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9674 RTAM 09 Davidson The Vita Beata: Ambrose, De Officiis 2.1-21 And the Synthesis of Classical and Christian Thought in the Late Fourth Century In his Sermo 150, Augustine argues that the desire to attain the vita beata has been the motivation for all types of philosophy, and that it is also the reason that people would give if asked why they became Christians; the quest is common to all human beings, whether good or evil. Appetitio…beatae vitae philosophis Christianisque communis est1. The truth of Augustine’s claims is illustrated in a variety of Latin Christian works from the fourth century, which take up the traditional philosophical theme of hap- piness and the summum bonum. Lactantius relates the highest good to the immortality of the soul, and calls upon his readers to find their destiny by devoting themselves to the worship of the true God; the worship of God is the greatest virtue, and it wins the blessedness of eternal reward2. Augustine’s De beata vita, written at Cassiciacum in November, 386, and dedicated to the cultured neo-Platonist, Manlius Theodorus, presents a blend of Plotinian thought with Catholic orthodoxy: the blessed life con- sists in the knowledge of the triune God3. Ambrose’s De Iacob et vita beata, based upon sermons to which Augustine may well have listened earlier in 386, concentrates on the virtues of blessedness as illustrated in the narratives of the Maccabees and of the patriarch Jacob. Ambrose offers an amalgam of Stoic and neo-Platonist sentiments as he sketches the character of the per- son who proceeds towards eternal fellowship with God by ratio- nal control of his passions, detachment from his external circum- stances, and finally, like the faithful martyr, remaining steadfast 1. Augustine, Serm. 150.4. Augustine goes on to present Christ as the way to blessedness: haec est doctrina Christianorum, non plane conferenda, sed incom- parabiliter praeferenda, doctrinis philosophorum, immunditiae Epicureorum, superbiae Stoicorum (150.10). 2. Lactantius, Inst. 3.7ff.; 7. 3. See the edition of J. Doignon, Oeuvres de saint Augustin: Dialogues philosophiques: De beata vita — la vie heureuse (Bibliothèque augustinienne 4.1, Paris 1986). 200 RECHERCHES DE THÉOLOGIE ANCIENNE ET MÉDIÉVALE as he faces death4. All these works have received justifiable atten- tion for their assimilation of major points from classical philoso- phy. However, one striking example of the way in which classi- cal perspectives and biblical teaching coexist in a fourth-century Christian mind has been relatively neglected by scholars: namely, the opening section of book 2 of Ambrose’s De Officiis (2.1-21). The passage repays careful study as an illustration of Christian humanism at work5. Ambrose models his De Officiis on Cicero’s work of the same name, which is in turn based upon the writing of the middle Stoic Panaetius, with some further influence from Posidonius and Heca- ton of Rhodes6. Ambrose follows the basic structure of Cicero’s three books, on the honourable, the expedient, and the relationship between the two. As Cicero wrote to his son Marcus, and beyond him to the ambitious young men who were witnessing the collapse of the Republic, so Ambrose addresses his spiritual ‘sons’, the younger clergy of Milan, setting out ideals of moral conduct which would foster the influence of the church in North Italian 4. On the composition of the work, see G. Nauroy, ‘La méthode de composi- tion d’Ambroise de Milan et la structure du De Iacob et vita beata,’ in Y.-M. Duval (ed.), Ambroise de Milan. XVIe centenaire de son élection épiscopale. Dix études (Paris 1974), pp. 115-153. On the neo-Platonism, see A. Solignac, ‘Nou- veaux parallèles entre saint Ambroise et Plotin: Le “De Iacob et vita beata“ et le Peri eudaimonias (Ennéade I,iv ),’ Archives de philosophie 19 (1956), pp. 148- 156. 5. I use the Budé text edited by M. Testard, Saint Ambroise, Les Devoirs 1-2 (Paris 1984, 1992). 2.1-21 has been studied by P.J. Couvée, Vita beata en vita aeterna. Een onderzoek naar de ontwikkeling van het begrip “vita beata” naast en tegenover “vita aeterna” bij Lactantius, Ambrosius en Augustinus, onder invloed van de romeinsche Stoa (Baarn 1947), pp. 131-173, esp. pp. 155ff., along with Iac. Couvée’s treatment is, however, far from comprehensive, and fails to note the neo-Platonist influences which sit alongside the Stoicism in Ambrose. Some details are also noted in J.E. Niederhuber, Die Lehre des hl. Ambrosius vom Reiche Gottes auf Erden. Eine patristische Studie (Mainz 1904), pp. 143- 159, and esp. pp. 191-204; F.H. Dudden, The Life and Times of St. Ambrose 2 (Oxford 1935), pp. 514-519 (again missing the neo-Platonism). See too: R. Holte, Béatitude et sagesse: saint Augustin et le problème de la fin de l’homme dans la philosophie ancienne (Paris 1962), pp. 63-70, 165-176, 193-231; E. Dassmann, Die Frömmigkeit des Kirchenvaters Ambrosius von Mailand: Quellen und Entfaltung (Münster 1965), pp. 261-267. 6. On Cicero’s sources, see M. Testard, Cicéron, Les Devoirs 1 (Paris 1965), pp. 25-49; on the work generally, P. Mackendrick, The Philosophical Books of Cicero (London 1989), pp. 232-257. THE VITA BEATA 201 society, where challenges were being experienced from both pagan revivalism and Arian doctrinal deviancy (1.24). Ambrose’s work almost certainly consists of a number of addresses to these clerics on Ciceronian ethical topics, which have subsequently been slightly revised and collected for publication as a treatise on eccle- siastical conduct7. Ambrose’s introduction to book 2 does not parallel a similar section in Cicero. In Off. 2.1-8, Cicero introduces the theme of expediency, and defends the study of philosophy as he has been pursuing it in his recent writings; he also seeks to defend his posi- tion as one who sympathizes with Academic scepticism, pointing to the pragmatic epistemology proposed in his Academica, where it is argued that we can act on the basis of probability, once both sides of a question have been examined. Cicero has the phrase ad bene beateque vivendum in Off. 2.6, as he describes the practical quest of the philosophers, but he says no more about the vita beata in this section (he had already dealt with the subject at a popular level in Stoic Paradoxes 6-19, and in a thorough fashion in De Finibus and in Tusculan Disputations 5). Ambrose evokes Cicero at the beginning and end of his discussion, in 2.1 (superiore libro de officiis tractavimus, quae convenire honestati arbitraremur: cf. Cicero, Off. 2.1) and in 2.21 (sed iam ad proposita pergamus: cf. Cicero, Off. 2.8), and he mentions honestas or the honestum in 2.1,3-4,8, but otherwise there is no allusion to Ciceronian lan- guage, not even to the theme of expediency which is to occupy 7. So, int. al., M. Ihm, ‘Studia Ambrosiana,’ Jahrbücher für klassisches Philologie suppl. bd. 17 (1890), p. 27; R. Thamin, Saint Ambroise et la morale chrétienne au IVe siècle. Etude comparée des traités “Des Devoirs” de Cicéron et de saint Ambroise (Paris 1895), pp. 216-217; Th. Schmidt, Ambrosius, sein Werk de Officiis Libri III und die Stoa (Augsburg 1897), pp. 12-13; O. Barden- hewer, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 3 (Freiburg 1912), p. 529; J.-R. Palanque, Saint Ambroise et l’Empire romain: contribution à l’histoire des rap- ports de l’Eglise et de l’Etat à la fin du quatrième siècle (Paris 1933), pp. 452- 455; Dudden 2, p. 694; A. Paredi, Saint Ambrose: His Life and Times (Notre Dame, Ind. 1964) p. 316. On the other hand, W. Steidle, ‘Beobachtungen zum Gedankengang im 2. Buch von Ambrosius, De officiis,’ Vigiliae Christianae 39 (1985), pp. 280-298, argues that book 2 is carefully constructed. On the compo- sition of the work more broadly, see M. Testard, ‘Etude sur la composition dans le “De officiis ministrorum” de saint Ambroise,’ in Y.-M. Duval, op. cit., pp. 155-197; id., ‘Recherches de quelques méthodes de travail de saint Ambroise dans le De officiis,’ Recherches Augustiniennes 24 (1989), pp. 65-122. 202 RECHERCHES DE THÉOLOGIE ANCIENNE ET MÉDIÉVALE book 2. It is possible, though we cannot be sure, that 2.1-21 comes from an independent homily on the vita beata, which Ambrose has inserted into the published version of Off. by adding a little Ciceronian language. It is clear from even a cursory reading of 2.1-21 that Ambrose works with two distinct controlling concepts of the vita beata: (1) vita beata in a Christian sense, identified with eternal life; (2) vita beata in a non-Christian sense, associated with virtue, the bless- ings of a good conscience, and the moral benefits of suffering and privation. The coexistence of these two strands offers a fascinating glimpse into the way in which Ambrose combines biblical per- spectives with principles which he has inherited from classical philosophy. I shall consider his handling of each sense of vita beata in turn. (1) In 2.1, Ambrose sets the tone of his discussion by referring to his treatment of honestas in book 1: the honourable is the ideal in qua vitam beatam positam esse nulli dubitaverunt quam Scrip- tura appellat vitam aeternam. Scripture defines the blessed life as eternal life. Eternal life is called blessed ut non hominum opinion- ibus aestimandum relinqueretur sed divino iudicio committeretur (2.3). When it comes to defining this type of blessed life, Ambrose draws on the range of NT conceptions, depicting eternal life as a future reality with benefits in the present. A good deal of debate has, of course, taken place over the differences between the use of (eternal) life in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Fourth Gospel.
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