Monday, December 29, 2008

Vestigia Trinitatis

This is an essay I wrote on the works of a monk dude named Anselm...yep.


-The Trinity Reflected in the Mind of Man-

The doctrine of the Trinity is an aspect of the Christian faith that has perplexed mankind for centuries. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit exist individually, yet together they are one unified being. Saint Anselm of Canterberry concedes that the divine nature is incomprehensible to the human mind. However, there are still truths that may be concluded regarding the Trinity because the Creator’s image is reflected in His creation. The purpose of this essay is to present the argument that the mind of man, being created in the image of God, is a representation of the Trinity. If that is the case, then by introspection and contemplation of the divine nature, man may come to a limited, yet accurate understanding of the ineffable essence of God’s being.

The Trinity
The Trinity is understood to be one supreme essence comprised of three distinct persons. This essence is not a collective being wherein each member makes up a part of the whole, rather, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are each individually the supreme essence in the fullness of its being. It is a triad of quintessential unity wherein the three persons are one and the same to such a great extent that they are not three but one. This phenomenon may also be explained as follows; Each person of the Trinity holds particular characteristics, yet these characteristics, being distinct from each other, do not imply a plurality of that person’s being. Likewise, the Oneness of God is not compromised by the fact that He consists of three persons. This ineffable multiplicity of oneness is exemplified in The Gospel of John where it states that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Father and the Son are unified as one being while still maintaining a distinct plurality. Anselm asserts that the understanding of this mystery of the triune essence of God is well beyond man’s comprehension. Nevertheless, while we cannot fully understand what the Trinity is, we can make an accurate inference of what it is like.
The first person of the supreme essence is the Father. When it is said that He is the first person, it is not meant to imply that He existed before the Son and the Spirit, because all three exist coeternally with each other. Additionally, the Father could not be first in a chronological sense, because to do so would be to place God within the confines of time, thus limiting his omnipotence, and thus denying his deity. Stating that He is first is done to convey the idea that He is most truly the Father and His Word is most truly the Son. He is the ultimate begetter, and the Son is begotten of Him. It is through Him that the Son claims Its being, while He claims being only through Himself.
This Son is the second person of the supreme essence. He is known as the Son, inasmuch as He is the begotten of the Father. He is also known as the Word because in the same way that a word of language is used to denote the essence of a thing, the Word is the essence of the Father. The disparity in this analogy is that while a word of language can only create a mental image of that which it denotes and not the thing itself, the supreme Word is not an image, but a perfect utterance of the Father’s being. Thus it is identical to the Father’s essence and must be consubstantial to that essence. The Word is the consummate expression of wisdom, love, power, and all other aspects of the Father’s essence.
The third person of the Trinity exists as the mutual love that the Father shares with the son.
The idea that the supreme essence loves Himself is self-evident inasmuch as His being is truly love, and love by definition must love itself. Since both the Father and the Son are each individually the supreme spirit, they must each love the other with the same perfect love by which they love themselves. This love that exists between the Father and the Son, being supreme in nature, is as great as the supreme essence. Because nothing can be equal in goodness to the supreme essence other than the essence itself, it follows that this love is the supreme essence, which is called the Spirit, and is the third person of the Trinity.

The Image of the Trinity
Anselm describes the trinity by designating each member with a trait that defines that being in such a way that the human mind might comprehend it. These traits are memory, understanding, and love. The Father is signified in terms of memory, because He retains the memory of the substance that comprises Himself. The Father, being the supreme essence, claims being entirely in and through Himself. As such He is the progenitor of the Son, who is the begotten essence of the Father. The Son is signified as the understanding, or the Word, corresponding to the human mind wherein a word is begotten of the memory. The trait which defines the Spirit, has already been expressed as the love which exists mutually between the Father and the Son.
If the Trinity is understood in terms of memory, understanding, and love, then the three substances that constitute the Triune essence of God are represented within the mind of man. The Father is reflected in the human mind as it is He who is signified as the memory of God inasmuch as the human mind is the memory of man. It is only through the power of memory that understanding is formed. Thus, the Son, being the Word and the understanding of the divine essence, is reflected in the mind because a word is begotten of the memory just as the Son is begotten of the Father. The Spirit, which is love, is reflected through the human mind’s ability to love and to be loved of itself. The mind is truly unique amidst all creation in that it alone has the capacity to remember, to understand, and to love, making it an image of the Trinity through which mankind may attain a fundamental understanding of the ineffable nature of God. These images of the Trinity found within the rational mind were first recognized by Saint Augustine, and dubbed them vestigia Trinitatis. Many Medieval theologians held the opinion that these “vestiges of threeness” perceived in nature provide the foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity.
Out of this concept that the Trinity is represented in the human mind comes the question of whether the vestigia Trinitatis are a cause, or an effect. Is the Trinity a truth of God’s essence, the image of which has been implanted in the mind of man through the act of creation? Or is it a linguistic method by which man seeks to comprehend the ineffable essence of God using the human mind as an analogy? The answer to this lies in the means by which we derive our understanding of God. Anselm viewed God’s essence as beyond human comprehension to the extent that no true knowledge of it can be achieved. All theological knowledge is analogical in nature. It is only by means of comparison that the rational mind may reach an understanding of God’s essence. The Trinity is not a simple truth of the divine essence, but an analogical means through which we attempt to describe that which is ineffable.

1 comment:

Gracie said...

I like it. Two points for you.