City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)
Philosophers are again attacked for denying that man can be resurrected to a physical body and still be happy. One of Augustine's main arguments is that the philosophers contradict their own teaching when they claim that the Supreme God and other gods have physical bodies in some sense and are also happy.
Then we are given a fairly lengthy discussion about what it meant for man to have a physical body before sin, after sin and once resurrected with heavenly bodies.
This is followed by an examination of what precisely is the soul and how that relates to the Spirit of God.
What grabbed me
I thought I'd highlight one of the dangers of Augustine - his use of allegory. We are given two examples today of the hidden meanings Augustine found in the Garden of Eden:
'No one, then, denies that Paradise may signify the life of the blessed; its four rivers, the four virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice; its trees, all useful knowledge; its fruits, the customs of the godly; its tree of life, wisdom herself, the mother of all good; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the experience of a broken commandment. The punishment which God appointed was in itself, a just, and therefore a good thing; but man’s experience of it is not good.
These things can also and more profitably be understood of the Church, so that they become prophetic foreshadowings of things to come. Thus Paradise is the Church, as it is called in the Canticles; the four rivers of Paradise are the four gospels; the fruit-trees the saints, and the fruit their works; the tree of life is the holy of holies, Christ; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the will’s free choice. For if man despise the will of God, he can only destroy himself; and so he learns the difference between consecrating himself to the common good and revelling in his own. For he who loves himself is abandoned to himself, in order that, being overwhelmed with fears and sorrows, he may cry, if there be yet soul in him to feel his ills, in the words of the psalm, “My soul is cast down within me,” and when chastened, may say,” Because of his strength I will wait upon Thee.” These and similar allegorical interpretations may be suitably put upon Paradise without giving offence to any one, while yet we believe the strict truth of the history, confirmed by its circumstantial narrative of facts.'
These allegories appear to be highly speculative and I don't really see how they could be of any encouragement to the believer.
But I still love you Augustine.
Commence Book 14 by reading Chapters 1 to 12.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment