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Faith and Reason in the Thought of St. Augustine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert E. Cushman
Robert E. Cushman
Affiliation:
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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Extract

Christianity boldly asserted that the eternal Logos had been manifested in the personal history of Jesus called Christ. Once this claim began to receive wide acceptance, the older ways of philosophizing characteristic of the classical ages were shaken. On the one hand, Christians affirmed positively that God had drawn nigh, disclosing himself in history to those who believed. On the other hand, they held that, apart from reliance upon this divine disclosure, the efforts of scientific reason to apprehend God were pitifully inadequate and perverse.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1950 , pp. 271 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1950

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References

1 Enchirid., V. Except for the Confessions, references to the literature of Augustine and quoted matter are from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers edit. Philip Schaff (New York, 1900)Google Scholar. The Loeb edition of the Confessions is constantly employed: St. Augustine's Confessrions (London, 1931), 2 VolsGoogle Scholar. For a Latin text I have depended upon Pérrone, , Oeuvres Complètes de St. Augustin (Paris, 1872).Google Scholar

2 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 5Google Scholar; X, 29.

3 Conf., VII, 9Google Scholar; cf. Epst., LXXXII, 13.

4 See Enchirid., XXXIV.

5 De Trin., I, 8, 17.

6 It is difficult to understand what Harnack meant [History of Dogma (trans. N. Buchanan, Boston, 1899) V. 126]Google Scholar by saying that Augustine “never advanced to history.” It is true that, unlike the neo-Kantians, Augustine never regarded history as the sole source of divine revelation, viz, Ritschlianism; but it is beyond dispute that the revelatory value of history is precisely that which he regards as distinguishing him from the Platonists. Cf. Cochrane, C. N., Christianity and Classical Culture (New York, 1944), 416.Google Scholar

7 Webb, C. C. J., Studies in the History of Natural Theology (Oxford, 1915), 30, 136.Google Scholar

8 See Discussion De Civ. Dei, Bks. VI, VII, VIII.

9 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 10, 12.

10 De Civ. Dei, X, 6.

11 Conf., IV, 3.

12 De Civ. Dei, X, 18.

13 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 5.

14 De Doct. Christ., II, 40, 60.

15 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 4; cf. VIII, 1 and 9.

16 De Civ. Dei, XI, 25.

17 De Civ. Dei, IX, 16.

18 In Joann. Evang., XV, 19.

19 De Trin., II, 5, 8.

20 Conf., VII, 9; cf. De Civ. Dei, VIII, 5.

21 De Civ. Dei, X, 29; cf. Conf., VII, 9; VII, 21.

22 Soliloq., I, 7.

23 De Lib. Arbit., II, 4, 13.

24 De Trin., XIV, 8, 11.

25 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 9.

26 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 7.

27 Soliloq., I, 12.

28 De Lib. Arbit., II, 12, 34.

29 Conf., X, 12.

30 Conf., X, 10. A variant rendering to Wm. Watt's graphic translation of haurimus is to “draw in” or “drink in”.

31 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 6; De Trin., XII, 14, 22 also XI, 8, 14; XII, 14, 23.

32 De Trin., XII, 2, 2.

33 See Conf., X, 6; In Joann. Evang., XIII, 5; XV, 19; De Trin., IV, 2, 3.

34 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 6; X, 14; Conf., VII, 17; X, 6.

35 Conf., X, 6.

36 Conf., III, 6.

37 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 6; cf. Conf., XI, 5; De Trin., VIII, 3, 4.

38 Conf., VII, 17.

39 De Trin., IX, 6, 10.

40 Ibid., IX, 7, 12.

41 See important passages in De Trin., VIII, 6, 9; VIII, 9, 13; IX, 6, 9; XV, 4, 6.

42 Conf., XIII, 38.

43 Conf., VII, 9.

44 Enchirid., V.

45 De Trin., V, 11, 12.

46 In Joann. Evang., III, 5.

47 Enarr. in Psalm., VI, 8.

48 Conf., VII, 9.

49 Conf., X, 17; cf. De Trin., XIV, 12, 16.

50 De Trin., XIV, 4, 6; cf. XIV, 8, 11.

51 Conf., X, 23.

52 Enarr. in Psalm., VIII, 5.

53 Conf., VI, 4 and 5.

54 Epist., LXXXII, 5. In this instructive correspondence with Jerome, Augustine's concern is lest Jerome's form of “higher criticism” of Gal. 2–4 impugn the reliability and infallibility of scripture.

55 Contra Epist. Manich. Fundam., V, 6.

56 Contra Faust. Manich., XXXIII, 6, 9; cf. De Util. Cred., XIII.

57 De Spirit. et Litt., XI, 18.

58 For this mode of argument see De Util. Cred., XXXI-XXXII; Contra Epist. Manich. Fundam, IV, 5.

59 Contra Faust. Manich., XXXIII, 9.

60 Enchirid., V.

61 Enchirid., IV.

62 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 3; cf. De Trin., I, 2. 4.

63 De Util. Cred., XXIII.

64 De Doct. Christ., II, 7, 11; De Fide et Symb., IX, 20; Enarr. in Psalm., XXXVI, 13; XLIII, 4; LXXXVI, 20; XC, 15; In Joann. Evang., I, 8; I, 19; III, 18; XIX, 16; XX, 11; CXI, 3.

65 Enarr. in Psalm., XL, 20.

66 De Trin., IX, 1, 1.

67 De Civ. Dei, X, 28.

68 De Trin., I, 2, 4.

69 Conf., VI, 4.

70 De Trin., VIII, 10; X, 24.

71 De Util. Cred., I and II.

72 Conf., VII, 21.

73 De Trin., III, 4, 10.

74 De Trin., XI, 1, 1.

75 De Trin., XI, 3, 6; XI, 5, 8.

76 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 10.

77 De Civ. Dei, VIII, 10; cf. Conf., X, 6.

78 De Spirit. et Litt., 19.

79 De Trin., VIII, 7, 11.

80 Conf., VIII, 9 and X, 6.

81 De Trin., IX, 12, 18.

82 Cf. Burnet, John, “Aristotle” Proceedings of the British Academy, XI (London, 1924), 15–16.Google Scholar

83 De Anima, 432b 7 sqq.

84 See De An., 431a 11 and Met., 1072a 30.

85 Ibid., 433b 28; cf 434a 17.

86 Ibid., 433a 15 sqq.

87 In Joann. Evang., XXVI, 4.

88 De An., 427b 17 sqq.

89 De Trin., IX, 12, 18.

90 De Trin., VIII, 9, 18.

91 De Trin., XV, 20, 28; cf. De Trin., XIV, 7 where Augustine defines a right will and a wrong will as bonus amor and malus amor respectively.

92 In Joann. Evang., XXV, 15.

93 De Civ. Dei, XIV, 11.

94 De Trin., XII, 11, 16.

95 De Trin., XIV, 15, 21.

96 De Civ. Dei, X, 29. See also De Civ. Dei, X, 32. Conf., V, 3; V, 14. In Joann. Evang., XXXIV, 9; De Trin., IV, 15, 20; XIII, 19, 24.

97 De Civ. Dei, X, 24. The italics are mine.

98 De Trin., XII, 12, 17.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 Ibid.

102 De Trin., XII, 12, 17.

103 Enarr. in Psalm., VIII, 8.

104 Conf., VII, 18.

105 De Trin., IV, 18, 24; cf. In Epist. Joann., III, 1.

106 De Civ. Dei, X, 24.

107 See De Trin., I, 6, 11; II, 17, 28. In Joann. Evang., XIII, 3; XIV, 12; XVII, 3; XXXIV, 6; LXXV, 2.

108 Enarr. in Psalm., XXXIV, 1.

109 See De Civ. Dei, X, 29, Conf., IV, 1; VII, 18; XIII, 12; In Joann. Evang. XVIII, 1; XX, 5.

110 Enarr. in Psalm., XXXVI, 15.

111 Conf., XII, 10.

112 Conf., XI, 2.

113 In Joann. Evang., XXII, 3. “… he has made a passage, as it were, from the region of unbelief to the region of faith, by motion of the heart…”

114 De Trin., I, 13, 30.

115 In Epist Joann., III, 1.

116 De Trin., XIV, 8, 11.

117 De Trin., XIII, 19, 24.

118 De Trin., VIII, 3, 4; cf. Conf., X, 19.

119 Conf., XIII, 12.

120 Conf., VII, 20.