Scope: Like other church Fathers, Augustine combines concepts from Christianity and philosophy, especially the philosophy of Platonism. So, it is important to understand some of the Platonic structures before grasping Augustine.

1. There is a difference between sensible things and intelligible things in Platonism.

2. There is a connection between the non-bodily mode of being and the concept of eternity.

3. Describe the relation of Understanding and Love in Augustine.

4. Platonism, attractive to religious thinkers.

I. Augustine and Philosophy

A. The Early Father looked positively on Philosophy.

B. To understand Augustine we need to understand the religious attractiveness of certain forms of pagan philosophy, especially Platonism.

II. Platonism gave Augustine the concept of God as a Non-bodily Being.

A. Some terminology to help us understand the question: what is a non-bodily mode of being.

1. Words to avoid: physical and concrete.

2. Words to use: bodily and corporeal.

B. Sensible versus intelligible.

1. Sensible means " perceivable by the senses.

2. Intelligible means "understood by the mind."

3. Key metaphor: eye of the body verses mind's eye.

4. Imagination is sensible, but not intelligible.

C. It's easier to say what the intelligible is not and there's a reason for this: we're familiar with sensible things but need to learn the intellectual hunger for an understanding of intelligible things.

III. A. Mathematical Example.

A. Imagine a geometry classroom where you are looking at two kinds of triangle: one is drawn on a chalkboard; the other (which you can't see without your bodily eyes) is the pure triangle that the mathematical proofs are about.

B. There comes a moment of insight when you suddenly understand what the proof is about. The moment has startling characteristics:

1. We say: "Aha! now I see it.

2. It is a moment of Joy

3. It is the satisfaction of that intellectual hunger.

4. It is like sexual desire and love.

5. But it is pure and clean, free from lust, jealousy, embarrassment, and flesh.

C. How this mathematical example is connected with religion?

1. The Real Triangle is Eternal.

2. The Eternal Triangle is higher and more sensible.

3. Intelligible things are therefore eternal, divine, and spiritual while sensible things are temporal, mortal, and fleshly.

4. Intelligible things are also beautiful, according to Platonism.

IV. A Different kind of Example: The eternal form of a horse, the unchanging intelligible essence that gives form to horses we see, smell and ride, those that are born to die.

V. Another kind of Example: Eternal Virtues

A. E.g. the eternal forms or essences, Justice, Wisdom.

B. Paul calls Christ "the Wisdom of God" in 1st Corinthians 1:24, one of Augustine's favorite passages. This is a key connection in Augustine's Christian Platonism: Christ is the intelligible form of Wisdom.

VI. Christian Platonism

A. The eternal, intelligible forms that Plato talks about are located according to the logic of Christian doctrine, within God the creator.

B. This means that there is an inherent connection between the soul and God (a key theme of Augustine's early work): every time the soul sees the intelligible things with it's minds eye, it is catching a glimpse of God.

C. For Augustine, the ultimate happiness of eternal life for the soul consists in seeing God fully and completely (the beatific vision)

D. Augustine's conviction that seeing the eternal, intelligible God is what we long for most intensely in the depth of our hearts means that for him there is no real separation between intellect, love, mind and emotion.

Required Reading

Augustine, The Essential Augustine, pp. 62-63 and 123-39.

Supplementary Reading

Burnaby, Amor Dei, Chapter 2

Plato, Phaedo 57a-70b and 107c-118a

Plotinus, Enneads 1:6 and 5:9

Questions?

1. Could there really be something divine about what we see in a moment of deep insight?

2. Is mathematics beautiful, really? Why or why not" )Does it really matter?