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6 - Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind

Correcting Bonaventure and Gilson via Plotinus and Marius Victorinus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2024

By
Sarah Byers
Edited by
Douglas Hedley  and
Daniel J. Tolan
Douglas Hedley
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Daniel J. Tolan
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

In this chapter, I show that Augustine’s “divine illumination theory of knowledge” is merely his belief that the human mind is capable of intellectual cognition because it naturally “participates” in the Divine Mind, as its image. Consequently, the claim that Augustine thought the human mind must be enlightened by special divine assistance in ordinary (nonmystical) intellectual cognition is erroneous. That is true of the whole of his writing career: earlier works such as On the Teacher and the Confessions agree with his presentation in On the Trinity 12. This resolution of a long-standing debate about how to interpret Augustine becomes possible when we pay careful attention to the ancient philosophical problems “illumination” is meant to resolve, and when we use Plotinus and the early Christian Neoplatonist Marius Victorinus to interpret his vocabulary and claims.  The recovery of this late ancient context greatly clarifies Augustine’s epistemological theory and reveals its explanatory power.

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Participation in the Divine
A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era
 , pp. 128 - 161
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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