Lecture 20 : Augustine After Confessions

1. Lecture 20: Augustine After Confessions 7November 2013

2. Outline • Who’s doing what topic? • City of God • On the Goods of Marriage • On Free Choice of the Will • Pelagian Controversy

3. Fall of Rome • Fall of Rome in 410 to Alaric had an enormous, devastating psychological impact • The Goths sacking Rome were Arian Christians • “My voice sticks in my throat, and as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The City which had taken the whole world, was itself taken.” St. Jerome

4. City of God • Augustine wrote City of God to explain how this could happen • Traces the history of Roman Empire to show that without Christ Roman Empire was great only in eyes of man; human societies are destined to rise and fall • Only true society is society of pilgrim Church moving toward heavenly Jerusalem • But even pilgrim Church is a mixtures of wheat and tares • Takes up many of themes of Confessions, plus Pelagian Controversy, plus theory of history and society, plus, plus, plus… • Systematic work analyzing all of these issues

5. Jerome (347-419)“What Jerome is ignorant of, no man has ever known” St. Augustine • Born into a wealthy pagan family; baptized in 365; ordained in Antioch, good friends with Gregory Nazianzus • Along with Origen, greatest Biblical scholar of Patristic era • Pope Damasus commissions Jerome to produce an authoritative Latin translation of Bible • Jerome uses Origen, plus additional materials, especially Hebrew. • Jerome does not accept Septuagint as most authoritative • His prickly character led him to disputes with almost everyone, including Augustine • Forced to leave Rome, goes to Bethlehem to live as a semi-hermit • St. Paulina follows him and establishes a convent in Bethlehem • In addition to authoritative Latin translation of Bible, Jerome wrote lengthy commentaries on almost all books of Scripture; many letters; Lives of Illustrious Men • Nowhere is Jerome’s prickly character more evident than in his battle with Jovinian over sex and marriage

6. Controversy over Sex and Marriage • Control of passions was important aspect of all philosophical schools of time, including Epicureanism • Manichees (like many gnostic sects) opposed to sex because part of evil, corporeal world • Jovinian, priest in Rome, contemporary of Jerome • Virgins and married women are of same merit after Baptism if they do the same works • Everyone born again in Baptism cannot be overthrown by devil • No difference in abstaining from food and receiving it in thanksgiving • There is one reward in heaven for all who are baptized • Jerome writes a refutation of Jovinian that is so anti-marriage that Jerome’s friends in Rome try to confiscate it • Jerome (NOT AUGUSTINE) “ The only reason to marry and have sex is to create more virgins”

7. Augustine on Sex and Marraige • Augustine wrote On the Goods of Marriage as the middle way between Jerome and Jovinian • While viewing virginity as the better way of life, Augustine also recognized several types of ‘goods’ in marriage: • Procreation • Good of fidelity • Sacrament • Sexual lust is a result of Fall • Sin of Adam and Eve infected human nature • Set stage for Pelagian controversy

8. On Free Choice of the Will (388-395)Book I • Is God the source of evil? • God is source of ‘evil’ that punishes wicked because he is just; but only desires good, therefore not source of evil. • Learning is good, understanding is good. Evil is internal, not in external acts. Inordinate desire is what makes something evil. • Both evil and good people desire to live without fear; good turn their love away from things that cannot be lost (eternal) evil toward temporal things. • Law that rules cities leaves many things unpunished that divine providence will punish. • Well ordered people can choose their own magistrates, but disordered people are better off with benevolent despot. Temporal law is just but can change in time. Just temporal laws are derived from unchangeable eternal law. • Eternal law is how all things should be perfectly ordered. • Mind rules over cupidity. Only by its free choice of will can mind chose cupidity. When inordinate desire rules mind it leads it to accept false for true. • Good will is a will by which we desire to live upright and honorable lives and to attain to the highest wisdom. • Praiseworthy life is not unhappy. People are happy when they love their own good will. Happy life is enjoyment of unchanging goods. • Those who are good, will the right things the right way; • Temporal law focused on temporal good of body and freedom. Temporal law punishes by taking these goods away. • Evil doing is neglecting eternal things. Free choice of will has given us the ability to sin. But why did God make us that way?

9. Free Choice of the WillBook II • Why did God give us free choice of will if by this we sin? • Humans are good beings and need a free will to do good. Free will needed to live rightly. God rewards and punishes; both unjust unless we had free will. • But how do we know that God exists? Do all good things come from God? Is free will one of those goods? • We exist, we are alive, we understand. Understanding is only in rational creatures. • Find something more excellent than our reason = God • What is common to all who think? Numbers • Do not know numbers thru bodily senses; see it by an inner light • Wisdom is the truth which is the highest good. No one is happy without the highest good. • Truth of wisdom and number more excellent than our minds which perceive it. Therefore something more excellent than our minds exists (truth), therefore God exists. • But this is also highest good, so God is good; all goods come from Him. • Free will is good since no one can live rightly without it. • Goods pursued by sinners are not evil in themselves; neither is free will. Sinners turned to changeable goods; But what is origin of sin??

10. Free Choice of WillBook III • What is source of movement by which will turns from God to changeable? • How can God have foreknowledge and yet we do not sin by necessity? How can we have free will? • Simply because God knows the future, does not follow that you do not have free will • No one is forced to sin just because God knows it. Just as memory does not force past to have happened, so God’s foreknowledge does not force future • Why did God make us so that we could sin? Because of the order of all things from highest to lowest in the universe • But then would not be better not to exist than to be unhappy? • Unhappiness contributes to perfection of universe, because of just punishment for sins. Torment of good on earth adds to beauty of virtues; torment of sinners adds to beauty because of justice. • Two sources of sin: spontaneous thought and persuasion

11. Book III (cont.) • Devil deceived first woman and man; laid claim to offspring. Needed death of Christ to pay debt and redeem • Root of evil in greed, 1 Tim 6:10; but greed is defined as wanting more than enough of anything. Enough is what is needed to sustain nature. Such greed is cupidity; cupidity is a perverse will • Troubles come as a result of sentence of death, not as a result of our nature. If from our nature then they would not be sins. • Even when we know what is right we do not do it. Carnal habit the result of our mortal inheritance • Two senses of HUMAN NATURE: In strict sense the nature of original blamelessness; and all those born under penalty of first sin: death. • God showed justice in condemning all, mercy is setting us free by Christ • All born into ignorance and difficulty; should be viewed as spur to progress and beginning of perfection • Why do children suffer? Nothing done without a purpose. God the Judge can pronounce a sentence intermediate between punishment and reward. • Why Baptize children? Because faith of parents will benefit them. • Why do children suffer? Suffering of child should benefit parents • God may reward these children of suffering without sinning; just as Church honors Holy Innocents killed by Herod as martyrs.

12. Pelagian Controversy: Introduction • The Key Players • Monk Pelagius, from England, d. 419 in Constantinople • His disciple, Julian of Eclanum, bishop in Sicily, d. 454 • Opposing both, Augustine of Hippo, d. 430 • Key Elements • Free will • Sin • Grace • Justification • Predestination • Key Biblical passages in disputed interpretation: Genesis and Romans • Both Pelagius and Augustine write a Commentary on Romans • Key passage: Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart; Romans 9:17-18 and Exodus 4-9 • Note we live in a very Pelagian age: belief in human progress and confidence in our abilities to fix problems. Primary American virtue: self-reliance

13. Pelagian Controversy: Issues • Free will • Pelagian: humanity has total free will; as long as we know what is right we can do what is right; • Augustine: yes we have free will, but our ability to know and act is darkened by sin • Augustine also often means by free will a will freed from the inclination to sin • Sin • Pelagians: Adam’s sin was his personal sin; sin is always a willful personal act committed against God by someone who should know better and be able to do better; within our own power to avoid sin • Adam’s sin was a ‘disease’ that entered into humanity; only God’s grace can cure this disease; only with God’s grace can we really know and do the right

14. Pelagian Controversy: Issues (cont.) • Grace • Pelagians: external enlightenment from God (e.g., Gospels) so we can know the good; also reward for doing good • Augustine: grace is needed to do good • Justification • Pelagians: justified through our good works; it’s all up to us • Augustine: only God’s freely given grace can justify • Predestination • Pelagians: God does not predestine us • Augustine: Because of original sin, all justly condemned (massa damnata); by his graciousness, God elects a few for salvation; Baptism a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for salvation

15. Battle with Julian of Eclanum • The key test case in the Pelagian controversy became the fate of unbaptized infants: • Would God really condemn a innocent baby who had no personal sin to be damned? • Julian of Eclanum pushed Augustine very hard on this point • Referring both to Augustine and Augustine’s concept of God, he said “He is the persecutor of new born children.” • Pelagians believed that because infants and young children could not sin, they did not need to be Baptized. Baptism returned one to an innocent state, and gave the grace to lead a sinless life.

16. Augustine’s Response • Because all humans inherited Adam’s sin, we are all liable to damnation • But God knew that we would sin, so He already planned to send Mediator, Jesus Christ • “Now there are many more condemned by vengeance than are released by mercy; and the reason for this is that it should in this way be made plain what was the due of all mankind. For if the due punishment were imposed on all, no one would have the right to criticize the justice of God in that retribution; but the fact that so many are released form it is the ground for heartfelt thanksgiving for the free bounty of our Deliverer.” (City of God, Book XXI) • “Unless infants are baptized, they are manifestly in danger of damnation” (On Forgiveness of Sins and Baptism III) • “Number of elect will replace number of fallen angels” (Enchiridion XXIX)

17. Examples from Confessions • Human race from the salty sea of sin (Book XIII) • Grasping, envious desire of infants (Book I) • Relief that his friend and Adeodatus die shortly after baptism (Books IV, IX) • Without God’s grace, sinful will cannot be moved from sin, even when it knows the truth (Books VII-VIII) • Jesus Christ is the necessary Mediator (Book VII)

18. On Free Choice of Will Reconsiderations • Divine grace not under discussion. It is by our will that we sin of live rightly. But unless the will is liberated by grace from its bondage to sin and is helped to overcome its vices, mortals cannot lead pious lives. Divine grace must precede the righteous act of the will. • Virtues are the gift of God

19. Legacy of Pelagian Controversy • Catholic (Western) Church at Council of Orange, 529 • accepts Augustine’s views on free will, grace, sin, justification; • accepts necessity of Baptism • accepts predestination of elect, but refuses to say anyone is predestined to hell (i.e., rejects double predestination) • These issues are doctrinal flash point of Reformation; all sides will claim Augustine for their own

20. Issue is (and will always be) active • Camus addressing Dominican abbey: “By what right may a Christian accuse me of pessimism? It was not I who invented human suffering, nor terrible formulas of divine malediction. It was not I who loudly proclaimed the damnation of unbaptized children.” • See CCC 404-406, 1037, 1257-1261 • This debate will always circle back to how can the good creator God allow (cause) sin and suffering • John Rist: 'There is still no consensus of opinion on Augustine's view of each man's responsibility for his moral behaviour . . . There are those who attribute to Augustine the full-blown Calvinist position that each man has no say in his ultimate destiny . . . Other interpreters reject this view in varying degrees. They will not hold that for Augustine man's will is enslaved, or they would dispute about the sense in which it is enslaved and the sense in which it is free.'

21. Most recent example: International Theological Commission Statement on Infant Baptism • Drafted in Spring 2007 • In large measure a response to abortion • Key discussion of history of Pelagian controversy and Augustine (15-20) • Church should speak of hope, not human theological hypothesis such as limbo • Document can be found at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html#_ftnref22 • Work on this continues in order to give full weight to the importance of Baptism