At the end of last year, the Vyšehrad publishing house published a Czech translation of one of the most influential works of the Western theological and philosophical tradition, Augustine’s De Trinitate.
This important translation and editorial work, which not only contributes to Czech theological and philosophical research, but also affects the wider cultural debate, was presented by Prof. Lenka Karfíková, the author of the translation, on Friday 28 March 2025 in the Rotunda of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Teology, Palacký University in Olomouc.
“The friendly, at the same time festive and working atmosphere of the whole meeting, which was also attended by a number of colleagues from both the Department of Philosophy and Patrology and the Faculty of Philosophy of UP, contributed to the direct work with selected passages of De Trinitate, on which prof. Karfíková illustrated the overall structure of the work as well as key points important for understanding the fundamental elements of Augustine’s thought on the Trinity, which never cease to fascinate and remain a living source of inspiration for contemporary Christian thinking in relational and trinitarian ontology,” said Dr. Eduard Fiedler, organizer of research seminars at the CMTF UP.
During the two-hour seminar, Prof. Lenka Karfíková stopped at the key points that form the main thematic axis of Augustine’s text. First, she presented the first four books of De Trinitate, devoted to Augustine’s polemic with the Arian understanding of the relationship between God the Father and the incarnate Son. The subsequent discussion returned to the issue of Arianism, focusing on the complexity of the Arian phenomenon and its various offshoots.
In a pause over the next part of the work, Books V-VII, Prof. Karfíková spoke both about the difficulties encountered by Augustine himself in translating the basic Greek terms used to express the Trinitarian dogma (úsia and hypostatsis) into Latin in connection with the different possible uses of the terms essentia, substantia and persona, and also about how to deal with this double translation problem when translating the whole work into Czech.
The central part of the seminar was devoted to the ninth and tenth books of De Trinitate, in which Augustine presents his famous psychological image of the Trinity, i.e. the interpretation of the Trinitarian mystery through its analogy with the human mind.
“The subtle interpretation of the interrelation between the mind, its self-knowledge and self-expression, linked by love, represents one of the high points of Augustine’s contribution to the philosophical and theological tradition, but also a moment that has led to many misleading and obfuscating interpretations in the history of theological thought. Prof. Karfíková pointed out, among other things, that to properly understand Augustine’s thinking about the human mind, it is necessary to realize that it does not find its meaning and source in itself, but must always turn back as an image to its archetype, the Creator, the Triune God,” Fiedler added.
The presentation of the Czech translation of Augustine’s De Trinitate took place as part of a series of research seminars on trinitarian ontology organized as part of the TRIERTIUM project (www.triertium.cz).
Photos by M. Višňa.
