形上之路:“Una essentia-tres personae”——论奥古斯丁的三位一体上帝论的哲学建构

Path through Metaphysics:Una essentia-tres personae-On St. Augustine's Philosophical Construction of the Trinitarianism

在奥古斯丁的《三位一体》出现以前,基督教哲学一直面临着这样的矛盾:按照三位一体的官方表述,上帝的本质和存在便不全等。因为如果上帝的本质是关联性的,则其本质便不是简质的,而上帝必是一种简质性存在。为解决这一难题,奥古斯丁创造了一种模态式的三一论,即三个位格可被理解为至一的三个模态。他抛弃了Ousis和Hypostasis的理论,而用位格(person)的概念将上帝的至一性解释为无可消解的关系性,其根本原则便是位格概念中体现出的本质和存在的统一。从而,父和子的至一性,不意味着父与子各自独立的简质性。对于任何一个位格的表述,都是在关联其他位格、关联整体的意义上讲的。

Before St. Augustine＇s De Trinitate came on the scene, Christian philosophy was constantly confronted with the following antinomy. According to the Doctrine on the Holy Trinity, God, unitary in essence, is relative at the same time, which violates the congruence between God＇s essence and his being. For that, St. Augustine created a new theory according to which the three Persons are different models of the Oneness. Instead of counting on the traditional Ousia or Hypostasis, he reinterpreted the concept of Persona as an embodiment of the coherence between Being and Essence, and therefore transformed the God＇s Oneness into an innate association. In this way, the Oneness of the Father and the Son no longer implies the respective Singularity of their Beings. In another word, every single Person has the right to be what it is only in the relationships to the other two Persons.