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Psalms for restless memory: The logic of grace and rest in Augustine's Confessions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 August 2022
Abstract
The notion of rest frames Augustine's Confessions: the expression of the desire for rest and the prayer for God's bestowal of rest. Between these bookends is an extended account of Augustine's past expressed in the form of a confession, one that is saturated with the Psalms. How are these major motifs – rest, memory, confession and the Psalms – related? And how do they relate to the seemingly paradoxical depiction of Augustine's own striving towards rest and God's bestowal of rest? This essay answers these questions by delineating the logic of grace and rest embedded in the Confessions.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
I am grateful to Kevin Hector, Gregory Lee, and Daniel Treier for their comments on earlier drafts of this essay.
References
1 Augustine, Confessions (hereafter Conf.) 1.1.1, 13.35.50. The English translation and the Latin text are, respectively, from Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: OUP, 2008) and James J. O'Donnell, Augustine Confessions I: Introduction and Text (Oxford: OUP, 2012).
2 As Jean-Marie Le Blond comments, ‘[L]es Confessions sont avant tout œuvre de mémoire, et c'est là seulement que se découvre leur unité profonde’. Jean-Marie Le Blond, Les Conversions de Saint Augustin (Paris: Aubier, 1950), p. 16.
3 Conf. 10.1.1–2.2.
4 It is well known that the Confessions is not an autobiography nor ‘a bios’. Carolyn Hammond, ‘Title, Time, and Circumstances of Composition: The Genesis of the Confessions’, in Tarmo Toom (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Confessions (Cambridge: CUP, 2020), pp. 11–12. Augustine himself writes, ‘The thirteen books of my confessions praise the just and good God for both the bad and the good that I did, and they draw a person's mind and emotions towards him. As for myself, that is how they affected me when they were being written, and that is how they affect me when they are being read.’ Augustine, Revisions 2.6.33, vol. I/2 of the Works of Saint Augustine (hereafter WSA), ed. Roland Teske, trans. Boniface Ramsey (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2010).
5 E.g. see essays in Toom (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Confessions, and works cited below.
6 Sieben, Hermann-Josef, ‘Augustinus zum Thema “Ruhe” unter Berücksichtigung der Termini quies und requies: Ein chronologischer und systematischer Überblick’, Theologie und Philosophie 87/2 (2012), p. 176Google Scholar.
7 Conf. 1.1.1.
8 According to James O'Donnell, cor for Augustine is ‘an expression for the indivisible, authentic centre of human life’. James J. O'Donnell, Augustine Confessions II: Commentary Books 1–7 (Oxford: OUP, 2012), p. 13.
9 Conf. 2.2.2.
10 Conf. 4.12.18. As George Lawless suggests, Solignac, Tréhorel and Bouissou's rendition of fecisti nos ad te as ‘tu nous a faits orientés vers toi’ is closer to the meaning in Latin. With such a reading, Lawless argues, ‘Augustine conceives of life essentially in terms of movement.’ Lawless, George P., ‘Interior Peace in the Confessions of St. Augustine’, Revue d’études Augustiniennes et Patristiques 26/1–2 (1980), p. 57Google Scholar. Sieben writes, ‘Es ist die Ruhe der Heimat, zu der wir streben.’ Sieben, ‘Augustinus zum Thema “Ruhe”’, p. 190.
11 Conf. 4.10.15. Similarly, Augustine fails to find rest and happiness in himself; see Conf. 4.7.12. Of course, this does not mean despising things that are not God, but a reordering of things so that they point to God; see Conf. 4.10.15.
12 Conf. 13.7.8–9.10. A central concern of book 13 is the immutability of God, in whom creation finds stability.
13 Conf. 4.12.18. In book 8 Augustine expresses his desire to be more stable in God (Conf. 8.1.1). For Augustine, one rests in God who is ‘always active, always in repose’ (Conf. 1.4.4). God is God's own rest (Conf. 13.38.53).
14 Conf. 2.6.13, 10.23.33, 13.35.50.
15 Conf. 4.10.15, 10.20.29, 13.35.50. See Alexander H. Pierce, ‘Augustine's Eschatological Vision: The Dynamism of Seeing and Seeking God in Heaven’, Pro Ecclesia 29/2 (2020), pp. 217–38.
16 Conf. 1.1.1.
17 Conf. 1.5.5.
18 Conf. 10.24.35–25.36.
19 Conf. 10.17.26. As Paige Hochschild writes, memory is ‘the embodied soul's mode of approaching God’. Hochschild, Paige E., Memory in Augustine's Theological Anthropology (Oxford: OUP, 2012), p. 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Hochschild, Memory, p. 219.
21 Conf. 10.11.18.
22 Todd Breyfogle identifies four kinds of imagination for Augustine, the fourth being the one with which we shall be concerned: ‘fantasy’, ‘simple mental image’, ‘mental image produced by intentional creative act’ and imagination that ‘orders the content of memory’; see Breyfogle, Todd, ‘Memory and Imagination in Augustine's Confessions’, New Blackfriars 75/881 (1994), pp. 214–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 Ibid., p. 217.
24 Conf. 11.1.1 (emphasis added).
25 Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms (hereafter EP) 29(2).22. I have used Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, 6 vols, WSA III/15–20, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Maria Boulding (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000–4). See also Conf. 4.1.1.
26 A third meaning, ‘determined avowal’ (confessio fidei), is least common in Augustine's Confessions and his other works. O'Donnell, Augustine Confessions II, 4. For the non-Christian and Christian usage of confessio prior to Augustine, see Ratzinger, Joseph, ‘Originalität und Überlieferung in Augustins Begriff der confessio’, Revue d’études Augustiniennes et Patristiques 3/4 (1957), pp. 375–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27 Ratzinger, ‘Originalität’, p. 387.
28 EP 99.16.
29 Conf. 10.16.24; see also Conf. 10.16.25.
30 O'Daly, Gerard, Augustine's Philosophy of Mind (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 146–7Google Scholar.
31 Ibid., p. 147.
32 Ibid., p. 148.
33 Conf. 11.29.39. See also Conf. 9.10.23, where Augustine uses Phil 3:13 to describe his ascension with Monica.
34 O'Daly, Gerard J. P., ‘Time as Distentio and St. Augustine's Exegesis of Philippians 3, 12–14’, Revue d’études Augustiniennes et Patristiques 23/3–4 (1977), p. 269Google Scholar.
35 In his exposition of Psalm 66, Augustine writes, ‘Memories of the past must not trap us in pleasure, nor must present affairs hold us fast. … Let us not be deterred from hearing by anything in the past, nor become so absorbed in things present that we are prevented from meditating on what is to come; but let us forget the past and stretch forward to what lies ahead.’ EP 66.10.
36 Conf. 9.10.23–4.
37 Conf. 1.5.5. Concerning Augustine's metaphor of intoxication John Quinn comments, ‘[T]he wine of divine love frees the self from normal rational awareness; in his superhuman state a soul intoxicated with God becomes oblivious of his human condition and concerns’. Quinn, John M., A Companion to the Confessions of St. Augustine (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 65, n. 18Google Scholar.
38 Augustine, The City of God 22.30, in WSA I/7, ed. Boniface Ramsey, trans. William Babcock (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2013).
39 Conf. 5.6.11. See Augustine, Revisions 2.6.33.
40 Augustine says that he reminds himself of his sinful past in order that he might love God, that God would be sweet to him: ‘You gathered (conligens) me together from the state of disintegration (dispersione) in which I had been fruitlessly divided (discissus). I turned from unity (uno) to you to be lost (evanui) in multiplicity (multa).’ Conf. 2.1.1.
41 Conf. 9.6.14.
42 Augustine, City of God 22.30.
43 Conf. 13.9.10. The Spirit's act of creation in love unites us to God from our fragmentation in time, leading us to rest and peace; see Matthew Drever, ‘Creation and Recreation’, in Toom, Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Confessions, pp. 80–1.
44 Volker Henning Drecoll, ‘Grace’, in Toom, Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Confessions, p. 120.
45 Ibid., p. 108.
46 Conf. 8.12.30. Similarly, in his exposition of Psalm 79 Augustine writes, ‘Convert us, O God, for we are turned away from you, and unless you turn us round, we shall not be converted.’ EP 79.4.
47 Wolterstorff, Nicholas, ‘God Speaking and Augustine's Conversion’, in Mann, William E. (ed.), Augustine's Confessions: Critical Essays (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), p. 164Google Scholar. See also Drecoll, ‘Grace’, p. 118.
48 Conf. 1.1.1. See also Drecoll, ‘Grace’, p. 108.
49 Conf. 10.31.44–36.59. Similarly, memories of lust in images and impressions are present regardless of our desire, during the day and in sleep/dreams (Conf. 10.30.41). And only God's grace can heal him of such emotions (Conf. 10.30.42). See also Drecoll, ‘Grace’, pp. 109–10.
50 Conf. 10.29.40, 10.37.60.
51 Drecoll, ‘Grace’, p. 108.
52 Conf. 4.15.25.
53 Conf. 7.10.16.
54 Peter King, ‘Augustine's Anti-Platonist Ascents’, in Mann (ed.), Augustine's Confessions, p. 23.
55 Conf. 2.7.15. See also Conf. 9.7.16.
56 Conf. 10.27.38.
57 Hochschild, Memory, p. 149.
58 Breyfogle, ‘Memory and Imagination’, p. 217.
59 Conf. 5.10.20. See also Conf. 10.3.4.
60 Conf. 1.5.5.
61 Conf. 4.1.1. See also Conf. 5.6.11.
62 Conf. 11.1.1.
63 Conf. 1.5.5.
64 Hammond, ‘Title, Time, and Circumstances of Composition’, p. 24.
65 Conf. 10.42.67.
66 Ibid.
67 Conf. 10.43.68.
68 Conf. 7.18.24, 10.43.69. Elsewhere he writes, ‘Thereby I submitted my neck to your easy yoke and my shoulders to your light burden (Matt 11:30), O Christ Jesus “my helper and redeemer” (Ps 18: 15).’ Conf. 9.1.1.
69 Hochschild, Memory, p. 168.
70 The relationship between the Psalms and Christ is found in EP. Augustine wrote the Confessions sometime between 396 and 401 (Hammond, ‘Title, Time, and Circumstances of Composition’, pp. 14–15), and he started writing the Ennarationes in Psalmos ‘shortly after his priestly ordination’ (391), which became a project that lasted three decades. Michael Fiedrowicz, ‘General Introduction’, in EP, WSA III/15, p. 15.
71 EP 96.2 See also Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, pp. 43–4.
72 Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, p. 51.
73 Michael Cameron, Christ Meets Me Everywhere: Augustine's Early Figurative Exegesis (Oxford: OUP, 2012), pp. 197–8.
74 Ibid., p. 198.
75 EP 85.1. See also EP 26(2).1.
76 Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, p. 53.
77 EP 140.6.
78 Michael C. McCarthy, ‘Creation through the Psalms in Augustine's Enarrationes in Psalmos’, Augustinian Studies 37/2 (2006), p. 216.
79 EP 140.4.
80 Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, pp. 56–7.
81 To be sure, Augustine does not think that all the words of the Psalms belong to the human voice. For instance, some apply exclusively to Christ (e.g. see EP 140.3, 39.5, 62.2). Fiedrowicz further points out that the Psalms could be interpreted ‘as a word to Christ (vox ad Christum), or as a word about Christ (vox de Christo), or as a word spoken by Christ himself (vox Christi), or in an ecclesiological perspective as a word about the Church (vox de ecclesia), or finally as a word spoken by the Church (vox ecclesiae)’; and there could be a mix of these. Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, pp. 44–5. Thus there is some flexibility in Augustine's christological reading of the Psalms. What is clear nonetheless is that Christ is speaking.
82 Suzanne Poque writes, ‘Les Psaumes sont la nappe souterraine qui ne cesse d'irriguer la prière d'Augustin.’ Suzanne Poque, ‘Les Psaumes dans les “Confessions”’, in Anne-Marie La Bonnardière (ed.), Saint Augustin et la Bible (Paris: Beauchesne, 1986), p. 159. McCarthy observes over 400 places in the Confessions that cite or allude to the Psalms. McCarthy, Michael C., ‘Augustine's Mixed Feelings: Vergil's Aeneid and the Psalms of David in the Confessions’, Harvard Theological Review 102/4 (2009), p. 468CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
83 Conf. 1.1.1. See also Conf. 4.15.24, 6.1.1.
84 Conf. 1.15.24. See also Conf. 1.10.16, 1.18.28, 4.10.15, 5.1.1, 10.28.39, 10.37.60.
85 Conf. 5.1.1–3.3. See also Conf. 1.1.1, 1.7.11, 8.1.1, 9.1.1, 13.1.1.
86 Burns, Paul, ‘Augustine's Distinctive Use of the Psalms in the Confessions: The Role of Music and Recitation’, Augustinian Studies 24 (1993), pp. 134–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
87 To be sure, it is not just the Psalms that assist Augustine's journey towards rest; other passages in scripture are used. E.g. Book 4 begins with 2 Tim 3:13 (Conf. 4.1.1). Thus it would be erroneous to say that only the Psalms help Augustine with ascension. Scripture helps Augustine make sense of his past and displays God's grace at work. But what does seem to be explicit is that the Psalms play a unique role, in that Augustine understands Christ to be speaking in them.
88 Conf. 2.3.7. See also Conf. 1.11.18, 5.7.13.
89 Conf. 2.10.18, 1.13.20–1, 2.3.8.
90 Conf. 3.1.1. See also Conf. 3.11.20, 6.1.1, 6.6.9.
91 Williams, Rowan, ‘Augustine and the Psalms’, Interpretation 58/1 (2004), p. 17Google Scholar.
92 Ibid., p. 18.
93 In contemporary terms, following Paul Ricoeur, Augustine's identity in the Confessions is presented in a narrative shaped by history, nonetheless through an interpretation of his history. Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, trans. Kathleen (McLaughlin) Blamey and David Pellauer, 3 vols (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984–8 [1983–5]); and Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, trans. Kathleen Blamey (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992 [1990]).
94 E.g. Conf. 2.3.5, 10.1.1–4.6.
95 EP 139.2. See also EP 60.1, 100.3.
96 Fiedrowicz, ‘Introduction’, p. 55.
97 Hochschild, Memory, p. 171.
98 EP 140.3.
99 Conf. 9.10.23–4.
100 EP 38.6.
101 Conf. 10.28.39. See also Conf. 10.40.65.
102 On this last point see Nicholas Wolterstorff, ‘Happiness in Augustine's Confessions’, in Mann (ed.), Augustine's Confessions, p. 70; and Sieben, ‘Augustinus zum Thema “Ruhe”’, p. 191.
103 Possidius, The Life of Saint Augustine, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Matthew O'Connell (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Press, 1988), p. 129.