Visio Trinitatis: Actuality in Augustine’s De Trinitate: Between Desire and Interruption

Abstract

This article is moved by the following question: where and in what place is it possible for us here today to meet God the Trinity who has made Himself eschatologically available to humanity in Jesus Christ? The De Trinitate of Augustine shows itself to be of particular interest in this regard. Starting from the desiderium to see with the eyes of the soul the mystery of the Trinity that is believed by faith, the De Trinitate has its heart in the inventio of the locus where that can happen. With the goal of illustrating the significance and force of this intuition, the present article is articulated in three moments: the first offers the immediate context of the theme of the locus Trinitatis treated by Augustine in Book VIII of the De Trinitate, and examines how the preceding books lead up to it; the second concentrates upon the interpretation of the visio Trinitatis in Book VIII; in order to say something, in the third section, about the outcome of this intuition in Augustine’s work and the relevance of taking it up again.