SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO: BIOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was a Christian philosopher and theologian, considered one of the most influential saints in both Catholicism and Western philosophy. He wrote more than 232 books, the most prominent of which are Confessions and The City of God.

His ideas and writings were important to the dominance of Christianity after the fall of the Roman Empire. He is often regarded as the father of Orthodox theology and the greatest of the four fathers of the Latin Church.

Saint Augustine was strongly influenced by the Latin and Greek philosophical traditions, and used them to understand and explain Christian theology. His writings still remain prominent pillars of orthodoxy in the Church.

Biography

Augustine of Hippo, better known in history as Saint Augustine, was born on November 13, 354 in Africa, in the city of Tagaste. His name is of Latin origin and means "the one who is venerated."

Family

Agustín's mother was named Monica, and her life story was also fascinating. When Monica was young, she decided that she wanted to dedicate her life to prayer and that she did not want to get married. However, his family arranged that he should do it with a man named Patricio.

Patricio was characterized by being a worker, but at the same time he was a non-believer, partying and promiscuous. Although he never hit him, he used to yell at him and explode at any discomfort he felt.

The couple had 3 children, the eldest of these was Agustín. Patricio had not been baptized, and years later, perhaps because of Monica's conviction, he did so in 371. A year after the baptism, in 372, Patricio died. At that time Agustín was 17 years old.

Studies

In his early years, Agustín was characterized by being an extremely disorderly, rebellious young man and very difficult to control.

When Patrick was still alive, he and Mónica decided that he should move to Cartago, which was the state capital, to study philosophy, oratory, and literature. While there, Augustine developed his rebellious personality and distanced himself from Christianity.

In addition, in Carthage he began to be interested in the theater, and had academic successes that made him gain popularity and praise.

Later, Agustín traveled to the city of Madaura, where he studied grammar. At this time he was attracted to literature, especially that of classical Greek origin.

The context that Agustín lived in his student days was framed in surrender to excesses and the pleasure of fame and notoriety, although he never abandoned his studies.

Philosophy training

Augustine had excelled in areas such as rhetoric and grammar, and had studied some philosophy, but it was not his strongest point. However, this changed in AD 373, when Augustine was 19 years old.

At that time he had access to the book Hortensius, written by Cicero, a work that greatly inspired him and made him want to dedicate himself entirely to the learning of philosophy.

In the midst of this context, Agustín met who was the mother of his first child, a woman with whom he was related for about 14 years. His son was named Adeodato.

In his constant search for the truth, Agustín contemplated different philosophies without finding the one with which he felt satisfied. Among the philosophies he considered was Manichaeism.

Manichaeism

Augustine joined the Manichean belief, which was different from Christianity. When he returned home from vacation and told his mother about it, she kicked him out of her home, because she did not admit that Augustine did not adhere to Christianity. The mother always hoped that her son would convert to the Christian faith.

In fact, Augustine followed the Manichean doctrine for several years, but he abandoned it with disappointment when he realized that it was a philosophy that supported simplification, and favored a passive action of good in relation to evil.

In 383, when he was 29 years old, Augustine decided to travel to Rome to teach and continue his search for the truth.

His mother wanted to accompany him, and at the last moment Agustín made a maneuver through which he managed to board the ship in which he was going to travel and leave his mother ashore. However, Monica took the next boat heading for Rome.

While in Rome, Augustine suffered an illness that made him lie down. Upon recovering, the prefect of Rome and personal friend, Symachus, interceded so that Augustine was appointed magister rethoricae in the city that today is Milan. At this time Augustine was still adept at Manichean philosophy.

Conversion

It was then that Augustine began to interact with the Archbishop of Milan, Ambrosio. Through the intervention of his mother, who was already in Milan, he attended the lectures given by Bishop Ambrose.

Ambrosio's words deeply penetrated Agustín, who admired this character. Through Ambrose, he met the teachings of the Greek Plotinus, who was a Neoplatonian philosopher, as well as the writings of Paul of Tarsus, better known as the Apostle Paul.

All of this was the perfect setting for Augustine to decide to stop following the Manichaean belief (after 10 years of being an adept) and embrace the Christian faith by converting to Christianity.

His mother was very happy with the son's decision, she organized the baptismal ceremony for him and looked for a future wife, who according to her adapted to the new life that Augustine wanted to lead. However, Agustín decided not to marry, but to live in abstinence. Augustine's conversion took place in 385.

A year later, in the year 386, Augustine devoted himself entirely to learning and studying Christianity. He and his mother moved to Casiciaco, a city near Milan, and gave himself up to meditation.

It was on April 24, 387, when Augustine was finally baptized by Bishop Ambrosio; he was 33 years old. Monica, the mother, died shortly after.

Back to africa

Agustín returned to Tagaste and, upon arrival, sold his goods, donated the money to the poor and moved to a small house with some friends, where he led a monastic life. One years later, in 391, he was appointed priest, as a consequence of the postulation made by the same community.

It is said that Augustine did not want that appointment, but in the end he accepted it; The same happened when he was appointed bishop, in 395. From that moment on, Augustine moved to what was the episcopal house, which he converted into a monastery.

Episcopal life

As bishop, Augustine was very influential on various topics and preached in different contexts. Among the most important spaces are the III Regional Councils of Hippo, held in 393 and the III Regional Councils of Carthage, which took place in 397.

In addition, he also participated in the IV Councils of Carthage, held in 419. In both councils of Carthage, he served as president. It was at this time that he wrote the most important works of his life: The City of God and Confessions.

Agustín died on August 28, 430, at the age of 72. Currently, his body is in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro.

Philosophy

Augustine wrote about the so-called arbitral instances of reason, which are mathematics, logic, and common sense.

He established that these instances do not come from the senses, but come from God, since they are universal, perennial elements and cannot come from the mind of man, but from something that is superior to this.

The particularity that Augustine's approach to God had is that he attributes the origin of what he called the arbitral instances of reason through thought, not elements of nature or that can be perceived by the senses.

Understanding

For Augustine, understanding can only be obtained through God. He indicated that human beings can only understand the truth of things if they get help from God, since this corresponds to the origin of all things and the truths that exist.

Augustine stated that obtaining this truth is done from introspection, through what he called reason or soul, whose essence is God.

That is, the senses are not the way to understand the truth of things. This is because what is obtained through the senses is not permanent, much less eternal; therefore, this knowledge is not transcendental.

Another of the ideas he presented was the nonconformity of man all the time, in search of something to quench his eternal thirst.

According to Augustine, this is because the end of that search is God; The human being comes from God, for which he has already known the highest, and in his stay on Earth he does not achieve anything that satisfies him because nothing compares to that God.

Levels of thought

Augustine determined the existence of three main levels of understanding: these are sensations, rational knowledge, and wisdom itself.

The sensations are the most basic and primary way of approaching the truth and reality. This element is shared with animals, which is why it is considered one of the most primitive mechanisms for obtaining knowledge.

On the other hand, rational knowledge is located in the middle of the ladder. It is typical of human beings and has to do with putting thoughts into action. Through sensitivity, the human being obtains knowledge of what Augustine called sensitive objects.

The characteristic element of this rational knowledge is that the senses are taken into account to understand those tangible and material elements, but through the mind it is possible to analyze and consider them from the eternal and non-corporeal models.

Finally, at the top of the list is wisdom, which is taken into account considering the ability that human beings have to acquire eternal, transcendental and valuable knowledge without doing so through the senses.

Instead of using the senses, beings come to knowledge through introspection and the search for the truth within each person, who is represented by God.

For Augustine, God is the basis of all the models and norms that exist, as well as all the ideas that arise in the world.

Rational soul

It is important to emphasize a fundamental concept of Augustine's thought. He considered that the soul was the vehicle through which it was possible to reach the knowledge, or the ideas of all things, embodied in the figure of God.

However, Augustine determined that only the rational soul was capable of reaching this knowledge. This conception of rationality is a reflection of the fact that he widely recognized the importance of reason, and his conception that it was not the enemy of faith.

To the need for rationality, Augustine also adds that the soul must be completely motivated by love of truth and love of God, so that it can access true knowledge.

Religion and philosophy

Augustine indicated several times that faith and reason were not incompatible, but rather complemented each other. For him, the true opposite of faith was not reason, but doubt.

One of his maxims was "understand so that you can believe, and believe so that you can understand", emphasizing that you must first understand yourself in order to believe later.

Furthermore, for Augustine the highest point of philosophy was Christianity. For this reason, for this philosopher wisdom was associated with Christianity and philosophy was associated with religion.

Agustín stipulated that love is the engine that moves and motivates towards the search for truth. At the same time, he indicated that the source of that essential love is God.

Likewise, he explained that self-knowledge was another of the certainties that human beings can be sure of, and that it must be based on love. For Augustine, full happiness was given by the love of self-knowledge and the truth.

Creation of the world

Augustine was sympathetic to the doctrine of creationism in that it indicated that it was God who created everything that exists, and that this creation was generated from nothing, since nothing could have existed before God.

However, within his conceptions there was also room for the theory of evolution, since he considered it true that it was God who generated the fundamental elements of creation, but that later it was these elements that continued to evolve and generate everything that then existed..

Reincarnation

Augustine established that the human being had already known God because it was generated in him, and that it is to this God that he seeks to return throughout his entire existence on the planet.

Taking this into account, this argument can be related to one of the essential precepts of Platonic reminiscence theory, which indicates that knowing is equal to remembering.

However, in the case of Augustine's interpretation, this consideration is not entirely consistent with his thinking, since he was a strong detractor of reincarnation, which is why he identified more with the essential notion of Christianity, according to which the soul only exists once, no more.

Plays

Augustine's works were extensive and varied. Below we will describe his most important and transcendent publications:

Confessions

This autobiographical work was written approximately in the year 400. In this Augustine declares his love for God through love for his own soul, which in essence represents God.

The work consists of 13 books, originally grouped into a single volume. In this work Agustín narrates how his youth was rebellious and far from spirituality, and how he converted to Christianity.

Confessions is considered the first autobiography that was written in the West, and it focuses especially on narrating the process of evolution that his thought had from his youth until his Christian conversion.

The main element of Confessions is the importance given to the inner being, to observe it, listen to it, and meditate on it.

For Augustine, through self-knowledge and the approach of the soul it is possible to reach God and, therefore, to happiness. This work is considered a masterpiece of European literature.

The city of god

The original title of this book was The City of God Against the Pagans. It is made up of 22 books, which were written at the end of Augustine's life. It took about 15 years to write it, from 412 to 426.

This work was written within the framework of the fall of the Roman Empire, as a consequence of the siege perpetrated by the followers of the Visigoth king Alaric I. In 410 they entered Rome and sacked the city.

Some contemporaries of Augustine indicated that the fall of the Roman Empire was due to the rise of Christianity and, therefore, to the loss of the essential customs of that civilization.

Historical laws

Augustine did not agree with this and indicated that it is the so-called historical laws that determine whether an empire remains standing or whether it vanishes. According to Augustine, these laws cannot be controlled by human beings, since they are superior to them.

For Agustín, history is not linear, but moves in an undulating way, goes back and forth, and at the same time it is a movement that is predetermined. The ultimate goal of all this movement in history is to reach the highest point: the city of God.

The central argument of the work The City of God is to compare and confront what Augustine called the City of God, which corresponds to virtues, spirituality and good actions, with the pagan city, linked to sin and other elements considered decadent.

For Augustine, the city of God was embodied within a motivation starring the love of God, represented by the Church.

Instead, the motivation associated with the so-called pagan city or city of men was self-love, and the representative of this love was the state.

As has been seen, the cities referred to by Augustine are not physical, but are about conceptions and forms of thought that lead to approach or move away from spirituality.

Theology and politics

Within this book, Augustine talks about the superstitious nature and how absurd it is for him to believe in a god just because he will receive something in return.

Furthermore, in this book Augustine emphasizes the separation that must exist between politics and theology, since he expressed at all times that his doctrine was not political, but rather spiritual.

According to different scholars of Augustine's work, the greatest importance of this work has to do with the fact that this philosopher presented a particular interpretation of history there, indicating that there is what has been called progress.

It is estimated that Augustine was the first philosopher to include the concept of progress within the philosophy framed in history.

Retractions

This book was written by Agustín towards the end of his life, and in it he analyzed the different works that he published, highlighting the most relevant elements of each one, as well as the elements that motivated him to write them.

Scholars of the work of Agustín have indicated that this work, in some compilatory way, is very useful material in order to fully understand how his thinking evolved.

Letters

This corresponds to a compilation of a more personal nature, which includes the more than 200 letters that Augustine sent to different people, and in which he spoke about his doctrine and philosophy.

At the same time, these letters allow us to understand what was the great influence that Augustine had on various personalities, since 53 of them are written by people to whom he had addressed an epistle.

Contributions

Theory of Time

In his book Confessions, Saint Augustine pointed out that time is part of a given order within the human mind. For him there is no present without a past, much less a future without a present.

Due to this, he mentions that the present of past experiences is kept in memory, while the present of current experiences is established in the near future.

With this he managed to imply that even when remembering man is kept in a present (relives the moment), and when dreaming of future actions.

Language learning

He contributed great thoughts on human language, referring to the way children learn to speak through their environment and association.

Likewise, he assured that through speech only seeks to teach, because when asking even about something unknown, the person who has the answer is allowed to reflect on what he will say and express his point of view freely.

On the other hand, he pointed out that language is taught and learned through memory, which is kept stored in the soul and is externalized with thought, to communicate with people.

He also stressed that prayer was a method of communication that was kept in the soul, and that it served only to communicate with God in a direct way, to calm worries and fan hopes.

Marking of faith as a search for understanding

Saint Augustine affirmed that one had to "believe in order to understand", thus pointing to faith as the perfect method for understanding, since it is the basis of a testimony and truth, through the reason of feeling.

Based on this, he invited Christians to understand reality according to their faith and the imposed doctrines, so that they would notice that everything was related. As long as faith was not indifferent to reason, a full understanding would be reached.

Influenced the ontological argument

His writings related to the Christian faith gave strength to the ontological argument, making it clear that God was a being like no other could exist, someone sublime and supreme, explaining to the believers that when they knew him the truth was known.

Illustrated God as Eternal and Knowing the Truth

For Saint Augustine the human being was capable of learning universal truths, even above man's own knowledge. Therefore, by understanding the designs of God, wisdom was obtained, because he was the eternal truth.

Created a theory of human knowledge

Due to his perception of knowledge, he created a theory known as "Divine Illumination", where he mentions that God is capable of illuminating and providing knowledge to the human mind by granting it divine truths.

Therefore, whoever knows God and is sure of his universal truth, can unveil mysteries.

He recognized wisdom as a whole that leads to happiness

Established in the philosophy of Plato, he understood wisdom as a unique happiness, therefore he assured that man knowing the truth would be happy, because love was also in this.

References

1. Kenneth R. Samples. Top Then Things Agustine Contributed to Philosophy part I. (2012). Posted in reasons.org
2. Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2. (New York, 1993. Recovered from minerva.elte.hu
3. Hal M. Helms (editions). The Confessions of Saint Agustin. (USA, 2010). Retrieved from www.paracletepress.com/ samples / exc-confessions-of-augustine-essential.pdf
4. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Divine Illumination (2015). Recovered at plato.stanford.edu
5. Beryl Seckington. Divine Illuminations and revelation, the agustinian theory of Knowledge. (2005). Recovered at agustinianparadigm.com.