NOVEMBER 20/21/22: “PICK UP AND
READ...”: ANOTHER JOURNEY
READINGS (Monday, November 20): the
Confessions,
pp. 3-40 (Be sure to look first at the webnotes on Late Antiquity)
READINGS (Tuesday, November 21): the
Confessions,
pp. 3-40, 52-65, 72-103, 133-54 (Be sure to look first at the
webnotes on Late Antiquity)
READINGS (Wednesday, November 22): the
Confessions,
pp. 52-65, 72-103, 133-54
Summary:
Our discussion of the
Confessions will first
present four major issues in the work: the explanation of evil and sin,
the belief in predestination and a divine plan, the significance of a
“figurative” reading of the Bible, and the
effort to reach an intellectual audience. We will see these issues
developed in Augustine's account of his infancy, childhood, and
education, and in his stories of the theft of pears and the death of a
young friend. In our discussion of books 5,
6, and 8 of the Confessions, we will focus on how Augustine “discovers”
a divine plan at work in his life, how it leads to his conversion, and
how his work, itself, is to become an instrument for the conversion
of others within the same divine plan. Finally, we will try to tie our
reading of the Confessions to our discussions of Greek and Roman
culture
by comparing, for example, Augustine’s view of education with Plato’s,
and
Augustine’s view of a divine plan with Virgil’s view of Rome’s destiny.
We
will also consider Augustine’s own responses to the pagan culture of
ancient Greece and Rome.
FOR A BASIC INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE and "BIBLE HIGHLIGHTS": CLICK HERE!
AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS: MAJOR ISSUES
- Augustine struggles to understand how evil can exist in a world
created by a good and omnipotent God: why do people suffer evil? why
do people sin? We may compare this with the questions that Virgil
poses at the opening of the Aeneid about Juno’s persecution of Aeneas
and
with his implicit questions about the cost of Rome’s achievements.
- Augustine "discovers" a divine plan at work in his own life, and
he tries to explain evil and sin as part of this plan. We may
compare this with Virgil’s view of Rome’s destiny.
- Augustine learns to read the Bible for
its
spiritual or figurative meaning as well as its literal meaning.
For early Christians, this way of reading the Bible helped them to make
the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) part of their own history and to
see the life of Jesus and the growth of Christianity as part of a
divine plan working itself out in history. We see several
examples of this method of interpreting the Bible
in early
Christian art, from the representation of the story of Jonah in the
Roman catacombs to the cycle of mosaics in the church of San Vitale,
Ravenna.
- Augustine's emphasis on the importance of reading and his
rigorous spirit of inquiry reveal that he was aiming his work at an
intellectual audience, likely to be sceptical of simple answers or
unexplained truths.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: INTERPRETING AND APPRECIATING
THE CONFESSIONS
-What is the purpose of the prologue (pp. 3-7)?
-Why does Augustine give so much attention to his early childhood (pp.
7-11)?
-What do you learn about Augustine's way of thinking from his
description of early childhood?
-Why does Augustine criticize his education (pp. 11-22)?
-Why does Augustine criticize classical literature (pp. 15-6,
18-20)? Note how Augustine distinguishes between form and content
in classical literature (p. 19).
-What is the point of the story of the pear tree (pp. 28-32)?
-Explain Augustine's first response to the Bible
(p. 40)?
-Augustine describes his reaction to the death of a friend (pp. 56-65).
How did he respond to the death of his friend at the time? Writing his
Confessions more than twenty years later, how did he interpret the same
event? What
is the relationship between Augustine, the author, and Augustine, the
character, within his account?
-COMPARING WORKS>>> Compare the relationship between
Augustine, the author, and Augustine, the character, with the
relationship between other authors we have read and their characters
(Homer/Achilleus, Virgil/Aeneas, Plato/Socrates)
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Do you think that Augustine offers a
satisfactory explanation of how we learn language (pp. 7, 11)?
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-In book 5 (pp. 72-89), how does Augustine describe a divine plan
working itself out in his life? How does God use individuals - FAUSTUS
, the wicked students in Carthage, MONICA and AMBROSE -
to bring Augustine towards faith?
-COMPARING WORKS>>> Augustine returns to the problem of
the relationship between form and content in his description of Faustus
(pp. 77-78) and his discussion of Ambrose (p. 89). Can you relate his
ideas to the style of early Christian art?
-From Ambrose, Augustine learns to interpret the Bible figuratively (p.
89) and to discover several layers of meaning in its words. Does
he expect us to read his Confessions in the same way? Consider
his account of his trip from Carthage to Rome (pp. 81-82). What
other "journeys" is he alluding to?
-Is Augustine writing - or re-writing - the story of his life?
-How does Ambrose read the Bible (pp. 88-89, 92-96)? Compare
this with the ways that early Christian artists interpreted Biblical
stories, like that of Jonah. What does Ambrose's method of
reading the Bible teach Augustine?
-How and why does Augustine use the Bible in writing the Confessions?
-How does Augustine become convinced of the acceptability of faith
(pp. 94-96)? Is this difficult for him? Why is his
conversion
still incomplete?
-What is the importance of the story of ALYPIUS (pp. 98-102)?
-Why does SIMPLICIANUS tell Augustine the story of VICTORINUS
' conversion (pp. 133-39)? Why does Augustine tell the story
to us? What details of the story are particularly relevant to
Augustine?
-How do books influence Augustine's conversion? Why does
Augustine place so much emphasis on the role of books in his
conversion?
-Is writing a book about his own conversion a sign of Augustine's
pride?
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The style of early Christian art and Augustine's
comments about ancient literature are two examples of how the profound
cultural, social and political changes of late antiquity led Christians
to reject large parts of the pagan heritage of Greece and Rome.
Our
times have seen far-reaching changes in women’s roles. In this
new
world, is there still a place for the reading of texts like Homer's
Iliad
or Augustine's Confessions with their views of women? Why or why
not?
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