Augustine of Hippo: Faith, Reason, and the Love of God
The Interplay of Faith and Reason
Two Realities United
Faith illuminates reason, and reason elevates faith. Augustine of Hippo, throughout his philosophical endeavors, argued that faith is best understood through intelligence. For the Christian, faith and reason are distinct yet intimately bound realities. Revealed truth complements philosophical truth, together forming a complete and full understanding.
The Pursuit of Truth
The most important measure is arriving at truth, whether by faith or reason. Augustine’s position is not fideist (a form of irrationalism). Faith does not supplant intelligence but rather stimulates and illuminates it. Faith is a rational assent; without thinking, one could not have faith. When faith is present, there is rational clarity. Faith is the reward of good thinking and strengthens, not eliminates, reason. One must seek God with all one’s intelligence. Thus, faith and reason are complementary. Augustine sought truth not only through faith but also through reason. Intelligence accepts the object of faith (Christ). The Church encourages belief but also offers assurances that reason can evaluate, inviting us to examine historically verifiable truths.
The Path to Love
Faith and reason lead to love. The path progresses from understanding to belief, from belief to deeper understanding, and ultimately to love. Augustine’s supreme desire was to love the truth. Whether truth is attained through belief or understanding is secondary; the crucial point is to reach truth and love it. For Augustine, full and complete truth is found only in Christianity, against which the doctrines of philosophers must be contrasted. The surest and quickest vessel to arrive at truth is Christ crucified. Upon his conversion, Augustine recognized that philosophy rightly emphasizes that happiness lies in loving God, and the path to this love is Christ.
Rational Demonstration of God’s Existence
Augustine believed in God’s existence through faith from his youth, a belief he never relinquished despite his eventful life. However, he also sought to prove God’s existence rationally through three arguments:
1. The Existence of Truth
Humans can grasp eternal, universal, and unchanging truths independent of feelings (e.g., mathematical truths, the ideas of goodness, beauty, and justice). Humans cannot be the source of the immutable and eternal, as we are mutable. These unchanging models must reside in an eternal and immutable source. In discovering truth, humans discover something superior to themselves, possessing the attributes of God: eternity, immutability, and necessity. The argument proceeds in three steps: (1) There is an eternal and unchanging truth present in thought. (2) Human thought is not the sufficient reason for this truth. (3) God exists as its sufficient reason.
2. The Existence of a Contingent and Ordered World
Augustine asks, “From the workings of the body, I know you are alive. Can you not, from the works of creation, know the Creator?” This clearly demonstrates God’s existence from his works. Everything points back to its author. Order, beauty, and grandeur must originate from a source possessing these qualities.
3. Universal Consensus
Augustine states, “The true power of God is such that it cannot remain totally hidden from the rational creature once it begins to use reason. With the exception of some men whose nature is completely corrupt, the entire human species confesses that God is the author of the world.” This “universal consensus” argument, already present in ancient pagan philosophers, is summarized by Augustine.
Knowing and Loving God
Understanding God’s Nature
Augustine recalls God’s words to Moses: “I am who I am.” God is Being itself, the source of being for all created things. God is the infinite degree of everything positive in creation, summarized in the formula God himself taught us. Augustine sought to prove God’s existence rationally, not only to clarify what he knew by faith but also for a deeper purpose. He aimed not just for intellectual demonstration but for knowledge that leads to love. He sought to love God because God is the source of all good, a good that never satiates.
The Life of Augustine
Born in Tagaste, North Africa, in 354 AD during the decline of the Roman Empire, Augustine was the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother. His passionate and fiery character led him to a dissolute life alongside a relentless search for truth. As recounted in his Confessions, reading Cicero’s Hortensius at nineteen sparked a change, leading him to abandon wanton pleasures and dedicate himself to a meaningful life. From 373 to 382, he followed Manichaeism, a belief system positing two principles, one good and one evil. In 383, he moved to Rome, where he met the Manichaean bishop Faustus, who disappointed him. He then embarked on a new intellectual journey, embracing skepticism, a Hellenistic philosophy asserting that nothing could be known with certainty and advocating for a focus on subjective values to maintain inner peace. In 384, he moved to Milan as a professor of rhetoric, where he encountered Ambrose and rediscovered the value of the Holy Scriptures as a guide to truth. He also discovered the works of Plotinus, particularly The Enneads, which introduced him to Neoplatonism and its concepts of the soul’s immortality and a transcendent God. Until his death in 430, he dedicated himself to pastoral care, combating heresy, and defending Christians against political interference. Augustine’s death coincided with the Vandal invasion of Africa.