On The Unity Of The Intrinsic And Empirical Nature Of Augustine's Trinitarianis

Previous studies of Augustine’s trinity would focus relatively on Augustine’s metaphysical analysis of God and the image of God in man,which is reached through the analysis of man’s mental understanding,to the extent that there would be a tendency to consider Augustine’s trinity as a path of immanent Trinity or,more directly,to criticize it as a metaphysical view of God.There are also scholars who oppose this view from the perspective of Augustine’s ecclesiology and emphasize Augustine’s perspective of Economy.Based on this discussion,this paper tries to analyze the unity of Augustine’s theory of the Trinity both in its immanence and in its economy,with Augustine’s On the Trinity as the main text to be studied.From the textual structure of On the Trinity,it can be seen that apart from the two main parts of scriptural analysis and mental analysis,their respective contents actually penetrate each other.In terms of Augustine’s discussion of the substance aspect of the Triune God,it also emphasizes the interconstitution of essences as distinct from a static metaphysical entity theory.While Augustine speaks of the mental analogy of the Trinity,he also emphasizes the limits of the mental analogy and returns to a discussion of the economy,bringing the grounding of the mantal path of inner salvation back to the historical salvation of the incarnation of Christ.On the whole,Augustine’s theory of the Trinity needs to be supplemented by inner discernment,while the mind’s orientation toward God on the path of man’s religious salvation cannot be achieved through discernment alone,but rather by emphasizing the double assurance of economy,so that Augustine’s theory of the Trinity is actually a unity of immanence and economy.