ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity in Augustine's earliest "Christian" writings the dialogues of Cassiciacum is pro-Nicene at its core and that Augustine's patent appropriations of Neoplatonic triadology in these writings are themselves largely the outcome of his pro-Nicene theological education in Milan. It develops a similar argument regarding the pneumatology of these same writings and does so in critical dialogue with the interpretations of Olivier du Roy and R. J. O'Connell, according to which Augustine's earliest pneumatology is determined by Plotinus's philosophy of the third hypostasis. The book explains that the pneumatology of Augustine's Roman writings crystallizes his earlier "economic" pneumatology in terms of the love of God and that this refinement takes place through further absorption of Scripture and Ambrose's theology of the Spirit. It highlights the manner in which Augustine's reflections on the creation narrative in Genesis.