Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 14:41 (Apr 2010)
Article: A Theoretical Framework Of The Trinity Based Upon Augustine’s Theory
Author: James S. Larson

JODT 14:41 (April 2010) p. 45

A Theoretical Framework Of The Trinity Based Upon Augustine’s Theory1

James S. Larson

* James S. Larson, Ph.D., professor of public policy, Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University and A&M College

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge believed, “the Trinity is the idea of ideas, in some way at once the clue to all thought and to all reality.”2 In the words of Coleridge, the “Trinity is indeed the primary Idea, out of which all other ideas are evolved.”3 Coleridge was a man of faith and a man of intellect, whose intuitive powers led him to make bold assertions with regard to God’s power and domain. For Coleridge, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were not only a description of the Christian God, but also a description of human knowledge.

The purpose of this article is to present a theoretical framework for understanding the Trinity, and apply that theory to human knowledge in a manner similar to Coleridge’s idea. It is loosely based upon a theory of the Trinity propounded by Augustine, that is, a psychologically based theory. It does not claim to be the intimation to all knowledge, as Coleridge did, but it does suggest that the Trinity and the personal relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ad intra (Lat. “at the interior”; i.e. acting within) provide important clues to certain typologies of thought in the social sciences. The argument is in two parts: first, there is a review of Augustine’s theory of the Trinity and his basic concepts of memory, understanding and will; and, secondly, a theory is developed based upon Augustine’s ideas in combination with a theory of social science.4

JODT 14:41 (April 2010) p. 46

Augustine’s Theory Of The Trinity

Mackey wrote in his book on the Trinity that “trinitarian theologies deriving from Augustine in the West and the Cappadocians in the East are frequently considered to be the only ones worth considering critically today.”5 Augustine’s work is seminal in the Catholic and Protestant traditions, as it presents a view of the Trinity that has been modified throughout the centuries by other Western theologians. The view is a distinctly personal and psychological one, finding the nature of God in man, specifically in the operations of the human mind, and implying that the soul or spirit is part of that mind. “The psychological analogy, used by Augustine, Aquinas, and others, es...