The Journey to God: The Story of Augustine
The other sermonette written for Church History dealt with the arduous journey experienced by St. Augustine. St. Augustine did not merely succumb to a litmus test or checklist conversion to Christianity. Instead — like many Christians — explored various philosophies and theologies. As such, his pursuit of God enriches previous blogposts that discuss the pursuit of and journey to God.
–
Individual experiences associated with converting to Christianity comprise a vast mosaic, a paradigmatic shift of spirituality intertwined with evolving environmental circumstances. Logically, the paths to embracing Christianity arguably are diverse; like snowflakes, no conversion paths exactly match each other either in style or in duration. Throughout history, efforts at converting non-Christians focused on obtaining simple affirmations of faith. Such affirmations often focused on political agendas promoting unity. Arguably, the greatest emperor in the history of the Rome Empire, Constantine placed a high importance on the unity of the church that he “hoped would become the ‘cement of the Empire.’ Thus, the state soon began to use its power to force theological agreement on Christians.”[1] Constantine’s efforts at theologically unifying the church eventuated in his calling of the first ecumenical council at Nicea in 325 ce; at this council, bishops from the East and from the West refined Christian theology, removing “heretical” elements and forging a unifying statement – the Apostles’ Creed – regarding the relationship between God and Jesus Christ.[2] Today, such simple affirmations of faith based on a somewhat simplified and agreed upon theology of Christianity call into question not only the theology but the “converted” person as well. Individual understanding of Christianity may suffer also.
The embracing of Christianity constitutes a long tortuous path. Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34).[3] The simple declaration made by Jesus indicates a process (i.e., journey) versus a simple outcome (i.e., affirming faith). To follow Jesus, individuals first must renounce themselves, giving up possessions, wealth, power and any other compelling distractions. Secondly, individuals must prepare to suffer, made explicit by Jesus’ reference to the cross. Jesus uses the cross – a powerful metaphor for suffering during the Roman Empire – to make explicit the heavy costs associated with discipleship. Lastly, following Jesus requires active efforts not just passive affirmations of faith on the part of Christians.
One of the most influential theologians in the history of Christianity undertook a tortuous journey to his faith. Justo Gonzalez – a Christian Historian – chronicles Augustine’s theological and spiritual journey to Christianity.[4] His parents sent him to Carthage to study rhetoric in preparation for a future career in law or public service. Unfortunately, Augustine sought out “the many pleasures that the city offered. Soon he had a concubine who bore him a child.”[5] After reading Cicero, Augustine discovered the need to seek truth as well as style; he combined his study of rhetoric with that of philosophy.
Augustine did not immediately embrace Christianity. His study of rhetoric influenced his distaste for the crude writing and often violent content found in the stories of the Bible. Augustine’s search for truth started with a philosophy originated in Persia by Mani in the third century ce. Augustine found Manicheism initially compelling because “part of its propaganda consisted in ridiculing the teachings of Christianity, and particularly the Bible, whose materialism and primitive language it mocked.”[6] Manicheism also seemed to address Augustine’s questions concerning the origin of evil. All human beings contain two elements: light and darkness. Evil consisted of mingling the two elements whereas salvation required separating the two elements. Conversely, referencing Christianity to answer the issue of evil presented a dilemma. “If God was supreme and pure goodness, evil could not be a divine creation. And if, on the other hand, all things were created by the divine, God could not be as good and wise as . . . the church claimed.”[7] Although compelling, Augustine never fully converted to Manicheism; the Manichean teachers never completely resolved all of Augustine’s doubts about the religion.
After moving to Milan for a teaching position, Augustine continued his search regarding the question of evil embracing a philosophy called Neoplatonism. For Neoplatonists, evil, “though real, is not a ‘thing,’ but rather a direction away from the goodness of the One,”[8] the source of all being. Emanations or “realities” circled the ineffable One, whereby the goal for Neoplatonists was to inhabit an emanation close to the One. According to Gonzalez, “realities that are closer to the One are superior, and those that are more removed from it are inferior.”[9] As such, Neoplatonism allowed for both a divine source of creation as well as the existence of evil, effectively extinguishing Augustine’s doubts concerning the existence of both God and evil delineated in Christianity.
Influenced by his study of rhetoric, Augustine still had doubts about Christianity. “How can one claim that the Bible, with its crude language and its stories of violence and falsehood, is the Word of God?”[10] The answer to his question came in the form of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Augustine listened to Ambrose’s sermons and found that “Ambrose interpreted allegorically many of the passages that had created difficulties for Augustine.”[11] Allegorical interpretation fit Augustine’s standards of rhetoric. Specifically, allegorical interpretation is an “approach which assigns a higher-than-literal interpretation to the contents of a text.”[12] Intellectually, at least, Augustine’s journey to fully embracing Christianity ended.
Augustine’s journey was not complete, however. According to Gonzalez, “Augustine was convinced that, were he to become Christian, he must give up his career in rhetoric, as well as his ambitions and every physical pleasure. It was precisely this last requirement that seemed most difficult.”[13] Augustine’s struggle coincides with the parable of the sower in the book of Luke. In explaining the parable to his disciples, Jesus told of the seed – representing the word of God – that fell into the thorns, “this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and never produce any crops” (Luke 8:14). Augustine finally relinquished his teaching post and his need for physical pleasures, planning to live a life of a monk in North Africa.
The long and torturous journey seems necessary for embracing Christianity. Following Jesus Christ is not merely an affirmation of his existence but a commitment of actively pursuing a new way of life. Too often, Christians “slot” their relationship with God into a roughly sixty minute experience, held once a week. The experience requires no social upheaval of their lifestyles; indeed, they freely engage in various forms of consumerism, ever accumulating and consuming. Although comprising less than 5% of the world’s population, Americans consume roughly one fourth of the world’s energy resources. Individually, Americans – on the average – consume six times more than the world average.[14] Even faced with such condemning evidence, we refuse to change, clinging – as did Augustine initially – to our lives of pleasure and comfort. Many Americans feel they deserve to consume more of the world’s resources, viewing themselves as better benefactors and contributors to the world than more developing countries.[15] Embracing a consumptive lifestyle dooms many Americans to being “choked off” from the word of God.
Accepting a uniform but expedient Christianity also prevents an understanding of the theology fueling it. Augustine learned much from his struggles, chronicling them in Confessions, “a spiritual biography, addressed in prayer to God, which tells how God led him to faith through a long and painful pilgrimage.”[16] Such a pilgrimage led Augustine to insights regarding Christian theology leading to formulations of “free will” and “just war” that permeate Christian theology to this day. Lacking in such struggles, Americans fail to understand the plight of their world neighbors. Instead, the ability to assimilate into Christianity coupled with fairly luxurious lifestyles – as compared to the developing world – chokes off American Christians from the word of God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Energy Kid’s Page. “Energy Efficiency.” Energy Information Administration. Online: http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/efficiency/savingenergy.html. (accessed 18 Nov 2008).
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. New York: HarperOne, 1984.
Planck, Bernie. “Americans Deserve to Consume More Resources.” Planck’s Constant. Online: http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2008/05/americans_deserve_to_consume_more _resources.html. (accessed 18 Nov 2008).
[1] Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (New York: HarperOne, 1984), 158.
[2] Ibid., 162-66.
[3] All scripture citations are from The New Jerusalem Bible unless otherwise noted.
[4] Gonzalez, 208-212.
[5] Ibid., 208.
[6] Ibid., 210.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid., 211.
[9] Ibid., 210.
[10] Ibid., 211.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Wikipedia, “Allegorical Interpretation,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegorical_interpretation (accessed 17 Nov 2008).
[13] Gonzalez, 211.
[14] Energy Kid’s Page, “Energy Efficiency,” Energy Information Administration, online: http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/efficiency/savingenergy.html (accessed 18 Nov 2008).
[15] Planck, Bernie, “Americans Deserve to Consume More Resources,” Planck’s Constant, online: http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2008/05/americans_deserve_to_consume_more _resources.html (accessed 18 Nov 2008).
[16] Gonzalez, 215.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Are you new to The Divine Spark? Register and become part of the community. If your a registered member, please Login.
If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to register, leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment