St. Augustine: Man as Image of God and the Trinity
Abstract
Man is an image of God, reflecting the Trinity. Although not of the same nature as God, man is the most similar of all creatures in God’s creation. We can resemble Him because we exist, we know ourselves, and we love existence and knowledge. There is no falsehood in these three aspects, as they are not perceived through the senses or imagination.
Analysis
The image of God in man is not equal to God, nor of the same substance or co-eternal. However, humans are the species most similar to God, because the world created by God is made according to God’s plan. God intervenes in world history, becoming known through the prophets of the Old Testament, and especially through Jesus, His son and incarnation. We are submitted to the Holy Spirit, forming the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three distinct persons and one true God. God is necessary, and everything He created is contingent, existing only because of God’s will.
The crown of creation is man, defined by his relationship with God, made in His image and likeness. This image derives from man’s ability to freely love and possess self-consciousness. This is possible because man has a rational soul that distinguishes him from the rest of creation, even though he has a mortal and material body. The soul is an immaterial principle, unique in its capacity for reason, feeling, and love.
The soul reflects the Trinity within us: man is mind, rational being. The Father is being, the memory of the Trinity. Man knows; the Son is the knowledge arising from the knowledge-mind relationship. Man loves; the Holy Spirit is love. St. Augustine suggests that man reflects God through his soul, and these three truths found in man (love, knowing, and being) allow us to reflect on human life. These three aspects are inseparable and manifested in three faculties of the rational soul: will (love), memory (knowledge), and intelligence (reason). These three truths cannot be achieved through the senses or imagination.
Context
His Work: The City of God
The City of God, written in 22 books between 410 and 426, addresses the difficult times in Rome due to the ravages of the Goths and the decline of the Western Roman Empire. St. Augustine offers reassurance to Christians who doubted the Church’s survival after Rome’s fall. The work responds to the need for a new order founded on the transcendent, transitioning from Ancient Rome to a New Rome, Jerusalem, which should be constructed as the new eternal city. This celestial Jerusalem would be formed by those who love God more than themselves, while the city of sinners is formed by those who love themselves more than God.
Philosophical Tradition
Augustine belongs to the Christian patristic philosophy movement, which arose in Christian communities spread throughout the empire and had highly active centers, such as Alexandria. The patristic school is typically divided into three periods:
- Until the Council of Nicaea (325): Apologists, defenders of the faith against persecutions and growing heresies. The first schools emerge: Alexandria, Syria, Caesarea.
- Until the Council of Chalcedon (451): The peak period, with continued schools and the conceptualization of St. Augustine. The main tenets of Christianity are defined.
- Decline: Few original authors, but transmission of knowledge through their works in the Middle Ages.
St. Augustine’s Era
The link between politics and the Catholic religion, initiated by Constantine, had serious consequences, turning theological issues into political ones and vice versa, causing stability problems in the empire.