The Happy Life; Answer to Skeptics; Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil; Soliloquies

Foreword

FOREWORD! Aurelius Augustine His Quest for Truth and Happiness iThere is a joy, that is not given unto the wicked, but to those who freely worship Thee, whose joy Thou Thyself art ... For a happy life is joy in the truth; and this is joy in Thee, who are the Truth.'2 l1MONG ALL the 'Fathers of the Church,' St. Augustine ~. is undoubtedly the greatest, the most original, fruitful and versatile.3 'Different Fathers [have said] different things, but this [Father] said every thing with Roman eloquence .. .' So reads the inscription under a fifth- or sixthcentury fresco4 depicting St. Augustine. The high regard for this Father of the Church apparently was even then wideA general introduction to St. Augustine and an extensive bibliography by Vernon J. Bourke will be found in his translation of the Confessions , in Volume 7 of The Writings of st. Augustine in this series. Brief introductions will precede the individual translations. 2 Confessions 10.22f. 3 Cf. O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, 2. AuA., 435f. and A. Dyroff, Einleitung in die Philosophie (Bonn 1947) 433f. 4 This fresco was discovered (1900 A.D.) by P. Lauer on a wall below the chapel in the Lateran Palace in Rome. Cf. J. Wilpert, Romische Mosaiken und Wandmalereien der kirchlichen Bauten (Freiburg i. Br. 1916) 1.149ff. and 2. pI. 140; and J. Sauer 'Zum Titelbild.' (GrabmannMausbach , Aurelius Augustinus [Koln 19301) IXf. Sauer contends that the fresco may have been done in the fifth century. 5 6 FOREWORD spread,5 and it flourished more during the Middle Ages.6 Antoninus (d. 1459), the saintly Bishop of Florence, could write: 7 'What the sun8 is to the sky, St. Augustine is to the Doctors and Fathers of the Church. The sun in its brilliance excels all other luminaries; it is the lord of the planets, the father of light. A delight to the eyes, its rays leave nothing untouched. So, Augustine. He shines like a jewel. His words are like music. The light of his mind penetrated the deepest problems. No wonder St. Jerome said of him that he was like an eagle soaring above the mountain tops, too lofty for lowly trifles, but with a vision embracing heaven and earth.' And when EI Greco,9 the master of mystic strokes, depicts the Saint carrying the Church upon his left hand, he anticipated the opinion expressed by a scholar at the University of Notre Dame: 'In the great African doctor we seem to have combined ... the learning and versatility of Origen, the grace and eloquence of Basil and Chrysostom. Whether we regard him as philosopher, theologian, as exegetist... the Doctor of Grace is ever admirabfe, at once the glory of the Church and the master of the ages.,lO 5 Cf. the praise for St. Augustine in the works of Prosper of Aquitaine (d. after 455) • and in the De vita contemplativa (3.31.6) of Julianus Pomerius (d. after 500) . 6 St. Bernard (d. 1153) calls him 'validissimus malleus hereticorum.' Peter the Venerable speaks of him, in a letter to St. Bernard, as 'the greatest teacher of Christianity after the Apostles' (Epistle to St. Bernard. among the Letters of St. Bernard. Ep. 229.13) . That St. Thomas Aquinas, the prince of the schoolmen. in points of basic Christian doctrine, 'never left the side of St. Augustine' is referred to by E. Gilson, 'The Future of Augustinian Metaphysics,' A Monu1llent to Saint Augustine (London 1945) 30R. 7 Chronicon 2.R. fol. 27 (Niirnberg 1484). 8 Ibid. 2.26. St. Ambrose. Augustine's 'teacher: is called 'stella matutina: the Morning Star. that precedes the Sun. g The original is in the Parish Museum San Vincente. Toledo. Spain. A sixteenth century library seal of the Augustinian College at Paris shows Augustine holding the church upon his left hand and a heart in his right. 10 J. A. Zahm, Bible, Science and Faith (Baltimore 1894) 7lf. FOREWORD 7 In St. Augustine, then, the golden age of patristic literature reached its peak. Aurelius Augustine was born on November 13, 354, at Tagaste, a small town in the African province of Numidia, His mother Monica, a Christian, was the wife of the Roman magistrate Patricius, who, until shortly before his death, remained a pagan.ll No one anticipated that the newcomer in the small household was to become Africa's greatest son, whose name would shine on the firmament of the Christian Church for all...