Aristotle’s Categories in Latin Trinitarian Theology (Marius Victorinus, Augustine, Boethius)

Abstract

From the second half of 4th century A.D. some of the Latin Patristic theologians began to use Aristotle’s categories, such as 'substance' and 'relation', 'potency' and 'act', 'matter' and 'form', to explain the Trinitarian doctrine. So, Marius Victorinus draws distinction between the Father as pure Being (esse) identical with God’s substance, and the Son as its determined form (ens, esse formatum). He views the Father as potency, and the Son as its act, while the Holy Spirit is regarded as substantial connection (connexio) between them. Augustine also ascribes to God the categories of essence and relation and treats the persons of the Trinity as the three relations in one substance. Finally, Boethius expressed the similar teaching in a perfectly logical way as a system where the relations between Father, Son, and Spirit are interpreted according to the law of identity (A = A) as relations of God to Himself. This kind of Trinitarian doctrine, looking back at Aristotle’s Categories, was transmitted to the western scholasticism where it got transformed into a doctrine of 'subsistent relations' in God.