1. It is one of the central texts in the history of Christian literature;

COURSE: The Confessions of Saint Augustine. A Classic of Religious Literature Fu Jen University, Taiwan

B. McGinn April, 2009 I. Description.

Few books in world literature have been as much read as the Confessions of Saint Augustine. The book is a true “classic” in the sense that it has no final, agreed-upon meaning, but is a rich text in which readers can always find new meanings. The classic status of the Confessions is threefold:

1. It is one of the central texts in the history of Christian literature;

2. It is an important book in the Western literary canon, even for those who are not of the Christian tradition. This is both because it is the greatest literary work of the late Roman Empire, and also because it has been so widely read in the West over the past fifteen centuries.

3. It is a monument of world literature, especially because of its exploration of the role of inner consciousness in the construction of human life.

This course is designed to introduce students to the reading of this classic book. It will be structured around a series of key questions that Augustine confronts as he tells his life story and its wider significance. Some, but not all of these questions, are listed below.

II. Texts.

A. Required.

Augustine, Confessions.

There are a number of English translations of the Confessions.

For this course we will use Saint Augustine. Confessions, translated by R. S. Pine-Coffin (Penguin Books, 1961).

Other full translations include:

The Confessions of St. Augustine, translated by John K. Ryan (Image Books, 1960).

The Confessions of St. Augustine, translated by Rex Warner (New American Library, 1963)

The Works of Saint Augustine. A Translation for the 21

Century. PartI/1. Confessions, translated by Maria Boulding (New City Press, 1997)

St. Augustine: Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 1998)

In addition, the Loeb Classical Library published by Harvard has a two-volume St.

Augustine’s Confessions, with a Latin text and facing translation by William Watts, first published in 1631.

B. Useful. The literature on the Confessions is very large, so I mention only a few works:

James J. O’Donnell, Augustine Confessions, 3 vols. (Clarendon Press, 1992). A indispensable work. Vol. I contains an edition, while Vols. II-III are an extensive commentary.

A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, edd. Kim Paffenroth and Robert P.

Kennedy (John Knox Press, 2003). A book-by-book commentary by a number of noted

Augustine scholars.

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo. A Biography (University of California, 1967). Possibly the best modern book on Augustine. Parts I-II treat Augustine up to the time of the Conf.

III. Requirements for Course.

1. Attendance at all lectures.

2. Brief weekly paper (1 page) on the topic assigned by the lecturer.

3. Final paper (3-4 pages). Choice of one of three topics assigned by the lecturer.

4. Class Discussion. Augustine’s Confessions is a book filled with questions, both the questions he asks God and the questions that the book addresses to us. Hence, it is important to make room for discussion, for questioning and answering, within the class itself. I realize that all students may not have equal command of English, or feel ready to bring up their own questions in class. As a way around this I am enclosing lists of questions for each session and will look for ways to encourage each student to be able to express some view on at least one of these questions in each class (this could take a brief written form).

IV. Syllabus.

1

Lecture. Monday, April 6: Introduction to Augustine.

(13:40-15:30) --Augustine’s Life and Works

--Structure and Purpose of the Confessions 2

Lecture. Thursday, April 9: Confessions, Book 1: Who is God?

(10:10-12:00) --Is it possible to speak to God?

--Is it possible to speak about God?

--How do infants and children relate to God?

--What is the role of infancy and childhood in the development of the self?

3

Lecture. Monday, April 13: Confessions, Books 2-5: What is sin?

(13:40-15:30) --What is sin? And why do we sin?

--What kind of love was Augustine seeking?

--What are the forms of sin?

--What did reading Cicero’s Hortensius do for Augustine and what did it not do?

4

Lecture: Thursday, April 16: Confessions, Books 6-7: What is truth?

(10:10-12:00) --What were Augustine’s main problems in overcoming Manichaeanism?

--How did the Platonists help him?

--What is the role of Christ in this book?

--What did Augustine discover in Paul?

5

Lecture: Monday, April 20: Confessions, Books 8-9: What is love?

(13:40-15:30) --What is the function of the conversations that

Augustine recounts in Book 8?

--What is the proper understanding of why the will is dual?

--How are grace and love related?

--What happened at Ostia?

6

Lecture, Thursday, April 23: Confessions, Book 10: What is memory?

(10:10-12:00) --How does Augustine describe his condition while writing the Confessions?

--What is memory?

--What is the relation of God and memory?

--What is happiness?

7

Lecture: Monday, April 27: Confessions, Book 11: What is creation? What is time?

(13:40-15:30) --What does it mean to say God creates?

--When does God create?

--Can we know what time is?

--What is the role of time in the Confessions?

8

Lecture: Thursday, April 30: Confessions, Books 12-13: What does the Bible tell us about creation?

(10:10-12:00) --Why does Augustine turn to biblical exegesis?

--How does he interpret Genesis?

--Why does Augustine’s reading emphasize the church?

--Has his spiritual reading any value today?

Remarks on Reading Augustine.

1. A meaningful reading of Augustine’s Confessions should be more than just learning what the text says, that is, its content. Rather, Augustine invites the reader to take part with him in a journey or process of discovery of the true self (though not a modern self-discovery, or finding out who we are by our own efforts). To quote a passage from Charles Mathewes (A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, 22):

“Augustine’s general aim in the Confessions is to help us be prepared to relearn ourselves, and yet, and by doing so, truly to know our lives for the first time.”

Augustine himself provides us a clue to this. Near the end of his life he wrote a series of notes on his various books that he called the Retractions. In it he both corrected some things said in these books and provided notes on the context and meaning of his writings. In Retractions 2.32 he introduced the Confessions as follows:

The thirteen books of my Confessions praise the just and good God for my evil

and good acts, and lift up the understanding and affection of men to Him. At least,

as far as I am concerned, they had this effect on me while I was writing them and

they continue to have it now when I am reading them. What others think about

them is a matter for them to decide. Yet I know that they have given and continue

to give pleasure to many of my brethren.

2. One problem we have in reading the Confessions is that our world is not Augustine’s world, and our beliefs are not necessarily his. (Even contemporary Christians may not share all of Augustine’s beliefs and claims.) We don’t have to agree with

Augustine, however, in order to learn from him. Again, I quote a pertinent remark from a contemporary student of the Confessions, James Wetzel (A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, 57): “I don’t mean that we ought to bring some crude

defensiveness about truth to reading Augustine and then join with him in rejecting what he rejects. I mean that we ought to care enough about truth to notice how Augustine goes about seeking his truth…. The falsity that counts most for him—because it does the most damage—is falsity of the heart.”

A good reading of the Confessions is a reading that strives to avoid falsity of the heart, even the falsity of agreeing with Augustine when we are not really convinced.

3. One of the important themes found throughout the Confessions is how Augustine learned to read the Bible properly, especially by not taking everything said there in a literal way. From that perspective, the Confessions is an exercise in the spiritual reading of his own life, that is, bringing out its inner meaning. There is evidence that Augustine wrote the book with the purpose of expressing both surface and inner significations that each reader should strive to profit from in reading the book. For example, in Conf. 12.31 he says:

For my part I declare resolutely and with all my heart that if I were called upon to write a book which was to be vested with the highest authority, I should prefer to write it in such a way that a reader could find re-echoed in my words whatever truths he was able to apprehend. I would rather write it in this way than impose a single true meaning so explicitly that it would exclude all others, provided these did not offend me with their falsehood.

4. Augustine scholars, such as Robert McMahon (A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessionsm 218-23), have noted the importance of distinguishing between Augustine the narrator (i.e., the voice of Augustine speaking to God always in the present) and Augustine the author (i.e., the hidden voice of the bishop who is writing all this down from his memories). The narrator is often presented as not knowing where his life is heading, while the author has thought out the meaning over the years and

presumably knows what he wants to do with the book. But Augustine would insist that the real author is God, speaking to both narrator and author in his heart and through the scriptures. Hence, while Augustine the author knows more than what Augustine the narrator does, only God really knows the outcome. What Augustine is asking the reader to do is to enter into this situation by re-enacting the ever-deepening story of their own lives by meditating on how he found meaning in his life under God’s guidance. From this perspective, it is interesting to note that Augustine begins and ends the Conf. with

citations of the same biblical text from Mt. 7:7 (quarentes enim inveniunt eum: “Those

who seek him will find him”), implicitly cited in 1.1 and explicitly cited as the last words

in 13.38.

LECTURE 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO AUGUSTINE AND THE CONFESSIONS Part I. Who was Augustine and why is he important?

(A) Historical Context of Augustine’s Life.

--the triumph of Christianity

--the Christian Empire (respublica Romana Christiana)

--the problem of the Barbarian Invasions (Battle of Adrianople, 378; Sack of Rome, 410)

--theological turmoil: the Arian controversy; the Donatists; the Pelagians --the world is beginning to change: the transition from Ancient to Medieval;

emergence of “Late Antique Society”

(B) Key Events in Augustine’s Life.

I. Before Baptism.

--born 354 in Thagaste in N. Africa --parents and social status

--school days (the Roman educational system) --wider horizons: going off to Carthage (371) --Augustine’s ambitions and sexual life --reading of Cicero’s Hortensius (373)

--Augustine’s life in Carthage

--migration to Italy and wider horizons (383)

--Augustine’s “religions” before Christianity: Manichaeanism --Augustine in Rome and Milan (professor of rhetoric, 384-86) --the gradual conversion and influence of Monica and Ambrose --retreat at Cassiciacum (Sept., 386-March, 387): early writings --baptism (Easter 387)

--Rome: experience at Ostia and death of Monica (Fall, 387) II. Back in Africa.

--returns to Africa and Thagaste (388)

--founds monastery at Hippo and is ordained priest (391)

--begins first of his major works, Enarrationes in Psalmos (c. 392-422) --writing on Paul (394-96) and against the Manichaeans and Donatists --consecrated bishop of Hippo (395)

III. Augustine the Bishop

--Confessiones written (c. 397-401)

--De doctrina christiana (c. 397-400; only finished in 421)

--debates with Donatists and anti-Donatist councils (397-407 and on) --begins his second major work, De Trinitate (c. 399-422)

--begins third major work, De genesi ad litteram (c. 401-15)

--begins writing fourth major work, Tractatus in Johannem (c. 406-21?)

--writings of Pelagius come to his attention (411)

--early writings against Pelagius: De spiritu et littera (412)

--begins writing fifth of his major works, De civitate dei, in reaction to Fall of Rome in 410 (413-27)

--attends council of Milevis which condemns Pelagius (416) --further writings against Pelagius and his followers (412-20) --controversy with Pelagian bishop, Julian of Eclanum (421-30) --“Semi-Pelagian” controversy (426-28)

--death and burial of Augustine during Vandal siege of Hippo (430)

(C) Augustine’s Opponents.

Augustine’s life and writings were shaped by his struggles to defend orthodox, catholic Christianity against its opponents, both inside and outside the Christian community.

1. Arians. Arius and his followers held that the Word, the second person of the Trinity, is not consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and therefore not “God” in the full sense. This view had been condemned at the Council of Nicaea (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381), but there were still Arians and Arian sympathizers in Augustine’s time.

--Semi-Arians. The position of those who said that the Word was “like” the Father, but who refused to speak of “consubstantiality.”

2. Donatists. The Donatists were a North African schismatic group who taught that the sacraments performed by unworthy priests were not valid and that therefore only Donatus and his followers were the true catholic church.. Augustine struggled against them during his whole career as priest and bishop.

3. Manichaeans. The dualistic religion founded by the prophet Mani in the third century C.E. Manichaeans taught that there were two gods, the evil god who created the material universe, and the good god who sent Jesus to redeem fallen souls.

Augustine was a Manichaean for a number of years and the Confessions tell the story of his break with them. Early in his ecclesiastical career he wrote many treatises against the Manichaeans.

4. Origen and Origenism. Origen (d. 254) was the greatest of early Christian biblical interpreters and Augustine learned much from him. Some of Origen’s views, such as those on the fall of the soul, etc., became controversial in the period 400-10 and Augustine later became more critical of Origen and his thinking.

4. Pagans. Although the Emperors had been Christian since before Augustine’s birth, there were still many pagans and pagan practices in Augustine’s world. Augustine decisively rejected pagan ritual and wrote against it. He read and used pagan philosophy, especially Platonic and Neoplatonic authors, but became more and more negative toward them, especially in the De civitate dei.

5. Pelagians and their sympathizers. Pelagius (c. 360-c.420) was a Celtic monk who became an important spiritual director in Rome around 400. He and his followers held that Adam’s sin had not permanently harmed human nature, but only

provided a bad example. Therefore, it remained possible for humans to avoid sin

on the basis of their own will power.

--Semi-Pelagians. Towards the end of his life some of Augustine’s readers, mostly monks, criticized his insistence that any movement toward the good on our part can only be the effect of grace. They held (as had the early

Augustine) that fallen humans had enough freedom to ask for God’s help. (At a later time they were called Semi-Pelagians)

(D) Augustine’s Writings.

Augustine was one of the most prolific writers in the history of Christianity.

--117 surviving treatises of varying length, beginning with the Contra Academicos (Fall, 386-Spring, 387). The longest, the Enarrationes in Psalmos, consists of 206 sermons on the 150 psalms and takes up 2377 printed pages in the English translation.

--298 letters survive, many of which are really treatises in letter form.

--396 sermons are ascribed to Augustine, though some of these are of doubtlful authenticity.

Part II. What Kind of a Book is the Confessions ? (A) Questions for Discussion.

1. What is the genre of the Confessions?

--autobiographical or not?

--style of the Confessions

--the originality of the Confessions 2. What is the structure of the Confessions?

--Are there two parts of the Confessions (Books 1-9 and Books 10-13), or actually three (Books 1-9, 10, 11-13)?

--Why does Augustine abandon the story of his life at the end of Book 9?

--How do Books 10-13 relate to the earlier books?

3. Who is the audience of the Confessions?

4. What is the purpose of the Confessions? In other words, what does Augustine hope his readers will get from reading it?

5. What is the role of the Bible in the Confessions?

LECTURE 2. BOOK 1 OF THE CONFESSIONS: WHO IS GOD?

(1) Structure of the Book. (A note on numbering chapters and sections in the Confessions. The division of books goes back to Augustine, but the numbering of chapters only to the sixteenth century and the numbering of paragraphs to the seventeenth. Most editions and many translations number books, chapters, and

paragraphs, so that references look like this: 1.1.1-5.5.6. For the sake of simplicity, I will

only number book and chapter, e.g., 1.1-5. The basic structure of this book is evident:

1.1-5: Introductory address on the mystery of God 1.6-7: The story of Augustine’s infancy

1.8-19: Augustine’s boyhood 1.20: Confession and Thanksgiving

(2) Some Passages for Close Reading. Since we cannot examine the Confessions line-by- line, for each lecture I will concentrate on some passages that all students should read with special care. This does not mean to neglect the rest of the reading, since these passages will make better sense when seen in the context of the book in which they appear.

(a) 1.1-5: Introductory address on the mystery of God.

Structure:

1.1—the problem of knowing and praising God.

--Which comes first: petition or praise? knowing or praying?

--the necessity of faith 1.2-3—Where is God?

1.4—Who is God?

---a brief treatise on the divine names (De nominibus dei) --How can we name God at all? How can we even address God?

1.5—Praying to God as Savior (b) 1.6-7: Augustine as Infant Structure:

1.6—The status of infants; the characteristics of infancy 1.7—The sins of infants

(c) 1.18-19: The Sins of Childhood Structure:

1.18—What is the nature of sin? How does the Bible help us understand sin?

1.19—Augustine’s sinful state in childhood (d) 1.20: The Final Act of Confession in Book 1.

(3) Some Questions for Discussion concerning These Passages.

(a) The Latin words confessio/confiteor are used 111 times in the work and provide it with its title.

--How do you understand the meaning of this word?

--What is Augustine “confessing”?

-- To whom is Augustine confessing?

--What is the role of memory in confessing 1, especially because Augustine is talking about many things he was too young to remember?

b) The first five chapters (1.1-5) constitute one of the most important passages in Augustine’s writings on his views of God.

--Why does Augustine begin this way? Would it not have been better just to get

started with the story of his life, or tell the reader what he hopes to do in the book?

--What are the obstacles Augustine finds to speaking about God? What are the obstacles of speaking to God?

--What are the main characteristics, attributes, or predicates that Augustine uses in speaking about God? Are some of these more important than others? Is there a primary attribute (e.g., Goodness, Being, Truth, Beauty)?

c) Augustine’s picture of infancy (infantia) in 1.6.-7 has often been seen as a largely negative one.

--How does Augustine describe infants? Is this picture true to your own experience of infants?

--What are the sins of infants? Can infants really commit sin?

--Why does Augustine devote so much time to analying the nature of infancy?

--What are the roles of parents and nurses?

--How is confessio used in this section?

d) Augustine spends more time in his portrayal of his childhood (pueritia in 1.8-19).

--What distinguishes infancy from childhood?

--What is the origin of language for Augustine?

--What are the distinctive sins of childhood?

--What is Augustine’s attitude towards his education and his teachers?

--What is his attitude towards his parents?

--Again, why does Augustine give a largely negative picture?

e) The conclusion of Book 1 provides one of the more detailed passages on the meaning of confessio and the purpose of the book.

--Does this thansgiving prayer add anything to the earlier uses of the term found in Book 1? What does the prayer contribute to the larger rhetorical structure of the book?

ADDENDUM

I recently wrote a paper dealing with Book 1.1-5 and its influence, especially the phrase semper agens/semper quietus (always active/always at rest). I am including a copy of the first part of this paper to help you in your reading of the text.

SEMPER AGENS, SEMPER QUIETUS:

Notes on the History of an Augustinian Theme

Ancient literature reveals no precedent for the opening chapters of Augustine’s

Confessiones. Instead of a dedicatory epistle, or an introduction explaining the purpose of

the book, Augustine abruptly presents us with an impassioned plea to God, almost

embarrassing in its revelation of his desires, his failings, and his puzzlement over how to

know God and how best to praise him. (Such addresses to God in the second person are

found in 381 of the 453 paragraphs that make up the Confessiones.) A careful reading of

even the first chapter, however, reveals that we are dealing with something that is as

much a conversation as an address, because the words that Augustine directs to God, even when he is wondering how to talk to him, are God’s own words to humans found in scripture. The opening phrase, Magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde, is a quotation from a line of praise found in three psalms (Pss. 47:2, 95:4, and 144:3), and the fifteen or sixteen lines of the first chapter alone contain six further biblical quotations or

reminiscences. Our initial reticence about listening in on this private conversation is part of Augustine’s strategy for providing us a pedagogical model by highlighting the

“testimony of sin” (testimonium peccati) that is the necessary prerequisite for the

“testimony of praise” (testimonium laudis) -- the task of every believer. This is the problem the bishop poses at the outset. Augustine, furthermore, presents his quandary as ours—from the perspective not of one who knows the answer, but of one who knows the way to the answer that shall only be fully given when we attain perfect rest in heaven.

The goal of heavenly repose is adumbrated both at the beginning of the prayer in the most famous phrase from these chapters: “You have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (quia fecesti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te), as well as toward the end in chapter five which opens with the plea,

“Who will allow me to find rest in you?” (Quis mihi dabit adquiscere in te?) and closes with the difficult text, “Do not hide your face from me: that I may die, lest I die, so that I may behold it” (noli abscondere a me faciem tuam: moriar, ne moriar, ut eam videam).

In 1945, in the wake of World War II, Romano Guardini published a short commentary on Confessiones 1.1-5 under the title Anfang (i.e., Beginning) in which he says, “The Confessiones begin with five chapters which scarcely have a parallel in literature.” These five chapters (1.1.1-1.5.6) do more than merely set the stage for the story of Augustine’s life, beginning with his infancy (1.6.7); they are an image of how the reader is meant to appropriate in his or her life what Augustine learned from talking with God about the purpose of his own existence. In order to conduct this conversation, we, like Augustine, have to discover the truth about the God we address, or at least as much as is necessary to enable us to direct our faltering speech to the real God and not some counterfeit (aliud enim pro alio potest invocare nesciens). The problem of finding the proper way to address God is a key issue throughout the Confessiones. Hence, the teaching about the divine nature set out in the first five chapters, though presented as a meditation on God’s word given through the mouth of the preacher and the prayer of the believer, rather than as a theological exposition, is crucial to a correct reading of the book. In this opening meditation-conversation Augustine encapsulates what he has learned about God thus far on his journey through life, a voyage both intellectual and affective.

Intellectually, Augustine had had to overcome his Manichaean view of God as a

mass of physical light extended throughout the universe, a corporeal reality in conflict

with the physical body of darkness and evil. Through the help of the libri platonici, as he

explains in Book 7, he came to realize the superiority of incorporeal reality, or light, over

all corporeal nature, and even to attain a partial vision of the Supreme Light and Truth,

that is, the immutable reality of God. In the visionary account (or accounts) in Book 7,

Augustine quotes Exodus 3:14 (ego sum qui sum) in the first report (7.10.16), and in the

second tells us that he came “to ‘that which is’ in a flash of trembling glance” (pervenit

ad id quod est in ictu trepidantis aspectus: 7.17.23). Augustine certainly held that Being

(esse and even ipsum esse) was among the names that can be properly used of God, but

we should beware of thinking that Augustine gave Being the kind of priority among the divine names that Thomas Aquinas did, just as we should not neglect the powerful, if unsystematic, apophatic aspect of his theology.

The intellectual conversion recounted in book 7 of the Confessiones, however, was not sufficient to save the sinner who had wandered far from God, as the bishop explains in 7.20.26. Augustine was now firmly rooted in truth, telling God, “I was certain that you are and you are infinite,…, you who are always the same as what you are, and not something other or in another fashion by way of any part or movement, and also that all things come from you solely by the most firm evidence that they exist….” But

Augustine could not enjoy, or have fruition, of this knowledge, nor could he address God in a correct way, because of his own sinfulness, his pride, and especially his ignorance of the need to turn to the Incarnate Word for help. Only Christ’s grace poured out in his heart could effect the conversion that would enable him “to discern and distinguish the difference between presumption and confession” (discernerem atque distinguerem quid interest inter praesumptionem et confessionem). In David Tracy’s trenchent formulation:

“…only by naming Jesus of Nazareth…the Christ can we name God… In Augustinian christology, the Form Christ gathers all other forms to name God…. Augustine’s

theology is theocentric through and through. At the same time, Augustine’s theocentrism is constituted in and through his emphatic christomorphism.” The conversion of the heart through the grace of Christ described in Book 8 was essential for the creation of the proper inquiry about how to know and praise God that Augustine later described in the first chapters of Book 1.

These five chapters, while often analyzed, continue to produce new insights into Augustine’s thinking. The first chapter confronts the problem of the relation between knowing and praising: “Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call upon you or to praise you, and to know you or to call upon you” (“da mihi, domine, scire et intellegere utrum sit prius invocare te an ladare te, et scire te prius sit an invocare te”).

The answer to the conundrum is given in terms of the hard-won message gained through Augustine’s pilgrimage back to God set forth in Books 4 to 9. God must first be known before he can be properly invoked (invocare), sought (quaerere/requirere), and found through praise (invenire/laudare), but proper knowledge of God is not gained through our own personal effort. Only the faith that comes through the Word made flesh and the ministry of the preacher enables us to speak to God in proper fashion: “Lord, my faith calls upon you, the faith you gave me and inspired in me through the enfleshment of your Son and the ministry of your preacher.” Given that faith alone allows us to address God correctly, chapters two and three of the opening of the Confessiones turn to the issue of location: where is the God whom we are addressing? In a long series of questions Augustine explores the problem of the mode of God’s presence as the supreme spiritual being who is both in all things as their deepest reality and yet beyond them in his transcendence, concluding with the rhetorical query, “Or are you everywhere in a total way and yet nothing can totally take hold of you?” (an ubique totus es et res nulla te totum capit?).

Augustine is now in a position to direct a real invocation to God in the form of an

address that is also a summary of his understanding of the divine nature. Chapter four

may initially seem like an exercise in philosophical inquiry (the platonici would have

agreed with much of what the bishop says), but once again Augustine corrects such a

view by beginning with scripture, the words of Psalm 17:32: “Who are you therefore, my God? Who, I ask, except the Lord God? For who is Lord save the Lord, or who is God save our God?” What follows is one of the bishop’s most remarkable texts on God: a short treatise de divinis nominibus. In a quasi-hymnic and liturgical fashion, making much use of antithetical parallelism, Augustine provides the reader with a list of fifty-two predicates or names of God, expressed not in the third person, but, as befits the nature of the Confessiones, in the vocative. As Werner Simon has shown, these are not really philosophical terms, but are for the most part taken from scripture, especially from the Psalms.

Augustine begins with ten predicates in five pairs ascribed to God on the basis of what Scott MacDonald has called the principle of supremacy, that is, God must be spoken of as the highest in any category of thinking. The attributes appear as a quasi-doxology, and, indeed, they later formed the basis for an early medieval liturgical prayer. The group begins with terms that are more or less synonymous: summe, optime/ potentissime, omnipotentissime, but moves on to pairs that express different, even antithetical, aspects of the divine nature: misericordissime et iustissime/ secretissime et praesentissime/

pulcherrime et fortissime. Some of these predicates, such as omnipotentissime, are grammatically incorrect, but demanded by the supremacy of God’s nature. Augustine follows this first list of attributes with two longer lists of dual attributes, mostly paradoxical or antithetical. The first collection has six members. God is praised as:

stabilis et incomprehensibilis unmoving and incomprehensible immutabilis, mutans omnia unchanging and changing all things numquam novus, numquam vetus never new, never old

innovans omnia et in vetustatem perducens superbos et nesciunt renewing all things (Wis. 7:27) and drawing back the proud into decay and they know it not (Jb 9:5 VL) semper agens, semper quietus always in action, always at rest

colligens et non egens gathering together and not needing [anything]

At this point Augustine introduces a break by inserting two clauses listing three non-antithetical attributes each intended to express God’s loving care for all things (portans et implens et protegens/ creans et nutriens et perficiens). After that he closes his mini-treatise with a new series of twelve dual predicates, mostly antithetical and drawn from the biblical account of God’s dealings with his people during the time of the Old and New Laws. Finally, the hymn of praise at the end of chapter four closes with the invocation of a central theme in the bishop’s theology necessary for understanding all speech about God, what has been called the sermo fallibilis, that is, the simultaneous insufficiency and necessity of speaking about God. “What have we said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness; or what does anyone say when he speaks of you? Yet woe to those who keep silent about you, though even those who say much are [really] mute.”

Chapter five, containing two paragraphs, closes the beginning of Book 1 by investigating our personal appropriation of the doctrine of God set out in chapter four.

Augustine first returns to the kind of tortured questions seen in chapters one and two, as he struggles to discern what God means to him personally and what he means to God.

The answer depends on God: “Tell me by way of your merciful acts (Ps. 106:8), Lord my

God, what you are to me. Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation’” (Ps. 34:3). Now that

God is clearly understood as the God who saves, Augustine can close with the plea of the

constricted and sinful soul to be enlarged and made whole through God’s forgiveness,

utilizing, once again, the language of the Psalms (Pss. 18:13-14, 26:12, and Ps. 129:3). At the end the bishop gives everything over into God’s hands, admitting that he cannot contend with God, “who is the Truth.” “I do not deceive myself lest my iniquity lie to itself.”

The eruption of antithetical pairs of attributes for God in chapter four is what interests me here. Why did Augustine make this move? The supremacy principle of language about God does not seem to demand it, but further insight into the nature of God’s existence may provide a clue. In his early treatise De moribus manichaeorum Augustine had recognized that nothing is contrary to God except nothing itself, that is, non-being. Therefore, attributes that seem antithetical if applied to created beings, may not be so when ascribed to God. From early on Augustine insisted that God must be immutable, but mutability means changing--gaining and losing something--not lack of activity. Therefore, God can be immutabilis, but as mutans omnia. Furthermore,

Augustine’s continuing meditations on God’s absolute simplicity—God is what he has—

meant that everything that could be ascribed to God was really one, or identical, with the divine nature. Therefore, although creatures may be active (agens) at one time, and at rest (quietus) at another, passing from one state to the other, or even simultaneously active with respect to some condition while at rest with respect to another, God, in the supremacy of his nature, is always, simply, and immutably, semper agens/semper

quietus. While this antithesis is not verbally present in the biblical text, it seems clear that it has a scriptural root in Augustine’s ongoing meditations on God’s continuing creative action and the rest (requies) ascribed to him on the seventh day in Genesis 2:2.

The Structure of the Divine Names in Conf. 1.1.4 Group I

1. summe, optime, Highest, Best,

2. potentissime, omnipotentissime (a), Most Powerful, Most Omnipotent, 3. misericordissme et iustissime (b), Most Merciful and Most Just, 4. secretissime et praesentissime, Most Hidden and Most Present, 5. pulcherrime et fortissime, Most Beautiful and Most Strong, Group II

1. stabilis et incomprehensibilis, Unmoving and incomprehensible, 2. inmutabilis, mutans omnia, Unchanging, changing all things, 3. numquam novus, numquam vetus, Never new, never old,

4. innovans omnia et in vetustatem Renewing all things and drawing the proud perducens superbos et nesciunt (c). back to decrepitude and they know it not.

5. semper agens, semper quietus, Always in act, always at rest,

6. conligens (d) et non egens. Gathering together and not in need [of anything].

Group III

1. portans et implens (e) et protegens, Supporting and filling and protecting,

2. creans et nutriens et perficiens. Creating and nourishing and completing.

Group IV

1. quaerens, cum nihil desit tibi, Seeking, though nothing is lacking to You, 2. amas nec aestuas, You love and You are not agitated,

3. zelas (f) et securus es, You are jealous and You are undisturbed, 4. paenitet te (g) et non dolet, You repent and do not grieve,

5. irasceris (h) et tranquillus es, You are angry and are at peace,

6. opera mutas (i) nec mutas consilium (j), You change your works but not your plan, 7. recipis quod invenis et You take back what You find and have

numquam amisisti, never lost,

8. numquam inops et gaudes lucris, Never in need and rejoicing in what You gain, 9. numquam avarus et usuras exigis, Never greedy and [still] demanding interest,

10. supererogatur tibi ut debeas (k), Over payment is made to You so You may be a et quis habet quicquam non tuum? (l) debtor, yet who has anything that is not yours?

11. reddis debita, nulli debens, You pay debts though in debt to no one, 12. donas debita (m), nihil perdens. You cancel debts without losing anything.

(a) Jb. 8:5, etc.; (b) Ps. 114:5; (c) Jb. 9:5;l (d) Ps. 146:2; (e) Jer. 23:24); (f) Ps. 78:5; (g) Gen. 6:6; (h) Ps. 105:10; (i) Ps. 101:26; (j) Ps. 32:11; (k) Lk. 10:35; (l) 1 Cor. 4:7; (m) Mt. 18:32.

LECTURE 3. CONFESSIONS 2-5: WHAT IS SIN?

In these books Augustine continues his confessions concerning his life between about age 16 in Thagaste (370 AD) and his time in Carthage, Rome, and Milan to about age 30 (384 AD). These books contain accounts of stages of descent into sin, as well as initial attempts to move back to God. Many themes are introduced and there are various structuring principles at work. Two that are especially significant are:

a) The general pattern of descensus/ascensus, that is the descent into sin and the ascent, or reversion process, made possible by Christ (see especially 4.12); and

b) The threefold root of all sin, based on a passage in 1 John 2:16—omne quod est in mundo, concupiscentia carnis et concupiscentia oculorum et ambitio saeculi (Old Latin Version: “Everything in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, or worldly ambition”). Augustine stresses the importance of this in Conf. 10.35 and many scholars have seen it as influential on the structure of books 2-8, specifically in the following chiastic structure:

--concupiscentia carnis (found in Bks. 2-4, esp. 2) – not overcome until Bk. 8 --concupiscentia oculorum (= curiositas, i.e., pursuit of useless or harmful knowledge, stressed in Bk. 3) – overcome in Bk. 7

--ambitio saeculi (Bk. 4, esp. 4.7) – overcome in Bk. 6

In this lecture I will once again provide for each book: (1) an outline of the structure of the book; (2) some key passages for careful reading; and (3) some questions for

consideration in class discussion.

I. Book 2

(1) Structure of Book 2.1: Initial act of confessio

2.2-3: Adolescence and sexual awakening 2:4-10: Theft of the Pears

(2.4: description of the incident

(2.5: meditation on evil human desires

(2.6-10: Augustine’s real motives reveal the nature of sin (2) Special Reading will be needed of the whole of Bk. 2:4-10 (3) Questions for Discussion:

--Why did Augustine choose this relatively insignificant incident for such a detailed examination?

--Lust seems to be the major aspect of his confession of sin, so why choose an example of theft?

--Is it possible to explain evil?

--What motivation “explains” his evil act?

--What is the relation between this incident and biblical teaching on sin?

--Augustine closes Bk. 2 with the famous phrase that he has become a regio egestatis, that is, “land of wanting, or wastefulness.” How would you explain this?

II. Book 3

(1) Structure of the Book 3.1-3: Student life at Carthage

(3.1: being “in love with love”

(3.2: the theatre and the difference between sorrow and pity (3.3.: the delusions of law and rhetoric

3.4-10: First Stirrings of the Pursuit of Truth (3.4: Reading Cicero’s Hortensius (ca. 373) (3.5: A first look at the Bible

(3.6: Joining the Manichees

(3.7: Troubling philosophical questions

(3.8: The three fundamental forms of sin (1 Jn. 2:16 introduced) (3.9: Human and divine judgment

(3.10: Manichaean errors

3.11-12: Monica’s concern for Augustine and her dream (2) Careful Reading of 3.1, 3.4, and 3.6-7.

(3) Questions for Discussion

--What does Augustine mean by “being in love with love”? Why is this wrong?

--Augustine testifies to the effect that reading Cicero’s Hortensius had on him at

age 19. What did it do for him? In what way was it lacking?

--Why did Augustine join the Manichees after being “converted” to philosophy?

--What are the philosophical issues that worry Augustine, especially in 3.6-7?

--Why is the issue of whether or not Justice changes important for him?

III. Book 4.

(1) Structure of the Book. Augustine’s life in Carthage and Thageste (c. 373-82 AD) 4.1: Another act of confessio as introduction

4.2-3: Augustine at Carthage (4.2: Augustine’s mistress (4.3: Augustine and astrology

4.4-9: Augustine back in Thagaste. The death of a close friend.

(4.4: the death of Augustine’s friend (4.5-7: a meditation on grief

(4.8-9: meditations on time and friendship 4.10-12: Further speculation on difficult problems

(4.10-11: time and speaking

(4.12: the order of love and movement up and down 4.13-16: Augustine back in Carthage

(4.13-15: writing his first work (now lost) and his errors (4.16: reading Aristotle

(2) Please give careful reading to 4.1-2, 4.4-6, and 4.12 (3) Questions for Discussion:

--How do you read Augustine’s attitude towards his mistress? Did he “love” her?

--Why is Augustine so troubled over his grief for his dead friend? What is wrong with this grief?

--What is Augustine’s theology of grief?

--What is the role of Christ in this Book?

--Book 4.4.9 contains one of the more famous texts from the Confessions—factus eram ipse mihi magna quaestio (“I have become a great question to myself”).

What leads Augustine to posing this question here and what does it mean?

--How does Augustine understand love of God and love of neighbor in 4.12?

IV. Book 5. Augustine goes to Italy. Note that books 1-4 take place in Africa, while books 5-9 take place in Italy.

(1) Structure of the Book 5.1-2: Initial act of confessio

5.3-7: Augustine’s encounter with Faustus the Manichaean at Carthage

(5.3: Anticipating Faustus

(5.4-5: errors of the Manichaeans (5.6-7: Faustus as a disappointment 5.8-12: Augustine goes to Rome (383 AD)

(5.8: another confession

(5.9: Augustine’s illness at Rome—sins and original sin

(5.10-12: Augustine’s problems at Rome; disillusionment with the Manichees 5.13-14: Augustine goes to Milan and meets Ambrose

(2) Passages for Close Reading: 5.1-2, 5.6, 5.9, 5.10, and 5.14 (3) Questions for Discussion:

--Book 5 is the middle book of the “historical” sections (Bks. 1-9). Is there any thing in this book that suggests it functions as a structural center?

--Once again, Augustine opens this chapter with an act of confession? Is there anything new added here?

--What did Augustine’s disappointment over meeting with Faustus have to teach him about the nature of truth?

--Augustine is now clearer about the errors of the Manichees (e.g., 5.10). How would you summarize these errors?

--What did Augustine find liberating about Ambrose’s mode of interpreting the Bible?

--How does Augustine describe his state now that he is definitely attracted to Christianity? What has he gained? What does he still lack?

LECTURE 4: CONFESSIONS 6-7: WHAT IS TRUTH?

In these two books Augustine describes his situation in Milan, living with his mother, mistress and child, as well as a group of friends, in the period ca. 384-86. This was a time of major development for him as he struggled to pursue philosophia (i.e., love of wisdom), to find out more about Christianity, and to overcome his own sins and failings. It is an “in-between” state, but one in which the intellectual pursuit of truth, first enkindled by reading Cicero’s Hortensius (Bk. 3.4), is progressing, even if other aspects of his life are stuck.

I. Book 6. As Eric Plumer points out (A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, 89-90), this book is perhaps the richest in terms of a presentation of character and incident (Monica, Ambrose, Alypius, Augustine’s mistress, the happy beggar).

(1) Structure of the Book.

6.1-6: Augustine and Monica at Milan

(6.1-2: Monica’s vision and her piety

(6.3: Encounters with Ambrose

(6.4-5: Faith and reason issues

(6.6: the account of the happy beggar 6.7-10: Augustine and Alypius

6.11: Augustine’s state of mind at age 30 (384 AD) 6.12-13: Marriage plans

6. 14: Philosophical plans: an ideal community 6.15: Augustine’s mistress sent away

6.16: Inner turmoil in Augustine’s soul

(2) Passages for Close Reading: 6.1, 6.4-5, 6.11, 6.15-16 (3) Questions for Discussion

--What is the role of faith in this book?

--Why do stories about Alypius take up so much space in this book? What are Alypius’s virtues? What are his vices?

--Why does Augustine eventually agree with Alypius that marriage is incompatible with the pursuit of wisdom?

--Why was Augustine’s mistress sent away? Does this seem fair? Why did he take another mistress?

--What is the source of Augustine’s inner turmoil?

Book 7. This book marks an important stage in Augustine’s conversion to truth about God and the overcoming of curiositas (vain and useless imagining). It also includes accounts of Augustine’s ascent to momentary “visions” of God. Nevertheless, intellectual conversion is not enough.

(1) Structure of the Book

7.1-7: A survey of Augustine’s intellectual problems

(7.1-2: God as immutable and incorporeal; Manichaeans are wrong (7.3: Whence comes evil I? The problem of free will

(7.4: God’s nature

(7.5: Whence comes evil II?

(7.6-7: the break with astrology, but continuing turmoil within 7.8-17: The effect of reading “the books of the Platonists”

(7.8: God takes pity on Augustine (7.9: Reading the books of the Platonists (7.10: Introversion and Ascent I

(7.11-16: God and the nature of evil as perversion of the will (7.17: Introversion and Ascent II

7.18-21: the Need for Christ (7.18: Christ as Mediator

(7.19: Christological errors corrected

(7.20: Reflections on Platonic ascent

(7.21: turning to Paul

(2) Passages for Close Reading: 7.1 and 4 (on the nature of God), 7.9-10 (the Platonic books and Augustine’s first ascent), 7.12 and 16 (What is evil?), 7.18-21 (role of Christ and deficiencies of Platonism)

(3) Questions for Discussion:

--Augustine has now reached truth about God. How did he overcome his materialistic conception of God? What are the decisive truths about God that he has attained?

--What did the Platonists teach him about God? What was lacking in the books of the Platonists? Why does he cite the Bible instead of the Platonists’ books here (7.9-10)?

--What did Augustine experience in Bk 7.10? Why was the experience short and incomplete?

--There has been a debate over the ascent texts of 7.10 and 7.17, with many scholars (e.g., P. Courcelle) taking them as accounts of actual mystical experiences of ca. 386), while some other scholars (e.g., R. O’Connell, P.

Cary) insist that they are meditations on particular forms of philosophical insight. What do you think?

--What does Augustine finally realize about the nature of evil?

--How does Augustine describe his “breakthrough” about the correct view of Christ toward the end of this book?

--What does Augustine gain from reading Paul’s Epistles?

LECTURE 5: CONFESSIONS 8-9: WHAT IS THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE?

In these two books Augustine brings the story of his conversion to its conclusion, dealing with events that took place in Milan and Rome during the years 386 to 388. These books tie together many of the themes that have guided his earlier presentation of his life, but also add important new material on grace, the true nature of love, and the goal of human life in attaining contact with God.

Book 8. The culmination of Augustine’s process of conversion, but (in the truest sense) life is always a process of conversio for Augustine. This book is structured around two conversations leading up to the famous garden scene. The influence of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is evident throughout (8.1 cites Rom. 1:21-22; 8.4 cites Rom. 4:17; 8.5 cites Rom. 7:16-17 and 22-25; 8.10 cites Rom. 7:17, 20; and 8.12 cites Rom. 13:13 and 14:1).

(1) Structure of the Book.

8.1: Introduction. Augustine’s life still in confusion 8.2-5: Augustine’s conversation with Simplicianus

(8.2: the story of the conversion of Victorinus (8.3-4: intellectual issues discussed

(8.5: two wills contend in Augustine

8.6-7: Augustine’s conversation with Ponticianus

(8.6: Ponticianus tells the story of Antony and of the monks of Trier (8.7: God is turning Augustine around

8.8-12: Augustine in the garden

(8.8: Augustine and Alypius in the garden (8.9: the divided will

(8.10: Manichaean errors about the divided will (8.11: Augustine in crisis

(8.12: Tolle, lege! (“Take and read!”); Augustine reads Rom. 13:13; the roles of Alypius and Monica in this scene

(2) Passages for Close Reading: The whole of the book is importance, but be sure to study 8.5 and 8.8-12.

N.B. Scholars beginning with A. Von Harnack, and continuing with P. Courcelle and L.

Ferrari, have cast doubts on the “historicity” of the conversion scene for a variety of reasons, such as the fact that Augustine does not make much use of Rom. 13:13 in his other writings. For a discussion of the issues and defense of the broadly historical character of the narrative, see O’Donnell, Augustine’s Confessions III:59-69.

(3) Questions for Discussion:

--What is the function of the two conversations that preceed the garden account?

--What is the souce of the two wills?

--Why are the Manichaeans wrong about the divided will?

--Is there any significance to the location of the conversion?

--What is the significance of the child’s voice and why does Augustine obey it?

--In picking up Paul and opening him at random isn’t Augustine giving his life over to chance (see the comment of Vindicianus in Conf. 4.3)?

--What does he find in Paul that he did not find before?

--Why are Alypius and Monica also featured in the conversion account?

ADDENDUM. Augustine’s Doctrine of Grace.

“Grace” (Gk.: charis; Lat.: gratia) means “gift.” In one sense everything we have is a grace or gift from God, but in Christian teaching grace is generally used in the more restricted sense of the special gift that God gives to fallen humans to rescue them from sin and allow them to share in God’s own way of life. God’s saving grace is given freely, but it is also received by a human person who has been given free will as a constituent part of nature. Therefore, a series of issues emerged in Christian teaching about the essence of grace and its relation to human freedom. These issues, which are rooted in the Bible, especially in the writings of Paul, include:

a) What was the effect of Adam’s fall on human nature?

b) What kind of freedom remains after the Fall?

c) What is grace and what are the channels by which it is communicated?

d) Granted that grace is necessary for salvation, what contribution do we make?

Augustine pondered these questions throughout his life and his teaching changed and developed over the years. As the “doctor of grace” (doctor gratiae) his teaching remained very influential on Western (not Eastern) theologies of grace for many

centuries, but in different ways, especially because of the evolution in his views (e.g., the

early Augustine advanced views that the later Augustine rejected). In the last twenty years of his life, especially because of his encounter with the views of Pelagius and his followers, Augustine wrote a number of treatises on grace.

Although the Confessions do not discuss grace in an explicit way (the term occurs most often in book 10), Augustine’s thoughts on grace and freedom are essential for understanding the work, nowhere more than in Book 8. In order to situate this context here is a brief outline of how Augustine’s teaching on grace developed down to the time of the Confessions:

(1) Augustine’s earliest writings (ca. 387-94) did not say much about grace. In works like the De libero arbitrio (On Free Choice) written between 388 and 394 Augustine

emphasized the power of free choice to combat the Manichaeans who held that the evil god had enchained humans. For example, in book 2 he says, “For man, insofar as he is man, is good because he can live aright if he chooses to do so.” Pelagius and his

followers later cited these passages against Augustine when he attacked them for saying the same thing. In his Retractions Augustine tried to defend himself, saying: “In these and similar statements of mine, because there was no mention of the grace of God, which was not the subject under discussion at the time, the Pelagians think or may think that we held their opinion. But they are mistaken in thinking this.”

(2) In the years immediately preceding the writing of the Confessions Augustine began thinking more about grace, largely because of his reading and commenting on Paul’s epistles (he wrote two commentaries on Romans and one on Galatians during this time).

He now clearly recognized that due to the effects of Adam’s sin (original sin), grace was necessary for fallen humans in order to perform good actions. (Pelagius denied this.) But Augustine still held positions he was later to reject, specifically what came to be called

“Semipelagianism,” that is, the teaching that even after the fall humans retain sufficient freedom to turn to God on their own and beg for the grace to overcome sin. As he put it in his Exposition of Some Propositions from the Epistle to the Romans: “Therefore, let the man lying low, when he realizes that he cannot rise by himself, implore the aid of the Liberator, for then comes grace…”

(3) In 397 Augustine wrote to his old friend Simplicianus, now bishop of Milan after the death of Ambrose. In this treatise, On Various Questions to Simplicianus, he rejected the

“Semi-Pelagian” view that he had recently put forth. Now even turning to God to ask for grace is impossible without the aid of prevenient grace. For example, he says: “God calls in his mercy, and not as rewarding the merits of faith [i.e., our turning to God]. The merits of faith follow his calling rather than precede it.”

Augustine’s theology of grace was to evolve much more, especially after 411, but the theology of grace he had worked out by 397 is doubtless a part of the motivation he had for the writing of the Confessions.

Book 9. Birth and death are major themes. Augustine has died to his old sinful life and

will be reborn through baptism. Monica, have birthed Augustine, both in life and in the

life of grace, will die. Other deaths and rebirths in baptism are noted. Augustine and

Monica enjoy a brief foretaste of heaven, before Augustine goes back to Africa to begin a

new life.

(1) Structure of the Book

9.1: Thanksgiving to God for restoring his freedom.

9.2: Wrapping up things in Milan; Augustine gives up teaching 9.3-5: Augustine and his friends at Cassiciacum

(9.3: Verecundus and Nebridius

(9.4: Augustine’s early writings; love for the Psalms (9.5: decision to be baptized

9.6-7: Augustine and his son Adeodatus baptized 9.8-13: Monica’s life and death reviewed

(9.8-9: Setting out for Africa; confessing thanks for Monica’s life (9.10: Augustine and Monica experience a foretaste of heaven (9.11: Monica’s death two weeks later

(9.12: Augustine’s grief; confessio and an appeal to the reader (9.13: Augustine prays for his mother

(2) Passages for Close Reading: 9.1, 9.8-10, 9.12-13 (3) Questions for Discussion:

--Why did Augustine and his friends retreat to Cassiciacum?

--Does it seem strange that Augustine does not make more of his baptism?

--Why does Augustine include the story about Monica’s drunkenness (9.8)? What is his attitude towards his son Adeodatus (9.6) and his father, Patricius (9.9)?

--What happened at Ostia? Is the location important? Is the timing significant?

Why are Augustine and Monica together? What did they experience? Is this the “vision of Ostia” as it is often called?

--How would you describe the role of knowing and of loving in the ascent to God portrayed in 9.10?

--Book 9 contains five deaths, culminating in that of Monica (Books 1-8 only record 2 deaths). Is this significant? What might it suggest?

--Why is Augustine sad about being sad over his mother’s death?

COURSE.2: The Second Part of Augustine, Confessions Fu Jen University

B. McGinn April 2009

LECTURE 6. CONFESSIONS Bk. 10: What is Memory? What is Happiness?

Book 10 is the longest book in the Confessions and its relation to the other books, as well as its own internal structure, has produced a good deal of discussion. The theory that the book was a later insertion has now been rejected and it is clear that the book is more than a summation of books 1-9. It seems best to see book 10 as the connecting book, which looks back to books 1-9 to provide new insight on the meaning of the act of confessio (this is why it begins with the most extensive explanation of confessing in 10.1- 5) at the same time that it looks forward to books 11-13 in which the story of Augustine’s life will be seen against the wider background of the biblical account of the creation and history. In books 1-9 Augustine was reflecting on his past through present memory, while in book 10 he is reflecting on his present in present memory. Thus, one way of

understanding the relation of the books is the movement from memories (bks. 1-9) to memory and happiness (bk. 10) to the problem of creation and time (bk. 11), to end in a consideration of the relation of time and eternity (bks. 12-13).

The structure of the book also illustrates the basic pattern of ascent/descent found throughout the Confessions, and, as James O’Donnell, argues (Augustine’s Confessions III:151-53) has a close relationship to the mystical ascent in book 9.10. In his words:

“This is no longer an account of something that happened somewhere else long ago; the text itself become the ascent. The text no longer narrates mystical experience, it becomes itself a mystical experience…” I agree with Pamela Bright, however (A Reader’s

Companion to Augustine’s Confessions, 158-65), that the best way to view the use of the ascent/descent paradigm in this book is to see it in the form of a three-panelled triptych, as illustrated here.

(1) Structure of the Book.

10.1-5: Introduction: The nature of confessio

10.6-19: Panel I--Ascent of the God-seeking self by descending into memoria

(10.6-7: What do I love in loving God? Ascent from material universe and from the reasoning soul (see book 9.10)

(10.8-9: ascent (descent) into memoria (10.10-19: exploration of memoria

--10.10-11: memoria and ideas

--10.12: the principles of thinking

--10.13: How memoria is found --10.14: memoria and feelings --10.15: memoria and images

--10.16: How can we remember forgetfulness?

--10.17: memoria and the self. Ascent to God must go beyond the soul (book 9.10)

--10.18-19: lost and found in memoria 10.20-27: Panel II--What is true happiness?

(10.20-25: Joy and happiness are found only in God and God is in memoria (10.26-27: God is present within and above us as Truth and Beauty.

10.28- 41: Panel III: Descent of the sick self still subject to the triple temptation (1 Jn.

2:16) of concupiscentia carnis, concupiscentia oculorum, ambitio saeculi

(10.28-29: Augustine is still a “burden to himself”

(10.30-34: 1

Temptation—concupiscentia carnis and temptations of the senses (touch, taste, hearing, smell, sight)

(10.35: 2

Temptation—concupiscentia oculorum (curiosity) and temptations of the mind

(10.36-39: 3

Temptation—ambitio saeculi and temptations of pride, praise, and self-deception

(10.40-41: a summary of ascent and descent dynamism

(10.42-43: Conclusion: the role of Christ as the True Mediator (the one who descends so that we may ascend)

(2) Passages for Close Reading: 10.1-5 (confessing); 10.8, 16-19 (nature of memoria);

10.20-27 (happiness and God); 10.40-43 (summary) (3) Questions for Discussion:

--How would you summarize Augustine’s teaching on what it means to “confess”? In what sense is “confessing” a necessary or useful Practice today?

--Much of what Augustine continues to confess in book 10, especially in 10.30- 39, seems to consist of an attraction to innocent pleasures and morally indifferent issues. Why is Augustine so worried about these minor things?

--Augustine’s notion of memoria is obviously different in a number of ways from what we mean when we talk about memory. What are some of these

differences?

--How does Augustine conceive of happiness? Where is happiness to be found?

What is the relation of happiness to memoria?

--In what sense is it true to say that Augustine finds God in book 10, but that God is still far off? (see 10.27)

--What is Christ’s function as mediator? Does the Christology of this book add to

how Christ was understood in the earlier books?

LECTURES 7 AND 8. THE LAST THREE BOOKS OF THE CONFESSIONS.

In the Retractions 2.32 Augustine says: “The first ten books were written about myself; the last three about holy scripture, from the words “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1) as far as the Sabbath rest (Gen. 2:2).” Augustine was quite conscious of the special nature of the last three books, but he saw no problem in the unity of the two parts of the Confessions, because it was obvious to him (if not to all his

readers) that the message about the meaning of human existence that he found revealed in his life and proclaimed in his confessio of God’s goodness and his own sinfulness was the same as the message about the creation and dependence of all things on God found in Genesis. Augustine’s “small story” is the same as the “big story” found in the Bible. This is why it is legitimate to see the whole of the Confessions as what Thomas Martin calls “a biblical project,” that is, a guide to reading the Bible “that will nourish and support the demands and challenges of Christian living” (A Reader’s Guide to the Confessions, 187).

The story of his conversion that Augustine tells in books 1-9 and reflects upon in book 10 is not an exercise in self-discovery, but a painful learning that we can only realize who we are in conversation with God. God does not ordinarily speak to us directly

—even Augustine’s brief moments of “mystical” contact with God are veiled and mysterious. But, as Augustine learned, God has spoken to us through his revealed word in the Bible, and this is the language that he uses to speak back to God throughout the Confessions. Initially through the instruction and preaching of Ambrose (Conf. 5.14), Augustine (who first thought the Bible was confusing and badly written) began to realize that it was necessary to discern the inner spiritual message of the Bible in order to share in its saving power. Hence, the mysterious meaning of the events of his own life, which only became clear to him many years later as he wrote the Confessions, was a mirror image of how to read the inner truth of the biblical message of creation and fall contained in Genesis 1-2.

The distinction between the “literal” or obvious sense of the words of the Bible, and the “spirit” or their inner signification, is the key to Augustine’s method of

interpreting the Bible (and that of almost all ancient Christian exegetes). Of course, even the literal meaning of words that were easily understood as words was not always easy to discern, as the example of heretics showed. As Augustine put it in Conf. 12.10: “I have faith in your books, but their message is hard indeed to fathom.”

A Note on Augustine’s Exegesis of the Bible.

Augustine’s method of biblical interpretation is often called “allegorical,” from the Greek allegoria, meaning “to read other” (i.e., say one thing, but read it in another way). Augustine, like other ancient interpreters, did not deny that most passages in the Bible possessed a “literal” meaning, that is, the letters and words made sense and often had a clear historical application. Since God was the author of the Bible and God had infinite wisdom, however, Augustine felt that the whole Bible, both the parts more or less easily understood and the radically obscure and puzzling parts, had deeper, spiritual meanings that would help guide the reader on the path to salvation. Allegoria was one of the terms used for this kind of “deep interpretation” (e.g., in allegoria: 13.21; allegorice:

13.24; in allegoria figurari: 13.25). Augustine also often spoke of figura, or dicta

figurata, “figural statements” (13.24), that is, seeing Old Testament texts, persons, and