Book V follows Augustine on two parallel journeys. The first is his geographical relocation from Carthage to Milan while the second is his ongoing spiritual journey from gnosticism to skepticism. The story picks up with a 29 year old Augustine, now well established as a professor of Rhetoric, who had begun to read the books of certain philosophers who used reason and mathematics to explain various natural phenomenon such as solar eclipses. As he compared this 'scientific' approach with the fanciful mythology of gnostic Manicheans, doubts began to rise up in his mind and heart: "I particularly noted the rational, mathematical order of things, the order of seasons, the visible evidence of the stars. I compared these with the sayings of Mani who wrote much on these matters very copiously and foolishly I did not notice any rational account of solstices and equinoxes or eclipses of luminaries nor anything resembling what I had learnt in the books of secular wisdom. Yet I was ordered to believe Mani. But he was not in agreement with the rational explanations which I had verified by calculation and had observed with my own eyes." In light of these intellectual barriers, Augustine eagerly awaited the arrival of Faustus, the most learned and prestigious interpreter of Mani, an encounter which proved to be a grave disappointment: "When I put forward some problems which troubled me I quickly discovered him to be ignorant of the liberal arts other than grammar and literature; and his knowledge was of a conventional kind...After he had clearly showed his lack of training in liberal arts in which I had supposed him to be highly qualified, I began to lose all hope that he would be able to analyse and resolve the difficulties which disturbed me." The disappointment plunged Augustine into a brief period of skepticism although he continued to associate with the Manichees: "I had decided to be content to remain with them if I should find nothing better; but my attitude was increasingly remiss and negligent."
After giving his mother Monica the slip, and going alone to Rome in search of higher quality students, Augustine fell sick and nearly died. Recovering from his illness and having discovered that the students in Rome were dishonest swindlers, Augustine traveled to the Italian city of Milan where he first encountered the Catholic bishop Ambrose. Because Ambrose was famous for his fine oratorical skills, Augustine the rhetorician began to attend his homilies, hoping to pick up a pointer or two that he could pass on to his students: "I was not interested in learning what he was talking about. My ears were only for his rhetorical technique; this empty concern was all that remained with me after I had lost any hope that a way to you might lie open for man. Nevertheless together with the words which I was enjoying, the subject matter, in which I was unconcerned, came to make an entry into my mind. I could not separate them." Interestingly (especially for us Conservative Protestants who admire Augustine) is the fact that it was Ambrose's allegorical (or non-literal) interpretation of Scripture that really caught Augustine's attention: "Above all , I heard first one, then another, then many difficult passages in the Old Testament scriptures figuratively interpreted, where I , by taking them literally, had found them to kill (2 Cor 3:6)." The discovery of allegory was a Copernican revolution of sorts which opened Augustine up to reconsidering the Christian faith. Over and above the preaching of Ambrose, it was his genuine kindness which first attracted Augustine: "I began to like him, at first indeed not as a teacher of the truth, for I had absolutely no confidence in your Church, but as a human being who was kind to me." It was at this point in his spiritual journey that Augustine decided to leave the Manichean sect and embrace skepticism while continuing to sit under Christian teaching: "I decided I must leave the Manichees, thinking at that period of my skepticism that I should not remain a member of a sect to which I was now preferring certain philosophers... I therefore decided for the time being to be a catechumen in the Catholic Church, which the precedent of my parents recommended to me, until some clear light should come by which I could direct my course."
St. Augustine vs. Creation Science??
There is a passage in this chapter which is informative for our current intramural debates on Creationism (young earth/ day age theory/ theistic evolution). This passage comes in the wake of Augustine's realization that Mani didn't have a clue what he was talking about when it came to the natural order of creation: "Mani could be ignorant of religion even if he knew natural science perfectly. But his impudence in daring to teach a matter which he did not understand shows that he could known nothing whatever of piety." Augustine appears to extend this criticism to certain Christian interpreters of Scripture: "When I hear of this or that brother Christian, who is ignorant of these matters [speaking of scientific explanations] and thinks one thing the case when another is correct, with patience I contemplate the man expressing his opinion. I do not see it is any obstacle to him if perhaps he is ignorant of the position and nature of a physical creature, provided that he does not believe something unworthy of you, Lord, the Creator of all things. But it becomes an obstacle if he thinks his view of nature belongs to the very form of orthodox doctrine, and dares obstinately to affirm something he does not understand." I'm not sure I personally agree with everything Augustine is saying here (I lean heavily toward the young earth position while acknowledging that there are difficulties with every position!), but I resonate with Augustine's call for humility on this issue which frequently divides Evangelical Christians who are otherwise likeminded. If Kent Hovind ever gets out of jail and they invent a time machine, I'd love to see a friendly debate with St. Augustine :)
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