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Ayres,AugustineandtheTrinity(Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress,2010),pp.xiv+360.
50.00$80.00.
ChristopherA.Beeley
ScottishJournalofTheology/Volume66/Issue01/February2013,pp99100
DOI:10.1017/S0036930611000706,Publishedonline:15January2013
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ChristopherA.Beeley(2013).ScottishJournalofTheology,66,pp99100
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SJT 66(1): 99126 (2013)
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Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2013
Book reviews
doi:10.1017/S0036930611000706
Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2010), pp. xiv+360. 50.00; $80.00.
St Augustines doctrine of the Trinity has been the subject of much criticism
over the past century. Lewis Ayres Augustine and the Trinity aims to contribute
to the rehabilitation of the great Latin doctor on points of both doctrine and
method.
If the book has a dominant point of view, it is that Augustines theology
should be understood chiey as an expression of Latin pro-Nicene tradition.
Ayres points, then, to the ways in which Augustine made use of the wider
Latin liberal arts tradition, and more specically how his use of philosophy
was a rather piecemeal enterprise which gradually unfolded during the
course of his career. Augustines work on the Trinity likewise developed
considerably over time, and it was often experimental, including the great
De Trinitate itself.
To my mind the most important part of the book is Ayres analysis of De
Trinitate books 57, where Augustine takes up the logic and terminology of
trinitarian doctrine in ways which have had a profound impact on subsequent
Western theology. Ayres expertly shows that in these books Augustine is not
so much concerned with ontology as he is with questions of predication
which arise from the biblical text. This non-technical, exegetical approach
is reective of earlier Latin anti-monarchian traditions, as is what Ayres
regards as Augustines clear intent to uphold the traditional doctrine of the
monarchy of God the Father the view that the Father is the unique source
of the Trinity. On this last point, I would suggest that Augustines anti-
monarchianism is characteristic of certain passages as opposed to others,
and that the two sorts of argumentation do not always t together as neatly
as Ayres supposes; nevertheless, Ayres elucidation of these themes has far-
reaching consequences for the study of Augustines trinitarian doctrine.
The books dening polemic is to oppose the interpretation of Olivier du
Roy who, in a brilliant slip, is named Theodore in the index, Theodore
de R egnon being the other great nemesis of current pro-Augustinians. Ayres
refutes Du Roys inuential claims that in Augustines work the incarnation
merely serves as extra assistance for those too weak to ascend to God by reason
alone, and that such an ascent is a participation in the trinitarian structure of
reality based on Plotinian hypostases. To be sure, the incarnate Christ plays
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scottish journal of theology
a central role in Augustines work; Augustines critique of philosophy from
Confessions to City of God is much sharper and deeper than many have cared
to notice; and his understanding of the relationship between the Trinity
and the psychological structures explored in De Trinitate books 914 is nearly
the opposite of what Du Roy believes it is so far so good. Then we
come to Du Roys nal claim, that Augustine produced a monistic view of
God in which the distinctions among the three divine persons are relatively
ignored, with support fromAugustines theory of appropriations. Here Ayres
response is less than convincing (pp. 2279 and chapter 10). In short,
to say that Augustines handling of trinitarian appropriations is a logical
deduction from scriptural language and a mode of teaching employed by
Scripture begs the question in signicant ways. Even though, in certain texts,
Augustine discusses the Sons role in the divine economy and his identity
within the Trinity in ways which are more akin to the Cappadocians and
Hilary of Poitiers, it does not follow that such arguments mitigate others
which do show the monistic tendency which De R egnon and Du Roy have
identied. Augustines exegetical choices in the latter passages often run
counter to the plain(er) sense of the biblical text and the exegesis of most
other fourth- and fth-century pro-Nicene theologians, who consistently
stress the distinctive, eternal propria of each of the three persons, and such
arguments are not explained away simply by aligning Augustine with earlier
Latin anti-monarchianism.
This is an important book, but it is not for the faint of heart. Ayres prose
is dense and at times abrupt, and the overall discussion is thickly embedded
in the scholarly debates of the last century. Yet that will also be its lasting
strength; for Ayres has succeeded in bringing a vast amount of painstaking
research and helpful new perspectives to the study of Augustines trinitarian
theology. Augustine on the Trinity will be of keen interest to any theologian or
advanced scholar who seeks guidance in navigating the vast sea of Augustines
theology.
Christopher A. Beeley
Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
christopher.beeley@yale.edu
doi:10.1017/S0036930612000269
Thomas F. Torrance, Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ, ed. Robert T.
Walker (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 2009), pp. 489. $37.00.
This is a companion volume to an earlier superb work on the incarnation
published in 2008. Both posthumous publications consisted of T. F. Torrances
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