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Vera lux illa est quae illuminat: the Christian humanism of Augustine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Gerald Bonner
Gerald Bonner*
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

In 427, three years before his death, Augustine of Hippo compiled the Retractations, a kind of critical bibliography in which he passed in chronological review his writings as a catholic Christian, clarifying, defending and, where necessary, correcting passages which the course of events or his own theological development had called in question. In a very human way Augustine tended, in practice, to defend his previously-expressed views to a rather greater degree and to criticise them less than had been his original intention; but this means that where he declares a change of opinion, this statement may fairly be regarded as his final and definitive view. Two such statements are relevant to our purposes here: in his review of his earliest Christian work, Against the Academics, which appeared in 386, Augustine expresses his displeasure at the praise he there bestowed on the Platonist and Academic philosophers; while in his discussion of the two books On Order, which were written at the end of the same year, he regrets that he attributed too much to those liberal studies, of which many of the saints had been ignorant and many of their most enthusiastic disciples lacking in sanctity. Such views would seem, on first reading, to be exactly what we should expect of Augustine in the last years of his life, the result of an increased rigorism brought about by many years of controversy, which had left little of the humanism which had marked his first years as a Christian.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 14: Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History , 1977 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1977

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References

1 See Burnaby, John, ‘The Retradationes of Saint Augustine: Self-criticism or Apologia?’ Augustinus Magister: Congrès international augustinien (Paris 1954) 1, pp 85–92 Google Scholar.

2 Retract[ationum Liber] I 1 12: Laus quoque ipsa, qua Platonem vel Platonicos seu Academicos philosophos tantum extuli, quantum inpios homines non oportuit, non immerito mihi displicuit. praesertim contra quorum errores magnos defendenda est Christiana doctrina.

3 Ibid I 3 2: Verum et in his libris displicet mihi . . . quod multum tribui liberalibus disciplinis, quas multi sancti multum nesciunt, quidam edam sciunt et sancti non sunt.

4 Possidius, , Vita Augustini, ed Pellegrino, M. (Cuneo 1955) 28 11 Google Scholar: ‘Et se inter haec mala cuiusdam sapientis sententia consolabatur dicentis: ‘Non erit raagnus magnum putans quod cadunt ligna et lapides, et moriuntur mortales’ (ed M. Pellegrino, p 154 lines 77-80).

5 Plotinus, , Enneadi I 4 7 Google Scholar. See note by Pellegrino in his ed, p 226 and Courcelle, Pierre, ‘Sur les dernières paroles de Saint Augustin’, Revue des études anciennes 46 (Bordeaux 1944) pp 205-7Google Scholar.

6 Altaner, [Berthold], [‘Augustinus in der griechischen Kirche bis auf Photius’], HJch 71 (1952) pp 37–76 Google Scholar, repr in Kleine patristiche Schriften, TU bd 83 (Berlin 1967) pp 57-98.

7 Possidius, , Vita 11 5 (Pellegrino p 74 lines 20-6)Google Scholar. Altaner, pp 52-3, doubts whether miny works were in fact translated.

8 Photius, Bibliotheca, cod 54, ed Henry, R., Photius: Bibliothèque, 1 (Paris 1959) pp 42-5Google Scholar.

9 Lossky, V., ‘The Procession of the Holy Spirit in Orthodox Trinitarian Doctrine’ in The Image and Likeness of God (ET London 1975) pp 95-6Google Scholar.

10 Haskins, C.H., The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (New York 1957) p 80 Google Scholar.

11 Liberatus Carthaginensis, Breviarium, 5, PL 68 (1866) col 977A. See Bonner, G., St Augustine of Hippo (London 1963) p 156 Google Scholar.

12 See Chadwick, Owen, John Cassian (2 ed Cambridge 1968) pp 127-32Google Scholar.

13 Marrou, [H-I], [Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique] (4 ed Paris 1958)Google Scholar cap 5: ‘La bible et les lettrés de la décadence.’

14 Burnaby, John, Amor Dei. A Study of the Religion of St Augustine (London 1938) p 21 Google Scholar.

15 See Wundt, Max, ‘Ein Wendepunkt in Augustins Entwicklung,’ Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 21 (Giessen 1922) pp 53–64 Google Scholar.

16 Conf[essionum Liber] III iv 7: ... et usitato iam discendi ordine perveneram in librum cuiusdam Ciceronis . . .

17 See the testimony in De Beata Vita i 4: Ego ab usque undevicesimo anno aetatis meae, postquam in schola rhetoris librum illuni Ciceronis, qui Hortensius vocatur, accepi, tanto amore philosophiae succensus sum, ut statim ad cam me ferre meditarer. Compare Solil[oquia] I x 17. On the influence of Cicero on Augustine see Testard, [Maurice], [Saint Augustin et Cicéron], 2 vols (Paris 1958)Google Scholar.

18 Conf VIII vii 17. See the discussion of marriage in the Soliloquies, in which Augustine declares: Prorsus nihil huiusmodi quaero, nihil desidero; etiam cum horrore atque aspernatione talia recordor (I x 17) and contrast with the later admission: Quam tibi sordidus, quam foedus, quam exsecrabilis, quam horribilis complexus femineus videbatur, quando inter nos de uxoris cupiditate quaesitum est! Certe ista nocte vigilantes, cum rursus eadem nobiscum ageremus, sensisti quam te aliter quam praesumpseras, imaginatae illae blanditiae et amara suavitas titillaverit; longe quidem longe minus quam solet, sed item longe aliter quam putaveras (I xiv 25).

19 Conf VIII vi 14: Cui ego cum indicassem illis me scripturis curam maximam inpendere, ortus est sermo ipso narrante de Antonio Aegyptio monacho, cuius nomen excellenter clarebat apud servos tuos, nos autem usque in illam horam latebat.

20 See O’Connell, Robert J., St Augustine’s Early Theory of Man A.D. 386-391 and St Augustine’s Confessions: the Odyssey of Soul (Cambridge, Mass., 1968, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and my review in JTS ns 22 (1971) pp 248-51.

21 De Vera Religione iii 5.

22 De Moribus Catholicae Ecclesiae xxx 64-xxxi 68.

23 De Beata Vita i 4:...Itaque tantus me arripuit pectoris dolor, ut illius profcssionis onus sustinere non valens, qua mihi velificabam fortasse ad Sirenas, abicerem omnia et optatae tranquillitati vel quassatam navem fessamque perducerem. See also De Ord[ine] I ii 5; Solil I ix 16; Conf IX ii 2-4.

24 De Ord I viii 26:...nihilque a me aliud actum est ilio die, ut valetudini parcerem, nisi quod ante cenam cum ipsis dimidium volumen Vergili audire cotidie solitus eram.

25 Retract I 5 [6]:...per corporalia cupiens ad incorporalia quibusdam quasi passibus certis vel pervenire vel ducere.

26 Conf VII iii 5; xx 26. See Courcelle, Pierre, Les Confessions de Saint Augustin dans la tradition littéraire (Paris 1963) pp 43–58 Google Scholar.

27 Courcelle, Pierre, ‘Verissima philosophia’ in Epekstasis: mélanges patristiques offerts an Cardinal Jean Danielou (Paris 1972) pp 653-9Google Scholar.

28 De Regressu Animae, Fragm 12 (preserved by Augustine, De Civ[itate] Dei X 32).

29 Solil I xiii 23.

30 Contra Academicos III xix 42: Non enim est ista huius mundi philosophia, quam sacra nostra meritissime detestantur, sed alterius intellegibilis, cui animas multiformibus erroris tenebris caecatas et altissimis a corpore sordibus oblitas numquam ista ratio subtilissima revocaret, nisi summus deus populari quadam dementia divini intellectus auctoritatem usque ad ipsum corpus humanum declinaret atque summitteret, cuius non solum praeceptis sed etiam factis excitatae animae redire in semet ipsas et resipiscere patriam etiam sine disputationum concertatione potuissent.

31 Ibid III xx 43: Quod autem subtilissima ratione persequendum est—ita enim iam sum affectus, ut quid sit verum non credendo solum sed etiam intellegendo apprehendere impatienter desiderem—apud Platónicos me interim, quod sacris nostris non repugnet, reperturum esse confido.

32 De Ord I xi 32: Unde etiam divinae scripturae, quas vehementer amplecteris, non omnino philosophos, sed philosophos huius mundi evitandos atque inridendos esse praecipiunt. Esse autem alium mundum ab istis oculis reinotissimum, quem paucorum sanorum intellectus intuetur, satis ipse Christus significat, qui non dicit: ‘regnum meum non est de mundo’, sed: regnum meum non est de hoc mundo.

33 Inter Aug, Ep 16.

34 Retract I 4 3: item quod dixi: ad sapientiae coniunctionem non una via perveniri non bene sonat; quasi alia via sit praeter Christum, qui dixit: ego sum via.

35 See Zumkeller, Adolar, Dai Mönchtum des heiligen Augustinus, 2 ed, Cassiciacum bd XI (Würzburg 1968) pp 56–68 Google Scholar.

36 Ep 118 (ad Dioscorum, written in 410; see Goldbacher, A., CSEL 58 (1904) p 34)Google Scholar:...sed in hac re nihil esse dedecoris, non mihi videtur. Non enim dedecora facies rerum attingit sensum meum, cum cogito episcopum ecclesiasticis curis circumstrepentibus districtum atque distentum, repente quasi obsurdescentem cohibere se ab his omnibus et dialogorum Tullianorum quaestiunculas uni scholastico exponere? Nevertheless, the whole letter bears witness to the influence exercised by Cicero on Augustine’s mind. See Testard 2, pp 94-106.

37 Retract II 1 [27]. See Bonner, G., Augustine and Modern Research on Pelagianism (The Saint Augustine Lecture for 1970) (Villanova, Pa., 1972) pp 15–18 Google Scholar.

38 Hagendahl, H., Augustine and the Latin Classics, Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensm no 20 (Gothenburg 1967) 2, p 715 Google Scholar. See also pp 726-7: ‘The Confessions represent the climax of an attitude of unconcern, aversion, even hostility that subsisted, though occasionally less austerely, to the end of his life.’

39 Marrou p 380.

40 De Magistro xiv 46: ut iam non crederemus tantum, sed etiam intelligete inciperemus quam vere scriptum sit auctoritate divina, ne nobis quemquam magistrum dicamus in terris, quod umis omnium magister in coelis sit. Quid sit autem in coelis, docebit ipse a quo etiam per homines signis admonemur et foris, ut ad eum intro conversi erudiamur; quem diligere ac nosse beata vita est, quam se omnes clamant quaerere, pauci autem sunt qui earn vere se invenisse laetentur.

41 De Doct[rina] Christ[iana] I xxxix 43.

42 Ibid II xl 60.

43 Conf VII ix 13-xxi 27.

44 De Catechizandis Rudibus viii 12.

45 Ibid ix 13.

46 Conf VII xxi 27; compare De Civ Dei X 29.

47 In Evang[elium] Ioh[annis] Tr[actatus] 2, 4.

48 De Civ Dei X 24: Eura quippe in ipsa carne contempsit, quara propter sacrificium nostrae purgationis adsumpsit, magnum scilicet sacramentum ea superbia non intellegens, quam sua ille humilitate deiecit verus benignusque Mediator.

49 Ibid X 29: O si cognovisses Dei gratiam per Iesum Christum dominum nostrum ipsamque eius incarnationem, qua hominis animam corpusque suscepit, summum esse exemplum gratiae videre potuisses!

50 Ibid X 1.

51 Ibid X 2.

52 Ibid X 32.

53 Ibid X 24.

54 Portalié, Eugène, A Guide to the Thought of Saint Augustine, trans Bastian, R. J. (London 1960) p 95 Google Scholar.

55 De Civ Dei XXII 27.

56 Ep 164 ii 4. For date, see Goldbacher, , CSEL 58, p 42 Google Scholar.

57 De Civ Dei V 15.

58 In Evang Ioh Tr 2, 6: Erat lux vera. Quare additum est: vera? quia et homo illuminatus dicitur lux; sed vera lux illa est quae illuminat.

59 De Doct Christ I xxxiv 38: Sic enim ait: Ego sum via et veritas et vita, hoc est ‘per me venitur, ad me pervenitur, in me permanetur.’

60 Retract II 6 [32] 1: Quid de illis alii sentiant, ipsi viderint; multis tamen fratribus eos multum placuisse et piacere scio.