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Augustine's De Beata Vita AUGUSTINE’S DE BEATA VITA: ON CHRISTIANITY AND PHILOSOPHY Kimberly D. Heil, Ph.D. University of Dallas, 2021 Dr. Matthew Walz, Ph.D., Director Abstract In Augustine’s De beata vita: On Christianity and Philosophy, I articulate how Augustine understood the relationship between Christianity and philosophy at the time of his conversion, in light of the dialogue De beata vita. In the dialogue, Augustine and his interlocutors take up a philosophical genre, a philosophical mode of inquiry, and a philosophical question: this is a work on the happy life, in dialogue form, in which the interlocutors are asking what it takes for a person to be happy. Augustine is writing as one in a tradition of philosophers seeking to understand and pursue happiness, and makes ready reference to the arguments and conclusions those philosophers have made. The completion of the human inquiry in the dialogue is theological in nature: while happiness is seen by philosophers to be the possession or having of God, the fulfillment of this comes from Christianity in the form of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity—a revealed truth. While philosophy is, in some modes, theological, revealed theology outstrips the capacities of philosophy. The two are consonant, however. To see this consonance, I engage in a close reading of the dialogue. Then, I look at the various authors whose influence on this particular dialogue are clear. The most notable of those are Ambrose, Cicero, and Plotinus. Finally, I make my argument that Augustine sees Christianity and philosophy as consonant: that is, Christianity encompasses true philosophy, and a Christian engaged in the activity of philosophizing is a philosopher par excellence. However, Christianity is not only philosophy, nor is philosophy a requirement for being a Christian, and Augustine’s mother Monica demonstrates that. She plays an important role both as her particular status as a fully initiated Christian, and as a representative of the Church. Without formal philosophical training, she has attained to the summit of philosophy, and under her maternal care she shares her wisdom with all persons who are chastely seeking it. THE BRANIFF GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS AUGUSTINE’S DE BEATA VITA: ON CHRISTIANITY AND PHILOSOPHY by KIMBERLY D. HEIL B.A., UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA at KEARNEY, MAY 2010 M.A., UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA, MAY 2013 A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Dallas in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Institute of Philosophic Studies. JULY 15, 2021 Feast of St. Bonaventure Reading Committee: Dr. Matthew Walz, Ph.D., Chair Dr. Daniel Burns, Ph.D. Fr. John Bayer, S.T.D., O.Cist. © Kimberly D. Heil, 2021 Epigraph Nulla est homini causa philosophandi nisi ut beatus sit. De Civitate Dei 19.1 To my many teachers: my professors at the University of Dallas, especially Dr. Matthew Walz; my professors at the University of South Florida; my professors at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, especially Dr. Gene Fendt; my colleagues at each school, who taught by example, encouragement, and in dialogue; my first teachers, my dear family, with love; and with thanksgiving above all to God, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6, ESV) vi Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. viii Part I. A reading of the dialogue: Augustine’s Birthday Feast ....................................................... 1 Chapter 1. The Dedication Letter ................................................................................................ 2 Chapter 2. Day 1 ........................................................................................................................ 32 Chapter 3. Day 2 ........................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 4. Day 3 ........................................................................................................................ 45 Chapter 5. The Retractationes ................................................................................................... 51 Part I Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 53 Part II. Themes of the dialogue ..................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 1. The Theme of a Feast ............................................................................................... 55 Chapter 2. The second theme: Neoplatonist metaphysics ......................................................... 62 Chapter 3. Monica speaks .......................................................................................................... 70 Part II Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 80 Part III. Augustine’s sources and influences................................................................................. 81 Chapter 1. Ambrose ................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 2. Scripture ................................................................................................................. 108 Chapter 3. The Platonists ......................................................................................................... 116 Chapter 4. Cicero ..................................................................................................................... 144 Chapter 5. Other classical authors ........................................................................................... 156 Part IV. Philosophy and theology; philosophy and Christianity................................................. 159 Chapter 1. From the dialogue itself ......................................................................................... 163 Chapter 2. From Augustine’s sources...................................................................................... 171 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 175 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 176 vii Introduction The purpose of this dissertation is to articulate how Augustine understood the relationship between Christianity and philosophy at the time of his conversion in light of the dialogue De beata vita. With this dialogue, Augustine takes up a philosophical genre, and he and his interlocutors engage in a philosophical mode of inquiry, and seek to answer a philosophical question: this dialogue is a work on the happy life, in dialogue form, in which the interlocutors are asking what it takes for a person to be happy. The completion of the human inquiry, however, is theological in nature. While happiness is seen by rational argumentation to be the possession of God (deum habet), the identity of that God and the answer to how one attains to Him comes from Christianity in the form of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. It is my contention that Augustine sees Christianity and philosophy as consonant. Christianity encompasses true philosophy, and a Christian engaged in the activity of philosophizing is a philosopher par excellence. However, Christianity is not only philosophy, nor is philosophy a requirement for being a Christian. While philosophy is, in some modes, theological, and occurs as a moment within theology,1 revealed theology is a source of knowledge that outstrips the natural capacities of the philosopher. 1 Joseph Pieper, in “The Philosophical Act,” uses this language of philosophy being an “inner moment” of theology. He argues that for Plato and the Greek philosophical tradition, “Theology is always prior to philosophy, and not in a merely temporal sense, but with respect to inner origin and their relationship to that origin. Philosophical inquiry starts with a given interpretation of reality and of the world as a whole; and in that sense, philosophy is intimately connected, not to say bound, to theology. There is no such thing as a philosophy which does not receive its impulse and impetus from a prior and uncritically accepted interpretation of the world as a whole.” Augustine, writing in the context of the later Roman Empire, is heir to this tradition, mediated by Cicero’s efforts to bring Greek philosophy into the Latin tongue. Not only is he heir to the tradition, but this relationship between philosophy and theology, and the recognition that all argument begins with assumption, is also the reality in which all philosophers dwell. De beata vita illustrates this relationship, as I argue in this dissertation. Joseph Pieper, “The Philosophical viii In order to make the relationship between Christianity and philosophy clear, I propose the following definition of philosophy, as derived from the text of this dialogue. Philosophy is the loving pursuit of wisdom through the activity of reason. ‘Love of wisdom’ is the etymology of the word, and it is the understanding of the word that Augustine first seized when reading the Hortensius at age 19. While the exercise of reason in this pursuit is apparently unaided, it is attested to in
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