Each of the three persons is equal to the entire Trinity and to God himself, who contains the other two persons: “Therefore the Father alone or the Son alone or the Holy Spirit alone is as great as the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.”48 This theory of the Trinity attempts therefore to reconcile the equality and distinction of the Persons. This is a problem that already goes beyond Plotinianism but which makes use of its method. Moreover, Augustine connects his Christology to this doctrine of the Trinity, and it is thus that the Word is separated from Neoplatonic Intelligence.
b) The Flesh: The Word has already been made flesh, its body is real, earthly and born of a woman.49 This union of body and word is indestructible. Man and Christ are one, and this is the whole Christian mystery: “The fact that the Word became flesh does not imply that the Word withdrew and was destroyed on being clothed with flesh, but rather that flesh, to avoid destruction, drew near to the Word … The same One who is Man is God, and the same one who is God is Man, not by a confusion of nature but by unity of person.”50What one must note here is that the Word in Saint Augustine is increasingly Plotinian, and it is increasingly separated from Neoplatonism to the extent that the union of this Word and this flesh becomes more miraculous.
But everything is justified by one fact: Jesus’ incarnation. Though the idea is contradictory, at least the fact is obvious. And moreover, consid-
- De Trinitate II, 8, 9, P.L., vol. 42, col. 85.
[Although Camus’ reference suggests that these quotations are taken from De Trinitate, they are actually a paraphrase of a passage from Tixeront’s Histoire des dogmes dans l’antiquité chrétienne, 2:364–65: “Ce n’est pas le Verbe seul qui a apparu, mais toute la Trinité, mais Dieu . . . Dans l’Incarnation du Fils, l’acte qui a uni le Fils avec la nature humaine et qui l’a ainsi envoyé dans le monde est le fait de tout la Trinité.—Trans.] - De TrinitateVI, 9, P.L. vol. 42, col. 93: “Tantus est solus pater, vel solus Filius, vel solus spiritus Sanctus, quantus est simul Pater, Filius et Spiritus Sanctus.”
[Saint Augustine, On the Trinity 6.9, in The Works of Saint Augustine, vol. 5, ed. Rotelle, trans. Hill, 211.—Trans.] - Sermone CXC, 2.
- Sermone CLXXXVI, 1.
[“Quod Verbum caro factum est, non Verbum in carnem pereundo cessit, sed caro ad
Verbum ne ipsa perire, accessit . . . idem deus qui homo et qui deus, idem homo, non confusione naturarum, sed unitate personae [sic].” The Latin text should read: “Quod Verbum caro factum est, non Verbum in carnem pereundo cessit; sed caro ad Verbum, ne ipsa periret, accessit . . . Idem deus qui homo et qui Deus, idem homo; non confusione naturae, sed unitate personae.”
[Saint Augustine, Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons, trans. Sister Mary Sarah Muldowney (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959), sermon 186.1, p. 10.—Trans.]
ering the grandeur of the task, the grandeur of the miracle is understandable.
C. Faith and Reason in Saint Augustine
Admittedly it is not an exposition of Augustinian thought that we have claimed to offer, but just as well the task does not escape us. Regarding our subject, what was important was to examine a certain conjunction of two thoughts in our author, to attempt to define in them the living part and the acquired part, and to draw from them conclusions that concern the relation between Neoplatonism and Christianity. This is why we have centered our study of Augustinianism around the two particularly suggestive themes for this subject. It remains for us only to draw the conclusions from this particular study. By so doing, we will have the opportunity to recount the general features that, up to now, we have examined in detail. And by placing ourselves on the inside of Christian metaphysics at this point in its evolution, we will be able to envision the latter and to see how all its effort ends, with the assistance of Saint Augustine, with the reconciliation of a metaphysics and a religion, of the Word and the Flesh, without, to tell the truth, Christianity’s original physiognomy being lost in that reconciliation.
Let us summarize here only the significance of Augustinianism in relation to this evolution. “But in all the regions where I thread my way, seeking your guidance, only in you do I find a safe haven for my mind, a gathering-place for my scattered parts, where no portion of me can depart from you. And sometimes you allow me to experience a feeling quite unlike my normal state, an inward sense of delight which, if it were to reach perfection in me, would be something not encountered in this life, though what it is I cannot tell.”51Saint Augustine arrives at the point where Plotinian conversion comes to an end. It is the same goal that
- Confessions L. X, chap. XL: “Dans aucune de ces choses que je parcours à votre lumière, je ne trouve un lieu de repos pour mon âme, si ce n’est en Vous; en Vous ma dispersion se recueille et de vous plus rien de mieux n’échappe. Et quelquefois vous me faites entrer dans un état intérieur très extraordinaire, et goûter je ne sais quelle douceur, qui si elle se consomme en moi sera je ne sais quoi qui ne sera pas la vie présente.”
[Saint Augustine, Confessions,10.40, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1961), 249.—Trans.]
both of them seek, but their paths, though crossing occasionally, are nevertheless different. Augustinianism declares at each step the inadequacy of philosophy. The only intelligent reason is the one that is enlightened by faith. “True philosophy begins by an act of adherence to the supernatural order which will liberate the will from the flesh through grace, and thought from scepticism through revelation.”52 One could not emphasize this point too much.
The dialogue between Faith and Reason is placed, for the first time, in full view by Saint Augustine: this was the whole history of Christian evolution. One often wants Christian thought to be something superfluously added to Hellenic doctrine. The claim is true. Faith has ended by accepting the Reason of which it knew nothing. But if we believe Saint Augustine, this was in order to give it a very remarkable standing.
“If thou hast not understood, said I, believe. For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”53 This reason is dulled. It is clarified by the light of Faith. There are two things in Augustinian faith: the adherence of the spirit to supernatural truths and the humble abandonment of man to the grace of Christ. One must believe, not that God exists, but in God.
“But you will probably ask to be given a plausible reason why, in being taught, you must begin with faith and not rather with reason.”54 Reason must be humbled: “The beatitudes begin with humility. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ that is to say, those not puffed-up, while the soul submits itself to divine authority.”55
- Étienne Gilson, conclusion to Introduction à l’Étude de Saint Augustin.
- In Joannis Evangelicum, tractatus 29, 6, P.L. vol. 35, col. 1630: “Si non potes intelligere, crede ut intelligas, praecedit fides, sequitur intellectus. Ergo noli quaerere intelligere ut credam, sed crede ut intelligas.”
[Saint Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 29.6, vol. 7, p. 184. The first sentence of this quotation is not, as Camus indicates, from Homilies on the Gospel of John, but from Sermon 118.1.—Trans.] - [“Quam tibi persuadetur non prius ratione quam fide te esse docendum (sic).” Camus offers no reference for this text. It is from Saint Augustine De Utilitate Credendi ad Honoratum. The Latin text should read: “Qua tibi persuadeatur non prius ratione quam fide te esse docendum.” Saint Augustine, On The Usefulness of Believing, in Library of Christian Classics, vol. 6, Augustine: The Early Writings, trans. John H. Burleigh (London: SCM Press, 1953), 308.—Trans.]
- De sermone domini in mente I, chap. III, no. 10, P.L. vol. 34, col. 1233: “La béatitude commence par l’humilité. Bienheureux les pauvres en esprit c’est-à-dire ceux qui ne s’enflent pas, mais qui se soumettent à l’autorité divine.”
[Saint Augustine, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.3, no. 10, in The Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, ed. P. Schaff, trans. W. Findlay (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956), 6.—Trans.]
Thus we can grasp that the Alexandrian Word had served Christian thought without harming it. By understanding Saint Augustine, we can understand the entire course of Christianity’s evolution: to soften progressively Greek reason and to incorporate it into its own edifice, but in a sphere in which it is inoffensive. Beyond this sphere, it is obliged to yield its authority. In this regard, Neoplatonism provides Saint Augustine with a doctrine of humility and of faith. This was its role in the evolution of Christianity: to assist this relaxing of Reason, to lead Socratic logic into religious speculation, and in this way to pass on this ready-made tool to the Fathers of the Christian church.
In this sense, it is possible to consider Augustinianism as a second revelation, the revelation of a Christian metaphysic that follows the initial revelation of Evangelical faith. The miracle is that the two may not be contradictory.
II. Christian Thought at the Threshold of the Middle Ages
Here ends the evolution of primitive Christianity and begins the history of Christian doctrine.
Augustinianism marks both an end and a beginning. We have indicated by what path evangelical thought has reached this point. The
