The Confessions of Augustine

I've chosen as the subject of my blog meditation today a book which, like the Philokalia and the BCP, has deeply nourished my spiritual life and transformed me. The Confessions of St Augustine. Everything changed when Augustine came onto the scene. Augustine has been the dominant figure of Christian theology after St. Paul. He has been one of the main authority for Catholics and an important inspiration by for Protestant reformers like Luther and  Calvin. What has interested me lately in ´Augustine is the current postmodern readings of Augustine. Jacques Derrida and his student Jean Luc Marion have both written works on the Confessions. Jean Luc Marion in particular has written a commentary on the Confessions. What has been the main attraction of Augustine of Hippo? How does Augustine talk about God? 

One main attraction which can be applied to Augustine when he talks about God is the evidential power of beauty. Augustine doesn’t just think of the divine in terms of the normal  attributes of the good and the true. Here’s how Augustine talks about god in terms of beauty and a passionate desire for God


«  Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace »

St Augustine, 


Augustine uses deeply aesthetic categories to talk about God. He also uses the language of Eros and passionate desire to speak of his quest for a relationship with the divine 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yogs Sutras of Patanjali

For some time now I have been reading a lot more Eastern spiritual writings. The Tao Te Ching, The Dhammapada,  The Bhagavad Gita, and in particular lately, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  The Yoga Sutras are short aphorisms on the spiritual path compiled by one named Patanjali. The translation I use, Edwin Bryant's, dates it around the second or third century C.E, but some date it as early as 5th century B.C.E and as late as the fifth century C.E, but there is no scholarly consensus from what little I know. These terse aphorisms on the path of Yoga depend on a commentarial tradition to bring out what would have been just short mostly memorized teachings. For me the heart of the Yoga Sutras is contained in the second chapter on the practice of the Yoga Sutras. In the second chapter he outlines a path to spiritual liberation referred to as the Eight Limbs of Yoga or Astangayoga  .  This classical path of yoga, or royal path ( rajayoga  ) has captivated me more the...
Read more

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

  For some time as an adult I have struggled with a dependency on alcohol and have been attending twelve step recovery groups, in particular Alcoholic Anonymous. The primary book of AA fellowship is the Big Book, as it is called, written by the cofounder of AA, Bill Wilson. It has become a large part of my life. Like Holy Scriptures it offers the possibility of finding a life on a new footing, based on a spiritual life. One of the more interesting chapter in the book describes how a hopeless alcoholic received therapy from the eminent  Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland before the development of AA. He asked Dr Jung in desperation if there was any hope of him recovering from his alcoholism. Dr Jung remarked that there was little hope for such serious alcoholics as himself except for the possibility of a total spiritual reorientation of his being,  which he says has occurred in some alcoholics. He had been trying to encourage this in his patient.  As a Roman Catholic one wi...
Read more

Russian Literature and the spiritual regeneration of man

    Lately I’ve been on a Russian literature kick, reading in particular Leo Tolstoy. I have always been a big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I have never read Tolstoy.  So I started with a volume of his later short stories in the Everyman library edition. There are a  lot of his short stories. Some of his stories are simple folk tales with very clear ethical messages. Some seemed similar to Jewish Hasidic folk tales or Aesop tales. Tolstoy's later writings are imbued with radical Gospel moral themes, such as non-violence and turning the other cheek, as well as stories of moral regeneration and redemption.  One of his more famous short stories in this collection is the work, the Death of Ivan Illich, which explores the question of how we should die,  and by extension how we should live our life in the knowledge of our own mortality. It is considered one of his masterpieces. After reading some of his short stories the main novel I read by Tolstoy was Resurrection. ...
Read more