Augustine's Confessions - Secular Ambitions and Conflicts (Book VI)

Book VI traces the internal turmoil of Augustine during his relatively brief period of skepticism in Milan.  By the conclusion of Book V, Augustine has eliminated Manichaeism as a viable intellectual option and has begun to 'doubt everything'. Book VI expands upon themes introduced in the previous book and is interspersed with biographical sketches regarding Monica, Ambrose, Alypius and Nebridius.  The extensive biographical material in this book serves to illuminate Augustine's own spiritual and intellectual quest through comparison and contrast.  Monica, Ambrose and Alypius, in particular, function as literary foils for Augustine.

Book VI opens with the arrival of Monica in Milan where she finds her son in a slightly more promising spiritual condition than when he had left Rome.  Augustine testifies that "I had not yet attained the truth, but I was rescued from falsehood." (VI.i.1)  In this first biographical sketch, Augustine focuses on his Mother's willingness to part with African tradition (rooted in the 'physical' realm) in order to embrace a higher spiritual ideal: "Instead of a basket full of the fruits of the earth, she learned to bring a heart full of purer vows to the memorials of the martyrs." (VI.ii.2)  The ease with which Monica turns from the realm of the 'physical', which is lower on the scale of good, (cf. II.v.10) is in stark contrast with Augustine who is still mired in his pursuit of physical pleasure.  In contrast to Augustine, "her quest was for devotion, not pleasure." (VI.ii.2)

The second biographical sketch centres on Bishop Ambrose.  The serene Ambrose, who sits reading in silence for long periods of time contrasts sharply with Faustus and the "loquacious" Manichees.  The serenity and stability of Ambrose also contrasts with Augustine, whose mind at this juncture was "intent on inquiry and restless for debate." (VI.iii.3)  This section builds upon the important discussion regarding figurative hermeneutics in Book V.  The essence of Ambrose's hermeneutic is summarized in VI.iv.6 with a Pauline citation:  "'The letter kills, the spirit gives life' (2 Cor. 3:6)."  Through the influence of Ambrose, Augustine experiences a 'paradigm shift' of sorts which demonstrates, to his own shame, that his former conception of the Catholic Church was little more than a straw man.  As a result, Augustine the skeptic hesitantly decides to give preference to the Catholic faith. (VI.v.7)  

The discussion on figurative hermeneutics opens up a larger discussion on authority.  Here, we can discern progress in Augustine's thinking.  In VI.iv.6 it is evident that Augustine is looking for a belief system which could be held with mathematical certainty.  By VI.v.7-8, however, he seems to have moved away from a strict form of evidentialism to a certain kind of presuppositionalism as evidenced by his view of Scriptural authority.  Augustine's doctrine of Scripture appears to foreshadow that of Calvin, who argued in his Institutes that the Bible has a self-attesting quality which does not require rational proof.[1]

 

Beginning in VI.vi.9-10 the focus of the book shifts onto Augustine's vain quest for "honours, money [and] marriage."  The utter vanity of his secular ambition is unmasked through an encounter with a drunken beggar in the streets of Milan.  Even though the beggar didn't possess true joy, the well educated Augustine realizes to his dismay that "he was far happier" in his drunken stupor. Furthermore, the beggar attained happiness honestly "by wishing good luck" while Augustine pursued happiness "by telling lies".

Augustine's disillusionment is shared by his roommates and pupils Alypius and Nebridius.  Much of the second half of this Book is taken up by a detailed biographical sketch of Alypius, who is presented to us in rather idealistic terms.  Chadwick postulates that this information was included largely to satisfy the request of Paulinus of Nola for a biography of this young man who went on to become the Bishop of Thagaste.  Like Monica, Alypius is portrayed as a person who is not enslaved to the physical realm.  He thus serves as another literary foil for Augustine who is still hopelessly mired in lust.  Embedded within this biography of Alypius is an internal monologue which reveals, through its distinctive style, Augustine's volatile state of mind as he wavers between the quest for truth and the quest for secular success. (VI.xi.18-19)

Particularly notable in the concluding paragraphs of Book VI is a discussion on marriage in which Augustine laments the painful loss of his mistress.  The quest for secular success made possible through a dowry has once again impeded his quest for happiness and left Augustine in a state of despair and frigid numbness.  The only factors which keep him from spiraling into unrestrained hedonism are his fear of death and divine punishment and the influence of his friends, who "he loved…for their own sake". (VI.xvi.26)

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[1] "Let this point therefore stand:  that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture indeed is self-authenticated; hence, it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning." (Institutes, I.vii.5)

Augustine's Confessions - Carthage, Rome and Milan (Book V)

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 :)

Jonah- God's Missionary Heart

I recently had the opportunity to preach from the book of Jonah.  The podcast is available at the following website:  http://www.rosedalebaptistwelland.com/podcast/ .  Scroll down to Feb. 13, 2011 and you will find it.  There is also a second sermon posted there that I preached back in November. 

Augustine's Confessions - Manichee and Astrologer (Book IV)

This book covers a nine year period (age 19-28), when Augustine was mired in gnostic heresy.  He describes this period as one of "being seduced and seducing, being deceived and deceiving." It was during this spiritually dark stage of life that he took a concubine from Carthage, who became his partner for fifteen years and bore him a son.  Even though Roman law and social convention prevented a formal marriage, Augustine still viewed the relationship as far less than ideal. Augustine the gnostic was also mired in pagan superstition and would frequently consult astrologers in spite of his being warned by a wise old medical doctor named Vindicanus that astrology was really pseudo-science and a waste of time and money.

Much of this book is taken up with a discussion on grief and disordered emotions, stemming from the death of Augustine's close friend Nebridius.  Under Augustine's influence, Nebridius had left the Catholic fold and converted to gnosticism.  Sometime later, he fell deathly ill and was baptized by his Christian family while in an unconscious state.  When he regained consciousness, Augustine began to joke around with him about the sacrament of baptism, but Nebridius rebuked him harshly and died several days later.  There are strong overtones of baptismal regeneration as Augustine reflects back on this incident.  The sudden death of Nebridius pushed Augustine over the edge of despair:  "Everything on which I set my gaze was death.  My hometown became a to me."  The grief was toxic and unnatural, and Augustine testifies that "I had become to myself a vast problem" and "my life was to me a horror."  After several pages of painful analysis, he relates his intense grief to the sin of idolatry: "The reason why that grief had penetrated me so easily and deeply was that I had poured out my soul on to the sand by loving a person sure to die as if he would never die."  Nebridius had become a substitute for God for Augustine.

Augustine the gnostic was firmly indoctrinated in the Manichee worldview which was fundamentally materialist.  This 'materialism' became a tremendous barrier to further spiritual progress because he was utterly unable to conceive of God as a spiritual Being:  "I thought that you , Lord God and Truth, were like a luminous body of immense size and myself a bit of that body.  What extraordinary perversity!"  Along these same lines he wrote, "My mind moved within the confines of corporeal forms."  This materialist worldview also led Augustine to embrace a dualistic view of good and evil, where evil had "not only substance but life." The spiritual blindness caused by gnostic presuppositions is a theme which carries on for several chapters until Augustine finally discovers the writings of the Neo Platonists and comes to the conclusion that evil is actually the "privation" of good.

Looking back on this stage of his spiritual journey, Augustine can only describe his time with the Manichees by means of Plato's famous "cave" illustration:  "I had my back to the light and my face toward the things which are illuminated.  So my face, by which I was enabled to see the things lit up, was not itself illuminated."

Augustine's Confessions - Student at Carthage (Book III)

From his hometown of Thagaste, Augustine, now 18 years of age, traveled to Carthage to continue his secular education.  He describes Carthage as "a cauldron of illicit loves," i(1)  Although the deep desire of his soul was to love and to be loved (indeed a good desire placed in his heart by God), he readily admits that "I was in love with love" and sought to fulfill his desires through unrestrained lust.  Looking back on this experience as a mature believer, Augustine sees himself as a prisoner in bondage to sin: "I attained the joy that enchains.  I was glad to be in bondage, tied with troublesome chains, with the result that I was flogged with the red-hot iron rods of jealousy suspicion, fear, anger, and contention."  This chapter reminded me that the more things change, the more they remain the same.  Sin always promises more than it can deliver to its unsuspecting victim.  As the old gospel song says: "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, sin will leave you longer than you want to stay and sin will cost you far more than you want to pay!"  Some key themes of this book include the following:

1. Divine Chastisement
 Looking back on his experience in Carthage, Augustine traces the providence and loving care of the Heavenly Father in disciplining His wayward son: "Your mercy hovered over me from afar.  In what iniquities was I wasting myself...And in all this I experienced your chastisement.  During the celebration of your solemn rites within the walls of your Church, I even dared to lust after a girl and to start an affair that would procure the fruit  of death.  So you beat me with heavy punishments, but not the equivalent of my guilt." iii(5) (Note the Prodigal Son motif)  He came to realize the hard way (as most of us do) that sin always carries temporal consequences which are really a form of divine discipline: "Your punishment is that which human beings do to their own injury because, even when they are sinning against you, their wicked actions are against their own souls." viii(16) 


2. Natural Theology
 Throughout the Confessions, Augustine expresses his conviction that 'all truth is God's truth', or that God can and does reveal truth about himself apart from Scripture.  At age 18, Augustine read Horensius which was written by the Roman philosopher Cicero.  This book had a profound spiritual impact on the young student.  Although a pagan, Cicero advised his readers to "love and seek and pursue and hold fast and strongly embrace wisdom wherever found".  Augustine testifies that "the book changed my feelings.  It altered my prayers, Lord, to be towards you yourself.  It gave me different values and priorities.  Suddenly every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in my heart.  I began to rise up to return to you."  iv(7)  However helpful this book was in putting the prodigal son back on the road toward home, it did not satisfy Augustine's quest for ultimate truth. Because of this, he decided to dust off his Old Latin Bible: "I therefore decided to give attention to the holy scriptures and to find out what they were like."  But the refined young scholar quickly put it back on the shelf since "it seemed to me unworthy in comparison with the dignity of Cicero. My inflated conceit shunned the Bible's restraint, and my gaze never penetrated its inwardness." v(9)

3. Gnostic Deception
 Augustine's insatiable quest for Truth led him into nine years of error as he fell in with a heretical sect known as the Manicheans.  Much of this chapter is devoted to explaining and refuting the erroneous teaching of their leader Mani, which I have already summarized in my initial post. In short the Manicheans were an ascetic sect of gnostic pantheists, who held a dualistic view of good and evil. Mani himself arrogantly claimed to be the Paraclete (Holy Spirit) in human form.  Augustine testifies that "they uttered false statements not only about you [God] who really are the Truth, but also about the elements of the world, your creation." vi(10)  For Augustine, his time with the Manicheans was nothing short of a decent into the "depths of hell, there to toil and sweat from lack of truth."  He laments the terrible seduction he endured in the house of lady folly (Prov 9:17) so that "while travelling away from the truth I thought I was going towards it." vii(12)

4. The Nature of Evil
In his polemic against the Manichees, Augustine introduces a concept which will be developed as the book progresses, namely that evil has no being in and of itself, but is rather the privation (or absence) of good:  "I did not know that evil has no existence except as a privation of good, down to that level which is altogether without being." vii(12)  The materialist worldview of Mani which conceived of two physical beings, one evil and the other good, in never-ending conflict had blinded Augustine to the reality about God's true nature and the nature of evil:  "I had not realized God is a Spirit not a figure whose limbs have length and breadth and who has a mass." vii(12)

5. Platonism
The influence of Plato on the thought of the mature Augustine comes to the surface in this chapter.  First there is evidence that Augustine embraced Plato's doctrine of 'recollection'.  Unlike the contemporary view which holds that infants acquire knowledge through experience and teaching, Plato taught that people are born with complete knowledge and must bring this suppressed knowledge to the surface through a process of recollection.  Here's what Augustine says that I think relates to this topic:  "This name, by your mercy Lord, this name of my Saviour your Son, my infant heart had piously drunk in with my mother's milk, and at a deep level I retained the memory.  Any book which lacked this name, however well written or polished or true, could not entirely grip me." iv(8)

There is another passage which strongly hints at Plato's theory of forms.  Plato taught that there was a supra-temporal realm which contained perfect forms of everything we see here in the physical world.  For example, we can identify "chairness" because there is a perfect form of a "chair"  in this supra-temporal realm.  In countering the mythology of the Manichees in this chapter, Augustine seems to enlist Plato as an ally in order to defend the intrinsic goodness of the physical creation (Manicheans, like all gnostics believed the physical realm was evil).  In vi(10) Augustine argues that physical objects bear the marks of their creator, making the physical realm superior to the speculative mythology of the Manichean worldview:  "And yet again the pictures of these realities which our imagination forms are more reliable than the mythological pictures of vast and unlimited entities whose being, by extension of our image-making of real objects, we may postulate, but which do not exist at all."  For Augustine, Platonism as a worldview holds a distinct advantage over gnosticism, which is why on his journey to the Christian faith, he abandoned Mani's gnosticism and became a disciple of Plotinus.

Although Augustine's mature theology was certainly influenced by Plato's theory of forms, Augustine is also critical of certain aspects of Platonism as evidenced by the following quotation: "By you, my love, for whom I faint that I may receive strength, you are not the bodies which we see, though they be up in heaven, nor even any object up there lying beyond our sight. For you have made these bodies, and you do not even hold them to be among the greatest of your creatures." vi(10)  Plato's theory of forms can lead to a kind of polytheism, but for Augustine all of these ideal forms have their origin in the mind of God, the one who created them.  For Augustine, God and God alone is the embodiment of ultimate beauty and perfection.