 The same year that Arnauld presented his initial critique, Malebranche published the Méditations chretiennes et métaphysiques (Christian and Metaphysical Meditations), in which “the Word” (i.e., the Second Person of the Trinity) offers a summary of his system that highlights the central role that God plays in both metaphysics and morality. This work was in some ways a follow up to his Conversations chrétiennes (Christian Conversations), published in 1677. In that earlier text, Malebranche presented a defense of the Christian religion that emphasizes the Augustinian theme of our dependence on God for knowledge and happiness. In 1684, Malebranche further developed his views on moral theory in the Traité de morale (Treatise on Ethics), in which he argued that moral virtue requires a love of the “immutable order” that God reveals to those who seek to know it.