Book contents
- Participation in the Divine
- Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism
- Participation in the Divine
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Lord Is One
- 2 The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato
- 3 Origen on Participation
- 4 Forms, Intellects, and Angels
- 5 Participation in the Divine in Gregory of Nyssa
- 6 Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind
- 7 The Principle of Cosmic Unification in the Athenian School of Platonism
- 8 St. Maximus the Confessor on Participation
- 9 Participation in Medieval Platonism
- 10 Participation as God’s Indwelling
- 11 Some Late Medieval Discussions of Participation in the Divine
- 12 Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
- 13 Richard Hooker’s Metaphysics of Divine Participation
- 14 The Transcendence of Holiness
- 15 Ralph Cudworth on Causality and Substantial Forms
- 16 The Romantic Legacy
- 17 Participation Revived and Revised
- Index
- References
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
Book contents
- Participation in the Divine
- Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism
- Participation in the Divine
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Lord Is One
- 2 The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato
- 3 Origen on Participation
- 4 Forms, Intellects, and Angels
- 5 Participation in the Divine in Gregory of Nyssa
- 6 Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind
- 7 The Principle of Cosmic Unification in the Athenian School of Platonism
- 8 St. Maximus the Confessor on Participation
- 9 Participation in Medieval Platonism
- 10 Participation as God’s Indwelling
- 11 Some Late Medieval Discussions of Participation in the Divine
- 12 Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
- 13 Richard Hooker’s Metaphysics of Divine Participation
- 14 The Transcendence of Holiness
- 15 Ralph Cudworth on Causality and Substantial Forms
- 16 The Romantic Legacy
- 17 Participation Revived and Revised
- Index
- References
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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Participation in the DivineA Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era, pp. 128 - 161Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Primary Sources
Armstrong, A. H., trans. 1966–88. Plotinus: Enneads. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chadwick, Henry, trans. 1991. Augustine: Confessions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Mary T., trans. 1981. Marius Victorinus: Theological Treatises on the Trinity. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Gerson, Lloyd, ed. and trans. with George Boys-Stones, John Dillon, et al. 2018. Plotinus: The Enneads. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, Zachary, trans. 2006. Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ. Vol. 4. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute.Google Scholar
King, Peter, trans. 1995. Augustine: Against the Academics and On the Teacher. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Pasnau, Robert, trans. 2002. Mind and Knowledge. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsey, Boniface, trans. 2008. Augustine: Responses to Miscellaneous Questions. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Thomas, trans. 1993. Augustine: On Free Choice of the Will. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Secondary Sources
Ayres, Lewis. 2010. Augustine and the Trinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Jonathan. 2005. “Les Catégories et les Catégories,” in Les “Catégories” et leur histoire, ed. Bruun, Otto and Corti, Lorenzo, 64–5. Paris: Librairie Philosophique Vrin.Google Scholar
Brady, Ignatius. 1976. “St. Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Illumination: Reactions Medieval and Modern,” in Bonaventure & Aquinas: Enduring Philosophers, ed. Robert, W. Shahan and Francis, J. Kovach, 57–67. Norman: Oklahoma University Press.Google Scholar
Bubacz, Bruce. 1980. “Augustine’s Illumination Theory and Epistemic Structuring.” Augustinian Studies 11, 35–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnyeat, Miles. 1987. “Wittgenstein and Augustine: De Magistro.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 61, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byers, Sarah. 2013. Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine: A Stoic-Platonic Synthesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Byers, Sarah. 2020. “Love, Will, and the Intellectual Ascents,” in The Cambridge Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, ed. Toom, Tarmo, 154–74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Byers, Sarah. 2022. ‘“Consubstantiality” as a Philosophical-Theological Problem: Victorinus’ Hylomorphic Model of God and His “Correction” by Augustine.’ Scottish Journal of Theology 75.1, 12–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cipriani, Nello. 1994. “Le fonti cristiana della dottrina trinitaria nei primi Dialoghi di S. Agostino.” Augustinianum 34, 253–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cipriani, Nello. 2002. “La Presenza di Mario Vittorino nella riflessione trinitaria di S. Agostino.” Augustinianum 42.2, 261–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fokin, Alexey. 2017. “Act of Vision as an Analogy of the Proceeding of the Intellect from the One in Plotinus and of the Son and the Holy Spirit from the Father in Marius Victorinus and Augustine,” in Studia Patristica: Papers presented at the Seventeenth International Conference on Patristics held in Oxford 2015, vol. 75.1, ed. Vincent, Markus, 55–67. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Gilson, Etienne. 1960. The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine, trans. L. E. M. Lynch. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Gurtler, Gary. 2015. Ennead IV.4.30–45 and IV.5: Problems Concerning the Soul. Translation, with an Introduction, and Commentary. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing.Google Scholar
Hadot, Pierre. 1954. “Marius Victorinus et Alcuin.” Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Âge 21, 5–19.Google Scholar
Hadot, Pierre. 1962. “L’image de le Trinité dans l’âme chez Victorinus et chez saint Augustin.” Studia Patristica vol. 6, 409–42. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Hadot, Pierre. 1971. Marius Victorinus: Recherches sur sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris: Études Augustiniennes.Google Scholar
Kenny, Anthony. 2005. “Les càtegories chez les Pères de l’Église latins,” in Les “Càtegories” et leur histoire, ed. Bruun, Otto and Corti, Lorenzo, 121–33. Paris: Librairie Philosophique Vrin.Google Scholar
King, Peter. 2014. “Augustine on Knowledge,” in The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, ed. Meconi, David and Stump, Eleanor, 142–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. 2012. “Augustine’s Use of Aristotle’s Categories in ‘De Trinitate’ in Light of the History of the Latin Text of the Categories before Boethius,” in Le “De Trinitate” de saint Augustin: Exégèse, logique et noétique. Actes du colloque international de Bordeaux, 16–19 juin 2010, ed. Bermon, Emmanuel and O’Daly, Gerard, 107–29. Paris: Études Augustiniennes.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Scott. 2012. “Revisiting the Intelligibles: The Theory of Illumination in De trinitate, xii.” Medioevo: Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale 37, 137–63.Google Scholar
Miner, Robert. 2007. “Augustinian Recollection,” Augustinian Studies 38.2, 435–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, Ronald H. 1969. The Light of the Mind: St. Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Nawar, Tamer. 2015. “Augustine on the Varieties of Understanding and Why There is No Learning from Words.” Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 3.1, 1–31.Google Scholar
Nawar, Tamer. 2019. “Augustine’s Defence of Knowledge Against the Sceptics,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 56, 215–65.Google Scholar
Nawar, Tamer. 2020. “Augustine on Active Perception, Awareness, and Representation.” Phronesis 66.1, 84–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, Christopher. 2013. “How Plotinus’ Soul Animates His Body: The Argument for the Soul-Trace at Enn. IV.4.18.1–9.” Phronesis 58.3, 249–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noone, Timothy. 2014. “Divine Illumination,” in The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, edited by Pasnau, Robert, 369–83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ogden, Stephen. 2020. “Avicenna’s Emanated Abstraction.” Philosopher’s Imprint 20.10, 1–26.Google Scholar
Pasnau, Robert. 1995. “Henry of Ghent and the Twilight of Divine Illumination.” Review of Metaphysics 49.1, 49–75.Google Scholar
Pasnau, Robert. 2020. “Divine Illumination.” Last modified Feb. 10, 2020. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/illumination/.Google Scholar
Rist, John M. 1994. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rist, John. 2022. “Plotinus and Christian Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus, 2nd ed., ed. Gerson, Lloyd, 386–414. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Frederic M. 1984. “Light and the Active Intellect in Alexander and Plotinus.” Hermes 112.2, 239–48.Google Scholar
Schuetzinger, Caroline Eve. 1960. The German Controversy on Saint Augustine’s Illumination Theory. New York: Pageant Press.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Lydia. 2011. Divine Illumination: The History and Future of Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar