In this chapter, Augustine wants to emphasize further the unity of the Trinity. Augustine raises the problem of how each aspect of the Trinity is one, and, yet, each aspect can act in different ways while retaining its unity.
Augustine begins with a discussion of what the Trinity is not. For example, it is not all of them who are born of the Virgin Mary, but Jesus alone. It is not all of them that descends upon Jesus as a dove, this is the Holy Spirit alone. Nor is it all three who declares "you are my son" at Jesus' baptism, but God alone. So Augustine is emphasizing the Trinity's ability to act, but without all three acting and, yet, they retain their unity. This is, of course, the mystery of the Trinity as well as one of the problem for believers and non-believers.
Augustine emphasizes that even the beginning of Biblical history confirms the Trinity by emphasizing that when John writes that "the word was with God and the word was God"--the "Word of God," Augustine writes, is indicative of the Son.
Throughout this chapter, Augustine is re-emphasizing the unity of the Trinity by showing how the disparate actions are still connected--or, more succinctly, never separate; for example, in an anti-Semitic move, Augustine writes that the Jews crucified the flesh of Jesus--they did not see the divinity. To see the divine requires something superhuman, thus Jesus was connected with the Holy Spirit and God, and these elements were not crucified.
He leaves this chapter with a meditation on the body as a member of Christ, which also houses the spirit, but the body, as well, is from God. Thus, the body shall be used to reveal the story of God (from Corinthians).
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