St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology

(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell

Chapter IV - St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology

To escape the madness of metaphysics and thoroughly infuriate myself by reading an attack on one of the greatest men in human history. Russell will only focus on what he considers important in Augustine:
1. Augustine's pure philosophy, especially his theory of time
2. Augustine's philosophy of history (developed in City of God)
3. Augustine's theory of salvation, against Pelagius

Pure Philosophy

Augustine is not preoccupied with pure philosophy, mostly he concerns himself with theology. But he shows immense talent in philosophy when he does.

Augustine was the first philosopher (of many) to speculate with a necessity of matching speculation and Scriptures.

Origen (an earlier Christian philosopher) differed from Augustine in that Origen kept Christianity and Platonism separate while Augustine grated Platonism into Christianity.

The most purely philosophical book is the 11th book of Confessions. Most contemporary Confessions end at Book 10 because that is where the biographical part ends.

Augustine remarks that the Genesis of account of creation (ex nihilo, out of nothing) was completely foreign to Greek thought. Greeks believed God formed preexisting matter. Christianity and Judaism holds God created matter, then simultaneously formed it. The Greek view of creation has reappeared since the dawn of Christianity and has led to pantheism.

Augustine asks if God created the world ex nihilo then why didn't he do it sooner? Augustine states that there was no sooner before creation because time was created at the same point as all creation.

God is eternal; He is timeless. In God there is no past or future, only eternal present.

"God's eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is present to Him at once" (Russell, 353).

When Augustine refers to time he has an intriguing relativistic theory. Time can only be measured as it is passing. The past and future is not really 'is', only the present really is. But there really is a past and future.

Augustine says that the past or future is considered at the present through memory or expectation.

He states that there are three times:
1. A present of things past (memory)
2. A present of things present (sight)
3. A present of things future (expectation)

He confesses to God that he is perplexed by time and asks for enlightenment. Without fully understanding time, see does believe that is subjective.

Time is in the human mind and time exists only because created beings exist.

Augustine's theory of time seems to anticipate at least three things;
1) Kant's theory of subjective time
2) Descartes' cogito
3) Descartes' reply to Gassendi's ambulo ergo sum.

"As a philosopher, therefore, Augustine deserves a high place" (Russell, 355).

The City of God

When Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 the Roman pagans attributed the defeat to the abandonment of the ancient religions. The City of God was an answer to this accusation.

"Like some other very great books, it composes itself in the memory of those who have read it, into something better than at first appears in rereading" (Russell, 355).

Russell holds that the book contains "a great deal that hardly anyone at present day can accept" (Russell, 355).

Russell does hold that it remains inspirational today and can be restated in non-theological terms.
Linehan - Thus destroying the meaning and value of the book.

In the book Augustine states that worse things then the sacking of Rome occurred prior to the Christian age. He also said that Christianity kept the sacking from being as brutal as it could have been (the Goths were Christians).

He says that not all sins are punished on earth, thus the Last Judgment.

All that Christians endured virtuously would lead to their edification eventually.

Temporal losses for Christians does not cause loss of anything of value for them.

Nothing can interfere with the resurrection of the body.

Virginity lost through rape doesn't diminish chastity. Chastity is a virtue of the mind. Virginity and chastity can be lost even without the physical act. It can be lost in the mind.

Suicide is condemned by Augustine. Even if one commits suicide to avoid the loss of virginity it is still a sin. Apparently Lucretia (a woman in Rome) committed suicide for this reason.

He says that rape, if enjoyed, becomes sinful for the woman.

He condemns the pagan gods. He claims that it would be better to worship a virtuous man than a heathen god.

Christians have a constant sanctuary in the pilgrim City of God.

In this world, the city of earth and the city of heaven are intermingled.

Augustine holds Greek philosophers as partially right.

He holds that the philosophers could not overthrow the pagan gods because their moral instructions were weak due to the wickedness of their gods.

Augustine believed the heathen gods existed, but were devils.

He held astrology as to be both wicked and false. He proves this through the fortunes of twins who have the identical zodiac sign.

God has foreknowledge of man's sins, but God's foreknowledge does not cause man's sins.

Virtuosity does not bring unhappiness; even if Christians are unfortunate, they still can be happy.

Augustine holds Plato in higher regards than any other philosopher. Augustine credits Plato with a number of things:
1) Plato's belief that God was Spirit, not material.
2) Plato's belief that perception is not the source of truth.
3) Platonic logic and ethics are closest to Christianity

Augustine aslo credits Plotinus as being the best comprehender of Plato. Plotinus lived slightly before Augustine.

Augustine considered Aristotle lower than Plato, but better than all the others.

He condemned both Plato and Aristotle for believing that all the gods were good. He condemned the Stoics for condemning all passions because Christian passions can lead to virtue.

He held that Plutonists were right about God, wrong about gods and wrong in denying the Incarnation.

Augustine holds the Platonic view that the sensible world is inferior to the super-sensible world.

He believed that Knowledge of God comes only through Christ. Certain things can be learned through reason, but religious knowledge must come through Scriptures.

Time and space prior to creation should not be considered because it is pointless.

Everything blessed is eternal, but everything eternal is not blessed (hell and satan).

He denounces Origen's view of souls being put into bodies as punishment.

He believed the world was created in 6 days because 6 is a perfect number (i.e. equal to the sum of its factors).

He believed that there are good and bad angels, but bad angels do not have an essence contrary to God.

"God's enemies are not so by nature, but by will. The vicious will has no efficient cause, but only a deficient one; it is not an effect, but a defect" (Russell, 359).

He held the the world was less than 6,000 years old and history is not cyclical.

Sin caused death. If there were no sin there would be no death. Sin caused both physical and eternal death. Eternal death is damnation.

Bodies in heaven will be spiritual, but not spirits. They will be weightless. Men will have male bodies; women will have female ones. People who die in infancy will have adult bodies.

Adam's sin brought eternal death to all mankind; God's grace freed them from it.

Augustine contributes sin to the mind, contrary to flesh as Platonism and Manichaeism holds.

Sex in marriage is not sinful, provided procreation is the reason for it. Married men are virtuous if they love without lust. Sex, even in marriage is associated with shame because of Adam's sin. Lust is shameful because it is independent from the will. Sexual intercourse can occur without lust. "The need of lust in sexual intercourse is a punishment for Adam's sin, but for which sex might have been divorced from pleasure" (Russell, 360).

Asceticism dislikes sex because of its independence of the will. Virtue demands a complete control of the will over the body. This control does not suffice to make sex possible.

He denounced skepticism.

He held that virtue is inextricably connected with Christianity. Pagan virtue is too marred by the heathen gods to be true virtue.

He believes in predestination. All men deserve damnation, so any receiving salvation is merciful. The rest perish justly.

The influential part of the book is that the State can only be part of the City of God if it submits to the Church in all religious matters. The theocratic implications of Augustine's theory lasted until the Reformation.

Russell states that Marx used Augustine in socialism:
YHWH = Dialectical Materialism
The Messiah = Marx
The Elect = The Proletariat
The Church = The Communist Party
The Second Coming = The Revolution
Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth

The Pelagian Controversy

Pelagius was a Welshman and less fanatical than most of his contemporaries. He believed in free-will and questioned the doctrine of Original Sin. He believed that virtue occurs through man's own moral effort.

Augustine convinced Catholic Christianity to hold Pelagius as a heretic.

Augustine argued men were incapable of free-will after the Fall and that virtue was only acquired through God's grace. Augustine held that damnation proved God's justice and salvation proved His mercy. Both proved God's goodness.

Augustine's views were adopted by Calvin and had their root in Paul (especially in Romans).

"A great deal of what is most ferocious in the medieval Church is traceable to his sense of universal guilt" (Russell, 365).