Incredible, a tour de force. Imagine Augustine firing at his secretaries. I enjoyed the first part with fiery logic and love of Father and Son and Spirit. The second part almost prattled but I do not want to use that word. Augustine was trying to see the economic Trinity in everything and strained to make it happen.

This is heavy reading, but very rich. Hilary point-by-point refutes the Arians of his day, focusing mostly on the Father and the Son, yet a little on the Holy Spirit. I read it looking for his mentions of prayer, which is a fascinating perspective on a thick volume like this.

This book would be 3 stars if I were to rate this by the entire book (consisting of 15 books).
But I rated this book 5 stars based on reading the essential books.

The first 7 books and the final book are essential for reading to know Classical Trinitarianism as synthesized from the Bible. Whereas books 8 to 14 are Augustine's attempts to find a resemblance of Trinity in the
a) human mind, knowledge, and love
b) human memory, understanding, and will
c) sense of sight which is processed from object, form, and intention of the will

The attempts in books 8 to 14 are performed based on Augustine's conviction that human beings are made in the image of the Trinitarian Christian God which is something he has gotten from Scripture, hence he thought it is worthwhile searching for a resemblance of the Trinity's image in men. However, it seems like Augustine knew he didn't quite succeed. He knew that the images could never match up to the real thing and there are still quite a lot of dissimilarities. But according to him, where else could be a better option to look for the image of the Trinity other than in man himself?

Nevertheless, unless one is an Augustinian scholar, I think it's safe for most of us to just glance through or skip these books because it is very challenging to follow Augustine's train of thought. This is because he's quite lengthy and often goes off-tangent. Besides this, I also find that the editorial notes within these books are quite difficult to comprehend. However, there are some things worthwhile looking at, such as Augustine's critical appropriation and rejection of Neoplatonism (pg 259), participation theology (pg 245), baptismal regeneration (pg 332, 391), Augustine's skewed view of the female gender?? (pg 336), ransom atonement theory (pg 361), beatific vision (pg 391).

Books 1 to 7 and the final chapter are the gems to understand Classical Orthodox Trinitarian doctrine, especially in relation to divine simplicity, immutability, impassibility, eternity, and anthropomorphic lisping language of Scripture used to describe the Triune God. One will also learn about communication of essence (pg 405), God's immediate & simultaneous knowledge (pg 405-406), Augustine's view on the Spiration of the Spirit which is not aligned with Eastern Orthodox (pg 440), why the Word was incarnated instead of the Father or the Spirit (pg 413).

Knowing the above will help one to realize how different the doctrine of the Trinity can be between modern evangelical systematic theology books (especially from the non-confessional & independent theologians such as Wayne Grudem and D. A. Carson) and the classical view of Augustine. Plus I have to say, it's worth buying the same version of this book because Edmund Hill, O.P. is a terrific translator and editor. He really knows his stuff. He knows the background and bio of Augustine and even the philosophical and cultural background of Augustine's time. Plus his doctrine of the Trinity is excellent too. I have to give credit to him, that despite him being a Roman Catholic, his understanding of Trinity and historical theology is better than most evangelical protestant bible scholars and systematic theologians.

As the first extended work of church history exclusively on the Trinity, Hilary’s treatise is simple yet complex. There are times where it felt repetitive but deeply entered in to the depths of John 1-12 in ways I will never be able to un-see in my personal ministry and study.

Read for Doctrine of God elective under Dr. Matthew Barrett at Midwestern Baptist Theological Study.

What a book, this is an amazing work from antiquity. With that said, I do not agree with all of it or much of it. However, Augustine is a great mind prolific writer. If one wants an easy answer for the Trinity, look elsewhere. If one wants a place to start there own journey of wrestling with the Trinity, its a great choice. It may be best to look at the creeds and the heresies that led up to this work. Also, it can be a bit confusing following Augustine, however with patience one will grow a lot.

I gave this a brief skim (in Latin), surprising it is not too difficult to pick up; it is quite similar to English and languages in the Romance group. Recommended as fodder for learning a "second language" (I am not sure what number I am at- I lost count.)

În acest tratat destul de amplu, Augustin alege să meargă pe o abordare mai filosofică, ceea ce din punctul meu de vedere, i-a complicat foarte mult întregul demers. Deși îmi doream să văd o abordare mai exegetică, mai pastorală asupra doctrinei despre Trinitate, nu prea am avut parte de așa ceva. Este greu de urmărit în argumentele sale, prea arid și prea des discută despre chestiuni terțiare, nici măcar secundare, lăsând cumva neatinse aspectele principale. Ediția de la Polirom este acceptabilă.

I should have paid more attention, but what I got out of it was fantastic.

A very difficult read. I gained some new perspective on the Holy Trinity.

I don't think I'm cut out to read Augustine. I'm sure it's brilliant but it's exceptionally dry and boring.

A staggering examination of the doctrine of the Trinity. Augustine’s rigorous thinking is on full display in his treatment of theology proper, ascertaining not only the necessity of the equality persons of the Godhead through their sharing in the same substance of deity but also how humanity must necessarily acknowledge the objective existence of God’s triunity. His extended defense of the full deity of the Spirit also helps to further concretize his unique standing in the ontological and economic Trinity in way that is unfortunately foreign to many modern Christians. Though it does not come easily, De Trinitate certainly leaves the reader with a firm grasp of the Latin tradition as it relates to the doctrine of the Trinity and thoroughly reminds them of the brilliance of St. Augustine as one of the greatest theologians to have ever lived in the history of Christianity.

Reading St. Augustine is like talking with a person who spends their entire waking hours thinking about God, Scripture, and the spiritual life. After reading a biography, it turns out Augustine did organize his life in exactly this way, by systematically removing all distractions and optimizing all opportunities for prayer, thought, and holy conversation.

From the last few pages, speaking of people who struggle to understand with their intellect: "When they have placed their unshakable trust in the holy scriptures as the truest of witnesses, let them pray and seek and live rightly, and in this way take steps to understand, that is to be able to see with the mind, as far as it can be seen, what they hold on faith."

These two assumptions underlie most of the work; first, the unreliability of the human intellect, and second, the reliability of Scripture and the faith. The intellect is to conform itself to the faith. These assumptions are natural and obvious given the fall of mankind and original sin: our nature is broken in a fundamental way, and hence can't be trusted. It is for this reason that Christ came among us, to illumine us and to save us.

The book is filled with many insights and remarkable statements, like Augustine's wonder at language and writing as a tool for communicating ideas across great distances of space and time. He takes for granted that the purpose of writing is to communicate the ideas as written on the paper! Such a contrast with our post-modern times, where we imagine that the purpose of writing is for one group to impose its preferences on another group... In our days we don't believe in truth, beauty, or goodness, and so we don't believe we can communicate any ideas about truth, beauty, or goodness; hence all communication and indeed all human interaction is only about power.

That is why reading the saints is the most counter-cultural and transgressive act possible in our times.