Reading Augustine's Confessions Lecture 2: Books I and II

1. Reading Augustine's ConfessionsLecture 2: Books I and II Dr. Ann T. Orlando

2. Three Part Analysis • Historical and philosophical background on each Book • Historical and social context • Intellectual movements • People • Key aspects of the Book itself • Truth about human nature • Epistemology • Language • Evil and sin • Love and Happiness • Truth about Creation • Truth about God • Connections between Book understudy and other Books • Influence of Confessions • Impact in later intellectual history • How does this theological reflection touch us

3. Roman Africa • Ancient Roman Province, dating to Roman conquest of Carthage in last Punic Wars, 146 BC • Economically prosperous • Capital city Carthage, rebuilt after the wars • By Augustine’s time, it was proudly Roman • One of few areas of Mediterranean where Greek was not much spoken • Greatest Latin orators were said to come from Africa

4. Roman Africa (cont.) • http://people.usd.edu/~clehmann/pir/map.gif

5. Roman Family • Defined very broadly • Husband, wife, children • Business clients • Servants, slaves • Common practice of adult adoption • Ruled by father, paterfamilia • Sons and others governed by father until his death

6. Roman Education • Primary school most boys • 7 to 12 years old • Teacher: magister taught mixed age class • Reading, writing and arithmetic • Discipline through corporal punishment • Secondary School, • Wealthy and precocious boys, 12 – 15 • Teacher: grammaticus • Emphasis on Latin language and some Greek • Orator School 15 - 20 • In major cities, for most ambitious and brightest students • Teacher was orator • Emphasis on rhetoric • Preparation for important careers in law courts and administration

7. Virgil and the Aeneid • Virgil (70 – 19 BC) most famous and important Roman poet • Aeneid most famous work • Roman children learned Latin by studying Aenied • Learned the great myth of Roman history • Story of Aeneas after fall of Troy • Travels around the Mediterranean • Meets Dido in Carthage, falls in love but must leave her to continue to Italy and Rome • Already an old classic by Augustine’s time

8. Christianity in Fourth Century Africa • Earliest Latin theologians come from Africa • Tertullian (d. 212) • St. Cyprian (d. 257) • Embroiled in questions of how ‘pure’ should Church be • No one should seriously sin after Baptism • Those who did should not be forgiven and admitted back into Church • Majority of Christians were Donatists, who believed in the Church of the Pure • Effectiveness of sacraments was dependent on personal holiness of minister • Bitter, bitter foes of Augustine • Baptism as adults (Catholics and Donatists)

9. Confessions Structure Augustine's Reflection on His Past Book I: From God; birth and relationship of infant with mother • Book II: Bondage of Flesh • Book III: Slavery of eyes and mind; problem of evil • Book IV Ambition of World • Book V Encounter with Faustus, Manichaeism, philosophy; moving from Carthage to Rome • Book VI: Recognition of emptiness of world’s ambition • Book VII: Freedom of mind; resolution of problem of evil • Book VIII: Liberation from bondage of flesh Book IX: Relation to Monica, her death, return to God Augustine’s Present Book X: Memory Book XI: Time Book XII: Interpreting Scripture Book XIII: Trinity and Church

10. Outline of Book I • Opening Prayer I.i.1 – I.v.6 • Infancy I.vi.7 – I.vii.12 • Natural Learning and Primary School I.viii.13 – I.x.16 • Early Illness I.xi.17 – I.xi.18 • Secondary School I.xii.19 – I.xviii.29 • Early Sins I.xix.30 • Closing Prayer I.xix.31

11. Book I Opening Prayer I.i.1 – I.v.6 • Begins with a prayer, a Psalm • But quickly includes references to 2 Cor., Rom., and Mt. • Includes one of most famous lines from Augustine: “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” (I.i.1) • Note the importance of questions, many of which will not be directly answered • Note the importance of paradoxes about God’s nature (and our limited ability to understand God) in I.iv.4 • This prayer is echoed at the end of Book XIII • Sets the tone of the entire work as a ‘theological reflection’

12. Book IInfancy I.6.7 – I.7.12 • infantia Latin, noun meaning inability to speak • Note I.6.7 begins with Augustine asking God to allow him to speak in God’s presence • Trace development of babies • Helpless (but only because of weakness) • Laughter • Not innocent • Parents care for babies, and babies grow, as part fo God’s plan, in accordance with eternal law • Note how adults react to babies • An enduring, unanswered question for Augustine: does human soul pre-exist conception • Discussion of God and time will be significantly expanded in Book XI

13. Book INatural Learning and Primary School I.8.13 – I.10.16 • Augustine ‘becomes’ a boy when he can talk • Learns to talk so that he can make his desires better understood • Relationship between actual object and words which signify them • Forced learning at school nothing like natural learning of language • First prayer was to avoid being beaten at school • Note how adults are like children, although adults laugh at children

14. Book I Early Illness I.11.17 – I.11.18 • Augustine almost baptized due to early illness • Common practice not to baptize until later in adult life • Example of Ambrose • Note comparisons between bodily health and physical health • Jesus as physician of the soul • Church as ‘hospital’ for the sinful • Note more said about baptism here than in Book IX

15. Book ISecondary School I.12.19 – I.18.29 • Augustine must be forced to learn; • Sinfulness of parents and teachers who put pressure on him to succeed in thinks of the world • Sinfulness of himself as a boy unwilling to learn “So tiny a child, so great a sinner” • Augustine does not learn Greek • Greek language of the Bible • Differences between natural and forced language learning • Comparison of wanderings and love of Aeneas and Dido and his own wanderings in search for true Love • Use of language in education to teach errors, not the Truth • Problems with rhetoric as a career

16. Book I Early Sins I.19.30 –I.20.31 • “Is this childhood innocence?” • Lying • Stealing • Cheating • “My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and in other created beings.”

17. Book II Outline • Developing Sexuality II.i.1 – II.ii.4 • His Parents Reaction II.iii.5 – II.iii.8 • Stealing the Pears II.iv.9 – II.x.18

18. Book II Developing Sexuality II.i.1 – II.ii.4 • Dual wakening of sexual desire and personal ambition in Augustine • But erotic awakening does not lead to happiness, quite the contrary • “Where was I in the sixteenth year?” • Only concern of family was his career • Both ambition and lust resolved in Book VIII

19. Book II His Parents Reaction II.iii.5 – II.iii.8 • Patricius • Augustine writes very little about him; a convert very late in life • Worked hard to save money to send Augustine to best school in Carthage, “my father had more enthusiasm than cash” • No moral guidance from his father • Patricius very happy over prospect fo grandchildren • Monica • A main character • Born into a Catholic family • Some moral guidance for Augustine, at least don’t get involved with a married woman • Also eager for grandchildren; see how this will change at conclusion of Book VIII

20. Book II Stealing the Pears II.iv.9 – II.x.18 • Augustine and a group of friends steal pears after carousing late one night • A great meditation on true and false friendships • Effect of community and society on actions • Note especially how turning to the wrong things, away from God leads to sins (II.vi.13) • Sins as disordered desires • Sins which have the wrong object • Sins cannot satisfy these desires • Note that the great climax in Book VIII also occurs in a garden under a tree

21. Influence of ConfessionsBook I and II • New Literary Genre • Theory of Language

22. New Literary Genre • Biographies and autobiographies were part of ancient literature • But a ‘soul-searching’ prayer and theological reflection are new • Includes some elements of autobiography, BUT • Augustine gives us little specifics, • Certainly does not cast himself in the best light • His prayer as a way to help his fellow pilgrims…Book X

23. Language Augustine’s Theory of Signs • A thing (res) is an external reality • Sign (signum) is something sensed which shows the mindsomething else • Natural signs, e.g. smoke indicating fire • Conventional or given (data) signs • Words (verbum) are a type (but not the only type) of given signs • De Doctrina Christiana (Teaching Christianity)

24. Augustine’s Theory of Language • Human communication of reality is by the signs of words • Inherent ambiguity of how to use words • Denotation vs connotation • Language is not unique • Multiple languages not only with different words but with different structures • Same sounding word can mean different things in different languages (e.g., lege)

25. Relation Between Language and Thought • What is to be said is in the heart, the inner man • Only when it is to be communicated is the choice of specific language made • “Matching the differences in your audience you employ different languages in order to produce the word you have conceived; but what you have conceived in your heart was confined to no language.” (Tractates on John 3.14.7) • We learn language as a child by learning to associate words with thoughts, feelings and things

26. The Unambiguous Word: Jesus Christ • The Word is the perfect eternal Truth (no ambiguity) • Word became flesh to cure our corrupt souls • Perfect Word becomes perfect man • Mediator of grace to us • Confessions VII, Epistles and Tractates on John

27. Augustine and Sacraments • Sacraments are a movement from visible to invisible, from ordinary experience to spiritual reality • Sacraments as visible divine word • Sacrament both sign and reality of the mystery (spiritual reality) of Christ • Scripture as a sacrament • Interpretation of Scripture as a Sacrament • Creed and Lord’s Prayer as Sacraments • Triduum • Church is the authority that mediates sacraments (including Scripture) • Baptism • Eucharist: theory of sacrifice CoG X.4-6 • Sermon 272, 228

28. Ludwig Wittgenstein • Born in Vienna in 1889 • Moved to Cambridge in 1911 and developed close relation with Bertrand Russell • Returned to Austria and fought in WW I • POW • After WWI settled permanently in Cambridge • Died in 1951

29. Wittgenstein and Language • ‘The only problem in philosophy is language’ • Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was first published in German in 1921, shortly after in English • Thought is more like a picture than language • Language used to express thoughts • Philosophical Investigations was published posthumously in 1953 (translated and edited by G.E.M. Anscombe) • A type of reconsideration of earlier work • Begins with Augustine and language • Augustine’s ostensible model of language too limiting; in particular does not account for how words change within context of use • Develops ‘language-game’ as a way to describe language; but rules of game are not static

30. Some Things To Notice As you Read • Augustine is always asking questions, even if he never gets to an answer • Augustine's use of Scripture, especially Psalms, as he reflects on his life • The difference between true and false friendship • Effects on Augustine’s education of • Family • Friends • Teachers • Reading

31. Book I and II Questions to Consider • Are babies cute and innocent? What might this imply about human nature? • What do you think of his parents reaction to his sexuality as a teenager? • What was our earliest prayer? Do we have any prayers other than prayers of petition?

32. Questions to ask in all Books • How is Augustine ‘modern’? • What is love? • What is friendship? • What is sin and evil? • What role does faith play in Augustine's life? • Where is happiness found?

33. Assignment • Read carefully Confessions Books I and II • On Christian Teaching, Book II (optional) • Brown, Augustine of Hippo, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 • Post one long paragraph by Friday June 4 • Post two responses by Sunday June 6 • Remember: • Focus on Augustine, not secondary sources • References should be Book.Chapter.Paragraph (e.g., I.i.1) NOT page numbers