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The Visible Christ and the Invisible Trinity: MT. 5:8 in Augustine's Trinitarian Theology of 400
Author(s) -
Barnes Michel René
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0025.00226
Subject(s) - incarnation , philosophy , doctrine , exegesis , theology , humanity , faith , christology , interpretation (philosophy) , new testament , sight , religious studies , linguistics , physics , astronomy
The essay is an analysis of Augustine's solution to what I identify as the Homoian subordinationist understanding of the Son's visibility. This solution lies in Augustine's (re‐)interpretation of Old Testament theophanies, and his doctrine of the vision through Christ of the Trinity at the end‐time which Augustine supports by an exegesis of Mt. 5:8. Historically, the issue for Augustine is the connection made between doctrines of the Son's inherent "visibility" before the Incarnation and arguments made both against modalism and in support of subordinationism on the basis of that visibility. For Augustine's own Trinitarian theology, any consideration of a sight or vision of God in, e.g., Old Testament theophanies or the Incarnation necessarily raises questions about "sight" as both sensible and noetic knowledge, the structure of our way(s) of knowing, and the role of faith as the means for purifying the knowing capacity in humanity. The question of the vision of God which Augustine addresses in those early books of de Trinitate which are written around the year four hundred is connected to Augustine's epistemological concerns addressed in a variety of writings written before or contemporary to books I‐IV of de Trinitate .