In Books 13-14 of De Trinitate, Augustine continues his account of the imago dei as he develops it in a historic-redemptive fashion. His method in the second half of De trin is to map out the biblical doctrine of man in his fourfold state. That is to say, he articulates his anthropology in terms of man in the state of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Books nine through eleven concern the imago dei in man by virtue of his creation and in the ideal setting of innocence. Book twelve concerns the imago dei in man as fallen and in a state of innocence lost. Book thirteen concerns the imago dei in man in the state of redemption and innocence regained. And book fourteen concerns the imago dei in man in consummate and eschatological glory. In other words, biblical revelation – from Genesis to Revelation – forms the macro-structure in which he sets forth his theological anthropology.
That biblical revelation in this half of the work serves as Augustine’s principium is at once evident by the way in which book thirteen opens. Here Augustine cites John 1:1-14 and divides the passage into two parts: the first which concerns “what is unchangeable and everlasting,†and the second which concerns what “happened in time and belongs to . . . history†(343). To put it another way, the first part concerns Christ’s eternal being while the second concerns his redemptive function. All this, of course, requires faith – the subject of the rest of the book. And here Augustine will sharply distinguish between what we might call true “saving faith†that is reality which concerns the “inner man,†and a merely external “bodily†hearing which produces a hypocritical faith. It is only this former faith – which is placed in the object of John 1; namely the eternal Son made flesh – which is redemptive and restores the shattered imago dei in man. Thus it is faith which even now grabs hold of the happiness which can only become permanent in the consummation (352-3). In chapter four of book thirteen Augustine sets for his soteriology in such a way that it becomes clear that what Christ did – particularly in his one for all sacrifice of himself on the cross – is the means through which the imago dei is restored in us (353-5). Augustine’s doctrine of the atonement of Christ, in whom and by whom the imago dei is restored in us, holds together both a ransom view (359) and penal substitution view (360). Augustine closes with the provocative statement that even faith and the virtues it produces – when kept in the memory, looked at in the recollection by the will – does not yet yield a “trinity-image”. That will have to wait until the next book on the consummation and perfection of the imago dei (365).
In book fourteen Augustine continues his historic-redemptive journey as he traces the imago dei through to the consummation of history and thus the final end to sin and the shattered image. In other words, he is working his way toward the visio dei. And here he begins by speaking of man’s wisdom. Godly wisdom in man is, in fact, piety or the worship of God. It concerns that which goes beyond faith, because faith is only temporary and will one day give way to sight. Therefore, the true trinity-image in man can not be found here and now, but only then and there (390). Herein lies the conclusion to Augustine’s journey through the imago dei as it mapped out from creation to consummation. From beginning to end, De trin is a practical theology about the relation between God and humanity built upon the foundation of an antiquarian conception of what we call today “biblical theology.â€
j2g6cT At last, someone comes up with the “right” answer!
Shoot, who would have thughot that it was that easy?
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