The passions according to Augustine

a pneumatological-trinitarian reading (commentary on "Confessions" XIII, VII, 8)

Abstract

Focusing on texts from Confessions XIII, this paper intends to deepen (by referring to other excerpts) each of the three intuitions that paragraph VII, 8 imports from Genesis 1,1-2 – first, the image of some “bottom” of creation, from which it was formed and to which it tends to return, keeping the chaos latent to it; then, the discontinuity between the eternal Creator and the ephemeral creature; and finally, the possibility and expectation of an irruption of that which consumes and elevates the will: (true) love. Supported by the trinitarian – and notably pneumatological – framework of Book XIII (cf. Brachtendorf, 2008, p. 301), the path miniaturizes the central attribute of each Person of the Christian Divinity: the abyssal unity, the differentiating intelligibility and the reunifying dynamism. Theoretically mapped, the itinerary goes from the theory of passions to a metaphysics of love, respectively collecting elements of a “deep psychology” and a theology of divine intervention – the first and third sections therefore occupying greater space. Along the way, we will briefly visit passages from other writings (Free Will, The City of God, 83 Questions, De Trinitate) and other authors (Plato, Cicero, Plotinus, Lactantius); and, interacting in particular with the comments by H. Arendt and J. Brachtendorf, we will pay attention to how and with what challenges the faculty of will emerges and develops throughout this corpus.