A Speechless Child is the Word of God: An Interpretation of Saint Augustine on the Trinity, Christ, Mary, Church, Authority, Sacraments, Prayer, Hope, and the Two Cities (review)

1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-106
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Martin
2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Hollis Gause

AbstractThe doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the product of divine revelation, and is a doctrine of divine worship. The expressions of this doctrine come out of worshipful response to divine revelation demonstrating the social nature of the Trinity and God's incorporating the human creature in His own sociality and personal pluralism. The perfect social union between God and the man and woman that he had created was disrupted by human sin. God redeemed the fallen creature, and at the heart of this redemptive experience lies the doctrine of Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit as the communing agent of all the experiences of salvation. The Spirit is especially active in the provision and fulfillment of sanctification, which is presented here as the continuum of 'holiness-unity-love'. He produces the graces of the Holy Spirit – the fruit of the Spirit. He implants the Seed of the new birth which is the word of God. He purifies by the blood of Jesus. He establishes union and communion among believers and with God through His Son Jesus. This is holiness.


2006 ◽  
pp. 132-137
Author(s):  
Benjamin Rand
Keyword(s):  

1961 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Wassmer

A Very powerful case has been made out for the influence of the Platonism of Plotinus upon Saint Augustine. From the Manichaean simple solution of the problem of evil Augustine was delivered by reading the neo-Platonists and especially Plotinus. It was Plotinus who convinced him that God was a spirit, not a luminous body, and he always remained grateful for this deliverance from the crude fantasies of the Manichaeans. In the two years before his conversion when he was receiving a deeper penetration into Christianity through the sermons of St. Ambrose, he came to know of Plotinus in a very few treatises of the Enneads (certainly I, 6 ‘On the Beautiful’ and quite probably V, 1 ‘On the Three Chief Hypostases’) in the Latin translation of Marius Victorinus. St. Ambrose made a determined effort to apply the principles of Plotinus' philosophy to the clarification of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as against the Arians. The results of such an attempt might not be theologically satisfying but they are interesting. This impact of the mind of Plotinus upon the mind of Augustine was a decisive one because Augustine found a very great area of agreement between the teaching of Plotinus and that of the Scriptures as expounded by St. Ambrose, above all the Gospel of St. John. It was their agreement that God is spirit and altogether immaterial, as Plotinus explains, which liberated him from the Manichaean materialism. Augustine thought that Plotinus' teaching about the Divine Mind was identical with that of St. John about the Divine Logos.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Elisabeth REINHARDT

The purpose of this essay is to identify the theological comprehension of the Word as Creator in the action of the Trinity, which Thierry of Chartres (12th century) offers in his Tractatus de sex dierum operibus. In his brief and synthetic explanation, he makes coincide the findings of human reason with biblical notions, such as Figure and splendor, Wisdom, Truth, Word, not as a mere sequence but in their deep and relational meaning. Thierry’s rational method is deductive-mathematical, whereas the philosophical premise is the rerum universitas articulated in levels of necessity and possibility. All this allows creation to be considered as explication of the complicatio—or multiplicity produced by unity— which is typical of the chartrian neoplatonism, with the characteristic seal of Thierry.


Author(s):  
John Marshall

Socinianism was both the name for a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theological movement which was a forerunner of modern unitarianism, and, much less precisely, a polemic term of abuse suggesting positions in common with that ‘heretical’ movement. Socinianism was explicitly undogmatic but centred on disbelief in the Trinity, original sin, the satisfaction, and the natural immortality of the soul. Some Socinians were materialists. Socinians focused on moralism and Christ’s prophetic role; the elevation of reason in interpreting Scripture against creeds, traditions and church authority; and support for religious toleration. The term was used polemically against many theorists, including Hugo Grotius, William Chillingworth, the Latitudinarians, and John Locke, who emphasized free will, moralism, the role and capacity of reason, and that Christianity included only a very few fundamental doctrines necessary for salvation.


1960 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Wassmer

A very powerful case has been made out for the influence of the Platonism of Plotinus upon Saint Augustine. From the Manichaean simple solution of the problem of evil Augustine was delivered by reading the Neo-Platonists and especially Plotinus. It was Plotinus who convinced him that God was a spirit, not a luminous body, and he always remained grateful for this deliverance from the crude fantasies of the Manichaeans. In the two years before his conversion when he was receiving a deeper penetration into Christianity through the sermons of St. Ambrose, he came to know of Plotinus in a very few treatises of the Enneads (certainly 1/6 “On the Beautiful” and quite probably V/1 “On the Three Chief Hypostases”) in the Latin translation of Marius Victorinus. St. Ambrose made a determined effort to apply the principles of Plotinus’ philosophy to the clarification of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as against the Arians. The results of such an attempt might not be theologically satisfying but they are interesting. This impact of the mind of Plotinus upon the mind of Augustine was a decisive one because Augustine found a very great area of agreement between the teaching of Plotinus and that of the Scriptures as expounded by St. Ambrose, above all the Gospel of St. John.


1962 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Robert R. Barr
Keyword(s):  

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Francis Watson

Robert Jenson's two-volume Systematic Theology is a highly creative and individual synthesis of a number of often divergent strands of contemporary theology. An ecumenical and trinitarian theology, it is also a theology of narrative, hope, and of the word. The main body of this article attempts a sympathetic paraphrase of the argument of this work section by section. In a more critical ‘postscript’, it is argued that ‘word of God’ language is appropriate to the bible's twofold canonical structure, and that the appropriation of the beginning, middle and end of the biblical narrative to the first, second and third persons of the trinity respectively results in an undue bias towards eschatology.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Michał Graban

The author discusses two cities as interpreted by St. Augustine, the Doctor of the Church. While the first one, which Augustine personally experienced on the example of the fall of the Roman Empire, is temporal, the second is located in the nether world. However, we can experience the blessings of the latter here and now provided that we live according to the word of God, i.e. in a Christian manner. The author uses the example of Rome and its earthly glories and refers to the history of the Hebrew kingdoms described in the Bible to outline various contexts of this dichotomy. He presents a critique of Roman polytheism, classified by Augustine as a false religion, and shows the profound political, social and historical significance of his teaching about the two cities. He concludes that St. Augustine’s teaching remains up-to-date in the present-day world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Roni Ismail

In the mainstream Christianity, revelation of God manifests in Jesus Christ, in his blood and flesh. Jehovah's Witnesses, as a sect in Christianity, believes that the revelation or word of God is fully Bible, and not Jesus as in the mainstream Christianity. Bible is revealed by God directly so it is accurate. It is also belived as The Book of God's Thought because was written in His guidance. This concept of revelation has serious implications to the dogma of the Trinity. Based on Bible, Jehovah's Witnesses believes that God is not the Trinity, but God is One God and One Person named Jehovah. Jesus also is not part of the Trinity. Indeed Jesus is believed as God's word, but as a speaker of God. He is also believed as the son, as God fiirst creation. by God. Therefore, Jesus is a creature of Jehovah and is not God, so is not part of the Trinity.


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