Saint Augustine: Exploring the Image of God in Humanity
San Augustine
Abstracts
1. The soul, being the image of God, is the image of the Trinity. The fact that we exist, we know, and we love is not known through the senses or the imagination. The senses only serve to perceive what is external; through thought, we know that we exist, we know, and we love.
Analysis and Explanation
Saint Augustine, in his Christian philosophical view, following the dictates of faith and inspired by Genesis (the first book of the Bible’s Old Testament), maintains that in humanity there is an image of God. This mysterious religious truth, not absurd, he attempts to explain through the concepts of Greek philosophy, particularly Platonic ideas. The unique characteristics of humans—rational animals, physically and intellectually limited, aware and with an unsatisfied longing for happiness—do not find an appropriate response in themselves, according to Saint Augustine. Instead, meaning is found in the light of Christian revelation, which addresses the profound questions humans have about their past, present, and future. Apart from the aforementioned image of God in humanity, Saint Augustine explores its nuanced and precise character. The fact that humanity is the image of God does not imply equality of substances. God is infinite, omnipotent, eternal, etc., and humanity, created from nothing by God, has only intuitive approaches to these divine realities. Despite this infinite qualitative difference between God and humanity, humans are the only creatures who, by their intelligence and ability to be conscious, are closest in nature to God. The image of God in humanity is not static but dynamic. It can be enhanced or diminished by the human will’s decision towards or away from God. This dual possibility is projected onto human actions. The image of God in humanity is evident in three human faculties: Memory, which allows us to express our identity; Intelligence, which allows us to know; and the Willpower to love this being and to encounter it. This core truth forming the image of God in humanity is not perceived through the senses but through an inner sense, without corporeal or misleading images. The concepts Saint Augustine uses can be grouped into a single semantic field: the image of God in humanity and its consequences. God and humanity, creator and created, are in relationship. The image of God in humanity—a projection, a trace of divinity—is the result of creative action. God’s substance, the essential reality of being, implies an infinite qualitative difference from humanity. Yet, humanity is closest in nature to God, despite the differences. No other reality in the universe is so close to divinity and perfection, yet capable of reform. The potential of human beings, in line with their free will, can be developed or diminished. Finally, the perception of the image of God in humanity is not evident through the physical senses but through an inner sense.
Contextualization
This fragment belongs to The City of God, written by Augustine of Hippo. The work is a theological narrative from creation to salvation, representing the confrontation between Good and Evil. Good represents the eternal city, and Evil, the earthly city. The City of God was written in response to pagan accusations that Christians caused the Sack of Rome by Alaric. The book argues that God, through this event, cleansed Rome of sins. It is also the first work in which history is understood in a harmonious sense (with a defined beginning and end). This is a new idea of time, opposed to the circular perception of the Greeks. Augustine, a native of Tagaste, focused on the study of grammar and rhetoric. Reading Cicero’s Hortensius, he began his philosophical journey, understanding it as the means to achieve truth and happiness. He followed Manichaeism and later Skepticism. On a trip to Milan in his thirties, he encountered a Bible reading that resonated deeply with him. He converted to Christianity and began his defense of the Christian faith. His work is directed against pagans, heretics, etc. He became the bishop of Hippo. Among his works are: Confessions, De Trinitate, De Beata Vita, Soliloquies, Against the Academics, and De Civitate Dei, all with a profound religious sense. This occurred after the Edict of Milan, which established Christianity as the official religion. Later, Alaric’s sack of Rome severely affected the city. In 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire fell, and pagans and Christians blamed each other. Pagans argued that if the Christian God were a saving God, he should have spared Rome. Augustine argued that God allows lesser evils to achieve greater goods or to punish sins. For Augustine, philosophy is a quest for truth, and religion reveals that truth. This led to a polemic between reason and faith, represented by Tertullian (who opposed reason and philosophy) and Augustine (who used philosophy and reason to demonstrate religious truths). In the 13th century, Augustinian thought, influenced by Plato, would merge with Aristotelian Scholasticism through Thomas Aquinas. Christian thought inherited Jewish monotheism, creationism, the idea of a just God, messianism, etc., and Greek philosophy, including Plato’s dualism of body and soul, the idea of property, and Stoicism. It incorporated ecumenism, providence, and mysteries like the Trinity. Christian thought was also influenced by Gnosticism, Neo-Pythagoreanism, and Neoplatonism. Augustine’s greatest influences were Plato, Plotinus (The Enneads), Virgil, Horace, and, as noted, Cicero and his work Hortensius.