Augustine of Hippo and Anselm of Canterbury: Christian Philosophy
Augustine of Hippo: Faith and Reason in Christian Doctrine
Augustine of Hippo viewed Christianity primarily as a doctrine of salvation for humanity, not merely a philosophy. He believed that the meaning of life is tied to Christianity on a supernatural plane. Faith, according to Augustine, is a gift from God that enables us to accept divine revelation.
Philosophical Contributions of Augustine
- Monotheism: The existence of one God is unquestionable in Christianity.
- Creationism: God created the world out of nothing.
- Omnipotence: God is not subject to any higher authority.
- Attitude Towards Truth: Christianity believes its doctrines are of divine origin and, therefore, without error.
Christian Truths
- Truths of Natural Order: These are truths that reason can grasp on its own.
- Supernatural Truths: These are the mysteries of faith revealed by God.
Divine Intervention
God intervenes in human history in two ways:
- Providence: God takes care of human affairs.
- Incarnation: God takes on human nature and enters into history.
Early Christian Philosophy: Faith and Reason
Causes: The defense of Christian doctrine and the deepening of knowledge.
Models of Relationship Between Faith and Reason:
- Enlightenment: Faith is the beginning of true knowledge and illuminates reason.
- Rationalist: Faith is imperfect for attaining knowledge, which is reached through reason.
- Distributive or Weighted: Reason is subordinated to faith but maintains its autonomy.
- Fideistic: Absolute preponderance of faith over reason.
Neoplatonism and Augustine
Augustine employed Neoplatonism, as presented by Plotinus, to build Christian philosophical thought. Plotinus identified three supreme realities: the One (divinity), the supreme intellect, and the soul (hierarchically structured).
Patristics
Patristics refers to the genuine Christian doctrine of the Fathers of the Church. They reasoned that the truths of faith were not absurd. Faith encourages and promotes reason: “I think in order to understand; I understand in order to believe.” Reason accesses knowledge through the light provided by faith and judges reality according to immutable criteria (models that are understandable in the mind of God).
Augustine’s Focus on the Individual and the Soul
Augustine was interested in the concrete human being, the unique individual. He believed that within the soul’s return to itself lies the truth of God (Interiority). The perfection of the world involves finding its creator: God. The majority of human beings recognize the existence of God (Consensus Gentium). The existence of degrees of good implies a supreme good, which is God.
Doctrine of Seminal Reasons
God created reality in a single act, but only a few things were given actual existence. The rest have the potential to exist and develop in successive moments.
Concept of Evil
Evil is a privation of Being, a lack of Being. There are various levels of evil:
- Metaphysical Evil: The privation of Being in lower beings.
- Moral Evil: Sin, the evil of the human will.
- Physical Evil: Disease and death.
Anselm of Canterbury: Faith Seeking Understanding
First Scholastic Period
Anselm of Canterbury belonged to the first Scholastic period. He believed that faith opens the way to reason (“I think in order to understand”). Faith in God is the beginning of salvation, and once we accept God’s existence, we realize that it is impossible to think that God does not exist.
Ontological Argument
Anselm’s famous ontological argument states that God is perfect, and it is impossible to imagine a being more perfect than God. Since existence is one of the divine perfections (it is more perfect to exist than not to exist), God must actually exist.
The Truth
Anselm defined truth as righteousness. Something is true when it fulfills its purpose. There are two senses of truth in statements:
- When the phrase means what it should mean.
- When the phrase means what it really is.
Freedom
Natural actions always fulfill their purpose and are therefore true (first sense of truth). Free actions respond to the agent’s decision, which must adhere spontaneously to righteousness, representing an appropriate use of freedom (second sense of truth).