analogy

augustine

• Talks about mind’s ability to understand, remember and to will 

• When you remember a story, you have understood the words that were being said and you need to will yourself to recall it 

• When you seek to understand a concept, you have to remember what the concept is and will yourself to understand it 

• When you will or desire something, you must understand what you are willing, and you must remember what you are willing 

• These acts can never be fully separated, so too with God 

• ‘the divine persons are also inseperable in what they do. While one might seek the word of the father, son or holy spirit more distinctly in particular situations (father in creation, son on cross, spirit at pentecost), you can never divorse what from the other 

• Real distinction of persons from one another resides solely in relationship which relate them to one aother 

• Father reveals son, son reveals fathe and the father and the son are revealed by the HS 

strength of augustine

• Maintains divine unity: unlike social models of the trinity (which risks implying three distinct divine beings), Augustine’s model upholds divine simplicity- idea that God is one, indivisible essence 

• Explains eternal relations: faculties are inseperable yet distinct, mirroring how the F, S + HS exist in an eternal relationship 

• Aquinas built upon Augustine’s analogy, arguing that the human intellect naturally reflects divine realities 

• 1) just as father eternally begets son, human intellect generates thoughts 

• 2) the son (word) corresponds to act of understanding 

• 3) the HS corresponds to the will, particularly love 

• Richard Swinburne argues that if humans reflect god, then an analogy using human cognition is appropriate 

weakness of augustine

• Risks suggesting an inequality between persons 

• Memory, understanding and will operate together, but memory (father) seems to have priority, as it is the foundation upon which understanding (son) and will (spirit) emerge 

• Raises concerns about subordinationism, where one person of the trinity is considered superior to ithers 

• John zizioulas (in Being as Communion) argues that Augustine’s model risks diminishing the co-equality of the persons -> emphasis on memory as foundational implies that Son and Spirit are derivative rather than fully equal 

• HOWEVER: augustine argues that analogy reflects eternal mutuality, rather than sequential causation 

shamrock

• single eaf that has three different elements 

• The shamrock analogy, where each leaf represents a person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), can be misleading because it implies that the three "leaves" are parts of a single entity, rather than distinct persons within one God.  

• Commits heresy of modalism 

water

• different states but same atoms 

• The analogy of the Trinity as water (ice, liquid, steam) commits the heresy of modalism because it suggests that God exists in different modes or states at different times, rather than as three co-equal, co-eternal persons simultaneously. 

egg

• yolk, albumen, shell 

• Comits partialism 

• The analogy suggests that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are dependent on each other to form a complete entity, which contradicts the biblical teaching of God's aseity (His self-existence and independence).