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13. What Proof is There that Men are Superior to Animals?
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QUESTIONS 12-13 43 12. THE OPINION OF A CERTAIN WISE MAN "Come now, 0 wretched mortals," he says, "take heed that the wicked spirit may never foul this habitation, and that, intermingled with the senses, it may not pollute the sanctity of the soul and becloud the light of the mind. This evil thing creeps stealthily through all the entrances of sense: it gives itself over to forms, it adapts itself to colors, it sticks to sounds, it lurks hidden in anger and in the deception of speech, it appends itself to odors, it infuses tastes, by the turbulent overflow of passion it darkens the senses with darksome affections, it fills with certain obscuring mists the paths of the understanding, through all of which the mind's ray normally diffuses the light of reason." "In fact, since it consists of heavenly light, [that] ray mirrors the divine presence, for in it God, in it the blameless will, in it the merit of virtuous action all shine forth. God is everywhere present, and he is simultaneously present to each of us in the very moment when the undiminished purity of our mind has recognized itself to be in his presence. For just as defective vision does not recognize the presence of whatever it cannot see (for in vain does the image of things present impinge on the eyes if their powers are impaired), so also God, who is nowhere absent, is present in vain to defiled souls, since the mind in its blindness cannot see him. " 13. WHAT PROOF IS THERE THAT MEN ARE SUPERIOR TO ANIMALS? Among the many ways in which it can be shown that man Cf. R 1.26 (PL 32.624): "it is not mine, but because I was responsible f?r ~aking it known to certain brothers who were at that time quesHOlling me very closely on these topics and were pleased with it, they wanted me to write it among our Questions. Its author is a. certain ~onteius of Carthage, and it is entitled On the Needjor Purifying the Mind In Order to See God. He wrote it while yet a pagan, but he died a baptized Christian.' , 44 ST. AUGUSTINE is superior to animals by virtue of his reason, this is clear to all: animals can be domesticated and tamed by men, but men not at all by animals. 14. THA T THE BODY OF CHRIST WAS NOTA PHANTOM If the body of Christ was a phantom, Christ was a deceiver; and if he was a deceiver, he is not Truth. However, Christ is Truth. Therefore his body was not a phantom.! 15. ON THE INTELLECT Everything which understands itself comprehends itself. But what comprehends itself is limited with respect to itself. Now the intellect understands itself. Therefore it is limited in respect to itself. Nor does· it wish to be without limits, although it could be, since it wishes to be known to itself, for it loves itself.! Augustine is here referring to the Manichaean view which denied the reality of Christ's body, substituting for it only the appearance of a body, i.e., a phantom body. See NCE, s.v. "Jesus Christ, II (in Dogmatic Theology)." The Manichaean view was itself r.ooted in an even older heresy called Docetism, which maintained that Christ in his earthly career only "seemed" or "appeared" to be man. Docetism takes its name from a Greek word (dokein) which means "to seem," "to appear." See NCE, s.v. "Docetism." An early North African critic of the view which Augustine seeks to refute in this Q. is Tertullian (ca. 1SS-after 220). See his Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion) 3.8 (PL 2.359-60). St. Augustine does not mean that the intellect in question need be limited with respect to its substance, otherwise God would be finite. Rather, he means that any intellect which knows itself fully and completely is limited in respect to itself in the sense that it knows all that it can possibly know about itself. Therefore, in this sense, even God's knowledge of himself, and hence his intellect, is "limited," for God's self-knowledge does not exceed the limits of his being, even though his being is infinite. Cf. DCD 12.18 (PL 41.367-68). ...