Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine's Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom

2. The Evidence

34 chapter 2 The Evidence augustine of hippo may be regarded as a major writer, not only in a qualitative, but in a quantitative sense. To look upon his collected works with a view to reading them is an awe-inspiring experience; to realize that he not merely read, but actually wrote them, is overwhelming, the more so when we remember how much of his time was devoted to his diocese which, in contemporary terms, was more like a large and busy modern parish. He had, it is true, his household clergy, to whom he delegated all financial business.1 How much they were available to help his literary labors by checking references and proofreading we do not know, but his demands must have been formidable, since he not infrequently had several literary pieces in hand at one and the same time. It would be fascinating if one could see what Augustine’s study at Hippo was like. Did he have, as a certain English scholar of an earlier generation is reputed to have had,2 a number of tables, each one devoted to a different book? Were there notebooks and scraps of parchment bearing references? Presumably, judging from his language, he must have had to turn from one composition to another,3 while keeping in mind the thread of each successive argument; but even more demanding and remarkable was the labor involved in compiling the two books of the Retractations in 427, when Augustine passed in review almost all his larger 1. Possidius, Vita Augustini, 24. Michele Pellegrino, ed., Vita di S. Agostino (Edizioni Paolini, 1955), 124–32. 2. K. Lowther Clark. 3. See ep. 169,4,13. CSEL 44,620–22. 35 compositions to that date, indicating where he had changed his mind and defending himself against criticism where he had not.4 John Burnaby , in a well-known paper delivered at the Augustinian Congress at Paris in 1954, calculated that there was a larger amount of defense than of withdrawal in the Retractations than is commonly assumed;5 but the great interest for us is Augustine’s power of memory in reconsidering his compositions. Did he re-read them all?—a lengthy business. Had he kept notes of questions and criticisms over the years? We do not know; but the composition of the Retractations was unquestionably a major undertaking, and has been of immense value to later students of Augustine ’s writings. The range, and not only the quantity, of Augustine’s literary output was immense and covered very different topics and opponents. Furthermore , the method of composition—dictation, as was the custom of the times, often to answer a particular problem raised by a particular individual , or to treat of a particular text of Scripture—could mean that there were occasional inconsistencies in his compositions. Perhaps one of the most impressive things about Augustine’s writings as a whole is the way in which various parts hold together, often with a remarkable consistency. There was, indeed, one major change in his outlook on human freedom, which will be the theme of the present chapter. In the meantime, let us consider two features of Augustine’s general approach to theological thinking and theological disputation which are characteristic at all times. The first is his general view of the cosmos under the divine rule, a belief in its order and harmony, even when the facts appear otherwise. One might call it an aesthetic approach, and it is worth remembering that his first literary publication, composed when he was still a Manichee, was the evidence 4. See the study by J. de Ghellinck, Patristique et Moyen Age: Études histoire littéraire et doctrinale. Tom. III: Compléments à l’étude de la Patristique (Brussels/Paris, 1948), Étude VIII: “Une édition patristique célèbre,” 339–65. 5. Burnaby, “The ‘Retractations’ of St. Augustine: Self-criticism or Apologia?” Augustinus Magister, Congrès internationale augustinien (Paris, 21–24 September 1954), vol. 1, 85–92. 36 De Pulchro et Apto (On the Beautiful and the Fitting), in which “beauty” was regarded as a quality in an object inherent in itself, “fitness” as a quality in its relation to other objects. The De Pulchro et Apto is sometimes seen as expressing Manichaean philosophy, but it expresses an outlook which was to affect Augustine’s thinking all his life. As a Manichee he could regard many elements in the material world as the...