The theological vision of Augustine of Hippo
24
Jun
Most Western literature views the lives of many saints who were
philosophers and theologians from the Enlightenment onwards with a one-sided and materialistic vision, a particular vision of realism that focuses only on what is “substantial”, that is, what exists by itself without needing an “external” force, but examining the lives of Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas and many others we find a theological depth that is inseparable from the philosophical.
Part of this separation is due to the growing “specialization” in all fields of study, in some of which there is not even anything spiritual (so-called idealistic subjectivism), such as physics, mathematics and chemistry, but increasingly this vision is broadening and a new worldview is being born, as in the case of quantum physics, the fractal theme (fractional + natural) and even the chemical properties of elements such as water are studied as having “something”.
The first great philosopher of the so-called patristics, the beginning of the medieval school, Augustine of Hippo was strongly influenced by Plotinus, a Neoplatonist who wrote about the “one” and the “soul”.
His works Confessions and City of God are the most widely read and quoted. We’ve already mentioned here that his most profound work De trinitate is surprising for the length of time it was written (more than 16 years, so with deep and lengthy reflections), as well as for its content, as it says right in its opening pages about Gen 1:26 on the subject of being made in the image of God (imago Dei):
“Let us make man in our image and likeness”, “let us make” and “us” were said in the plural, and cannot be understood except as a relationship. Not that gods should be made, or in the image and likeness of gods, but that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit should be made in the image of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that man might exist in the image of God. Now God is Trinity” (Augustine, De Trinitate, VII,6,12).
This is in line not only with the Bible but also with Neoplatonism, where the human being is made up of a corporeal/material portion and a spiritual portion, a lower part called the anima and a higher part called with a certain broadness of meaning as animus, spiritus or mens, thus the substantial soul exercises a spiritual function over “every soul” (Augustine, De Trinitate, X,4,6), and both are inseparable, although complementary.
Contemporary philosophy separates these two “ingredients” of the soul, and there are even those who confuse them, creating the idea that “divine providence” is only material and that the spiritual is up to man himself, creating something inverse: the substantial is spiritual and the essential ethereal.
There are authors who create a divine image as only present in the mind (Ludwig Feuerbach who wrote The Essence of Christianity is the most famous, but there are many “theologians” with this view) are false, Augustine himself disputes it (bad readings of him):
“Therefore, the trinity of the mind is not an image of God only because the mind remembers, understands and loves itself, but because it can also remember, understand and love the one by whom it was created. When it does so, it becomes wise. On the other hand, if it doesn’t, even if it remembers, understands and loves itself, it is foolish. Therefore, let her remember God, in whose image she was created, and let her understand and love him” (Augustine, De Trinitate, XII,12,15).
So, for Christians, we not only “remember” him, we also understand and love him.
Augustine, St. (1994). De Trinitate (The Trinity). Transl. Agustino Belmonte: rev. and notes Nair de Assis Oliveira. Brazil, São Paulo: Paulus, 1994.
