Wisdom and Power

At the beginning of Book 6 of de Trinitate , Augustine begins to examine 1 Corinthians 1:24: Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God. Throughout Books 6 and 7, he asks whether this means that the Father possesses His Wisdom “relatively,” that is, in the Son, or absolutely in se .

At the outset of the discussion, he makes clear that he is aware of the use of the passage in earlier writers, like Athanasius. In response to teh Arian claim that the Son was later than the Father, Athanasius and his followers posed 1 Corinthians 1:24: If Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God, then either Christ is eternal or the Father was once without Wisdom and Power. This is the argument, Augustine says, put forward by nostri against the Arians.

When Augustine eventually departs from Athanasius’ reading of 1 Corinthians 1:24, he does so deliberately and conscious that he departs from a traditional interpretation.