E pluribus unum bei Augustin

Abstract

One was right reducing the formula E pluribus unum to Augustin, who appreciates it for its contradictory character employing it within manifold contexts. Hitherto one found it in the well-known Confessiones, but since in this work the expression relates to a personal erotical friendship in the time of youth, a deeper signification results only from his philosophical (aesthetical and nu me rological) and theological (ecclesiological and christological) works, from the Enarra tiones in psalmos according to the biblic language, and even more from the De trinitate according to the gospel of St. John.