Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

Was Augustine’s transition from a libertarian to a determinist?

Abstract:

This post is taken from a paper submitted for my class on the life and works of Augustine. It posits a forum where three people are invited to give their interpretations of Augustine’s works. The papers are then followed up by a discussion on how or if Augustine’s thought developed throught his life.

Henry:

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• Augustine , Christianity , Free Will , Graduate Papers , Nature of God , Religion , The Ethics of God
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Henry Imler December 8th, 2006

This paper will seek to plot out the relationship between the will, the salvific process and predestination in Augustine’s letter to Simplician, “De Diversis Quaestionibus Ad Simplicianum :”(I am using the translation by John H. S. Burleigh, Regius that was published in Augustine: Earlier Writings, Volume VI of the Library of Christian Classics, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1953. I have taken this translation from “Aggiornamento” on 10/5/2006. From here on out in the paper I will refer to this document as “Letter to Simplician.” )”: . ” The letter was a response to Simplician’s questions on the content of Romans 9.10-29. In Augustine’s exegesis, he wrestled with the question of why Esau was rejected and Jacob was accepted by God. There was a sense that Augustine is troubled by his conclusions; this was evident by his careful back and forth of objections and explanations. While a bit troublesome, it did lead to his final formulation of several important doctrines, or at least laid their foundations. His conclusion changed the way he and as a corollary, the Catholic Church and many of the Reformers, viewed salvation and free will. While his conclusions may have seemed in contrast to some of his earlier works:”(Augustine’s earlier work, On the Free Choice of the Will, suggests a libertarian view of free will that says that in order for there to be true love of God, there must be a choice to love or reject God. When this precept is taken to its conclusion, it excludes a pre-determining of human salvation.)”: , Augustine was committed to discovering the truth, even if it means admitting he was wrong:”(This is evidenced by the very existence of his work, Reconsiderations, where he goes through all of his previous works and makes corrections.)”:. This paper will show how Augustine came to modify his stance on libertarian free will and come to the conclusion that there was a consequence to Adam’s sin, namely that the will was unable to choose God. God selected some to have their wills amended so that they are free to choose him or not; of those enabled few, God had the foreknowledge of who will choose Him and who will not.
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• Augustine , Christianity , Graduate Papers , Nature of God , Religion , The Ethics of God
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Henry Imler December 2nd, 2006

It is easy to see why Augustine is quite possibly the most read Christian theologian. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is that Augustine wrote very early. He lived from 354 C.E. until 430 C.E. As such, his cone of influence is very large. I am taking Stephen Hawking’s idea of a light cone and applying to historical influence rather than limits on communication. Augustine had the opportunity, being rooted father back in time, than Calvin or Piper to affect more people and institutions with his thoughts. This is not the only reason, however, as there were many theologians that came before him. For example, Justin Martyr was born a quarter of a millennium before Augustine, yet most people know of him as a symbol and not of a “doctor and father of the Church.” This is because so much of Augustine’s work survived and that his cone was expanded due to the more solidified structure of the Church at the time of his writings. For instance, Justin Martyr combined all of the gospel accounts into one work that is lost to current scholars.

So far all of this points merely to the availability and possible influence of work. This is only one side of the coin; the other side is his content. Augustine wrote a great many works. In the Retractions, Augustine lists 93 title and 232 books, or chapters . These works had great appeal to people of all ages because some of his topics have a universal applicability. For example, people have been wrestling with lust in all ages since his writing. Some of his works are written on a level that is very accessible to the common reader, and some of his writings are writing at a very deep level. Some of his deeper writings, such as his treatise on the Trinity have led some to lament, “Augustine wrote volumes because he could not write succinctly.” It must be added that the quote in the preceding sentence is disingenuous and is only included to demonstrate that his writings were sometimes difficult for readers. In addition, Augustine wrote about specific conflicts within the Church during his time. This is of great interest to historians because it sheds light on the existence, topic, and his side of these conflicts.

In summation, Augustine wrote a lot, wrote well, wrote early, wrote on a variety of topics, and wrote for a variety of audiences. The combination of these factors contributes to his wide influence.

• Augustine , Christianity , Religion
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Henry Imler November 8th, 2006

In the letter, “To Simplician – On Various Questions,” Augustine wrestles with the question of why Esau was rejected by God and Jacob was accepted by God in conjunctions with Paul’s treatment in Romans 9.10-29. This creates a whole heaping mound of confusion for Augustine, but does lead him to several important doctrines, or at least lays some of the foundations of later doctrines. It is absolutely fundamental that humans are saved solely by God, so that none may boast. Augustine beings with the idea that God hated Esau and loved Jacob from before the time they were born. He then presents arguments on why this could not have been due to any deeds that they did, because the calling preceded their birth. Similarly, it was not done on account of their faith, for the same reason. Augustine then examines if God based the calling on his foreknowledge of either’s works. This cannot be the case, for this would imply that God does choose on the merit of the individual. It also could not have been a result of God’s foreknowledge of faith because grace precedes belief. For Augustine, the path of salvation follows the following sequence:

Calling → Birth → Grace → Hearing → Believing → Faith → Justification → Power to do good works

Augustine cannot find any reason for God to choose one over the other. He can find no reason for God to reject on over another. They are twins, so there is no ontological difference between the two. Augustine does maintain that God can have mercy on who he decides to have mercy on. There is a freedom there because all persons are sinners. He concludes that while there is a reason that God chose to love Jacob and not Esau, it is left unknown to humans. There is some discussion about God calling more than are chosen, but I was not able to ascertain his final position on the matter. The question here is, “Can a person reject the calling of God?” Augustine seems to think that a person can reject the calling, but not being chosen. How this works out exactly, I am not sure. The last section of the latter deals with the idea that the only people with true free will (the will to do good) are those that God elects. No other humans are able to truly do good works.

• Augustine , Christianity , Free Will , Religion , The Ethics of God
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Henry Imler October 20th, 2006

This short paper will seek to examine and refute Augustine’s view of Original Sin and the ability of the will to choose to turn towards God. It was Augustine view, and the view of the reformers after him, that if one denies these tenants, then one is forced to adopt the views of Pelagius, namely that Jesus was just an enlightened man. I will employ three arguments to discount Augustine’s above claims. The first one involves a logical extension of the personhood of Jesus. The second argument demonstrates the need for a total free will as a prerequisite for sin. The third argument gives an alternate understanding of how God can cause faith and at the same time, faith can be freely chosen. Finally, an alternate view of soteriology will be given. |inline

• Augustine , Christianity , Free Will , Graduate Papers , Kant , Metaphysics , Nature of God , Religion
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Henry Imler October 15th, 2006

Can humans be liberated from their flaws in Augustine’s teachings? They cannot; yet, they are to try. Augustine constantly reminds his readers that due to the results of the fall, the human will is in a state of constant rebellion. An example of this is the idea that every sexual act is a sin. Ruether maintains that Augustine thought that due to the fall every sexual act had lust at its root and was the way original sin perpetuated in the world.

Harrison showed Augustine’s reply to conversion and to the question of liberation. He thought that true liberation from our sinful nature would come in the next life. With that said, Augustine also thought that one was to constantly apply the “ask, seek, knock” mindset of Matthew 7:7 to one’s life. It was more important to have this mindset than to have understanding of true doctrine. It seems that for Augustine, the conditions that the fallen world finds itself in prevent any from truly turning towards God. Once the Holy Spirit has instilled in a person the desire for God or the delight in loving God, then a person can use their intellect to try to turn the unruly will towards God. On a side note, Harrison talked about the idea of the weight of the soul and it finding rest in delight on the way towards fully loving God. This seems to mirror Aristotle’s physics of rest, that a body’s natural position is rest. The Greek idea of substances seeking their place seems to factor heavily in Augustine’s metaphysics. I wonder how his explanations would have changed if he knew of the more modern versions of science.

• Augustine , Christianity , Religion
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Henry Imler October 15th, 2006

In Augustine’s entire framework, his treatment of sex is both odd and seemingly logically necessary. As a product of the latter 20th century some of his ideas seem strikingly ad hoc, starting with the idea that if the fall had not happened, “Eve would have remained virginal in intercourse and parturition, never losing her bodily integrity.” It is hard to understand what that even would mean, let alone why it is necessary. I do not identify with the idea that virginity is necessarily better than non-virginity. From my Christian tradition, sex is a wonderful thing in its proper place; it is a gift of God to married couples. This thinking would exclude the idea of Eve being a perpetual virgin in an unfallen world. Ruether also has Augustine setting Eve closer to the “lower soul” than Adam. I think that Augustine has male/female as parts of a whole and they are only whole in union as the image of God, but I might have misread something in the readings. The idea that Eve was lesser than Adam and Adam’s sin being obeying his wife is similarly curious.

With these things said, it is very easy to identify with the movement that would completely sweep away with Augustine’s ideas of sex and gender hierarchy and all that comes with it. What West argues for is the keeping of some of the stuff that came along with the ideas of sex and sin for Augustine. She implores us to not throw out the baby with the bath water. Augustine did have some good things to say about the misappropriation of desires.

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Henry Imler October 11th, 2006

Why did Luther find the bondage of the will to be a comfort? The short answer is that it allowed him to be incredibly abrasive to his opponents and get away with it. The long answer is that it, along with the rest of his metaphysics, allowed him to be sure in his salvation. Luther seems to hold that we, as humans are completely enslaved to sin. He writes that “free-will without grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good .” Therefore, for Luther, in order for a will to be truly free, it must be able to always choose the good. Thus the “ineffective power” of the will to choose good renders it as “no power ”. The only way for the will to choose God is by the grace of God enabling. It is evident that only some men choose to seek God, therefore God predestines some to receive this enabling grace and must therefore also choose to not give it to the others. These special individuals that receive grace are called the elect. Luther places an extremely high value on the will of God. For Luther whatever God wills comes to pass. God does not suspend his will for the sake of others like Denck suggested. When God wills that the elect receive grace and are saved, this willing cannot be altered or changed by anyone, even God, because it would be outside of His nature. So, in the realization of the bondage of the will to sin and to God, Luther can be comforted that his salvation is not in jeopardy by any sins he might commit, such as the sins of the false dichotomy and of the straw man.

• Augustine , Free Will , Metaphysics , Religion
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Henry Imler September 21st, 2006

Augustine wrote On the Trinity around 419 C.E.. This was after the Church had established the doctrine of the Trinity and now people were trying to defend the doctrine against heretical formulations. Besides the common charge of tri-theism, the greatest challenge came from the formulation of the trinity as presented by Arius. This Arianism, not to be confused with the Indian and Nazi idea of Aryanism, was very concerned with the authority of the Father. Arius promoted this so far as to make the Son lesser than the Father in their essential natures. After all the Son was begotten; since He was begotten, He must have been created. As something created, there was a time before He was created. Augustine sought to dispel these claims and to show how each member of the trinity have the same essential natures and how the Trinity was a necessary configuration of God. He did this in an interesting manner.

Augustine starts out book eight On the Trinity by stating some simple postulates of the Trinity:

• the greatness of the father + the greatness of the son = the greatness of the hs.
• the greatness of the son + the greatness of the hs = the greatness of the father
• the greatness of the father + the greatness of the hs = the greatness of the son
• God is the greatest Love
• God is the greatest Word
• God is the greatest Knowledge.

It is at first odd that two parts of the trinity are not greater than the remaining part. To put it in mathematical terms Augustine maintains the following:

How can this be the case? While I don’t think he explicitly says this, but if we take p to equal ∞, or infinity then I think it can work:

Each aspect of God is infinite. But wait, if they are each infinite, then would they not be equal to each other? Yes. That is were Augustine demonstrates the idea that each member of the trinity shares the same nature.

Augustine then uses a argument from grammar to prove that God must have a triparte nature. He examines Love. In order to have love, there must be a lover, a loved, and the action of love. Since God is the very embodiment of love, and he loved himself, he must have the three natures. In order to be love, God must at the same time be the object, the subject and the verb. Restated:

1. God is the highest love
2. Love has three parts
3. ∴ God must have three parts

Augustine repeats this basic line of reasoning for the ideas of Word and Knowledge. Since each part of the equation is dependent on the other parts of the equation, no combination is greater than the remaining part and vice versa. Likewise, the distinctions between the parts are imbued in the very nature of Love, Word, Knowledge and God. In order for their to be the word (Jesus), there must be the speaking of the word (the Spirit) and the Speaker (the father). There is no before and after here. There is no speaker until there is the speaking and their is no word until the speech and or the speaker. In this sense, we can consider the word to be begotten from the speaker and at the same time co-eternal with it. This is how Augustine by-passed Arius’ charge that the son was created and therefore was lesser than the father.

Why is all of this such a big deal? Why does one have to have a correct view of God and therefore the Trinity? Augustine thought that in order to love something, one must know it. How can I love my wife if I do not know who she is? Likewise, if one does not know what God is really like, then one’s love is misplaced. Augustine says in chapter 4 of book eight, “But indisputably we must take care, lest the mind believing that which it does not see, feign to itself something which is not, and hope for and love that which is false.” In other words, if your view of God does not match the reality of God, you do not really love God and your faith is a false faith!

All of this begs the question of how one can know God. In looking around, I cannot see Him, much less observe his trinitarian nature. Augustine says we can. He draws off of the idea of imago dei, the idea that humans are made in the image of God. This, coupled with his Neoplatonism, led him to think that with the turning inward of the intellect, one could grasp the reality of God. We have a mind and we know our own mind. In order to do this, there must be a mind, the knowledge of the mind and the mind that the mind knows. This parallels God. It is this way that we can realize that as we have three parts, God also has three parts. We are a lower image of God’s true image. Augustine is quoted as saying, “As far as we know God, we are like God.” This process brings about mystical overtones. With enough introspection and prayer, one can get glimpses into the reality of God. These flashes are fleeting, however and soon we are brought back to the material world.

• Augustine , Christianity , Nature of God , The Existance of God
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Henry Imler September 20th, 2006

“Augustine wrote volumes because he could not write succinctly.”

- Me, expressing frustration in my reading assignment

• Augustine , Humor , Personal
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