Blessed Augustine of Ippona

From the history of Western theology The life of Blessed Augustine (Augustinus Aurelius, *354–†430) falls into four periods: from birth to baptism (354–387); from baptism to the priesthood (387–391), priestly ministry (391–396), episcopal ministry (396–430). First period (354–387). Augustine was born on November 13, 354 in the city of Tagaste in Numidia (West Africa), in the family of a city official. The development of his personality was greatly influenced by his mother Monica, a deeply religious Christian, who instilled in her son a love for the name of the Savior from childhood. In his hometown, Augustine receives his primary education, which he completes in neighboring Madavra. In 369, Augustine traveled to Carthage to continue his education and study rhetoric. The temptations of the capital captivate young Augustine and he enters into concubinage with a woman, from whom his son Adeodate is born in 372. Augustine's first acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures during this period left an unfavorable impression: the Holy Scriptures seemed to him simple, childishly naive and crude in comparison with ancient literary examples. The discrepancy between the sensory life that Augustine led then and his internal spiritual needs very soon led him to a spiritual crisis. Reading Cicero's Hortensius, which contained a fiery appeal to philosophy, intensified this feeling of dissatisfaction. The crisis was resolved by Augustine's conversion to Manichaeism, which attracted his attention with its apparent rationality, free criticism of the Old Testament and equally free interpretation of the New Testament. The Manichaean period of Augustine's life lasted almost 10 years (373–382). After completing his education, Augustine returned to Tagaste, where he began teaching grammar and rhetoric. But in 374 Augustine returned to Carthage, where he continued teaching and began scientific activities. Gradually the charm of Manichaeism began to wear off; This was facilitated by Augustine’s meeting in 378 with one of the Manichaean authorities, Bishop Faustus of Milevia, who showed his complete failure as a scientist, as well as Augustine’s acquaintance with the skeptical philosophy of the New Academy. In 383 Augustine with his family and friends (Navigius, Alipius, Nebridius) moved to Rome, and the following year, under the patronage of the prefect Symmachus, Augustine received a position as a teacher of rhetoric at Milan. Here he meets Bishop Ambrose of Milan and attends Sunday services as a catechumen. From Bishop Ambrose, Augustine first learned about the allegorical method of interpreting Holy Scripture. In addition, during this period, Augustine abandoned his skepticism and became thoroughly acquainted with Neoplatonic philosophy through the translations of Maria Victorina. Neoplatonism attracted Augustine with its reduction of the sensory to the intelligible, the external to the internal, the doctrine of the intellectual light of the Mind, the non-substantiality of evil, etc. Augustine, following Victorin, saw the similarity between the Neoplatonic doctrine of the Second Principle (Mind) and the teaching of the Fourth Gospel about the Word of God (Logos). All this, as well as the tireless influence of his mother and friends and the wonderful episode with the reading of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul (Rom. 13:13–14), led to the fact that in 386. Augustine made a firm decision to be baptized. He gave up teaching and retired with his closest friends to Kassitsiak, the estate of his friend Verekund. Here Augustine indulged in philosophical and literary pursuits and wrote his first works (Contra Academicos, De vita beata, De ordine, etc., see below). Finally, on Easter 387, Augustine, together with his son, received saving baptism from Bishop Ambrose. Second period (387–391). After baptism, Blessed Augustine went to his homeland, but the sudden death of his mother detained him in Italy for another year. In the fall of 388, Augustine returned to his native Tagaste; he donated all his property to the needs of the local church, and he himself began to strive as a monk. Augustine spent three years in complete solitude, devoting himself to prayer and strict asceticism together with his closest friends. In 391, the elderly bishop of the neighboring city of Hippo, Valerius, despite Augustine’s disagreement, instructed him to preach sermons for the people and for this purpose ordained him as a presbyter. Third period (391–396). During his priesthood, Blessed Augustine founded the first monastery in Numidia with strict rules of community life. He devoted himself entirely to church affairs: preaching, interpretation of Holy Scripture, polemics with the Manichaeans. In 396, Bishop Valery, foreseeing his imminent death, made Augustine his vicar. After Valery's death, Augustine became his successor. Fourth period (396–430). Having begun to fulfill his duties, Augustine first of all set up a strict dormitory for clergy in the episcopal residence. During the 35 years of his bishopric, Augustine had to resolve many pressing church issues and defend his flock from numerous heresies and schisms. Open disputes with adherents of Manichaeism sometimes yielded results (conversion of Felix the Manichaean). The situation was worse with Donatism. Peaceful literary controversy led nowhere, and in 411 a council was convened in Carthage with the assistance of Emperor Honorius, at which Augustine played a key role. At the council, many Donatist bishops, along with their flock, joined the Church, and yet only repressive measures on the part of the state authorities, which Augustine also supported, led to an improvement in the situation. In the same year 411, Augustine entered into the fight against a new heresy - Pelagianism. He spoke at the Council of Carthage in 412 against the follower of Pelagius Celestius and wrote his first anti-Pelagian works. In 416 the new Council of Carthage re-condemned Celestius, as well as Pelagius himself. The polemic with the latter cost Augustine a lot of work, since Pelagius was either condemned in Rome, or found support and justification for himself. Even after the decisions of the Carthaginian consilium generale (main council) in 418, Pelagianism continued to have many supporters; In addition, various rumors arose within Pelagianism itself. All this forced Augustine to write works against the Pelagians until 428. But still, state repression had the final say. During the years of his episcopacy, Augustine did not give up his scientific studies: he wrote interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, apologia for Christianity, resolved complex dogmatic issues, and delivered many sermons. In the last years of his life, Augustine was forced to fight against the Arian heresy, which had once again raised its head. In 426, Augustine, weakened by old age and illness, chose presbyter Heraclius as his successor, to whom he transferred part of his responsibilities. In 430, the Vandals besieged Hippo. During the siege, Augustine fell ill with a fever and on the 10th day of his illness, August 28. 430, died peacefully at the age of 75. The Western Church canonized Augustine (mem. August 28), and the Eastern Church considers him blessed (mem. June 15/28). The literary heritage of Blessed Augustine is enormous: 101 works have reached us, not counting letters and sermons. Augustine himself, in his Retractationes (‘Revision, Memoirs’) lists 93 works in 132 books. All of Augustine’s writings that have reached us can be thematically divided into 8 groups: 1) autobiographical, 2) philosophical and literary, 3) apologetic, 4) polemical, 5) exegetical, 6) dogmatic, 7) moral-ascetic, 8) pastoral. The most important of them are listed below. 1) Autobiographical essays and letters. The most famous work of this group is Confessiones (“Confession” in book 13, 397–400), in which, along with deep introspection and sincere repentance for a past life, Augustine examines the most complex metaphysical issues, such as the problem of knowledge of God (books 7 and 10), the composition and structure of memory (book 10), the concept of time (book 11), matter (book 12), the creation of the world and the image of the Holy Trinity (book 13). Another important work, Retractationes (“Revisions,” in 2 books) was written by Augustine at the end of his life (426–427), in which he lists all his previous works and makes amendments to them (book 1 covers the time from 386 to 396, book 2 from 396 to 426). An important source of information about the life of Augustine is his “Life” (Vita Augustini), written by his student Possidio, Bishop of Calama. Augustine's epistolary heritage is very large: he wrote 269 letters of various contents (on theology, philosophy, polemics, exegesis, ecclesiology, liturgics, ethics, and other issues). 2) Philosophical and literary. This group includes Augustine’s very first works, written in the period 386–391: Contra Academicos (“Against the Academicians”, in 3 books), De vita beata (“On the Blessed Life”), De ordine (“On Order” in 2 books), Soliloquia (“Monologues” in 2 books), De immortalitate animae (“On the immortality of the soul”), De quantitate animae (“About the quantity of the soul”), De magistro (“About the teacher”). All these works represent a combination of Christian and Neoplatonic principles, characteristic of all of early Augustine: ideas about the pre-existence of the soul, about God as mental Light, about the superiority of the internal over the external, the spiritual over the physical, the unchangeable over the changeable, the simple over the complex, the one over the many, etc. Augustine remained faithful to most of these ideas until the end of his life. In addition, Augustine owns the Encyclopaedia artium liberalium (“Encyclopedia of the Liberal Sciences,” 387) and the work De musica (“On Music,” 387–391). 3) Apologetic. The first work of this group is De vera religione (“On the true religion,” 389–391), where Augustine refutes the skepticism and polytheism widespread in pagan society, and shows why Christianity should be considered the only true religion. Two short works, De utilitate credendi (“On the benefits of faith,” 391) and De fide rerum quae non videntur (“On faith,” 1, 400), are devoted to justifying the necessity of faith for true knowledge. But Augustine’s most famous apology is the 22 books De civitate Dei (“On the City of God,” 413–426), written on the occasion of the capture of Rome by the Goths, which occurred in 410. The apology is divided into two parts: the actual apologetic (books 1–10) and the doctrinal (books 11–22). In the book. 1–5 the superstitious ideas of the pagans about false gods and the cults dedicated to them are refuted; in the book 6–10 there is a polemic with pagan philosophers and theologians about monotheism and polytheism, fortune telling and prophecies, angels and demons, etc. In the doctrinal part in the book. 11–14 tells about the beginning and emergence of two cities - the City of Earth and the City of God, about the one Creator of the world, about creation, about angels and their fall, about man and original sin. In the book. 15–18 describes the further development of the two cities in the history of mankind up to the time of recognition of Christianity as the state religion. Finally, in the book. 19–22 speaks of the final separation of the two cities and the end of history, the Second Coming of Christ, the Last Judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal punishment of sinners and the eternal bliss of the righteous. In the treatise Adversus iudaeos (“Against the Jews,” 428), Augustine proves the truth of the messiahship of Christ and condemns those who continue to observe Jewish customs and cult. 4) Polemical. In his work De haeresibus (“On Heresies,” 428–429), St. Augustine lists and briefly characterizes 88 heresies, ranging from the Gnosticism of Simon Magus to Pelagianism. Other writings of this group are directed against certain heresies and schisms of Augustine's time: A. Against the Manichaeans. The earliest of these works, De moribus Ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus manichaeorum (“On the morals of the universal Church and the morals of the Manichaeans” in 2 books, 388) speaks of the Church as a source of grace and holiness. De libero arbitrio (“On the freedom of choice” in 3 books, book 1 – 388, books 2–3 – 391) is a dialogue between Augustine and Euodius about the origin of evil, the only source of which should be sought in the free will of the creature (book 2 contains proof of the existence of God, based on the concept of the best being). In his work De duabus animabus contra manichaeos (“On two souls against the Manichaeans,” 392), Augustine proves that the souls of all people are the creations of the One God. Disputatio contra Fortunatum (“Discourse against Fortunatus the Manichaean,” 392) is a record of a two-day conversation between Augustine and the Manichaean priest Fortunatus. In the work Contra Adimantum manichaei discipulum (“Against Adeimantus, the disciple of Manichaean,” 394), we are talking about an allegorical understanding of difficult passages of Holy Scripture. The work Contra epistulam manichaei quam vocant fundamenti (“Against the message of the Manichaean, called “Basic”,” 397) is a refutation of the main dogmatic message of Mani to his followers. In the work Contra Faustum manichaeum (“Against Faustus the Manichaean” in the 33rd book, 397–398), Augustine defends Christianity from the attacks of the Manichaean bishop Faustus of Milevia. Augustine’s dispute with the Manichaean Felix, reflected in the work Contra Felicem manichaeum (“Against Felix the Manichaean,” 398), ended with the latter’s conversion to Christianity. In the last two anti-Manichaean works, De natura boni contra manichaeos (“On the nature of good against the Manichaeans,” 399) and Contra Secundum manichaeum (“Against the Manichaean Secundum,” 399), we are talking, first of all, about the fact that everything that exists is good insofar as it exists, and evil is not something that exists, it is non-substantial. b. Against the Donatists. The most important: Psalmus contra partem Donati (“Psalm against the supporters of Donatus,” 393) is a short poetic summary of the main arguments against Donatism. In his “Objection to the Epistle of Parmenian,” the Donatist bishop of Carthage (Contra epistolam Parmeniani, lib. III, 400), Augustine speaks of the apostolic succession of the episcopate, the relative holiness of the members of the earthly Church and the independence of sacred rites from the personality of the priest. In his essay De baptizmo contra donatistas (“On baptism against the Donatists” in book 7, 400), Augustine criticizes the Donatist practice of rebaptizing heretics. In the work Contra Cresconium grammaticum (“Against Cresconium Grammar” in book 4, 406), he defends the repressive measures of Emperor Honorius against the Donatists, taken in 405. Finally, Breviculus collationis cum donatistis is a brief account of the dispute between Orthodox and Donatist bishops at the Council of Carthage in 411. c. Against the Pelagians. The most important: De peccatorum meritis et remissione vel de baptizmo parvulorum (“On punishment and remission of sins, or on the baptism of infants” in 3 books, 412), in which Augustine polemicizes with the Pelagian doctrine of sinlessness (impeccabilitas) and points to infant baptism, which clearly indicates the spread of Adam’s sin to all humanity as a whole. In De spiritu et littera (“On the spirit and the letter,” 412), Augustine disputes the Pelagian thesis: posse hominem sine peccato esse cum Dei gratia “man can be sinless by the grace of God.” In the work De gestis Pelagii (“On the Acts of Pelagius,” 417), Augustine first directed his criticism towards Pelagius himself. In the work De gratia Christi et originale peccato (“On the grace of Christ and original sin” in 2 books, 418), Augustine argues with Pelagius’ thesis that grace is just the natural free will of man and the Gospel commandments. In 420–30 Augustine writes four works against Bishop Julian of Esclana, the defender of the Pelagian heresy in Italy, De nuptiis et concupiscentia (“On Marriage and Concupiscence” in 2 books, 419–420), Contra duas epistolas pelagianorum (“Against the two epistles of the Pelagians” in 4 books), written to Pope Boniface in 420, Contra Julianum (“Against Julian” in 4 books, 421) and an unfinished work with the same title (Opus imperfectum contra Julianum, lib. VI, 429). In 426–427 Augustine wrote two works on the operation of Divine grace: De gratia et libero arbitrio ad Valentinum (“On grace and free choice, to Valentine”) and De correptione et gratia ad eumdem (“On reproach and grace, to him”). Finally, in the last two (428–429) works: De praedestinatione sanctorum (“On the predestination of the saints”) and De dono perseverantiae (“On the gift of affirmation [in good]”), Augustine’s ideas about predestination and the loss of free will came out with all their clarity, putting him on the brink of heresy. d. Against the Arians. Augustine's first anti-Arian work is Contra sermonem arianorum (“Against the preaching of the Arians”). In 428, the Collatio cum Maximino (“Dispute with Maximin”), a short account of the dispute with the Arian bishop Maximin, and the work Contra Maximinum (“Against Maximin”) were written. 5) Exegetical. The methods of interpretation of Holy Scripture are summarized by Blessed Augustine in his great work De doctrina christiana (“On Christian Doctrine”, books 1–3 – 396, books 4 – 426). Of the commentaries on the Old Testament, noteworthy are the 12 books De Genesi ad litteram (“Commentaries on Genesis,” 401–415), in which Augustine gives a detailed philosophical and theological analysis of the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. In 392–415 Augustine wrote commentaries on selected Psalms (Enarrationes in Psalmos), and in 419 he compiled seven books of commentaries on the Old Testament Septateuchum (In Heptateuchum). From the commentaries on the New Testament, one should point out the work De consensu Evangelistarum (“On the agreement of the Evangelists” in 4 books, 400), where Augustine examines the features of each Gospel, and also reconstructs the Gospel history on the basis of all four Gospels. In 416–417 Augustine compiled a detailed commentary in 124 books on the Gospel of John (In Evangelium Ioannis). In 393–396 he wrote two not very successful commentaries on the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (Expositio quarumdam propositionum ex epistola ad Romanos and Expositio inchoata epistolae ad Romanos) and one commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (Expositio epistolae ad Galatas). Finally, Augustine’s work Speculum (“Mirror,” 427), long known in Russia, is a collection of moral teachings from the Holy Scriptures. 6) Dogmatic. A general presentation of Christian doctrine can be found in the works: De fide et symbolo (“On faith and symbol,” 393) and De agone christiano (“On the Christian struggle,” 396–397, which also deals with the providence of God and the need to resist the power of the tempter). Finally, the most extensive statement of faith with detailed discussions about God's grace and double predestination is found in the work Enchiridion ad Laurentium seu de fide, spe et charitate (“Enchiridion 2 to Lawrence, or on faith, hope and love,” 421). Augustine examines 88 different dogmatic questions in his work De diversis quaestionibus (“On various questions”, 389–396). Finally, in his most significant dogmatic work De Trinitate (“On the Trinity” in book 15, 400–415), in addition to triadology, Augustine examines many other issues, such as the essence and properties of God, Christology, knowledge of God, etc. 7) Moral-ascetic. Most of the works of this group are devoted to individual Christian virtues, such as moderation (De continentia, “On Temperance,” 394–395), justice (Contra mendacium, “Against Lies,” 420), and patience (De patientia, “On Patience,” 418). In others, Augustine preaches the ideal of virginity (De sancta virginitate, “On holy virginity,” 400–401), widowhood (De bono viduitatis, “On the good of widowhood,” 414) and asceticism in general (De opere monachorum, “On monastic practice,” 400). 8) Pastoral. This group includes the work De catechizandis rudibus (“On the teaching of the catechumens,” 400) and 396 sermons (sermones) of various contents: on certain passages of Holy Scripture, Church holidays, in memory of saints, etc. However, faith has the advantage over reason that it is accessible to all people without exception and grants salvation to everyone, while reason is the property of a few. In addition, faith must be accompanied by the cleansing of a person from sins and the acquisition of virtues, without which all knowledge is impossible and vain (On the Benefits of Faith, 16). But the relationship between faith and reason seems more complex to Augustine. If, from the point of view of the content of the authority perceived from the outside, faith precedes reason, then already at this stage reason is necessary to justify the benefits of faith in general, as well as to ensure the correct choice of the subject of faith (On historical rel. 24). In the future, reason accompanies faith and constantly strives to make its content an object of knowledge (O prev. 5). There is no contradiction in this, because faith depends on knowledge in one respect, and knowledge depends on faith in another (Comment. Ps. CXVIII; Prop. 18.3). The ultimate goal of both faith and understanding is the direct contemplation (species, visio, contemplatio) of God (Comm. Gen. XII.31; On the Trinity, I.10; 31; Enchir. 5). As for the objects of faith and knowledge, these are first of all the soul and God. Self-knowledge leads to the first, knowledge of one’s origin leads to the second (On Order, II.18; Monol. I.2). All other knowledge, if it does not serve the cause of human salvation, is not necessary (On the Trinity, IV.1; Enkhir. 9; 16). b. Types of knowledge. Augustine, following Aristotle and the Neoplatonists, distinguishes three types of knowledge: sensory, rational and intellectual 5 (Prop. XII.6–7). With the help of five private senses and the sixth general sense (sensus communis 6), a person perceives external material objects from the side of their form, as a result of which intangible images of things are imprinted in the human soul (memory), which, in turn, serve as material for subsequent cognition. Next, reason (ratio, ratiocinatio), or the power of distinction and connection (On Order, II.18), transforms these individual sensory images (species sensibiles) into intelligible general concepts (species intelligibiles, rationes communes), and then from the concepts it makes judgments, from judgments according to certain laws it builds inferences and evidence, and thus creates various sciences. However, in its activities, reason is guided by higher principles or laws, which it itself does not create and which do not depend on it. Knowledge of God. According to St. Augustine, the path of knowledge of God consists of three stages. At the first stage, we recognize the traces of God in the external world, which, by the very fact of its existence, points to its First Cause. At the second stage, we turn to ourselves, to our spirit, and recognize God through His image in ourselves, or rather, in our highest spiritual abilities - memory, thinking and will (memoria, intellectus, voluntas). Finally, having understood the variability and imperfection of our spirit, at the third stage we rise above ourselves and directly contemplate the unchanging and eternal Truth, in the Light of which we know everything else (Isp. VII.16; IX.25; X.9–11,36–38; About gr. XI.28). Augustine briefly formulated these three stages of knowledge of God as follows: "Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself, for Truth dwells in the inner man. And if you find your nature changeable, go beyond yourself and strive to where the very Light of reason shines" (On the history rel. 39). The ultimate goal of this path is direct mental contemplation (videre, intueri, contemplare, conspicere) of God, which is now available to the angels, and for man in its entirety can be realized only in the future life (Comm. Gen. XII.31,34,35). At the same time, Augustine allows for the possibility of knowing the very essence of God (Comm. Gen. XII.34–36). For Augustine, apophatic knowledge has only the significance of a preliminary stage, for before knowing what God is, one must know what He is not (On the Trinity, VIII.3). In addition, denial can only apply to temporal-spatial and material ideas about God, but not to mental ones (Isp. X.9–11). Thus, plants that have life are more perfect than inanimate nature; animals that have the ability to sense are more perfect than plants; finally, man, endowed with reason, is more perfect than animals. In man himself, the soul is more perfect than the body, and in the soul the rational part is more perfect than the sensory part. But even the human mind is changeable and needs higher principles to carry out its cognitive activity. The laws of thinking themselves are unchangeable and universal, they rise above any particular consciousness and exist independently of the cognizing subject. Consequently, these ideas are uncreated and are God Himself as the highest Wisdom (O lib. II.7–34). The doctrine of the essence and properties of God. Augustine's views on this issue changed significantly over time. At first, he applied Aristotelian categories to God and therefore distinguished between essence and properties in Him (Isp. VI.29), thereby presenting God as complex and therefore changeable. Later, he abandoned this and began to identify God the Father with the simple essence of God, and hypostatized the properties and actions in the Son and the Holy Spirit (Ante-Nicene triadology, cf. Monol. I.1; On order, II.19; On historical rel. 36; 43). But this point of view did not satisfy Augustine either; His final teaching is this: in God, as an absolutely simple (simplex) and primary Being, there is no distinction between essence and properties, substantia and accidentia, subject and predicates, containing and contained. Everything that God has is He Himself (On gr. XI.10; On the Trinity, V.11; VI.6; VII.2). Therefore, it is more correct to speak of Him not as Substantia, but as Essentia (On the Trinity, VII.10). In other words, God is pure form without any matter (O lib. II.49; Prop. CXVII.3). The direct consequence of this is that all the properties of God are identical to each other, and also that in each of His properties God manifests himself entirely (On the Trinity, VIII.2; XV.9). However, Augustine finds it possible to consider separately the most important properties of God, such as simplicity, immutability, incorporeality, omnipresence, immobility, eternity, omniscience, goodness, etc. In the end, Augustine’s God appears as the totality of all conceivable and real perfections, as a summum Bonum omnino, quo esse aut cogitari melius nihil possit (‘the highest Good, better than which nothing can be or to be thought’, About morality II.24) 9 . It should be noted that the concept of absolute Divine simplicity, which Augustine laid as the basis for all his theology, contradicts the teaching of the Eastern Fathers of the Church about the difference between the Divine essence and Divine energies (including Divine properties, or names). With. Triadology. The teaching of St. Augustine about the Holy Trinity, which formed the basis for all subsequent speculations of Western theologians on this issue, differs significantly from the teaching of the Eastern Fathers of the 4th and subsequent centuries 10. For Augustine, there is, first of all, a single Divine essence (una substantia vel essentia), manifested in three Divine Persons (tres Personae). At the same time, Augustine understands the Divine essence as individual and specific (Aristotelian substantia prima), and not as general and abstract (Aristotelian substantia secunda). Augustine sees the basis for the difference between Persons in the immanent laws of Divine life and consciousness. He believes that in order to understand the dogma of the Holy Trinity, a person should turn first of all to himself, to his self-consciousness, which carries the image of God. It represents the unity of three moments: being (esse), thinking (intellegere) and will (velle), for we exist, and we know that we exist, and we desire this being and knowledge of ours, or love (amare) it. Transferring this reasoning to God as the Prototype and making the necessary amendments, Augustine argues that God as the absolute Spirit also represents the trinity of Being, Thought and Will, which in Him are absolute, unchangeable, eternal, hypostatic (substantial) and are three independent Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Isp. XIII.12;19; About gr. XI.26-28). Since in man personal existence is preserved primarily thanks to memory, which is capable of retaining the past and thereby guaranteeing the self-identity of our “I,” then in God His eternal Being is the same as Memory (Father). Therefore, Augustine’s trinary scheme also appears in this form: Memory, Thinking, Will (On the Trinity, X.17). Since the will is most fully expressed in love (amor, caritas), then in Augustine one can find the following formula: Memory, Thinking, Love (On the Trinity, IX.3; XIV.15). Finally, since the will (or love) in a person is born from the depths of his spirit, or memory, and provides the necessary connection between memory and thinking, then in God the Holy Spirit, although initially and predominantly comes from the Father, but at the same time comes from the Son - for the Father “transfers everything” to the Son, including the ability to bring forth the Holy Spirit (On the Trinity, XV.29; 47) 11 - and there is the mutual Love of the Father and Son (O gr. XI.26). In addition to this psychological analogy, Augustine finds traces of the Divine Trinity even in the external world: the existence of things points to the Father as the Source of all being and the highest Being, the variety of forms and types of things points to the Son as the Source of every form and the highest Wisdom, finally, the orderliness of things in relation to each other and their consistency with themselves point to the Holy Spirit as the Source of all order and love (On Order, 7; On the Trinity, VI.12; On gr. XI.28; In this sense, the triadology of Augustine and his Western followers can be characterized as a kind of modalism. In addition, this teaching does not sufficiently substantiate the substantiality (hypostasis) of the Divine Persons, whose independent personal existence is not an internal necessary requirement of Augustine’s system, but only his arbitrary assumption. A. Ontology of the created. God, in His goodness, completely freely created the world out of nothing (Isp. XII.7–8). Unlike the Creator, the world is not without beginning, for it did not exist before it arose. By the very fact of its origin, the world indicates its fundamental difference from the existence of the Uncreated - its variability (Isp. XI.6). This variability, moreover, is due to the real difference between substance and properties, or containing and contained in every created being. Properties can either join the substance or fall away from it, and their intensity can either increase or decrease (O gr. XI.10). Variation, in turn, is the cause of the perishability and finitude of the creature. Compared to God, the world is non-existence, since it cannot be recognized as immutably existing, just as it cannot be recognized as truly beautiful and good (Isp. XI.6). For creation, God is the source of everything: being, form, truth, beauty, goodness, etc. Regarding the action of the Holy Trinity in creation, Augustine, on the one hand, believes that the entire Holy Trinity acts unitedly and inseparably (Comm. Gen. IX.15; On the Trinity, II.18), but, on the other hand, he often speaks about the specific economic action of each of the Three Hypostases: the Father endows everything with being, the Son with form, specific properties, wisdom, the Holy Spirit with order, harmony, goodness (On Order, 7; On the Trinity, VI.12; On gr. XI.28). In addition, Augustine also uses the formula of the Greek fathers: God the Father creates everything by the Word in the Holy Spirit (Comm. Gen. I.5–6,18). b. The order of creation. The creation itself takes place in several stages. At the first stage, the world was created by God as eternal and unchanging ideas or patterns (formae, rationes, exemplaria) 13, since God had knowledge about it before the creation of the world, for He did not create anything without knowing, just as even no human artist creates (O gr. XI.10; Comm. Gen. I.10; II.8). This was not a creation in the proper sense, for the world did not yet exist independently, but represented the content of Divine Wisdom, or the Word. Having given birth to His Word, God the Father in Him from eternity spoke everything that then received a separate existence in time (Sp. XI.7–8; Comm. Gen. I.2,4,5,9,10,18; II.6) 14. At the second stage of creation, Divine ideas are instantly and all at once introduced into the initially formless world matter, into “almost nothing,” which, in turn, was called into existence from perfect nothing (cf. Isp. XII.7–8). Thus, in the material basis of the world, potentialities or seeds (rationes seminales) of all future things arise. It is in this sense that it is said that God created the world in six days, which are one day repeated six times (Comm. Gen. V.1,3,4–5; VI.3,10–11). At the same time, the entire time sequence of the emergence of individual things was simultaneously embedded in matter. Finally, at the third stage, individual things or phenomena of the world arise from already existing potentialities in a certain time order. This is the seventh day, on which God rested from His work (Comm. Gen. VI.3,10–11). This is how Augustine manages to solve the problem of the relationship between time and eternity. Since God created the world in eternity, in His ideas and foundations, He did not move from a state of rest to activity, for in Him rest and movement are identical. Therefore, creative activity did not violate the immutability and eternity of God. The results of His creative activity are revealed gradually in time, which was created together with the created world (Isp. XI.12-15; XIII.51-52). As for time, it is the form of existence of everything changeable, but it itself, according to Augustine, has an ideal nature and exists only in the human soul: the past is our memory of it, the present is its direct contemplation, the future is its expectation (Isp. XI.26-37). The possibility of disrupting the natural order of things (miracles), according to Augustine, was also initially inherent in nature during the first creation of the world in its foundations (On the Trinity, III.16). c. Spiritual and physical creatures. All created being is divided into spiritual and physical, or invisible and visible. 1. Initially, angels were created - incorporeal spiritual beings, closest to God, whose purpose is to know and glorify the Creator. Being immaterial by nature, angels were initially devoid of form and represented a kind of materiality (“dark abyss”). Their rational abilities were in a potential state until the moment they turned to the Creator and were enlightened by the Light of His Wisdom (Isp. XIII.2–3; Comm. Gen. I.1,4,5). Angels, like all created things, exist in time, for they are subject to change and are in constant, albeit purely spiritual (mental) movement (Comm. Gen. nez. 3). The knowledge of angels far exceeds that of humans, for they have direct intuitive knowledge of God and Divine ideas, in which they know everything created, including themselves (Comm. Gen. II.8; IV.24,32; XII.35–36; O gr. XI.29). They are the second mental light after God. Most of the angels have remained true to their destiny and remain unchanged in holiness and bliss. The other part, because of criminal pride, turned away from God and was cast into the underworld. This deficiency in the Heavenly City must be filled by man, having acquired the holiness of life equal to the angels and perfect knowledge of God (O gr. XXII.1; Enkhir. 28–29). 2. Corporal creatures by their nature are more distant from God, since in addition to their primary complexity of substance and properties (=form), they have corporeal matter, divisible to infinity and representing an infinite multitude. For the same reason, physical creatures, in addition to existing in time, also exist in space and take on many random properties (accidents). The matter of bodies only logically precedes the union with form, but in time it has never existed without form (Isp. XIII.48). Man also consists of form and matter, that is, of soul and body, internal and external man (homo interior et homo exterior, cf. Spanish X.9). A. The nature and origin of the human soul. For St. Augustine, the human soul (anima, more often animus) is the inner man (homo interior) and the image (imago) of God (Comm. Gen. VII.22). This is the center of personal being (“I”) or the person himself (Isp. X.9). By its nature, the soul is immaterial and immortal, although it has the beginning of its existence as created by God. Initially, the soul represents pure uncertainty and potentiality (cf. the soul of an infant). It acquires its form and definition by turning first to external existence, and then to God as its inner Light and Life. The highest power of the soul is the mind, or spirit (mens), which has three abilities: the power of memory (memoria), knowledge (rational ratio and intuitive intellectus) and desire (voluntas). In relation to the body, the soul acts as a vitalizing, unifying and formative force (=vegetative soul), as well as the ability of sensations (=animal soul). However, the soul itself is better and more excellent than the body (Isp. X.9–11,29). But at the same time, the soul, as changeable and having the beginning of its existence, is neither the Divine substance, nor even some part or outflow of it, but a creature alien to God (Comm. Life VII.2; XII.31). Regarding the origin of the individual human soul, Augustine held the following views. In the early period, he was inclined to recognize the pre-existence of souls (based on Plato’s theory of anamnesis, see note 3 on p. 377). However, he subsequently abandoned this idea, especially since he never associated it with Origenism and metempsychosis (Comm. Gen. VII.9–11). Augustine criticized Tertullian's theory of the transmission of the soul by inheritance from parents to children (traditionism) for its too materialistic ideas about the nature of the soul, but recognized its advantages for explaining the method of transmission of original sin from parents to offspring (Comm. Gen. X.1,11). Augustine considered creationism to be the most suitable theory - the doctrine that God creates every soul from nothing, like the soul of Adam (Comm. Gen. X.9,14). However, this theory also has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the idea of ​​the creation of each human soul directly by God preserves the immateriality and other essential properties of the soul. In addition, with the help of this theory it was possible to build a correct doctrine about the Face of Jesus Christ. But, on the other hand, it contradicted Augustine’s own ideas about instantaneous creation, so Augustine tried, although unsuccessfully, to find in the Holy Scriptures indications of some common source of all souls, containing them potentially (just as the earth, which gave matter for the body of Adam, potentially contained all human bodies), which was created in the initial creation of universal foundations (Comm. Gen. VII.23–28). In addition, creationism is difficult to reconcile with the ideas of hereditary sin and the corruption of human nature, so in the end Augustine was forced to conclude that the soul of every person is infected with original sin through the body, or more precisely, through bodily lust. But still he was inclined to the theory of creationism, although he admitted that for him the question of the origin of the soul remained open (Comm. Gen. VII.21; X.3; 21). b. The doctrine of free will and original sin. The first man was in a state much more perfect than our present state. All his spiritual abilities, both mind and will, were directed towards God, towards the knowledge and fulfillment of God's will. His body was completely and completely subordinated to the spirit. By its nature it was not actually immortal, but had the possibility of immortality (posse non mori), or minor immortality (immortalitas minor). Man had freedom of choice (liberum arbitrium), and his choice was in favor of God and good. But this choice was not yet so rooted in a person that it would not be possible to change it. Man had little freedom (libertas minor), for he could not sin (posse non peccare). In accordance with man's aspirations, God sent him His help and strengthened him with grace. The relationship between human freedom and Divine grace during this period can be defined as free synergy. With the help of God, man had to transform his small immortality and small freedom into greater immortality (immortalitas major: non posse mori, the inability to die) and into greater freedom (libertas major: non posse peccare, the inability to sin); it depended entirely on the person (O gr. XXII.30). But man did not complete this task; he freely deviated towards evil and sin. Evil, as Augustine proves in his polemic against the Manichaeans, is not some kind of independent essence, but only an accident. It can exist as a parasite only on something good, on something existing. Evil itself is only a lack of good (privatio boni), deficiency, defect (defectio, causa deficiens, cf. O gr. XII.7). And since good is identical with being, then evil is also non-being, but paradoxically existing in something existing, which is its bearer (Enhir. 11–15). Evil is, first of all, the wrong direction of the will (cf. Comm. Gen. III.1,3) of a created rational being (man, angel), which preferred the changeable to the unchangeable, the lower to the higher, the bodily to the spiritual, the particular to the universal, its own to God (Enkhir. 23). Therefore, Adam’s sin consisted of striving for independence from God, for proud self-affirmation (superbia) and autonomy (cf. Gr. XIV.13). At the same time, it was a crime against God and His commandments, disobedience, which a person recognized as his guilt (culpa) before God. The main consequences of original sin (originale peccatum) were: insanity and ignorance (ignorantia), submission to lower material (carnal) desires (concupiscentia), loss of freedom of choice, slavery to sin, inability not to sin (non posse non peccare), grave necessity to sin (peccatum habendi dura necessitas), and finally, mortality of the body (Enchir. 23; 30). There was a radical corruption of human nature (vitium naturae, vitium originis), expressed in natural weakness (infirmitas). Human life became rather a slow death, or, as Augustine likes to repeat, abundant poverty (copiosa inopia), when a person, from internal composure, integrity and completeness of communion with God, rushed to the visible diversity of external objects, to distraction among many desires and concerns that could never satiate or satisfy him (On history rel. 20; On gr. XXII.22; Enchir. 21). Since Adam, as its basis, contained the entire human race, Adam’s sin with all its consequences passed on to all people and began to be inherited (cf. Gr. XIII.3; Comm. Gen. nec. I.48; III.25). Augustine saw evidence of this, in particular, in the baptism of infants (On instructions I.10; On gr. XXI.12; Enkhir. 26; 45–46). Augustine considered the method of transmitting universal sinfulness not the soul, which is given to each person directly by God, but the body, or rather, the passionate lust that accompanies the conception of every person, transmitted to his body and infecting the soul (Enchir. 26) 15. 6. Christology and soteriology A. The Necessity of the Incarnation. The consequences of the fall of the ancestors as the human race multiplied increased exponentially, so that very soon all of humanity began to represent a mass of condemned and perishing sinners (massa peccati, massa damnata, massa perditionis, cf. O gr. XXI.12; Enhir. 99; 107). With the loss of freedom of choice, people themselves were no longer able not only to do good, but even to desire it 16. If people still have free will, it is only in relation to sinful actions (Prov. 1,2,5). The desire for good, as Augustine believes, now does not depend on the person himself, but is invested into him directly by God (O gr. XXII.2; Enkhir. 30–32; 106). On their own, people could not return to their original state. Moreover, Adam's guilt passed on to all his descendants and made them “children of wrath.” Therefore, an Intercessor and Reconciler was needed, Who would pacify this righteous wrath of God (ira Dei) through the offering of a sufficient sacrifice for the sin of all mankind, and would also show in Himself the regenerating effect of God’s grace on human nature (On the Trinity, XIII.22; Enchir. 33; 34; 40). b. Christology. In the system of St. Augustine, Christology itself is of secondary importance and is only a moment of the more general doctrine of grace. At first, Augustine saw in Christ only an outstanding Man and Prophet, who came to set an example of correct worship of God and love for others - a view close to Nestorianism (cf. Isp. VII.24–25). But very soon he came to a teaching close to the Orthodox. The Only Begotten Son of God, God the Word, consubstantial with the Father in Divinity, remaining what he was, became what he was not - a man, consubstantial with us. This happened through the perception (cf. Commentary of Ps. 101.I.1; On the Trinity, I.10; IV.26) or union (cf. On the Trinity, XIII.22)) of the integral human nature (that is, the rational soul and body) into the unity of the Divine Person of the Son of God, so that One and the same was simultaneously God and Man, since he had two natures - Divine and human (On the Trinity, IV.31; About the Trinity, XIII.24; About gr. XXI.15). At the same time, neither the Divinity of Christ changed into humanity and ceased to be Divinity, nor was humanity absorbed by His Divinity and ceased to be humanity. Without losing or diminishing the Image of God (forma Dei, that is, His Divine nature), in which He is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit (Comm. John 26.19), Christ diminished Himself (Comm. John 78.1; Commentary Ps. 101.I.1; On the Trinity, I.10) and took on the form of a servant (formam servi, that is, human nature), because of which He became less than the Father (Comm. John 78.1; On the Trinity, I.7). Augustine saw a similar union of two natures in one person in the union of soul and body in an individual person (On the Trinity, I.10). The unity of the Person of the God-man in Augustine's system ensures the so-called mutual communication of properties (communicatio idiomatum) of two natures, so that we can say that the King of Glory was crucified (albeit in human weakness), and the Son of Man will judge the living and the dead (albeit by Divine power, cf. On the Trinity, I.10). By His earthly birth, Christ was sinless, since His conception was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, seedless and manless, and, therefore, was not accompanied by carnal lust, which is the carrier of sin (Enhir. 41:108; Comm. Gen. X.18). c. Purposes of the Incarnation. Blessed Augustine does not limit the purpose of the coming of Christ only to the reconciliation of man with God through the offering of an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all people (Enchir. 33; 61–62). Augustine saw several such goals: the restoration of human nature to its undamaged state, the salvation of humanity from the power of the devil and death (Christ brought the devil a ransom for the sinned humanity that was subordinate to him, cf. On the Trinity, XIII.18–19), the resurrection from the dead as a guarantee of the future general resurrection, the appearance on earth of the eternal Divine Truth (On the Trinity, IV.24–26; XIII.24), instructing people in the true faith, an example of humility (humilitas Dei) and righteous life, etc. (Isp. VII.24; On the Trinity, XI.2; Enchir. 41; 49; 53; 61). It was in the God-man Christ that humanity achieved the goals set for it by God in Paradise: Christ, by His submission to the will of the Father, acquired true freedom of will, freedom from sin (great freedom, libertas major), for He can no longer sin (non posse peccare), and by His resurrection from the dead He achieved true, greater immortality (immortalitas major), for He can no longer die (non posse mori; cf. About gr. XXII.30). Through Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, who by His mercy became the Son of Man, people, being by nature sons of men, by grace became sons of God. For He, remaining unchanged, accepted our nature from us in order to perceive us in it, and, immutably preserving His Divinity, became involved in our weakness, so that we, having changed for the better, put off our mortal and sinful state through commonality with Him, the Immortal and Righteous, and preserve the good that He produced in our nature, supplementing this good in the goodness of His nature with new good (O gr. XXI.15). Grace and predestination. The doctrine of the grace of God (gratia Dei) as the special action of God on man is the central point of Augustine’s entire soteriology, in which he, however, does not agree with the teaching of the Orthodox Church. Polemicizing with the Pelagians and their thesis: posse hominem sine peccato esse (man can be without sin), which denied original sin and absolutized human freedom, Augustine fell to the other extreme - anthropological minimalism. Based on his subjective idea of ​​man’s loss of free will after the Fall and his slavery to sin, Augustine believed that man is saved only by the grace and mercy of God, that is, freely (gratis), regardless of the previous merits of the man himself (cf. On the Trinity, XIII.22). This mercy of God was manifested primarily in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God. However, even the assimilation of the fruits of this sacrifice no longer depends on man, for faith in Christ itself, the fulfillment of His commandments, and good deeds should be attributed only to a merciful God (“our merits are the gifts of God”). The grace of God, as His internal, miraculous and inexpressible power, directly produces good wills in the hearts of people (cf. On Good 24). The action of grace, creating a good will and accompanying its activity, must continue until the end of life so that a person can achieve salvation. Whoever is not given the gift of constant abiding in goodness, whom grace leaves even at the very end of life, is inevitably drawn by his own evil will to death, despite all previous good deeds. The grace of God is not given to everyone. The human race was initially, in Divine foreknowledge, distributed among those on whom all the power of God's grace would be revealed (the elect, actually the predestined), and on those on whom the whole power of God's justice would be revealed (the condemned). The foundations of such double predestination (praedestinatio) lie in Divine Wisdom and Will and are incomprehensible to the human mind. The power of grace, as a manifestation of the omnipotent Will of God, has an irresistible effect on man. This irresistible action of grace does not destroy human freedom, because, according to Augustine, in a state of fall a person does not have it at all, and it is grace that restores true human freedom, resolving only the bonds of sin by which man is bound in the natural state (Isp. VII.27; VIII.10–12; O gr. XXI.12; Enchir. 99–107). It should be noted, however, that this teaching of Augustine makes unnecessary any distinction between vicious and virtuous actions, good and evil, and comes very close to ancient fatalism, which has too little in common with Christianity. The understanding of the synergy between human and Divine will, which is an integral part of Orthodox soteriology, is alien to Augustine. a. Blessed Augustine considers the axis of world history to be the emergence, development and final division of two cities: the earthly city (civitas terrena) and the heavenly city (civitas caelestis), the city of the devil (civitas diaboli) and the city of God (civitas Dei), the city of the wicked and the city of the righteous. At the end of history the following events will occur: the coming of Elijah, the faith of the Jews in Christ, the persecution of the Antichrist, the general resurrection of the dead and the last Judgment of God, at which the separation of the two Cities and their inhabitants will be realized (O gr. XX.1,6,30). This will not be preceded by the so-called thousand-year kingdom of Christ with the righteous, for this kingdom has already arrived in the Church of Christ after His first coming, which refutes all chiliasm (O gr. XIX.7–9). b. The resurrection of bodies will occur on the basis of the ideal form inherent in each person, which is preserved even after the actual death of the body. The bodies of all people will fully correspond to their ideal form and will be devoid of any physical defects, and will have an appearance corresponding to the earthly age of 33 years. Sexual differences and the digestive organs will remain, but they will not actually perform their functions, because there will be no need to support life with food, there will be no lust, no further reproduction of the human race. The bodies of the righteous will be spiritual (corpus spirituale), that is, light, incorruptible and immortal, and will no longer resist the Spirit and hinder the contemplation of God and Divine ideas (O gr. XXII.13–21; Enhir. 84–91). c. At the Last Judgment, the righteous will be separated from the wicked, over whom the final verdict will be pronounced. After this, the real world will change, pass away, burn, but not in the sense of the complete destruction of its nature, but in the sense of a change in its appearance and essential properties. The world's elements will receive new properties that will correspond to the incorruptible and immortal bodies of saints. In general, the world will be renewed for the better (O gr. XIX.14–16). Sinners, together with the devil and the spirits of evil, will endure eternal physical and spiritual torment in hell fire. This is eternal death, that is, alienation from the life of God (vita Dei, cf. About gr. XXI.9–10.23; Enchir. 113). At the same time, according to Augustine, for some sinners, after the purifying fiery torment experienced by their souls after death in some hidden places (a prototype of purgatory, cf. O gr. XXI.21; Enchir. 109), God, through the prayers of their relatives and the entire Church, will show His mercy and will not send them to eternal fire. The righteous, in turn, will fill the missing number of angels of the City of God after the fall of the devil (O gr. XXII.1; Enkhir. 28–29) and together with the latter they will spend a blissful life in peace, unceasing contemplation of God, love for Him and praise of Him 17. God will be all in all to them, that is, they will clearly see God present everywhere, including in themselves. God will be the goal of all their endeavors. Ultimately, people themselves will become gods through communion with the One True God. This will be the great Saturday of rest from labor (perfecta pax), the end of which will not be in the evening, but the eighth endless Day of the Lord (O gr. XXII.29–30). The Church, according to the definition of Blessed Augustine, is the Church or City of God (civitas Dei), located in heaven (triumphant Church) and on earth (wandering Church) and should be reunited at the end of time (Enchir. 56–61). The Church is catholic because it represents the totality of all its members, is not completely contained in any one of them and is spread throughout the whole world (Comm. Gen. nez. 1). In a polemic against the Donatists, who affirmed the absolute holiness of the already earthly Church and did not allow a second repentance, Augustine says that the Church is a mixed society of people striving for holiness, which includes both the righteous and the sinners, just as in the same net there are both good and bad fish, or in the same field both wheat and tares grow. There is no need for the righteous to separate from the sinners, as the Donatists did, since sinners cannot stain the Church, either as a whole or in parts. The Church is holy because only the Holy Spirit acts in it and only it is the Body of Christ. The holiness of the Church manifests itself and operates in its hierarchical structure, which dates back to the times of the Apostles. Consecration imparts to the priest a sacramental power independent of his personal dignity. Baptism, received from schismatics, but performed according to church rule, has its own power, which is, as it were, in a potential state and becomes actual only after joining the Catholic Church through the action of the Holy Spirit living in it. Hence, there is no need to rebaptize schismatics who join the Church; repentance with the laying on of hands is sufficient for this. Finally, after the Last Judgment, at which the sinners will be separated from the righteous, the Church will be holy in the sense of the complete holiness of all its members. In his ethical teaching, Blessed Augustine successfully combined all the best from antiquity and Christianity. From his point of view, the highest good for creation is an eternal and blissful life with God, and the highest evil is eternal and painful death outside of God, therefore, in order to acquire the former and avoid the latter, a person must live righteously and fulfill the commandments of God (O gr. XIX.1). The most important commandments are love for God and neighbor, which contain three objects of love - God, man himself and his neighbor. If a person loves God, then he does not err in loving himself, and also takes care that his neighbor, whom he must love as himself, loves God. Thus he is at peace with every person and with the whole world as a whole. The religious commandment of love here turns into a moral imperative: do not harm anyone and, as far as possible, benefit others (O gr. XIX.14). At this point, Augustine's ethical views come into conflict with his fatalism. To fulfill the commandments, one must overcome the criminal weakness that arose in human nature after the Fall, when the flesh began to desire what was contrary to the spirit and hinder the achievement of bliss. Therefore, the goal of asceticism is to restore the natural order, according to which the soul submits to God, the flesh to the soul, and through this both soul and flesh to God (O gr. XIX.4). To do this, a person must always strive from the external (material) to the internal (spiritual), in which only one can come into contact with God. Hence Augustine's attention to self-knowledge (introspection). In the same way, a person must strive from absent-mindedness to internal composure and concentration, from a multitude of external impressions - to the unity of his “I”, from anxiety - to peace and serenity of the spirit, from the changeable and temporary to the unchangeable and eternal (Isp. VII.22-23; IX.24-25; X.9-11; 38-40). “You,” Augustine says about God, “created us for Yourself (ad Se), and our heart is restless (inquietum) until it rests in You (requiescat in Te)” 18 (Isp. I.1). 10. Exegesis and Biblical Criticism a. The use of several exegetical methods at once helped St. Augustine to reconcile the provisions of Holy Scripture, which are the subject of faith, with the requirements of reason. Based on the Alexandrian exegetical tradition, Augustine distinguishes: 1) historical, or literal (bodily) understanding, when turning to a specific fact of Sacred History; 2) allegorical, or spiritual understanding, when the words of Holy Scripture are understood allegorically and relate to higher spiritual realities; 3) analogical, or representative, understanding, when the agreement of the Old and New Testaments is indicated, since the Old Testament events are perceived as a distant prototype (shadow) of the New Testament ones and their true meaning is revealed only in the New Testament (according to Augustine’s brief formula: in Vetere Novum latet, et in Novo Veterum patet ‘in the Old Testament the New is hidden and in the New Testament the Old is revealed’, Question . sem. II. q. LXXIII); and, finally, 4) etiological understanding, when the reasons for certain expressions or actions found in the Holy Scriptures are given (Comm. Gen. nez. 2–3). Augustine explains the legitimacy of this approach by the fact that God did not put into the Holy Scripture a single, distinct thought that excludes all others, but endowed it with many meanings, so that every reader could find in the words of the Holy Scripture the truth that is accessible to him (Isp. XII.42–43). However, Augustine himself went through some evolution in his interpretations. At first, during the period of polemics with the Manichaeans, he preferred the allegorical interpretation, since at this stage he did not imagine how some passages of the Old Testament could be understood in a literal sense. After this, he came to the conclusion that a reasonable combination of one or another interpretation is possible. In the end, Augustine came to the conviction not only of the possibility, but also of the desirability of interpreting Holy Scripture in its own sense (Comm. Gen. VIII.1–2; On gr. XXII.29). b. As for the text of the Holy Scriptures, Blessed Augustine, together with Blessed Jerome, can rightfully be considered the founder of biblical criticism in the West. In his work De consensu Evangelistarum (“On the Concord of the Evangelists,” 400), Augustine indicates the order in which the Evangelists wrote their Gospels: Matthew–Mk–Lk–John, and, referring to tradition, he says that only Matthew wrote in Aramaic, and the other three Evangelists wrote in Greek. Each of them adhered to his own way of storytelling, but they all relied on the work of their predecessors and added to it their own personal work, to the extent that each individual received a revelation from God. Only in this way could the Evangelists reflect a complete picture of the Person and deeds of the Savior: Matthew depicted His royal ministry (therefore his symbol is a lion), Mark, who followed him, became his guide and abbreviator of his work (his symbol is a man) 19, Luke depicted the priestly ministry of the Lord (his symbol is a calf), the weather forecasters generally described those acts that the Lord performed as a Man, and John focused his attention on His Divine nature (his symbol - eagle, cf. O acc. I.2–6). Augustine believes that in their activities the evangelists were inspired by the Holy Spirit and, being members of the body of Christ, were literally the hands of the Lord, through which He Himself conveyed to us His actions and speeches. Therefore, it is not surprising that the members of Christ maintained genuine agreement in the unity of the body itself, not only having the same thing in their thoughts, but even writing in a consonant manner (O concord. I.35). Augustine shows this agreement by reconstructing the entire Sacred History of the New Testament based on the testimony of all four Evangelists, but based on the Gospel of Matthew (cf. O acc. lib. II–IV). Lit. ‘On faith in the invisible’. Quick guide (slav. ‘handbrake’). Before Augustine, the same point of view about the harmony of religion and wisdom was expressed by the Latin apologist Lactantius (see his “Divine Institutions,” book I). Here and below, the following abbreviations of the titles of the works of Blessed Augustine are used: Question. family – Questions on the Seven Books; Spanish – Confession; Comm. Life – Commentary on Genesis; Comm. Life nez. – Commentaries on Genesis unfinished; Comm. In. – Commentary on the Gospel of John; Monol. – Monologues; Oh immortality. d. – About the immortality of the soul; Oh good. -About the grace of Christ; About gr. – About the city of God; About the story rel. – About true religion; About count. d. – About the quantity of the soul; Oh, the order. -On punishment and remission of sins; Oh temper. - About the morals... of the Manichaeans; About prev. – On the predestination of the saints; About decom. V. – About various issues; Oh free. – About free will; O acc. – On the consent of the Evangelists; Rev. – Revisions; Ave. sang -Against the two messages of the Pelagians; Prop. – Sermons; Plot. Ps. – Commentaries on the Psalms; Enhir. - Enchiridion to Lawrence. Or sensual, rational and mental. Sensuscommunis (cf. English commonsense) ‘common sense, sanity’; the content of this concept may be different in different philosophical systems. In the early period of his work, Augustine accepted Plato’s doctrine of anamnesis (reminisci, recordari) - the recollection by the soul of the knowledge that it already had before moving into the body (cf. On Col. d. 20; On immortality d. 4; Isp., X.17); he subsequently abandoned this view (cf. Rev. I, 4, 4; I, 8, 2). In turn, they moved from Augustine to medieval scholasticism (to Anselm of Canterbury, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, etc.). This formula implicitly contains the famous ontological proof of the existence of God, given in the 11th century. Anselm of Canterbury. To be fair, it should be noted that Augustine’s doctrine of the Holy Trinity was formed under the influence of another Latin theologian of the 4th century, Maria Victorina, who, in turn, was based on Neoplatonic ontology. See our article about this: Triadology Maria Victorina // Alpha and Omega. 2000. No. 1(23). Although Augustine often speaks of the procession of the Holy Spirit only from the Father (cf. On the Trinity, IV.20; XV.17; Enchir. 9; 38). However, Augustine himself, without any connection with his psychological construction of the Trinity dogma, sometimes claims that the differences between the Persons of the Holy Trinity appear only in the category of relation (secundum relativum - On the Trinity, V, 5), a point of view adopted by Boethius and Fulgentius and developed in medieval scholasticism. Hence this Christianized Platonic doctrine of ideas received the name exemplarism. This doctrine of creation by the Word (or in the Word) is another version of Augustine’s teaching about the Holy Trinity (more precisely, about the first two Divine Persons), which in this form bears the imprint of ante-Nicene triadology (the doctrine of the Divine economy), since it brings the existence of the Son too close to the creation of the world. This is a common place among all the Fathers and teachers of the Church of the first centuries, who tried to comprehend and reveal the teaching of the holy Evangelist John about the Logos, in Whom all things were. Therefore, Augustine here is the rule rather than the exception. At the same time, there always remains the opportunity, together with the Cappadocians, Saints Dionysius, Maximus or John of Damascus, to rethink the doctrine of economy in the strictly Orthodox sense, when this term is understood not as the internal lawfulness of Divine life and existence, but as the revelation of the God of the Trinity in the world through His creative uncreated energies (logoi, appearances, processions), which only secondarily (from the point of view of the creature) correlate with the second The face of the Holy Trinity is God the Word (Logos), just as the actions of sanctification, vitalization, and inspiration are related to the Holy Spirit. On this point Augustine agrees with some Eastern Fathers of the Church, in particular with St. Maximus the Confessor (cf. Quaest. ad Thal. XXI; Ambigua // PG 91, 1317A). In fairness, it should be noted that in the early period (from the first philosophical works to the anti-Manichaean treatises, inclusive) Augustine extended freedom of choice not only to Adam, but to all people in general, which served him as a strong argument against the Manichaean doctrine of the evil principle (see On freedom I–III). The real idea of man's loss of free will and the associated idea of predestination arose with Augustine around 395. Moreover, the saints, according to Augustine, will contemplate God with both mental and physical eyes, which indicates the departure of late Augustine from the ancient theory of knowledge (like is known by like); Wed About gr. XXII.29. This famous expression of Augustine should most likely be understood as follows: “You created us according to Yourself (adse, that is, in Your image and likeness, adimaginemetsimilitudinemsuam, cf. Gen. 1:26) and therefore our heart is restless until it rests in You.” In another tradition, the Evangelist Matthew corresponds to a man, and the Evangelist Mark corresponds to a lion.