St. Augustine: Historical, Cultural, and Philosophical Context
St. Augustine
Historical Context
The most important historical event of the 4th and 5th centuries AD is the conversion to Christianity of Emperor Constantine I. A consequence of this conversion was the transfer of the imperial headquarters to Byzantium and the division of the Roman Empire into the Western Empire, with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. The Western Empire underwent rapid degeneration, culminating in the dismissal of Romulus Augustus. The analysis of this decline of the empire is one of the pillars that underpin the political discourse of Augustine of Hippo.
Cultural Context
- Edict of Milan: Posted by Constantine, this edict officially ended the persecution of Christians and promoted freedom of religion. However, in practice, it led to the imposition of the monopoly of Christianity in the West.
- Council of Nicaea: The celebration of the 1st Council of Nicaea laid the groundwork for Christian orthodoxy, both doctrinal and philosophical, and where the foundations were laid for Augustine to subsequently develop his thinking.
Philosophical Framework
With the emergence of Christianity came the problem of the relationship between faith and reason. The early Christians initially despised philosophy but were soon forced to use the Greek thought of Plato and Hellenistic philosophy to defend their doctrine. The writings on the development of doctrine that have been made by the church are known as “patristic literature.” Augustine began the systematic development of Christian philosophy. He admitted the use of reason, if enlightened by God, to help find the truth.
God
The starting point of Augustinian thought is the idea that human beings yearn for happiness. To achieve happiness, a person must satisfy all aspects of their being: body and soul. The way to please the soul is through the realization of its aspirations, which are truth and God.
Truth is unique because it is identified with God, and truth can be reached in two ways: by reason, philosophy, or faith, and then the truth will be reached in religion.
According to Augustine, these two pathways are not mutually exclusive, since faith teaches what reason cannot reach. Reason, to get to know the truth, must be enlightened by faith, while understanding, to attain knowledge of divine truth, can make one believe what he does not yet believe.
Augustine makes two important qualifications:
- Only religion illumines the full truth. This is because the ultimate truth is God, and therefore this is the only truth that can calm the desire for happiness of the human soul.
- To reach the truth, reason and faith together are not sufficient. You need something more, and that is love, understood as the desire to reach God, the ultimate truth.
To demonstrate the existence of God, Augustine follows a Platonic argument. Human beings possess universal ideas and the desire for truth, justice, and beauty. But the human soul is contingent, so these ideas could not be produced by it. There needs to be a necessary being to have these necessary and universal ideas in the human soul, and this being is God. The human soul requires God to achieve happiness. It is therefore the human soul which makes the case for the existence of God.