MM#246--Philosophy 101--Augustine

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, i am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. And we are finally back to our continuing series of Philosophy 101, where we are following the great four-volume series of books called Socrates' Children, written by Peter Krief. So be prepared, we are jumping back in the deep end of the pool. For the next two Mojo Minutes Now, to reset the stage for this week, we have covered three of the Big Nine philosophers that you should know. And who are these Big Nine philosophers that you say, david? Great question. Well, the Big Nine are again real quick Socrates, plato, aristotle, augustine, aquinas, descartes, soom, kant and Hegel. I will put in the other Philosophy 101 Mojo Minutes so you have easy access to these other lessons. Jane Augustine lived from AD 354 to 430. And the entire history of the world. There may have been some greater philosophical or theological mind than Augustine, but I don't know who that could possibly be except Thomas Aquinas. And there may have been a more passionate or and beautifully poetic philosopher, though I don't know who that could possibly be at all. But there are certainly, but there has certainly never been, anyone greater than Augustine in both respects, these two qualities, extremities of the heart and head, which can tear lesser souls into two united Augustines. That evil statuary always has him holding a book, an open book, in one hand and a burning heart in the other. Whether the heart is meant to be his own or God's, i do not know. That's how similar they are And that's what makes him a saint. Paradoxically, it is the very uniqueness of Augustine's double passion that makes him every man writ large. Her mind and heart are the two deepest powers in everyone, especially if it's true, as Augustine believed, that we are made in the image of God, who is image of a God who is infinite truth and infinite love combined. For Augustine, truth and love, mind and heart are absolute values, but the heart is the deepest. Heart in Augustine, as in scripture, means not sentiment or emotion, but love. He writes or may amoeus ponduous meam, my love is my gravity, my weight, my destiny. I go where my love draws me, ultimately to God or no God, heaven or hell, life or death, darkness, light or darkness, being or non being. Every personal life in Western civilization would be a very different person today if Augustine had not lived. No one outside the Bible ever had more influence on the history of Western civilization, except perhaps Socrates. This is the important point of Augustine, for Augustine, more than anyone else, defined the main line of the Middle Evil mind the marriage where synthesis of faith and reason, of Christianity and classical culture, especially Greek philosophy, in other words of Jesus and Socrates, the two most influential persons who ever lived, the most fundamental reason for the crisis of Western civilization today is that this synthesis, the marriage brokered by the Medieval's in set in motion by Augustine more than any one other person, is in crisis. Three crises above all define our present age, our present culture rather, of faith, of reason and the marriage between them. The first point is omitted even by agnostics like William Barrett in the book The Irrational Man, perhaps the best survey of existentialism ever written, who says that the most important feature of modern civilization is unquestionably quote the decline of religion. The second point is clear from a study of modern philosophy, for if there is one central theme in modern philosophy from Occam to Deridia, it is the crisis of reason and the decline of faith in reason. Therefore, to understand ourselves, we need to study Augustine, at least for contrast. Holy smokes, augustine is an important guy, perhaps, in fact probably one of the greatest theologians of all time, certainly one of the earliest theologians who played a significant role in shaping Christian doctrine. His works have transcended time and continue to impact even the church today, the Christian church. He had unique thought processes as a theologian and he wrote just about on everything. He had significant contributions, especially in the concept of original sin, the trinity and just war theory, which are still being taught today. He had deep contributions for his understanding of the Bible, especially taking into account ancient church tradition. So pretty much a guest in an Aquinas are the two pinnacles of Christian thought. Some people become Tomas within Christianity and some people become Augustinian. Now we're not going to be able to do justice to St Augustine There's just too much here to cover. But let's go back to the book to at least understand his life in the context in which he lived. Augustin lived during the troubled times of the end of one age, the ancient classical age, the dying Roman Empire which we talked about earlier, and the beginning of another, medieval, christendom. He lived through the world shaking, traumatic fall of Rome in 410 AD And he died as the smoke and fires of the barbarians were burning his North African town in AD 430. Rome had just had not had been not just a city, but it had been the eternal city, civilization itself. It was as if it's seemingly indestructible. Once and only once was the Western world politically and culturally united, and now this civilization, civilization itself, especially in the form of Rome, the eternal city, was dying, or so it seemed. The contemporary equivalent would be a nuclear winner. The Dark Ages were descending on the world for the next 500 years. To such a powerful crisis, augustin responded by doing one of the most powerful things a man can do he wrote a book. In fact, he wrote many books, but two in particular, two of the most influential books ever written the Confessions, which we've covered before, and I'll put a link in the show notes, and the City of God, which we will have to cover in the future. It's certainly in the pipeline. Now, briefly, let's talk about both of these. The City of God is the world's first philosophy of history. It interprets all of human history, from creation to the last judgment, as the drama of a divine providence and human free choice, both of which Augustine strongly defended, centering on the choice between the two most fundamental options of human life membership in one or the other of the two cities. And he defined a city as an association of men bound by a common love. The City of God, sivitas Dei, is the invisible community of all who love God as God, and the City of the World, sivitas Mundi, is all those who love the world and themselves as their God. Two loves have made two cities. The central plot of the human drama and of human history is the conflict in the interplay between these two cities, which culminate in heaven and hell. What could be more dramatic than that? Now, the City of God is a large, large book. I think it's over 1,100 pages, so it's much easier to read Confessions if you're first starting out and you want to read Augustine. That's what I did Read Augustine two years ago, maybe two or three years ago, or maybe just last year, not sure, but the Confessions is what I started with. I have not tackled the City of God, but Confessions was a very good book. I would highly recommend it to everybody because it's really autobiographical. Augustine talks about his own life experiences and how that played a significant role in his theology. Before he became a Christian, he was active in a life of immorality, of sin, and, unlike St Paul, his conversion, augustine's conversion to Christianity was not a sudden instance. It happened over a series of events that took place over a good amount of time, and so that helped him to understand the power of God's grace and how humanity struggles with sin. Not everybody is converted on the spot. Most people, in fact, are not converted on the spot. So Augustine shares these deep personal experiences that helped him to understand and have compassion for the rest of humanity and that's certainly reflected in his writings. Now he also influences literature. His writings, especially with Confessions, were unique in form and structure at the time. They literally helped to shape the literary works in the Renaissance period. See before had had written from such a personal perspective and as well as reflected. It isn't until Dante in the 12th century that he writes, along with Milton a little bit later on. Dante and Milton both attribute their writing style to being heavily influenced by Augustine. So let's go back to the book to tackle Confessions. Augustine's other masterpiece, the Confessions, is the very same drama in Augustine's own life. It is the most popular Christian book in history, next to the Bible. Now its first page we find the most central, the most famous Christian sentence outside of the Bible, which summarizes both the book itself and the central meaning of life Thou hast made us for thyself and therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in thee. The book's power comes from its passionate, searing, job-like honesty, and for its well-written, for it is written to an all-knowing God. We human readers are only the eavesdroppers in this story. Like Job, but is apparently the story of man's search for God, but really the story of God's search for man? It contains more interrogative sentences than any other great book not written in a literal dialogue format. Augustine was simply incapable of fudging or dodging a question. When Pascal, twelve centuries later, knew he was dying, he gave away all his books except the Bible and confessions. Malcolm Motherage would later say that was a wise choice. They were the two main sources for Pascal's own little masterpiece, the Penses. No one should be allowed to die without having read the confessions. It is the world's first spiritual and philosophical autobiography, and by far the most famous. It is astonishingly contemporary. There is nothing even remotely like it in pre-modern literature for introspective depth and passion. If you read it, be sure to read it in Frank Sheed's powerful singing translation. Read it slowly, taste it on the tongue and in the stomach, hear it in the ear and in the heart, chew it like gum rather than swallowing it like a pill. It sings, it cries, it shouts, it bleeds, it whispers. It stands silent and amazed. So do you if you dare to enter it. There is much too much in the confessions for anything but a pitiful, lame summary. Here There is passion, profundity, practical psychology, sin, sex. They are not identified with each other. Stateness, mysticism and logic just for starters. Oh how I agree. I think grief nails it on the head. There's too much here for a pitifully lame summary. So I would highly recommend you read Augustine. And in this brief conclusion, in this brief mojo minute, rather, let us conclude that Augustine's influence in Christian theology and even outside of it is evident, from his understanding of God's grace philosophy to his contributions to Christian doctrine, especially in the early church. His writings, still to this day, continue to play a significant role and continue to help Christians understand the faith beyond the confines of a particular denomination. Augustine's body of work is impacted not just theology but literature, and has made him one of the most influential figures in all of history. So if we were to do anything to help out the crisis in this world today, let us take the advice of Peter Creeft and say no one should be allowed to die without having read Augustine's confessions. Let us resolve today to do just that.

Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.