The Augustinian person

Introduction

I N T R O D U C T I O N ;One of the crucial observations in Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self is that Augustine thought of God as “behind the eye” as well as (platonically) before it:1 God is not only the human mind’s ultimate object but the foundation even of its subjectivity. An indication of this is that the most characteristically Augustinian proof of God’s existence is based on radical mental self-observation: even as we experience knowing something, we rely on an absolute source of truth as guarantee that we are in fact knowing; so in realizing that we know something we imply the existence of God (De div. qu. . ; De lib. arb. ..–..; Conf. .., ..–..).2 But other aspects of human nature have a similar importance for him. He saw the human soul as opening not only onto God but, through the body, onto matter . Given that the soul is so made by creation, and we are created in God’s image, his theology is much concerned with the relationship of body and soul.3 Moreover, to Henri Marrou’s disgust, Augustine interprets “all Creation still groans and mourns, expecting the revelation of the sons of God” as meaning precisely that human beings in this world so groan, mourn, and expect—not that the holy angels, or beasts, or vegetables and rocks, do. The point, Augustine argues, is that only human nature contains God’s entire Creation, by representing each of its degrees from intellect to physical object (Rom ., ;  . Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ), . . Taylor, ; Eugène Portalié, S.J., A Guide to the Thought of Saint Augustine, trans. Ralph J. Bastian, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, ), . . See John M. Rist, Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –. De div. qu. . .–; Exp. quar. prop. in ex ep. Rom. ; Ad Oros. .).4 So St. Paul’s long-awaited universal salvation is, for Augustine, human salvation. Furthermore, as we shall see, Augustine expounds his understanding of the Incarnation in terms of human society. His theology , then, is anthropological. Conversely, his approach to human nature and experience is theological . In the Confessions he begins to explore the enigma of his own heart by repeatedly asking what relationship is possible between himself and God. The main theological controversies that punctuated his life established and reaffirmed this approach. The dispute with the Manichaeans gave a theological context, in his mind, to the relationship of soul and body, the nature of human motivation, and human morality. The dispute with the Donatists forced him to give theological consideration to human society. The dispute with the Pelagians led him to conclude that the human relationship with God determines the human condition in its every aspect. Thus his theology determined what were the important questions of his anthropology. These questions, when put in a general form, are the central ones for any theologian claiming to elucidate the human relationship with God: How is human nature constituted? In what sense are both God and human beings persons? Given our nature and personality, what are the fundamental conditions in which all people live and act? In those conditions, what acts and states of mind primarily befit a human individual and connect human morality with divine goodness? In what modes are human individuals socially related to one another, and what is the relationship of human society with God? And finally (the question subsuming all the others): What, outright, is the relationship between human beings and God?  ⁄  . Henri-Irénée Marrou, Saint Augustin et l’augustinisme (Paris: Editions du Seuil, ), –. For later statements of a view similar to Marrou’s, see Paula Fredriksen, “Beyond the Body/Soul Dichotomy: Augustine on Paul against the Manichees and the Pelagians,” Recherches augustiniennes  (): . For a reply to Marrou (mentioned but not dealt with by Fredriksen), see Thomas E. Clarke, S.J., “St. Augustine and Cosmic Redemption,” Theological Studies  (): –, esp. –. Recast in their specifically Augustinian forms, these questions are: What is the relationship between soul and body? Since the soul is the core of a human being and the mind is the primary characteristic of the soul, what is the structure of the human mind, by which we exceed the other animals and (like God) exist as persons? Given the fundamental constitution of humanity, what determines our present condition, how do sin and...