SAINT AUGUSTINE

THE TRINITY

Translated by

STEPHEN McKENNA, C.SS.R.

the catholic university of america press

Washington, D.C.

Imprimi Potest:

very reverend james t. connolly, c.ss.r.

Superior, Baltimore Province

Nihil Obstat:

reverend harry a. echle

Censor librorum

Imprimatur:

X patrick a. o’boyle, d.d.

Archbishop of Washington

December 4, 1962

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat and the imprimatur agree with the content, opinions, or statements expressed.

© Copyright 1963 by

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC.

Reprinted 1970, 1981, 1988

First paperback reprint 2002

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-12482

ISBN 0-8132-1352-5 (pbk.)

THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH

A NEW TRANSLATION

VOLUME 45

EDITORIAL BOARD

Hermigild Dressler, O.F.M.

Quincy College

Editorial Director

Robert P. Russell, O.S.A.	Thomas P. Halton
Villanova University	The Catholic University of America
Robert Sider	Sister M. Josephine Brennan, I.H.M.
Dickinson College	Marywood College

Richard Talaska

Editorial Assistant

FORMER EDITORIAL DIRECTORS

Ludwig Schopp, Roy J. Deferrari, Bernard M. Peebles

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE TRINITY

Book I

Book II

Book III

Book IV

Book V

Book VI

Book VII

Book VIII

Book IX

Book X

Book XI

Book XII

Book XIII

Book XIV

Book XV

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

The trinity of st. augustine cannot compare in popularity with his Confessions or the City of God. Yet 233 manuscripts of it have been found, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth century.1 This is a rather surprising number in view of the subjects treated in the fifteen books, which even the saint himself thought few would understand.2 Unfortunately the work has not yet been edited critically as have some of his other writings, though the discrepancies in the Migne text do not appear to be of a substantial nature. A Greek translation was made about the year 1350. This was not only a rare tribute to the work of a Latin writer, but was, in all probability, the first time the De Trinitate was translated.3

St. Augustine gives us some interesting facts about this work in a letter to his friend, Bishop Aurelius of Carthage. ‘I began the books on the Trinity as a young man,’ he says, ‘but published them as an old man.’4 Young and old are rather indefinite terms, but it is commonly agreed that he started the work about the year 400 and finished it in 416.5 There are many reasons for so long a delay. Two of the most important were the struggle with the Donatists, the scourge of the Church in Africa during those years,6 and his own ill-health which forced him to leave Hippo for a time.7

Augustine’s original intention was to complete the fifteen books, check them carefully, and only then have them put into circulation. But, as he tells us in the letter referred to above, some friends surreptitiously obtained a copy while he was still working on the twelfth ...