Saint Augustine
| Augustine of Hippo | |
| Father of the Latin Church (North Africa) | |
| Late Antiquity | |
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| Birth | November 13 354 ( Thagaste , now Souk-Ahras , Algeria ) |
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| Deaths | August 28 430 ( Hippo , now Annaba , Algeria ) |
| School / tradition | Christian Neoplatonism , Augustinism |
| Main interests | Metaphysics , theology , ethics , politics , rhetoric , Biblical exegesis |
| Notable ideas | Theory of time and memory / Desktop secret of the soul / Theory of the Trinity / City of God |
| Major works | Confessions The City of God Trinity |
| Influenced by | Plato , Aristotle , Plotinus , Bible , St. Ambrose |
| Influenced | Boethius , Anselm , Bonaventure , Thomas Aquinas , Duns Scotus , Eckhart , William of Ockham , Luther , Calvin , Pascal , Malebranche , Gilson , Heidegger , Arendt , Ricoeur |
change  | |
| Saint Augustine | |
|---|---|
| Day | August 28 , June 15 for the Eastern Churches |
| Servant of God Venerable Happy St. | |
Augustine of Hippo ( Latin : or Saint Augustine, born in the municipality of Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras , Algeria ) on 13 November 354 and died on 28 August 430 at Hippo (now Annaba , Algeria ) and a mother Berber not Romanized , St. Monica.
He is one of the four Fathers of the Church in Latin (with Ambrose , Jerome and Gregory I ) and one of 33 doctors of the Church. The Catholics celebrate it on August 28 , the anniversary of his death, while the Orthodox celebrate it on June 15 .
His tomb is located in Pavia. After St. Paul , he is considered the most important figure in the establishment and development of Western Christianity . It was also the thinker's most widely read medieval.
Augustine is the only father of the Church whose works and doctrine have given rise to a system of thought: the Augustinian. His influence is markedly since the early Middle Ages until the most Christian theologians contemporary ... It has influenced the history of the medieval church, and then fed the debate at the Protestant Reformation , and again on Jansenism. The debate over the interpretation of the Augustinian contributed to modern conceptions of freedom and human nature.
Summary |
Childhood and Youth, 354-383
Augustine tells of his youth in his Confessions .
When Augustine was born, the city of Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras , Algeria ) has been around for 300 years . This is not a colony but a municipality of Roman Africa for about two centuries belonging to the province of Numidia . City Thagaste is located just over 90 km from the Mediterranean and 600 meters.
Father Augustine, a Roman citizen pagan named Patricius, of humble origin, had no education. His wife, Monica was a Christian Berber . She converted her husband to Christianity at the end of his life and never ceased to hope that Augustine join his religion. If he was not baptized at birth, because it was not yet the use of baptizing children. It was even aware at the beginning of Christianity to baptize the deathbed , but Latin culture is fundamentally : talented but rebellious student, he hated school and feared retribution from his masters.
The main way to rise socially involved in education, and Father Augustine amassed savings for his son can receive a classical education. Augustine intended to become a lawyer. He first studied at Madaura with professors pagans (now M'daourouch , Algeria) from the age of fifteen, where studies are focused on the eloquence and memory, he criticizes in his Confessions (Book I) . His father missing money, he had to return to the family home when he was sixteen. At that time, he commits petty theft with unsavory companions. Thus the famous theft of pears committed not by need but by the pleasure of transgression.
"Arbor erat pirus in vicinia nostrae Vinea Pomis UNTSO forma nee nee sapore illecebrosis. Atque ad hanc excutiendam asportandam nequissimi adulescentuli perreximus nocte untimely quousque ludum of pestilentiae more in areis produxeramus and abstulimus india onera ingentia non ad nostras epulis, sed vel proicienda pigs etiamsi india comedimus aliquid, dum tamen a nobis quod Fieret Liberette eo, quo Non liceret. - Translation: "In the vicinity of our vines were a pear tree laden with fruit that had no flavor or appeal of beauty. We went to a party of young ruffians, shake and rob this tree in mid- night, having extended our games until now, after our bad habit, and we rapportmes large loads, not to make delicious, if indeed we tasted, but even if only to throw them into the swine: simple pleasure of doing what was forbidden. " "
Augustine then goes on its seventeen years, his father managed to save enough for him to resume his studies at Carthage. He says the climate of extreme sensuality of the city of North Africa ("the cauldron of shameful loves), the pleasures of love and drama :
Note, in passing, the flamboyant Latin of Augustine, in the style popular with the locals in Africa. Puns and chiasma abound, as in the famous passage that follows the sentence quoted above:
"Nondum amabam sed amare amabam and secretiore indigentia oderam indigentem minus me. - Translation: I did not, but I enjoyed and loved by a paucity secret, I blamed myself for not being needy enough. "
This aspect of his life, recalled with a certain complacency, is the subject of severe criticism of adult psychology against a teenager.
He knows the young woman with whom he lived for fourteen years and that he had a son, Godsend, which he made his interlocutor in the dialogue of the master. It was common practice at the time, to take a concubine. If we know practically nothing about the concubine of Augustine, not even his name, one might think she was a Christian by the naming of their son, meaning Gift of God. He met at Carthage missionaries Manichaean , presumably Persian: materialists, they have a literal approach to the Bible. It did not seem to make much sense, and Manichaeism can then meet their expectations. He joins the company illegally and then running in a closed group. The Manichaeism it eliminates some remorse for misdeeds committed in the perspective they are not the result of the man himself. Augustine is so seductive proselyte of this cult, and organizes debates on the streets of Carthage , where he ridicules Christians. Back at home, his mother is shocked by his new faith and refuses to receive him.
Augustine is then the professorship of rhetoric. Other events that will play an important role in his life include reading the Hortensius of Cicero , who arouses in him a deep desire and the wisdom of Scripture, which he considers the style rather coarse compared to that of Latin authors. He returned to Thagaste in 375 and taught grammar. Following a poetry prize, he became familiar with the proconsul of Carthage , Vindicius, who, seeing the passion of Augustine for astrology , managed to dissuade him by making him see that the success of some predictions are that the accident:
- "As often happens, Vindicius said, that by opening at random the book of a poet with the intention of finding some light is needed, we come across as to which fits beautifully with what it seeks, although the component that poet would, without doubt, something else in mind, it is not surprising if pushed by some secret instinct which the control and without even knowing what happens in it, and finally by pure chance, not by his own science, the answers of a man sometimes agree with the actions and adventures of another man who comes to question him. "- The Confessions, Book IV, Chap. 3.
Il crit sa premire uvre, une uvre d' esthtique , , aujourd'hui perdue, en 380. It was also at this time he began to have doubts towards Manichean , he found the doctrine simplistic. He met the bishop Manichean Faustus (known as the yaw of the devil '). Faustus admits, although it is supposed to be very learned, be incompetent in the field of astronomy. Certainly this sect does not bring him the truth as his representative, after having written so much about the sky, stars and eclipses, confesses his ignorance on the subject. Augustine leaves at that time Carthage for Rome, imaging hagiographic set the scene of his mother crying on the docks.
From Rome to Milan: the conversion of Augustine
In Rome, where he is professor of rhetoric , Augustine attended the academics for whom the truth is unknowable.
In 384, he won Milan sent by Senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus which he is protected .
"We asked the Prefect of Milan to Rome, a master of rhetoric for the city, which pledged to make even the cost of the trip, and I solicited the job through friends infatuated with all Manichean errors, which, unbeknownst to them as mine, my departure would deliver me. A proposed topic did enjoy my eloquence to the prefect Symmachus, who sent me. - The Confessions , Book V, ch. 13, 23 "
In Milan, he was at the heart of a society frequented by poets and philosophers , especially Plato. His mother eventually join him there. There he meets Ambrose of Milan , the bishop of the Christian town which he attended sermons regularly. At that time, influenced by the discourses of Ambrose , he decided to break with Manichaeism , "not believing duty in a crisis of doubt, keep me in a cult over which I placed already a number of philosophers . Ambrose shows him particularly an alternative reading of the Bible, not literal, but symbolic. He plans to marry: a rich union for which he must wait another two years, the young girl not yet of age. To make this possible marriage, he divorces his concubine with whom he lived for fifteen years. Some theories suggest that his mother has played a role in the dismissal of his concubine. Augustine can not wait, then takes a new mistress.
That's when Augustin, tormented by the problem of evil , converted to Christianity in August 386, therefore, too late as nearly 32 years (but in fact it is a religion he knows almost ever). He himself says in his Confessions that he was feeding with breast milk. In fact, Augustine's conversion is less a conversion to Christianity at a conversion Paulinism. His discovery of the epistles of St. Paul to see him quite differently not only the Christianity he knew, but also Judaism. It is remarkable that as late as half of the fourth century, we can know about Christianity without Paul. We can assume that Carthage , great city of the Empire, the Christian community did not know Paul.
In Chapter XII of Book VIII of the Confessions , he describes the circumstances that led him to abandon teaching for the monastic life. To summarize: one vote would have an incentive to take the book of the Apostle Paul , open it randomly and read the first passage came, making the bibliomancy. He then read: Point of feasting or drinking; point of debauchery or debauchery point quarrels or jealousy. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make the purveyors of the flesh in its lusts. ( Romans 13:13-14). However, becoming a Christian does not consider him to be a priest.
After his conversion, Augustine abandoned the profession of a rhetorician. One of his friends put at his disposal to Cassiciacum a villa near Milan. He shared the room with his mother, his son Godsend, Navigius his brother and some friends. They were discussing philosophy, and from this date that the stay against the Academicians, on the order, the Treaty of the blessed life, and Soliloquies, and letters.
Works Cassiciacum
In Against the Academicians, who work consists of two books, which showcases the students of Augustine defending the pros and cons, Augustine attempts to refute the arguments of the New Academy , school Platonic whose leader was Arcesilaus. For these philosophers, man can not know the truth and the sage is one who suspends his trial. Augustine poses the questions of whether we have to know the truth, and if possible to be happy without knowing we would dispense with the search. However, since the happy life is "life according to what is best and most perfect man" we can not be happy, as argued by Cicero , in a state of research that is not successful. To say that we are powerless to discover the truth is that the faculties that make us superior to animals are useless. Augustine reviews the Hellenistic philosophies, and then develops the thesis of Plato about the two worlds, one real and understandable and that conceals itself to the senses, the other is likely and that the first copy. But it is his view of the world down the divine light that illuminates the soul, and all that is good mimics the upper regions. Augustine says that the New Academics have hidden this truth, for evading the attacks of their opponents, and pretends to support a dogmatic skepticism (this thesis in history of philosophy has long been discussed and it seems she is finally false if we are to believe Victor Brochard, in the skeptics Greek). But it is ultimately God who allows us, in our quest for truth, to contemplate the heavenly things, because human reason is too low, the thought of Augustine is a synthesis of Platonism and Christianity :
"In whatever way I have wisdom, I see that I do not know yet. However, being still in my thirty-third year, I must not despair of ever acquiring, so I'm resolved to apply myself to seek a general contempt for everything that men look down here as property. I admit that the reasons for Academicians frightened me a lot in this business, but I am, I think, quite armed against them by this discussion. He is questionable for two reasons someone we determine in our knowledge: authority and reason. For me, I am sure we shall in no way depart from the authority of Jesus Christ, because I do not find more powerful. As for things that can be examined by the subtlety of reason (because the character I am, I would look forward not only believe the truth, but seen through the mind), I hope to find among Platonic lot of ideas that shall not be opposed to our holy mysteries. "
Augustine also wrote two books of order processing, where he addresses the issue of the immutable order of the universe, the harmonious nature eludes us if we do not contemplate the whole and those that remain near the multiplicity of things have narrow-minded and do not see anywhere that confusion and horrible accident. Thus we are surprised that the disorder appears to violate the order of things, but one thing is absolutely against the order is impossible, because everything has a reason for his accomplishment and nothing can exist outside the order, to the extent where to exist, something must tend towards unity. Our purpose is also an aspiration to unity and the rest of the immutable truth. It is for Augustine a axiom that the more a thing ad'unit, the more invincible: gold, permanence and unity of reason demonstrate his absolute consistency in comparison to the things of this world, and therefore show the immortality of the soul, the following quote illustrates, and shows the influence of the thought of Augustine on Descartes :
"So if the reason is immortal (and me who discerns and binds all these things, I am the reason), I conclude that what is called mortal in me is not me. But if the soul is not the reason, and yet, using my right, I can get better, the soul is immortal. When it is made sufficiently great, it dares appear before God, the source from which the true result, the father of truth. "
Yet, despite the order and unity, the evil exists, and seems difficult to reconcile with the universal divine order and the omnipotence of God.
As of November 13 386, his birthday, Augustine began a discussion with his friends on the beatitude which led to the Treaty of the Blessed Life, where he explains that happiness in this world is perfect knowledge of God : the Men are on a sea and seek the truth they meet in the port of philosophy , if they let themselves be carried away by vanity.
Finally, the last work of Augustine from this period are the Soliloquies, which Augustine speaks with himself:
"I wrote to my taste and my love, to find the truth about the things I wanted most to know, wondering myself and my sponsor, as if we were two, Reason and me, although I was alone: hence the name given to this work Soliloquies. (Retractions) "
In this work, the reason is considered the eye of the soul must be purified of sensible things by the Christian virtues such as faith, love and hope, to rise to intelligible truths; this Platonism First is obviously inspired by Christianity, as the Platonic sun is God, whose light makes intellectual and moral contemplation: "My God, let me know you and I know myself! "
And we recognize a famous philosopher in the following quote:
"The reason: But you who want to know you, do you know if you exist?Augustine: I know.
Augustine: That is true. "
The reason: Where do you know?
Augustine: I do not know.
The reason: Do you realize you as a simple or compound?
Augustine: I do not know.
The reason: Do you know if you are put in motion?
Augustine: I do not know.
The reason: Do you know whether you think?
Augustine: I know.
The reason: It is true you think?
Augustine, therefore, lie the intimate certainty in the evidence of our thought, which differs from the testimony of the senses, and he defines truth as what is, truth has its eternal existence in God and immutable:
"Who is blind enough sense not to recognize geometric figures live in the truth itself? "
Certainty than met our reason and evidence that the latter part of the eternity of truth, and that our soul is immortal. That argument was echoed by Augustine when he returned to Milan in the Treaty of the immortality of the soul, and later in The City of God , Book XI, 26, said:
"In this triple insurance, I do not fear any of the arguments of academics saying: What! and if you were mistaken? Because if I'm wrong, I am. That does not exist, certainly can not be mistaken, because if I'm wrong, is that I am. From the moment that I am if I'm wrong, how do I correct in thinking that I am, when it is certain that I am if I'm wrong. Since then I existed in deceiving me, although I was wrong, no doubt, I am not mistaken in what I know I exist. Similarly, saying: I know I know, I'm not wrong either, because it's the same way I knew my life and I know I know myself. "
Baptism of Augustine
Augustine's stay Cassiciacum lasted from August 23 until March 23, 386 387. Augustine then returned to Milan and prepared for baptism by reading Isaiah the guidance of Ambrose. It was during this time he wrote the Treaty on the immortality of the soul mentioned above, and other structures that were lost during his lifetime it seems.
He was baptized by Ambrose , bishop of Milan, on the night of April 24 to 25 387 :
"How excited I was! As tears flowed from my eyes when I heard the sound in your church choir melodious hymns and songs she ever student to you! While these celestial words penetrated my ears, your truth came by them gently in my heart, my fierce piety seemed to become brighter, and my tears still flowed, and I felt pleasure in spreading them. (Confessions, Book 9) "
Death of his mother, Monique
Augustine from Milan to go Thagaste to August 387, with his mother, his friends and Godsend. But Shortly after their arrival at Ostia, where they should embark for Africa, Monica fell ill and died after nine days of illness. Augustine tells us the last conversation he had with his mother:
"Not far from this day my mother was out of this life, the day that you know, but we did not know he had arrived, by a secret purpose of your views, as I think she and I, we were only supported at a window overlooking the garden of the house was our house at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, and in which, apart from the crowd after the fatigue of a long journey, we rested for the journey: we were talking, then, alone, with an ineffable sweetness, forgetting the past, the future held, we were looking for us from the truth that is yourself, what would be the eternal life saints, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, which never rise in the heart of man. We opened the mouth of the heart to receive the celestial waters of this fountain of life that is in you, so that according to our measure being flooded, including us in any way such a big thing. (...)
This was our conversation, and if the shape and the words were not the same, you know, Lord, that day, during this speech, the world and all its pleasures we felt very vile. Then my mother said: "My son, what concerns me, nothing delights me in this life. I do not know what I must do it again here, and why I am after my hopes of this century has been accomplished. There was only one thing that I want to stay a little in this life was to see you a Catholic Christian before I die. My God gave me that beyond my wishes, I see you its servant, not content to have despised the land appreciation, what am I doing here? "
- Confessions, book 9, 10
After the death of his mother, Augustine decided to go to Rome. It ignores the reasons for this decision. He stayed a year before returning to Africa in the summer 388.
Return to Africa
Returned to Africa after five years of absence, he lives in a community near Thagaste with his friends and disciples. He then engages in the defense of the Church, preparing Morals of the Catholic Church, the manners of the Manichean, where he compares the behavior of Christians and Manichaean , and greatness of soul, that he began to compose Rome. It sets itself the task of healing by the first reason the Manichaean who, according to Christians, insulting the Scriptures. The reason we can make ourselves better by following virtue, which alone leads us to a reality outside ourselves, which is God, the sovereign good. But the reason is powerless to understand the nature of divine realities and needs of the authority of the Word of God, the Old and New Testament that Manichaean rejected on many points:
"I could, by the mediocrity of my light and my strength, discuss in detail all the words I have just related, and explain here what God has given me the grace to learn of the wonders they contain, wonders whose expression often remains above the weakness of language. But we must keep it, as you will be available to bark against the divine books. The Gospel forbids us to present what is holy to dogs. Do not be offended if I talk this way: I barked once myself, I have been talking about these dogs of the Gospel. "
Visiting the Roman monasteries gave him the idea of turning the family home into a monastery: the Garden (in 391 ), in imitation of the Garden of Epicurus. It was then that his son died Godsend, at the age of 17.
Bishop Augustine
The bishops were at the time selected by the faithful, Augustine did not covet this function and avoid going to a city not already a bishop, for fear of becoming homeless. Finally, a bishop told his congregation that he needed a new bishop, and this Augustine was unable to escape. Thus, having been a priest then coadjutor to Valerius, he became bishop of Hippo , in the Roman province of Africa. In 399 , pagan temples were closed. On this occasion, he wrote the Catechesis of Beginners. In 395 , he began a theological dispute with Jerome , translator of the Vulgate Bible from Hebrew. He believed that nothing could escape the Septuagint. He did not see the usefulness. It is true that Augustine was not poor Hellenist and Hebrew at all, in fact, the Bible, he knew that the Vetus Africana, which experts agree it is not a model of fidelity. He could not realize that the Septuagint had not only translated but also continued and completed the Hebrew Bible. Another feud pitted him against the scholar of Bethlehem on the commentary of the Epistle to the Galatians on the transition from a reprimand to Peter sitting at a table with Gentiles. He died during the siege of Genseric Chief troops Vandals in 430.
He wrote two important rules:
The rule of the Canons of St. Augustine was inspired to Caesarius of Arles by the latter.
Doctrine
The sources
- Cicero ;
- The Bible , the Tradition of the Church, including St. Cyprian of Carthage and St. Ambrose of Milan ;
- The Manichaeism ;
- Plato through Cicero (Augustine never read in part or in whole Greek text of the Dialogues of Plato);
- The Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Porphyry.
Basic concepts
The fundamental concepts of reflection of St. Augustine are:
- The faith , membership of the soul making us grasp the first principles and putting us in possession of the truth (faith, if it precedes the mind, is not likely to ruin the reason) faith is a belief into something invisible, and Augustine answers those who say we can not believe what does not fall under the senses (external or internal sense) that we still believe in some things we do not perceive such as, for example, the kindness of a friend. The human mind can not do without faith, unless you live like an animal (From faith to things unseen, 1). The faith in things unseen is not in itself irrational, but part of a reasonable and necessary for human life:
"But we believe is not loved because we do not see love, do not make love for love because we believe it provided, this is not an act of wisdom, but an odious subject, and if we do not believe that we do not see, if we deny the wishes of men, because they escape our eyes, the result of such a disorder in society that everything would be reverse bottom. "
- The Love , which is to desire something for herself. Augustine distinguished love of self and love of God. Only the love of God is genuine love and just because it does not alter our being but rather increases. Love is love and is opposed to lust. It is a movement of the soul to what she wants, and in this sense, the natural appetite of the soul is the love that leads to God (an idea that will resume later Thomas Aquinas , and ultimately Baruch Spinoza within the particular definition that it will establish "God"). See also entelechy.
- The free will and grace. Freedom is for Augustine correspondence between the desire human and the divine will, it is not a choice but a kind of necessity to comply with the divine order. However, there are two kinds of freedom: freedom perfect before the fall, where man is free entirely, because he makes himself well , he is what he performs well, an imperfect freedom, after the fall, reflecting the corruption of the nature of human, ie the misuse of his will. When man is good anyway, it's not his fault, but by the grace of God. When he is saved, not by his acts but by the grace of God alone ( Sola Gratia ).
- The Reason , conceived as discursive faculty, that does not conflict with faith, but supplementing it: we must, indeed, understand to believe;
- The memory , the source of the identity personal, is a faculty of thought , consciousness of time past, present and future. This option allows the intelligence and determination. It is through memory that the soul remembers itself and takes control of itself. When the soul is looking for itself, having lost by lust, she finds herself in memory, which is then to be a movement toward God.
- The notion of historical development explicitly in:
- The supercessionism (or replacement theology ), expressed against Judaism
- The fact that, by the Incarnation , God intervened in the natural world is a fundamental event that gives meaning to the city of man and fate to the City of God. See Time and History in the City of God
- It is a major source of the doctrine of Original Sin and the exclusiveness of contempt for the world and doctrines "blaming" the exercise of human sexuality. Some attribute to him also:
- The origin of misogyny in the religions of authority from the Christianity
- Responsibility in Christian anti-Judaism.
- The just war , improperly called holy war , as shown by this passage from Augustine's Letter 185 to Boniface, prefect in charge of military repression of the Donatists:
"Martyrs are those whom the Lord said:" Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness "(Matthew V, 10) These are not those who suffer persecution for iniquity and unholy division of Christian unity that are truly martyrs, but those who are persecuted for righteousness. Agar also suffered persecution at the hands of Sarah (Gen. xvi 6). She who was persecuted saint, one who was persecuted was not. (...) If we look more closely at the same thing, you see that it was rather Hagar who, by his pride, not persecuted Sara Sara Agar persecuted by punishing (...) If we want to be in true, say that the persecution by the wicked against the Church of Christ is unfair, while there is justice in the persecution inflicted upon the wicked by the Church of Jesus Christ. (...) The church persecutes to remove the error, for there the wicked rush. Finally, the Church persecuted its enemies and continues until it has met and defeated them in their pride and vanity to make them enjoy the benefit of truth, the wicked persecute rendering evil for well, and while we did for their eternal salvation, they seek to deprive us of our portion of happiness on earth. They breathe so they murder s'tent life for themselves when they can not deprive others. The Church's charity, working to deliver them from destruction to save them from death; them in their rage, trying every means to destroy us, and to satisfy their need of cruelty, they kill themselves same as not to lose the right they believe they have to kill the men. "
St. Augustine by the concept of just war is a response to the persecution suffered by the Church, for a war against the infidels, in order to remove the "weapons of lies" and defeat their "pride and vanity." There is no question that the Church put to death anyone since Augustine has " always and all its forces repelled the death penalty for heretics. " Augustine preaches nor crusade or holy war, it merely exposes a political vision that when the Church is threatened, it is normal that the state guarantees to make his protection so he supported the war when it This allows for peace. Note however that a forced conversion of unbelievers is considered just as it is to bring in the "City of God". Therefore, a holy war or a crusade, not directly induced, is condoned by the church. "There is justice in the persecution inflicted by the wicked Church of Jesus Christ" (Augustine of Hippo, Letter 185 to Boniface).
"We do not want peace to war, but we went to war to achieve peace. So be peaceful, fighting to drive those that you know the blessings of peace, winning the victory over them "
The problem of time
Augustine is known as author of the famous quip "What then is time? If nobody asks me, I know, but if you ask me and I want to explain it, I do not know "(Confessions). Also famous for the quote: "This allows us to think that the time is that it tends to be more."
But still he tries to clear the mystery. He agrees with the philosophers as the man "There are three stages, the present of the past, present, future and present of this, but refuses to consider God to be, like man," prisoner of time ", particularly powerless to know the future. He believes that all moments of the universe must be, for him, "omnia simul": everything is there at once, simultaneously, without inheritance, eternal.
Chapter 11 of the Confessions makes clear that for Augustine God out of nothing the matter as concert time: how indeed define anything that resembles the time in the absence of matter?
The problem of evil
St. Augustine, to clarify his theory showing the current extent of evil in this world and the creatures meet indissociably the original sin to the lust of the flesh "this shameful motion requesting the bodies ... Original Sin
The concept of original sin emerges in Augustine in his treatise on the free will. The main question is: how to consolidate a good and just God against the evil of the world - particularly with the death of children? To explain this outrageous, Augustine refers to original sin. It gives the original sin and a major role, and argues that the fault of Adam is particularly serious and unacceptable that he had received in Eden one with particular making fully free and responsible for his actions, but also capable to resist the temptation and evil which is no longer the case now. God has placed men in wages of sin, punishment for the offense under the law of death, the disobedience of Adam being imputed to all men: "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men because all sinned ..." (Romans 5:12), so all of today are by nature "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). Therefore, even small children, who could not sin in the moral sense of course, are also on the generic plan, born in iniquity and conceived in sin (Psalm 51.7).
So, for St. Augustine, every human being is fundamentally in the state of nature a sinner. That is why the baptism is essential from the beginning of life Relations with Judaism Augustine of Hippo developed the doctrine of replacement theology , that Christianity replaces Judaism as the only true religion. He followed this with the doctrine of Christianity, made by Justin Martyr , Tertullian and John Chrysostom , among others. Following Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis , among others, Augustine regarded the Jews as "Christ killers" and therefore of God. Under his influence, and under that of John Chrysostom that spread the doctrine of " deicide people "doctrine officially abandoned Catholicism at the Council of Trent , some thousand years later. The violent accusations of Augustine, quoted at improperia were historically one of the most powerful drivers of the anti-Judaism and the anti-Semitism . Augustine declares in his commentary of Psalm 63: Moreover, Augustine objected strongly to Jerome when he translated into Latin the whole Bible , under the name " Vulgate ". Jerome was accustomed to seek the advice of rabbis for the interpretation of certain terms in the Tanakh when translating it to remain as faithful as possible to the "Hebrew truth," what Augustine reproached him. Augustine attacks against the Manichean are ubiquitous in the work of "Father of grace." Several of his treatises are devoted entirely, and allusions to Manichaeism are everywhere in the other treaties, sermons, letters, various writings, naturally also in that his major works are The Confessions and City of God. They are also, of course, in the De vera religione. An important part of the work of Augustine combats heresies. The triumphant Church uses the term to describe certain trends emerging that Christianity did not prevail and depart from the faith as defined by the ecclesiastical authorities (including councils). Augustin battle Mani himself, who called himself a disciple of Christ, even if the Manichaeism is very far from the Gospel. He fought the Donatists and Pelagians , whose doctrine is Christian. They have a more uncompromising: in particular, the Donatists disclaim all actions (such as weddings) made by priests they consider tainted. For Augustine, the priest is an instrument of God and not dirty in any way he acts is itself soiled. The Donatists tried repeatedly to kill Augustine. Augustine is sometimes supporter of coercion against the heretics : Even persecution when he wrote to military prefect in charge of the repression of the Donatists: For the Middle Ages , see St. Bonaventure and Article Augustinianism. For the seventeenth century , see especially: Descartes , Blaise Pascal , Malebranche , Leibniz. The number of readers of St. Augustine is endless: it is a major author. In the twentieth century , eg Albert Camus wrote an AED on St. Augustine. The thesis of Hannah Arendt was devoted to "Love in Augustine." Augustine is known for his refusal to accept the theory of the antipodes, or more precisely the population of the Antipodes. Here is how he expresses himself: "As for their fabulous view that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men whose feet are opposite ours, and that inhabit this part of the land where the sun rises when it sets for us, it There is no reason to believe it. Also do they argue on the report of any historical evidence but on conjecture and reasoning, because, they say, the earth being round, is suspended between the two sides of the sky, the party is under our feet, placed under the same conditions of temperature, can not be without inhabitants. But when we show that the earth is round, it would not follow that the party opposed to us was not covered with water. Besides, would not it not, what need it to be inhabited since the one hand, Scripture can not lie, and that, on the other, there is too much nonsense to say that men have crossed the vastness of the ocean to implant a detached branch of the family of the first man. " (City of God Book XVI, 9) The problem for Augustine is the population of the Antipodes. He refuses, because "Scripture can not lie," that the antipodes are populated by men of another strain, polygenism. Moreover, for him, as his contemporaries, a prohibited area impassable to reach the antipodes. How, then, the descendants of Noah would have crossed "the immensity of the ocean" to go further populate this part of the world? Explaining that it is better to trust men of faith in matters of dogma and Aristotle (hence his idea of spherical Earth) for questions concerning the nature, Thomas Aquinas Augustine disavow diplomatically on this point a few centuries later. Augustine says St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. His influence on the theology of the Catholic Church is essential. The Augustinian has permeated throughout the Middle Ages and inspired the most debate and subsequent systems of thought. Considered one of the Fathers of the Church , it has also always been counted among the Doctors of the Church. Saint Augustine of Hippo and Jerome of Stridon are celebrated together on June 15 in the Orthodox Church. This festival is secondary, June 15 is indeed the day of the holy prophet Amos and St. Vitus in all Orthodox Churches. It seems that this memory is mentioned only locally, in Romania for example. Romanians tend to decorate churches with frescoes of Latin authors like the Greeks of their pagan philosophers ( Plato , Socrates , Heraclitus , because they made use of the term logos). "The commitment is where the Roman church to respect the system of St. Augustine is thrown into an embarrassment that is very ridiculous. It is so obvious to everyone who looks at things without bias and with the necessary knowledge, that the doctrine of St. Augustine and that of Jansen, bishop of Ypres, are one and the same doctrine, we can see without indignation that the court of Rome has been praised for having condemned Jansen, and have still kept to St. Augustine all his glory. The two are entirely fact-incompatible. Moreover, the Council of Trent, in condemning the doctrine of Calvin on free will, necessarily that of St. Augustine condemned because he is no Calvinist who has denied, or who have been denied the assistance of the will human freedom and our soul in the sense that St. Augustine gave words of support and cooperation and freedom. There is no Calvinist that does not value free will, and its use in the conversion, if we understand the word according to the ideas of St. Augustine. Those whom the Council of Trent condemned not reject the free will that as it means the freedom of indifference. Thomists reject also under this notion, and does not leave to go very Catholic. Here's another scene of comedy. Physical predetermination of the Thomists, the need of St. Augustine, that of the Jansenists, and each other that the slander claim, when they are accused of teaching the same doctrine that Calvin. S'il tait permis l'homme de juger des penses de son prochain, on serait fort tent de dire que les docteurs sont ici de grands comdiens, et qu'ils n'ignorent pas que le concile de Trente n'a condamn qu'une chimre, qui n'tait jamais monte dans l'esprit des calvinistes, ou qu'il a condamn saint Augustin et la prdtermination physique; de sorte que, quand on se vante d'avoir la foi de saint Augustin et de n'avoir jamais vari dans la doctrine , on ne le fait que pour garder le decorum, et pour viter la dissipation du systme qu'un aveu de la vrit produit ncessairement. Il ya des gens pour qui c'est un grand bonheur que le peuple ne se soucie point de se faire rendre compte sur la doctrine, et qu'il n'en soit mme pas capable. Il se mutinerait plus souvent contre les docteurs, que contre les maltotiers. "Si vous ne connaissez pas, leur dirait-on, que vous nous trompez, votre stupidit mrite qu'on vous envoie labourer la terre; et, si vous le connaissez, votre mchancet mrite qu'on vous mette entre quatre murailles, au pain et l'eau. Mais on n'a rien craindre : les peuples ne demandent qu' tre mens selon le train accoutum; et, s'ils en demandaient davantage, ils ne seraient pas capable d'entrer en discussion : leurs affaires ne leur ont pas permis d'acqurir une si grande capacit. Pierre Bayle, , (1698), article Augustin Quoi qu'il en soit, c'tait l'ancien et constant usage de toutes les sectes de se calomnier mutuellement ; les Grecs le font l'gard des Latins, les Latins l'gard des Grecs et les Grecs et les Latins l'gard des communauts orientales. On sait ce que l'on a publi contre les Vaudois et les Albigeois et au commencement du XVI e sicle contre les Luthriens et les Rforms. Si l'glise romaine tait venue bout de les extirper ds leur naissance, ils passeraient aujourd'hui pour les plus infmes hrtiques, d'o je conclus qu'il ne faut pas ajouter foi lgrement ce que quelques-uns des Pres nous disent des Mystres des Manichens. L'accusation la plus commune et la plus ancienne est qu'ils usaient de magie. On la trouve dans les Actes d'Archelas. La raison l'a fait tomber, je vais faire tomber celle de l'obscnit, encore plus incroyable que l'autre. sur le site http://www.augustinus.it/latino/ sur le site http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/augustin/ , dition sous la direction de Lucien Jerphagnon , Gallimard, coll. "Pliade" The spiritual patronage of St. Augustine is the source of an order of regular canons known as the Canons of St. Augustine. Many congregations were founded from the twelfth century. It is a non-cloistered order of nuns, close to secular life, who care for education, missions or priestly assistance to parishes. The rule of St. Augustine currently still governs many orders or congregations. The history and origin of the text is still debated (G. Bardy had attributed to Caesarius of Arles in Encycolopdie Catholicism, for example), but its proximity to the Augustinian spirituality is no longer any doubt Complete Works in Translation The complete works of St. Augustine have been published twice in French translation in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thus we find: It is particularly difficult and expensive to find now these two issues in trade. A new bilingual edition complete, "Augustinian Library", is being released, but since 1936 ... It contains the text capital, with the exception of sermons and entire work oratory that remain unavailable. It is noted in this recent reprint by Editions du Cerf translation of Poujoulat Enarrationes in Psalmos: exclusivism
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An error of assessment Augustinian? The settlement of the Antipodes
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