that is but continues to bring new individuals out of that