The Logic of the Trinity: Augustine to Ockham

Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies

by Paul Thom

This book recounts the remarkable history of efforts by significant medieval thinkers to accommodate the ontology of the Trinity within the framework of Aristotelian logic and ontology. These efforts were remarkable because they pushed creatively beyond the boundaries of existing thought while trying to strike a balance between the Church's traditional teachings and theoretical rigor in a context of institutional politics. In some cases, good theology, good philosophy, and good politics turned out to be three different things.

The principal thinkers discussed are Augustine, Boethius, Abélard, Gilbert of Poitiers, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. The aspects of Trinitarian doctrine dealt with are primarily internal ontological questions about the Trinity. The approach draws on history of theology and philosophy, as well as on the modern formal disciplines of set-theoretic semantics and formal ontology.

Augustine inaugurated the project of constructing models of the Trinity in language drawn from Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, especially the conceptual framework of Aristotle's Categories. He used the Aristotelian notions of substance and relation to set up a model whose aim was not so much to demystify the Trinity as to demonstrate the logical consistency of maintaining that there is one and only one God at the same time as maintaining that there are three distinct persons, each of whom is God. Standing against this tradition are various heretical accounts of the Trinity. The book also analyzes these traditions, using the same techniques.

All these accounts of the Trinity are evaluated relative to the three constraints under which they were formed, bearing in mind that the constraints on philosophical theorizing are not limited to internal consistency but also take note of explanatory power. Besides analyzing and evaluating individual accounts of the Trinity, the book provides a novel framework within which different theories can be compared.

Genres: Philosophy

260 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2012

Reviews

[Alberony Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

‟La doctrina de la Trinidad es: hay un sólo Dios el cual existe en tres personas: Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo. Cada persona no es igual a la otra; esto es, el Padre no es igual al Hijo ni el Hijo es tampoco igual al Espíritu Santo. Cada uno es completamente Dios en naturaleza. Cada persona no es un dios en sí misma. Más bien, la totalidad de todas las tres personas componen el único Dios. No existen tres dioses, sino uno sólo. Creemos que Dios no tiene compañeros debido a que creemos que hay un sólo Dios en toda la existencia”.

Lo que nos ofrece Paul Thom con su libro The logic of the Trinity: Augustine to Ockham es la historia de los esfuerzos de importantes pensadores por acomodar la ontología de la Trinidad en el marco de la lógica y la ontología aristotélica. Una esfuerzo que fue llevado hasta lo limite del pensamiento existente al tratar de lograr un equilibrio entre las enseñanzas tradicionales de la iglesia y el rigor teórico en un contexto de política institucional. Entre los principales pensadores menciona: Agustín, Boecio, Ablard, Gilberto de Poitiers, Buenaventura, Aquino, Escoto y Ockham.

Un buen libro si desea conocer un poco mas como se fue elaborando esta doctrina dentro de iglesia, todo un enfoque basado en la historia de la teologia y la filosofia, asi como las modernas disciplinas formales de la semantica teorica de conjuntos y la ontologia formal. Una buena recomendación.