The Death of God pt. 4: Augustine

Regarding Augustine's betrayal of his Platonic heritage for Christianity

On the life of Augustine

Augustine's legacy for early Christianity is unsurpassed. His theology settled key matters for Christians which would remain unchallenged for centuries. He represents the ideal Christian for many, a man beset by demons who turns to faith to repent for his sins. His autobiography, the Confessions, is the first of its kind in history, and is well regarded for its ability to articulate emotion and suffering. The success of Augustine's brand of Christianity is a testament to how well it appealed to the late Roman masses, compared to the perceived elitism of their Platonic rivals.

In saying that, Augustine was a firm Platonist throughout his early adult life. His deep moral and ascetic drive drew him to Plotinus, describing the encounter as 'setting his mind on fire'. His Confessions describe an encounter with God by use of Platonic dialectic methods, describing 'a vision of eternal truth and unchanging beauty'. However later he states disappointment at the transience of such an experience, writing of 'a profound fear of God' induced by contemplating an Other so remote to himself.

His unwillingness to engage further draws him to Christianity, a tradition he initially described as primitive compared to what was on offer from the best of Rome. He justifies his decision by seeing the Church as 'Platonism for the multitude'. Later characterizing his encounter with the Platonic God as an isolated exercise in reason, he describes a further vision he experiences of Christ as a more emotionally satisfying experience. This will become a common theme, as his life work is an exercise of turning away from Platonic reason towards embracing the emotion involved in submitting to Christ.

On the contentions of Augustine

This contention between Augustine's Platonic background and Christian conversion colors all his teachings, and thereby his legacy for the future of his faith. In many respects, he lionizes the Greeks. For instance, he praises math and geometry as expressive of eternal truth, he lionizes the liberal arts as preparation for higher learning, and he shares a Platonic attitude towards matters of the soul and the senses.

However in many more respects, his need to adhere to scripture make him ever more critical of Platonic teachings later in life. Key to his struggle is the conflict inherent between the God of philosophy - necessity, immutability, eternity - and the personal attributes from the Bible - will, justice and historical purpose.

The departures from Platonism that Augustine introduces across his voluminous corpus are numerous. This essay will focus on his doctrine of Original Sin. This doctrine is critical for it highlights what must result for the human soul as a product of a Creative God rather than an Eternal God. This distinction is identical to that between The Intellect and The One introduced in earlier essays. Augustine underlines the imperfection that defines the Christian view of the human soul, and thereby its need for divine salvation. He builds further upon this narrative to draw out a destiny for humanity as a whole that is driven by the story of Revelation from the scriptures.

On the Platonic view of the soul

The Platonic conception of God is centered around the nature of The One. The One is surpassingly simple and beyond comprehension. Most critically to this discussion, it's nature is eternal, and as everything participates in the One, it also shares in this nature. This implies that nothing is ever created or destroyed, meaning that all is in a process of change between different states and beings.

Man therefore possesses an eternal soul that cannot be destroyed. Being already perfect in nature, it is not liable to sin, it is not prone to mutability or weakness. The drama of human existence commences only with the soul's descent into the body, and the forgetting that takes place through its interaction with matter. By such interaction, the lower nature of the soul adopts a personality to navigate the world, and thereby is liable to experience anxiety, suffering, and negativity. However it never loses touch with the divine spark within that forms the core of their higher nature.

Our hidden nature is discoverable by reason, for the nature we share in is perfect and thereby intelligible. The truth reveals our nature is eternal, implying our destiny is inherently conservative. There is nothing we seek for that we do not already possess. There is no action we may take which will bring us closer to or further from our nature. Most crucially, there is no eternal damnation that awaits us if we are led down the wrong path from God, or even die too early to be baptized in Christ.

All of existence points us towards the Beauty we once saw before descending into the body. This is a process not of divine grace, but by active participation by means of reason. The choice is always available to us to be enchanted by the appearances that fascinate us, or to turn away from them towards reality. By moving forward into greater identification with God, we are thereby enabled to become an instrument of truth and justice in the world.

On the creative impulse of God and man For Augustine, it is impossible to square this vision of our perfect nature with Biblical scripture. The distinction begins with the creative nature of the God from Genesis. The Christian God who wills the universe into being from nothing is a wholly different entity than the God for whom all has existed eternally. Augustine disputes this infinite nature, finding it would lock the world into a limited system. He asserts his Christian system leaves room for creativity, uniqueness and divine grace.

Augustine therefore identifies the human soul with the same creative nature as their God, however we shall see it comes at a price. Whereas Platonism locates the source of individuation in the body, Augustine locates it in the soul. He defines each soul by what makes it unique rather than what they share in common, thereby rejecting the Platonic idea of participation. He explains instead that God communicates by a life-force that obeys only him, and works through the angels. This lack of participation is crucial, for it tears away any ability for humanity to share in God's nature. In particular, it divests humanity of it's ability to approach Him through reason.

On the Soul's destiny

The creative nature of God necessitates existence possesses a divine purpose. Augustine thereby invests each soul with their own personal destiny aimed towards God. Each soul has an existential decision to make with eternal consequences. And yet at the same time, this burden is impossibly high due to our created nature. Possessing a created soul implies imperfection, meaning the soul will inevitably be driven off course towards sin.

Augustine thereby locates the root of evil in the soul, stating we are corrupt to our very core. In this way, creation always bears a stamp from the Fall. Adam's sin is transmitted to all of humanity, burdening them with an enfeebled will that is compelled to desire for the lower and violate the will of God. This is a far more damning statement than the Platonists, which states evil begins with misunderstandings related to the body, and is therefore transient in nature.

On the will and reason

Augustine lionizes the will as the vehicle to overcome sin, and to make one's action their own. He thereby sides with the critics of Plato, emphasizing Christian membership, authority and obedience to the divine as the proper vehicle to salvation, rather than intellectualism and logic.

Augustine insists in his later teachings that man lacks the means to overcome original sin by reason. Gone is his earlier optimism that men have a choice to rationally choose the eternal life. Men who assert their sovereignty find themselves in bondage, and will fall to egotism if left to their own devices. He insists salvation can only ever be a result of grace that man could have done nothing to deserve, and is given to the few that are predestined to deserve it.

On the City of God

For Augustine, the fact that all men share in a collective destiny is the inevitable result of a creative God that results from a fixed beginning in Original Sin, towards a final end. His Biblical account is a linear account of divine justice, a dramatic unfolding of morally decisive, non-repeatable events. Augustine's narrative starts from the Fall, flows through the incarnation of Christ which demonstrates the possibility of our redemption, and ends in the final judgment.

Augustine in his later years paints a particularly dark picture that results from our inherently imperfect, created nature. Bearing the burden of original sin, humanity is deservedly damned by having turned away from God to the self. By means of unmerited grace, God chooses to display his mercy by choosing a minority of people to save. However there is no means to secure this fate, we must simply do the best we can in the life we have. No amount of good deeds or church membership can save us, for grace must defy the scrutiny of our reason. At the time of revelation, the City of Man will be subject to eternal torment, while the city of God will be promised a rest from anxiety, renewed into a state that defies all estimation.

Aftermath

Augustine's dark outlook may have been a product of his times. He railed repeatedly against the Roman empire, declaring them to be utterly corrupt and characterized by 'private affluence and public squalor'. He declared the rulers to be lost in materialism, and preached of a new age that would set to rights such injustice. For these reasons he appealed to the poor in stating the world would be happier if the Empire fell, that it would be better served by the smaller states that would result from such collapse.

And so the Empire progressed ever onwards into ruin at the hands of his Christian brethren. In 430 AD, his hometown was besieged by recently converted Germanic tribes, and he died shortly thereafter. Story tells he died with a book of Plotinus by his bed.