Reception, Gifts, and Desire in Augustine's Confesssions
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RECEPTION, GIFTS, AND DESIRE IN AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSSIONS AND VERGIL’S AENEID DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Rocki Tong Wentzel, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by William Batstone, Adviser ________________________________ Fritz Graf Adviser Graduate Program in Greek and Latin Richard Fletcher ABSTRACT My dissertation is a thematic exploration of themes of reception in Vergil’s Aeneid and how those themes are received by Augustine in his Confessions. I begin with the problem of reception in the Aeneid, a world which lacks a clear and consistent gauge to assess action and desire. Reception is explicated through an examination of gifts, which is exemplary of giving and reception in general. A study of gifts is also useful in illuminating the desire that guides reception. Reception is examined on three levels: reception within the Aeneid itself, Augustine’s reception of the Aeneid, and reception within the Confessions. The project resembles Augustine’s conversion process, in that it moves from the objects of desire in the phenomenal world, such as empire and body to the all- encompassing desire of the Christian faith for a unified and omnipotent God. The gifts from God, which are instruments of Augustine’s conversion, include rhetoric, exempla, and Continentia. By accepting and using these gifts, as God intends them, Augustine is making a proper return on them. The composition of his Confessions is one such return, in that it is a gift to his audience, in which he offers himself as an exemplum in return for the exempla that shaped his conversion narrative and experience. Augustine’s narrative of this conversion ii transforms and appropriates the language and themes of erotic desire as represented by the Aeneid, so that his conversion narrative effects a conversion of the Aeneid itself. Augustine offers a solution to the problems of desire in the Aeneid by defining all problems and issues of reception in terms of a good and merciful creator. iii For Grant, Ben, and Mia iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to my director William Batstone, for the astute insight he has offered, the clarity and integrity he has always insisted upon, and the myriad ways he has shaped my thinking; to Fritz Graf for his kind support, helpful suggestions, and willingness to assist in so many matters; and to Richard Fletcher for his generous feedback, conscientious attention to detail, and patient chats over mushroom frittatas. I want to thank Tom Hawkins for his copious comments early in the process and Julia Hawkins for reading countless drafts of the Ascanius portions of Chapter 1, which greatly helped to direct the project. I must also thank Victoria Wohl and Erik Gunderson, who gave me my very first lessons in critical theory. I’d also like to thank all the amazing graduate students and faculty at The Ohio State University for their thoughtful and thought provoking comments and suggestions. Finally I’d like to extend a very special thank you to my parents, an endless source of love and support through all my schooling; to my in-laws for their encouragement and confidence in me; to Grant, to whom no acknowledgement could do justice, and to Ben and Mia for unwittingly motivating me in their quiet and wondrous ways. v VITA July 7, 1975 . Born Yuba City, CA 1997 . B.A., Classical Studies, University of California, San Diego 2003 . M.A., Greek and Latin, The Ohio State University 1997-1999 . Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 2002-2007 . Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..v Vita………………………………………………………………………………..vi Chapters: Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1 1. Embracing Images: Themes of Reception and Desire in the Aeneid………….16 2. Augustine’s Reception of the Aeneid: A Journey Towards Conversion………78 3. Rhetoric, Exempla, and Continentia: the Gift of Conversion…………..........138 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...192 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………197 vii INTRODUCTION A Problem of Reception In the passage that closes Book 1 of the Confessions, Augustine summarizes the message of his composition: quid in tali animante non mirabile atque laudabile? at ista omnia dei mei dona sunt. non mihi ego dedi haec: et bona sunt et haec omnia ego. bonus ergo est qui fecit me, et ipse est bonum meum et illi exulto bonis omnibus, quibus etiam puer eram. hoc enim peccabam, quod non in ipso, sed in creaturis eius me atque ceteris voluptates, sublimitates, veritates quaerebam, atque ita inruebam in dolores, confusiones, errores. gratias tibi, dulcedo mea et honor meus et fiducia mea, deus meus, gratias tibi de donis tuis; sed tu mihi ea serva. ita enim servabis me, et augebuntur et perficientur quae dedisti mihi, et ero ipse tecum, quia et ut sim tu dedisti mihi. What is not admirable or praiseworthy in a living creature such as this? But all those things are gifts of my God. I did not give these things to myself: they are good and all that I am is made up of them. Therefore he, who made me, is good, and he himself is my good, and exulting, I thank him for these good gifts, from which I was made even as a boy. For in this way I was sinning – I was seeking pleasures, distinctions, and truths, not in God himself but in his creatures, and I was thus rushing headlong into pains, confusions, and errors. I give thanks to you, my sweetness, my honor, and my faith, my God, I thank you for your gifts; but preserve them for me. In this way you will preserve me, you will increase and bring to perfection your gifts to me, and I will be with you, because you gave me that too – the fact that I exist. 1 (1.20.31) 1 All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated. The translations of the passages from the Confessions have been influenced by the translation of Maria Boulding, cited as Augustine (1997), whose word choice, I feel, is sympathetic with my views on gifts and desire in the Confessions. Like her, I often translate phrases, such as quae dedisti, as “God’s gifts”. 1 Here Augustine begins at the time of composition, confessing God as the creator of all things and giver of gifts. Then he continues by confessing the sins of his past, the root of which lay in searching for God in the wrong places and in erroneous ways. Finally he comes full circle expressing the thanksgiving that is owed for God’s gifts. This includes acknowledgment that the process of growing in his gifts, as he does in part through his composition, is accomplished fully by God. In his proper acceptance of God’s gifts, he achieves the communion with God, which he regards as the constant and fixed object of his desire and longing, even when his desires were evil or perverse. Reception of God’s gifts is guided by desire. In the Confessions desire is called by various terms as concupiscentia, desiderium, cupiditas with little distinction in usage. When I use the term desire, I intend to use it as Augustine does, which is succinctly put by Edwards’ as “will joined to an object.”2 Since all things are made in accordance with God’s will and he is all- powerful, all things contain God’s desire. For Augustine, evil is the perversion of the good, therefore evil is introduced when gifts bestowed by God are misperceived or misused, in other words, when they are received in a way contrary to God’s intention in bestowing them. For example, Augustine sees his intellectual acuity as a gift from God, but he uses this gift to seek the approval of others and to serve his own vanity, rather than to please God and advance his kingdom. Because there is no evil in the gifts themselves, what Augustine must 2 Edwards (2006) 15 2 turn away from in his conversion is not a matter of what he has but how he has received it. In other words, Augustine’s conversion is a matter of reception. Before Augustine can receive God’s gifts properly, he must have knowledge of the truth, which is synonymous with God (1.5.6). “Making the truth in his heart” (veritatem . facere in corde meo) is also the chief goal of his Confessions (10.1.1). Truth is revealed to him through Scripture, the authority of which God willed in order to provide guidance for man, whose powers of reasoning are not enough to discover it on their own (6.5.8). God’s Gifts God’s gifts are given out of his perfect love and grace, yet they demand repayment. How can a gift that demands a return be unconditional? Derrida argues that pure gifts are impossible, because in order for there to be a pure gift, there must be pure generosity, which is not possible, since every gift necessarily involves a return, whether it is a reciprocation of the gift, gratitude from the recipient, or a feeling of self-satisfaction for the giver. Therefore the possibility for the existence of the gift is effaced as soon as it is given.3 Bourdieu similarly calls gifts into question, reducing gift exchange to a contract.4 Millbank, in response to Bourdieu and Derrida, proposes ‘agape as the consummation of gift- exchange’5 and ‘purified gift-exchange – and not ‘pure gift’ is what Christian 3 Derrida (1991) 4 Bourdieu (1977) 5 Milbank (1995) 144 3 agape claims to be.’6 He argues for a possible fulfillment of desire at a moment of pure exchange: We have inherited a contrast between agape, a ‘giving’ love, and eros, a ‘desiring’ love, but human erotic attachments are only sustained by the incessant exchange of gifts, which are always tokens of further, future gifts, such that desire is never fulfilled as possession, for a constitutive lack in desire will always prove its own thwarting.