Notes
on Augustine's Confessions
Book
7: Augustine's Encounter With Neo-Platonism
Contents of Book 7:
Summary
As we have seen at the end of Book 6,
Augustine has been making serious efforts to reform himself with mixed
success. He still is having problems being able to conceive of God in an
intelligible way, since he continues to conceive of the divine being as a "corporeal
substance" (i.e., a material being). He certainly cannot even begin
to understand how anything can exist outside of space and time [7.1].
At least he no longer is caught up in his
previous Manichean errors about God. He recognizes that if there are two
primordial substances in the universe continually at war with one another
(Good and Evil, God and the Devil), then either God cannot eliminate the force
of darkness (in which case he is not omnipotent) or he simply chooses not to
do so (in which case he is not supremely good) [7.2].
This leaves Augustine to speculate about the
cause of evil in the universe. The cause can certainly not be God, who
is supremely good and has created only good things. He then comes to the
conclusion that the cause of evil is nothing other than the free will of
human beings used for evil purposes. However, at times it seemed to
Augustine that he often did wicked things seemingly against his own
will. How can we account for that? The answer is that this
inability to do the good he wills is nothing other than a penalty for sins
that he freely committed. As he puts it: "free will is the
cause of our doing evil and [God's] just judgment the cause of our suffering
it." [7.3 - 7.4]
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Read
Confession 7.1 - 7.7 |
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Conversion
#3: Christian Neo-Platonism (7.8 - 7.9) |
Summary
Now we arrive at one of the most important
passages in the Confessions: Augustine's encounter with the books
of the Platonists (most likely the works of Plotinus rather than Plato
himself). Keep in mind that Augustine's primary aim at this time is to
clarify his own metaphysical thoughts about God, the soul, the origins of evil
in the universe. Neo-Platonism was one of the most influential schools of
thought in the ancient world, and it offered Augustine a metaphysical system
that is not at all materialistic.
It is important to note that the very language
that Augustine uses to describe his encounter with the books of the Platonists
seems to be de-emphasizing the human factor in this event and highlighting the
work of the divine in bringing these books to him: "And so by means
of a certain man I knew (he was an extraordinarily conceited person)
you brought to my notice certain books written by the
Platonists."
In fact, although Augustine admires the
metaphysical system of the Neo-Platonists very much, he frequently uses the
word "proud" to describe them. While he believes that the Neo-Platonists may have the right ideas about the goal of human existence
(union with a supremely good and perfect and spiritual God) they are
completely wrong about the way to attain that goal. Augustine believes
that they place far too much emphasis on the powers of reason, and fail to
appreciate the need for faith in Christ and submission to his Church.
Augustine’s attacks on Neo-Platonic
thought are relatively consistent throughout his philosophical career, and all
of his criticisms center around the problem of pride or presumption, which he
believes serves only to lead the Neo-Platonists away from God. In De
Trinitate, for example, Augustine argues that it is the very pride of the
Neo-Platonists that prevents them attaining the end that they seek:
There are, however, some who think
themselves capable of being cleansed by their own righteousness, so as to
contemplate God, and to dwell in God; whom their very pride itself stains
above all other. For there is no sin to which divine law is more
opposed....For these persons promise themselves cleansing by their own
righteousness for this reason, because some of them have been able to
penetrate with the eye of the mind beyond the whole creature, and to touch,
though it be in ever so small a part, the light of unchangeable truth; a
thing which they deride many Christians for being not yet able to do, in the
meantime live by faith alone.
In this work the Neo-Platonists
are characterized as the most presumptuous of all the philosophers, believing
they can rest permanently in God without the mediation of Christ. Although
they deride Christians, who proceed by faith alone, the Neo Platonists in
their arrogance are unable to attain what Christians possess in their humility:
because they refuse to accept the mediation of Christ, Augustine maintains,
the Neo-Platonists can only gaze at their true homeland from afar, whereas the
Christian is ultimately able to reside permanently in it. Thus the pride of
Neo-Platonism is seen as a necessary impediment to attaining the happy life.
Thus, Augustine's encounter with the books
of the Platonist is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, these works
teach him how to think properly about God, the soul and the cause of
evil. On the other hand, they also reinforce his mistaken belief--his
great sin, if you will--that human beings can reach God through their own
efforts. This will be the cause of great suffering for him later on.
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Read
Confession 7.8 - 7.9 |
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The
Failure of Neo-Platonism (7.10 - 7.20) |
Summary
Having read selected books of the
Neo-Platonists and having assimilated those insights that were more or less
compatible with Christianity, Augustine describes in chapters 10-20 of Book 7 how he was inspired to turn inward, away from all the noise and confusion of
the sense world, and enter into himself. Attempting to experience the same
ecstatic vision of the divine that he had read about in these works, he
writes,
I was admonished by all this to return to
my own self, and, with you to guide me, I entered into the innermost part of
myself [intravi in intima mea], and I was able to do this because you
were my helper. I entered and I saw with my soul and above my mind. It was
not ordinary light which is visible to all flesh....No, it was not like
that; it was different, entirely different from anything of the kind....It
was higher than I, because it made me, and I was lower because I was made by
it. He who knows truth, and he who knows that light knows eternity.
Certainly, the influence of Neo-Platonic
thought is visible throughout these sections of the Confessions.
Courcelle, O’Meara, and Henry, among others, have given ample consideration
to the philosophical underpinnings of Augustine’s so-called vision in Milan,
and have concluded that it was highly influenced by Plotinus’s work "On
Beauty" (and perhaps also Porphyry’s Return of the Soul) and
that it represents a relatively successful attempt to ascend to God through
the power of Augustine’s own will. If the attempt is somewhat incomplete,
these authors argue, it is only because Augustine’s own moral state is not
yet firm enough to sustain the vision of God, not because of the
insufficiencies inherent within Neo-Platonism itself. Thus, the
traditional interpretation of this text argues that Augustine experiences an
intellectual conversion in Book 7 of the Confessions, but only
experiences a moral conversion in Book 8. His disappointment in Book 7,
therefore, is nothing more than a manifestation of moral weakness: had
Augustine attained the same kind of moral purification that his intellect
received, his attempt to return to God without the aid of the Church
presumably would have been a success.
Eugene Teselle, on the other hand, maintains
that the account of Augustine’s attempt at mystical ascent in Book 7 should
not be understood as an historical record of the event, but as retrospective
critique of philosophical approaches to happiness and an affirmation of the
need for grace in order to attain beatitude. What is it that makes
the Neo-Platonist believe that they can attain happiness through their own
efforts? It is nothing other than the sin of pride-the arrogant presumption of
their own self-sufficiency. Throughout his later life Augustine
consistently attacked the Platonists on the grounds that they reject Christ as
the medium through which they can ascend to the "blessed fatherland."
Relying on their own powers, the best that these philosophers can do is
glimpse the happy life from afar; they can never rest tranquilly in it.
Although Augustine acknowledges that the
Neo-Platonists have a correct understanding of God as an infinite and
incorporeal being, he also maintains that the Neo-Platonists fail to
understand the right way (via) to return to God. "It is one thing,"
writes Augustine, "to see from a mountaintop in the forests the land of
peace in the distance and not to find the way to it and to struggle in vain
along impassable tracks....and it is another thing to hold to the way that
leads there...." The results of not recognizing this right way, Augustine
claims, is an inability to attain the very end which Neo-Platonism inspired
him to seek. In the light, the attempt at mystical assent in Book 7 of the Confessions
is nothing more than a miserable failure from Augustine’s perspective,
because it is grounded in the wrong way for the soul to return to God.
This is precisely the reason why Augustine
views his own attempts to ascend to God in Milan as a complete failure. His
own natural pride, magnified still further by his reading of the books of the
Platonists, ensured that this vision could never be sustained. As Starnes has
correctly observed, the entire context of the description of his
"vision" is placed squarely in the economy of pride-the pride of the
Neo-Platonists, the pride of the man who gave him the books to read and his
own pride at the time he received them. It is also worth noting that the
entire discussion of his experience emphasizes his own activity. It is
probably not purely coincidental that Augustine writes the passage in the
first person singular: "I entered" (intravi); "I
saw" (vidi); " perceived" (inveni); " I
learned (cognovi). The emphasis on himself and his own activity in this
passage is astounding given Augustine’s typically self-deprecating attitude
throughout the Confessions and his natural tendency to credit
everything good in his life to God’s work rather than his own.
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Read
Confession 7.17 - 7.20 |
Summary
Immediately following his encounter with the
Neo-Platonists, Augustine describes in Confessions 7.21 how he was inspired
to snatch up (arripui) the epistles of Paul, which he claims had a
powerful effect on him. Although many commentators either ignore the
importance of this transition from Plotinus to Paul in Book 7 or deny that
Augustine himself saw any real difference between Christianity and
Neo-Platonism, it is clearly the case that Augustine’s aim in 7.21 is to
contrast the difference between the philosophical approach to happiness that
he had previously adopted and the more biblically and ecclesiastically
oriented one that he would eventually come to adopt.
But what is it that Augustine received from
his reading of Paul that he could not have gotten simply from Neo-Platonism?
Although he observes in 7.21 that everything he discovered in the books of the
Platonists that was true he also finds in the writings of Paul, the truth that
he discovers in Scripture is expressed "to the glory of [God’s]
grace." Thus, while the Neo-Platonists may have an accurate understanding
of the nature of God, this understanding is undermined by their attitude of
self-pride and their lack of gratitude to God. It is not enough, writes
Augustine, for one to be able to see God, but one must also "grow strong
enough to lay hold on [God]." Though the Neo-Platonists might see God
from a distance, their pride prevents them from resting in God. The Christian,
on the other hand, has developed the right attitude, which enables him not
only to see from a distance but to reside, to rest and to dwell permanently in
God. This proper attitude is characterized by "the face and look of pity,
the tears of confession, your sacrifice-a troubled spirit, a broken and
contrite heart, the salvation of the people, the bridal city, the earnest of
the Holy Ghost, the cup of redemption." Thus, the attitude of the
Christian, as opposed to that of the Platonist-the attitude that enables them
to not only see God but also remain in God-is an attitude of penance, humility
and submission to authority. If Augustine is to overcome the pride that has
prevented him from standing firmly in God, he must first subordinate his own
interests and desires to those of the Church, which alone can show him the
right way to attain salvation.
For Augustine the philosopher it was
necessary to submit to external authority in order to provide a remedy for his
excessive pride. By submitting himself to legitimate authority Augustine
is also acknowledging his own sinful state, his inability to follow God’s
law on his own and his need to be cared for by the collective body that is the
Church. As we shall see in the next two books, salvation for Augustine
will ultimately come to mean following a way of life that includes a
"pattern of obedience within an authoritative religion."
Suggestions
for Further Reading |
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Brown, Peter. Augustine
of Hippo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.
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Courcelle, Pierre.
Les Confessions de s. Augustin dans la tradition littérarie.
Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1963.
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Henry, Paul. The
Path to Transcendence: From Philosophy to Mysticism in St. Augustine.
Trans. Francis Burch. Pittsburg: Pickwick, 1981.
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Mallard, William. Language
and Love: Introducing Augustine’s Religious Thought Through the
Confessions Story. University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1994.
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Miles, Margaret. Desire
and Delight: A New Reading of Augustine’s Confessions. New York:
Crossroad Publishing, 1991.
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O’Meara, John J.
The Young Augustine. London: Longman Publishing, 1954.
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Starnes, Colin. Augustine’s
Conversion: A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX. Waterloo,
Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press (1990).
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Teselle, Eugene. Augustine
the Theologian. N.Y.: Herder and Herder, 1970.
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