58. How does
Augustine’s Neo-Platonic conversion in Book VII help him overcome his
intellectual attraction to Manichean dualism? What are the existential, intellectual, and spiritual
limitations of this neo-platonic conversion according to Augustine himself? To what extent does the Christian conversion
in Book VIII solve these problems?
[AT note: I based my outline on Aho 2011, but restructured
it, added information from the 2010 outline, and made a suggested thesis and
map. Also, I followed Karl’s link and took the metaphysical/epistemological/ethical
outline from there.]
1. Intro
a.
Thesis
i. Though
Augustine’s Neo-Platonic conversion from the Manichean dualism of good and
evil, spirit and matter, enabled him to understand God as immaterial and evil
as a privation of good, the conversion had limited results for how he lived,
for his spiritual peace, and for his intellectual satisfaction. Augustine was
thankful that he converted through Platonism (7.20.26), but he recognized its
insufficiency. His Christian
conversion built on and surpassed his Neo-Platonic conversion.
b.
Map
i. Manichean
dualism
ii. Neo-Platonism
1.
Why it was attractive
2.
What its limitations were
iii. Christianity
1.
In what way it solves the problems of the
Neo-Platonic conversion
2.
Manichean
Dualism
a.
Good (light)/Evil (darkness)
i. opposing
metaphysical forces
ii. the
Kingdom of Light is associated with spirit, the Kingdom of Darkness with
matter.
b.
Spirit/Matter
i. The
body is evil because it is matter fighting soul (soul is a piece of God that
broke off and is now trapped in the material world)
ii. Materialism:
confusingly, even spirit was treated materially. c.f. 3.10.18 where a Manichean saint eats a fig and
“breathes out certain particles of the Godhead”. The good/bad division of spirit/matter is just a division
between good and bad types of matter, the good being light and diffuse.
c.
Affects on Augustine:
i. Augustine
had a hard time not thinking of God as material, even after rejecting
Manicheanism. (“I was intent upon
things that are contained in space, and in them I found on place to rest.”
(7.7.11)
1.
Example: Sponge (7.5.7): God is like an infinite
sea, and in it is a huge but finite sponge, completely filled with the immeasurable
sea.
ii. Augustine
was dissatisfied with the Manichean account of evil as a positive force or
substance.
3. Neo-Platonism
a.
Why it was attractive:
i. Got
Augustine out of materialism by giving him an intelligible realm of immutable,
incorruptible forms.
1. When he tried to think of as
immaterial only saw nothingness –not even a void. Platonism provided an alternative way to thinking about
entities than just in a materialistic way.
ii. Lets
him answer the problem of evil by understanding goodness as participation in
God and evil as privation of good.
1.
God is not the author of evil. He made all things good. Even corruptible things are good, just
not perfectly good. (Argument: The
thing must have some form (good) in order to be corruptible since if it didn’t
have form it wouldn’t exist at all.
Therefore, as long as it is, it is good.)
2.
Because created things are corruptible, they have
a potential for evil. Evil is just
their corruption, being deprived of good.
b.
What its limitations were:
i. Existential:
acknowledges the good, but is not fulfilled; the will is divided (8.10.22);
cannot get over old habits (8.11.25)
ii. Intellectual:
unable to know God Himself. In his
intellectual ascent at 7.17.23, it’s the immutability of God (not his person)
that is emphasized, and God is depicted as very distant (e.g. “I knew that I
was far from Thee in the region of unlikeness”, “thou didst cry to me from
afar” (7.10.16)). Augustine found
God, but not that the Word became flesh. (7.9.13-14).
1.
Metaphysical: Neo-Platonists think that creation
emanates necessarily. (Augustine
will deny this.) Also,
Neo-Platonists deny that the perfect intelligible reality can never be
adequately realized in the imperfect sensible world. (The Incarnation is a rejection of this.)
2.
Epistemological: Neo-Platonists focus on how the
sensible things blind you to the intelligible realm. (Augustine will focus on how they remind you of the
intelligible realm.)
3.
Ethical:
All body is bad for getting in the way of the understanding the
intelligible. The metaphysically
further away from the One something is, the morally worse it is. (For
Augustine, moral depravity is preferring lesser things to God, not metaphysical
distance.)
iii. Spiritual:
1.
Augustine needs grace to overcome his bad
habits, to wholly will to change.
2.
He needs scripture to show him how to live what
he knows: to “be able to discern the difference that there is between
presumption and confession, between those who see what the goal is but do not
see the way, and [those who see] the Way which leads to that country of
blessedness, which we are meant not only to know but to dwell in.” (7.20.26)
4. Christianity
a.
Existential: his will becomes whole (he
can overcome his habits); his hunger is satisfied (the pre-conversion ascent at
7.17.23 left him hungry, desiring something of which “I had caught the
fragrance but which I had not yet the strength to eat”; the post-conversion
ascent at 9.10.24 feeds him with truth: “[we came] at last to that region of
richness unending, where You feed Israel forever with the food of truth”)
b.
Intellectual:
i. Metaphysical:
The Christian believes that God’s creation was not necessary (like Plotinus’s
emanation) and that creation itself is not a departure from God’s
perfection. Also, the Christian
believes that the Good, the One, etc. actually comes to the sensible, imperfect
world. That’s the incarnation.
(see 7.9.13-14)
ii. Epistemological:
Sensible things can remind us of God instead of blinding us to him.
iii. Ethical:
we don’t need to think of the body as evil in itself; we just need to
discipline it.
c.
Spiritual: Has a personal relationship
with God (through the Word) rather than a purely intellectual one.
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