St. Augustine was a philosopher of the 3rd and 4th centuries. In his philosophy, he writes about the miserable nature of physical existence and the superiority of God and the human soul. He portrays mankind’s physical existence as filled with terror, disease, and a horribly evil nature. St. Augustine, can be described as one of the founding figures in the idea of Original Sin, which states that a human being is innately depraved by his very own nature as a human being, and therefore must spend his entire life begging forgiveness of God. Additionally, the idea that the body and the soul are separate, as well as the soul being superior to the body, are both very prevalent themes in Augustine’s works (although Plato is truly the intellectual father of these ideas). Also, there are mentions of altruism and collectivism in his works (again, as heavily influenced by Plato). Every individual in society has a moral obligation to ensure that every other individual is obeying God, and, every individual themselves must also obey God.
One of Augustine’s more famous works, City of God, deals with the themes I mentioned earlier, but most importantly, the demonstration of the ideal political system. According to Augustine, the ideal political system is one which forces every individual of the society obey God, condemn the inferiority of physical existence, and sacrifice oneself to all others in the society if they (or God) so demand.
The following are some quotes that I picked up on in my reading of part of City of God for my Political Ideologies class.
“what is it that we would do, when we wish to be made perfect by the ultimate good, unless it be that the flesh should not lust against the spirit, and that there should be in us no such vice for the spirit to lust against it? But since we can not bring that to pass in the present life, however much we may desire it, we can at least with God’s help so act that we do not yield to the lust of the flesh against the spirit by failure of the spirit, and we are not dragged with our own consent to the perpetuation of sin. Far be it from us, then, so long as we are engaged in this internal war…”
He is saying here that every human being is innately depraved because of his physical nature. Every human being therefore must wage a major conflict between his physical existence and his soul. However, since the complete elimination of physical desire ("lusts” as he calls them) would require nothing short of death (and committing suicide is not good because then one can not obey God and sacrifice oneself for others), a human being’s physical existence is filled with terror, misery, and despair.
“….all these persons have sought, with a surprising vanity, to be happy in this life and to get happiness by their own efforts. Truth laughed at these men….”“…such is the stupid pride of these men who suppose that the supreme good is to be found in this life, and that they can be the agents of their own happiness…”
“…so we look forward to happiness, and a happiness to be won by ‘endurance.’ For we are among evils, which we ought patiently to endure until we arrive among those goods where nothing will be lacking to provide us ineffable delight, nor will there now be anything that we are obliged to endure. Such is the salvation which in the life to come will itself be also the ultimate bliss. But those philosophers, not believing in this blessedness because they do not see it, strive to manufacture for themselves in this life an utterly counterfeit happiness by drawing on a virtue whose fraudulence matches its arrogance.”
Happiness in this physical life is impossible, Augustine says. The physical existence of mankind in this world is a horrible misery filled with constant conlifct, terror, and despair. No individual human being is able to achieve happiness in this world, on their own, because only eternal peace with God (which is the permanent escape from the misery of physical existence) can enable one to achieve happiness.
What a horrible life this man must have lived. It seems that his entire philosophy can be described as an absolute terror of reality and a constant wish to explain the unbearable pain of his own existence. But such misery is NOT an intrinsic feature of man’s existence but rather the inevitable result of any human being who attempts to act in contradiction with reality.
I have never read any of St. Augustine’s works but I am sure the time in which he lived did have an affect upon him.
He lived amidst the “Dark Ages”. Intellectual life was non-existent. The order that Rome brought to world was gone. Europe was literally starting over socially, intellectually, economically etc. Understandable.
Comment by 9/20/2003 @ 1:30 am
I would have to agree with the last comment on this issue. I do not think that Augustine’s work is contextualized here. From a modern perpective, his philosophy seems a bleak outlook for non-Christians and Christians alike. However the world in which he lived was crumbling before him. The vast Roman empire was falling apart due to years of inept rulers, far-flung and cut off “colonies", the use of hired armies (ostrogoths) to keep the peace and also the introduction of the socially disruptive Christian faith. Therefore the world in which Augustine lived was both politically and socially unstable. His writings reflected his desire to maintain some sense of societal order.
Also, Augustine did not live his early years in pious meditation. He was not a “practicing” Catholic until he reached middle age. Perhaps his personal reflection led him to believe that humans need religious faith to keep them morally in check - which, if there was no guiding, strong political system in place, would be the only other option during this period of history.
Comment by RJ 10/9/2003 @ 6:29 pm