St. Augustine: Sociocultural Context, Philosophy, and Key Works
Sociocultural Context and Historical and Philosophical Framework of St. Augustine
Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Initially, it was prevalent in Jewish communities in Palestine, but it extended to the Greek population of the Roman Empire. Constantine proclaimed the Edict of Milan, which legally tolerated Christianity. St. Augustine’s life took place during this period, in which Christianity had settled. Theodosius made Christianity the official religion, and his death marked an irreversible decline of the empire, which was definitively divided in 395. The Visigoths sacked Rome, and St. Augustine died in 430 during the siege of the city of Hippo. The period from the reign of Emperor Constantine to Theodosius is considered a kind of renaissance for classical culture. The basilicas erected by Constantine were numerous, with the most important being St. John Lateran, St. Peter’s, and St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.
Philosophical Context
In the third century, the most important philosophical doctrine was Neoplatonism, founded by Plotinus (205-219). His work, Enneads, was influential on Augustine, as it allowed him to accept the idea of an immaterial reality and the concept of evil as privation. Plotinus’s thinking allowed St. Augustine to provide a solution to the problem of evil. Plato, fueled by Neoplatonism, had great influence, urging that Christianity is based on Platonic concepts.
When Christianity was officially established, the Church Fathers emerged. Their purpose was to explain Christian doctrine. Depending on the language used by the authors in their works, one can speak of Greek and Latin Fathers. The Latin patristic gained prominence from the mid-third century when Latin replaced Greek as the liturgical language. These authors were influenced by Latin authors like Cicero or Seneca. Leading representatives include St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, and St. Augustine.
Life and Works
- Born in Tagaste in 354.
- After finishing his studies in this city, he moved to Madaura and later to Carthage.
- Reading Cicero’s Hortensius awakened in him a keen interest in wisdom, which led him to Manichaeism. However, he was soon disappointed and left the sect.
- Contact with the Enneads of Plotinus made him experience a desire to purify his customs, but he felt powerless before the strength of his passions.
- Reading one of St. Paul’s Epistles, which stated that man cannot get rid of sin without the grace of Jesus Christ, sparked his interest in Christian teaching.
- At 32 years old, he converted to Christianity.
Works:
- Contra Academicos: Critical of skepticism.
- On the Happy Life.
- Soliloquies: Discusses knowledge, the immortality of the soul, truth, and wisdom.
- Confessions: Tells the story of his life.
- The City of God: Reflects on the fall of the empire.
Main Lines of Thought
God is the primary object of St. Augustine’s philosophy. St. Augustine’s argument is based on the presence in man of universal, necessary, and immutable truths. St. Augustine placed exemplary ideas in the divine intelligence of God, introducing what he called razones germinales. That is, the subject carries the seeds within itself. His conception of man is that body and soul are distinct but inseparable substances. The soul is a self-sufficient substance, attached to the body. He affirms that man is God’s image, possessing memory, intelligence, and goodwill.
In knowledge, we must emphasize intellectual knowledge, which distinguishes ideas, and knowledge of eternal truths. He believes that faith and reason both have the mission of discovering the truth. The only goal of man is to understand the truth. Man can only find happiness in God, but lacking an adequate view of God, he can choose mutable goods, moving away from the real object of his happiness, but he does so freely.