Within us, we can see an imperfect image of an ideal rational mind. As we know ourselves, we beget knowledge itself; as we want to know ourselves, we have an inquisitiveness for what we want to know. And so we can speak of an internal word (knowledge) begotten of mind, and the appetite that, when it achieves what it wants (knowledge), cherishes what it wanted under the form of love.

After eight books of theological exegesis, Augustine turns to a new question: can we discern a created image of the trinity to help us know God? And that he begins to do in Book IX of his On the Trinity because he discovers that being created in the image of God, we ourselves have “a certain image of the trinity.”

So it is, in Book IX, that Augustine introduces the idea of an image of a trinity found within our mind. As he explores our “inner man,” he wants to explain how our mind, understanding, and will relate to one another and yet are one substantially.

He speaks of the mind knowing itself with appetite or inquisitiveness. When the mind knows itself, it then begets knowledge of itself (i.e., a mental Word). And when inquisitiveness or appetite for knowledge gains that knowledge, it embraces the thing known or begotten as love, and unites the begetter and the begotten. Augustine calls this “a certain image of the trinity” (IX.3.18, p 285). Mind images the Father, begotten knowledge the Son, and love the Spirit.

Two Important Qualifications

To understand this argument, we need to understand two important qualifications. First, Augustine believes our created, temporal, and mutable rational mind images an ideal image of a rational mind. So we are not exploring the “inner man” as the “inner man” but the inner man as a sign of something more perfect. Our mind, knowledge, and will are signposts of an ideal rational mind.

Second, Augustine sees inquisitiveness or appetite as a precursor to love; and he sees the appetite to understand as a precursor to knowledge conceived or begotten in mind. This will be important later since when Augustine considers God as God, he will deny precursors in God that led to the Word and Love of God. God always actualizes self-knowledge as Word and always loves the Word begotten from Himself. So mind (later, memory), understanding (Word), and love (Spirit) are always actualized potencies in God which can both be said relatively of each but also remain one substance—the life that God is.

The Setup for Books X and XI

Most of this is a set up for the discussions in Books X and XI. In Book X, Augustine explores more fully how love as the Spirit works in this image of the trinity. Book XI comes to certain conclusions about what kind of knowledge Augustine has in mind (self-knowledge, not just knowledge in general).

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