Abstract
Abstract Many have helpfully written about the tension between Augustine’s affirmation of human free will and his seemingly contradictory emphasis on God’s divine grace. This chapter approaches this ostensible paradox not directly, but rather indirectly; that is, not through Augustine’s content on the topic, but rather through his method. An examination of Augustine’s writing on visual perception, particularly that found in his de Trinitate, reveals the way in which he constructs this complicated and paradoxical relationship though vision’s subjectivity, describing a human who is simultaneously active and responsible for harmful actions, yet passive against the resultant transformation; one who sees God poorly when seeing the world poorly; and one who, paradoxically, has free will, yet stands in need of God’s grace. Indeed, it is following his very model of faith seeking understanding that Augustine pulls together outwardly disparate theories of visual perception to describe vision’s subjectivity in his attempt to understand his faith.
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