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Augustine on the Image of God: an Ethical Analysis

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Augustine on the Image of God: an Ethical Analysis Augustine On the Image of God: An Ethical Analysis Matthew W. Puffer Charlottesville, Virginia Bachelor’s of Science, North Carolina State University, 1999 Master’s of Divinity, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia August 2014 © Matthew W. Puffer For Becca, Will, and Kate Table of Contents iii Abstract v Introduction 1 In the beginning of evil was the lie The history and method of the project How to read Augustine on the image of God Part I. Augustine on the Image of God I.1 Before Genesis: The image of God and the rational soul (386-388) 18 I.2 Turning Toward the Image of God in Genesis (388-390) 30 I.3 Augustine’s Priesthood: On Genesis, the beatitudes, and Romans (391-395) 42 Excursus: A late addendum to De Genesi ad litteram liber inperfectus Beatitudes as eights steps in moral progress Four stages of humanity in Romans I.4 The Bishop of Hippo Confesses a New Image of the Trinity (396-400) 65 The image of Caesar and the image of God I.5 The Image of the Trinity and the Image of God in Christ (401-412) 72 The image of God lost and found I.6 The Image of God in Five Trinities and Four Stages (413-426) 92 The trinities of the outer human The trinities of the inner human: scientia and sapientia Two trinities of faith Image of God as activity Image of God as capacity Interpreting the image of God in eight biblical texts I.7 Distinguishing Citizenships: Election and the image of the Son (420-430) 120 I.8 Seven Developments in Augustine’s imago dei (396-430) 125 Part II. Ethics after the Image of God II.1 Introduction: The Problem of Augustine’s Ethics 133 Lying and killing in Augustine’s ethics The Augustinian image of God and religious ethics today The image of God in Augustine’s ethics The image of God in Scriptural texts on lying Table of Contents iv II.2 Lying After the Image of God: De Trinitate 15 154 The analogy between the rational soul and the Trinity: Its basis and limits Immanent Trinitarian processions and the economic Christological mission The Trinitarian pre-linguistic “yes, yes; no, no” The Christological sign-assuming “yes, yes; no, no” Inseparable operations of the image of God ad extra Ignorance, errors, and lies: Finite knowledge, flawed intellect, and evil will Ignorance: Creaturely finitude of knowledge Errors: Unknowingly willing false words Lies: Knowing and willing false words Divine omniscience, simplicity, and omnipotence Exercising the image of God II.3 Retracing Augustine’s Ethics of Lying 191 Escaping deception and attaining perfection via steps and stages Mt 5.37 and the ethics of swearing Mt 5.37 and six theses on lying Mt 5.37 in Christology and Scripture Revisiting swearing: Moral dilemmas and outdoing murderers Reframing lying in ecclesial and political contexts Comparing lies: Priscillianist heresy and Catholic blasphemy Comparing lies: Egypt, Jericho, and the heavenly Jerusalem Laurentius: The necessity of error II.4 Three Stages in Augustine’s Moral Reasoning about Lying 252 The early ethics: Lying as imperfection in virtue The later ethics: Lying, error, and necessity De Trinitate 15: Lying as the origin of evil in the rational soul Conclusion 266 Defining the lie and the voluntate fallendi The limits of necessity An Augustinian account of the image of God for today Appendices 286 A: References to the image of God in Augustine’s writings B: Augustine’s image of God in five trinities and four stages C: Scriptural texts cited by Augustine in his primary expositions of lying D: Scriptural texts cited by Augustine more than once in expositions of lying E: Citations of Mt 5.37 by year Bibliography 297 v Abstract This dissertation addresses two questions: First, “What is the image of God for Augustine?” Second, “What are its ethical implications?” Part I addresses the first question by tracing the development of the image of God from Augustine’s first extant writings in 386 to his death in 430. Part II demonstrates how Augustine’s developing conception of the image of God informs the moral reasoning operative in his ethics. Part I argues three main points through an exposition of the historical development of image of God throughout Augustine’s writings. First, and most basically, Augustine’s conception of the image of God changes over the course of his writing career in ways significantly more nuanced and substantial than has been appreciated in previous scholarship. Second, the shifts in Augustine’s presentations of the image of God are evident in the alternative ways that he interprets a small number of biblical texts to which he repeatedly returns in advancing particular claims about the image of God. Third, each of seven developments in Augustine’s evolving accounts of the image of God can be traced to his interpretation of one or more of this small selection of biblical texts. In short, Augustine’s understanding of the image of God changes over time and the developments are justified in large part by his exegesis of specific biblical texts. Part II argues that the development of the image of God traced in Part I holds explanatory power for interpreting and arbitrating disputes about Augustine’s ethics. First, a close reading of De Trinitate 15 shows how Trinitarian and Christological reflection upon the image of God informs the late ethics of lying such that lying becomes the ethical issue par excellence in Augustine’s mature conception of the image of God. Second, a chronological examination of earlier expositions of lying manifests other developments in Augustine’s ethical thought. I tease out three distinct stages in the moral reasoning about lying that map onto developments observed regarding the image of God. At each stage several comparisons highlight the distinct features of Augustine’s ethics of lying at that point in its development—comparisons with his contemporaneous accounts of the image of God, with other ethical issues addressed in his writings, and with the ethic detailed in the other stages. Through this theological, historical, comparative analysis, Part II argues that recognizing developments in Augustine’s account of the image of God contributes toward identifying corresponding developments in his ethics. In short, understanding the historical development of the image of God in Augustine’s thought is necessary in order to explain features of his ethics that current scholarship elides as well as the ways in which the ethics of lying is (and is not) analogous to the ethics of swearing and coercion. Introduction 1 From the first days of his conversion to Christianity Augustine had instilled in him a deep and abiding interest in the image of God that would only increase over his forty-five year writing career.1 In total, more than five hundred explicit references to the image and likeness of God appear across more than one hundred fifty of Augustine’s treatises, sermons, and letters.2 Within the confines of this project it is not possible to address all of them, nor would it be desirable to do so. Many are mere allusions of little consequence and, as one would expect, there are many redundancies.3 Instead of an exhaustive treatment, I offer an interpretation of the development of Augustine’s thought that highlights the emergence of various conceptualizations and distinctions within his innovative and influential expositions of the image of God. This method of presentation 1 Augustine’s early interpretation of the image of God and its development are indebted to Ambrose, Origen, Plotinus, Simplicianus, Theodorus, and Marcellus Victorinus, among others. In what respects each has played a role remains of significant interest in Augustine scholarship today as evidenced by the major reassessment of the role of neo- Platonism in Augustine’s thought by self-proclaimed “New Canon” of Lewis Ayres, Michel Barnes, Luigi Gioia, Rowan Williams, and others. Assessments of Augustine’s indebtedness to the aforementioned figures include J. Heijke, “The Image of God According to Saint Augustine,” Studies in the Christian Perpetuation of the Classics (1956): 3-11; H. Somers, “Image de Dieu: Les sources de l’exégèse augustienne” Revue des études augustiniennes 7:2 (1961): 105-125; Gerald A. McCool, “The Ambrosian Origin of St. Augustine’s Theology of the Image of God in Man,” Theological Studies (1959): 62-81; R.A. Markus, “‘Imago’ and ‘similitudo’ in Augustine,” Revue des études augustiniennes (1963): 125-143; Gerald Bonner, “Augustine’s Doctrine of Man: Image of God and Sinner,” Augustinianum 24 (1984): 495-514; Roland J. Teske, “The Image and Likeness of God in St. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram liber imperfectus,” Augustinianum 30:2 (1990): 441-451; Teske, “Origen and St. Augustine's First Commentaries on Genesis,” Origeniana Quinta (1992): 179-185; György Heidl, Origen’s Influence on the Young Augustine: A Chapter of the History of Origenism (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2003); Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Luigi Gioia, The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); and Gerald Boersma, “The Context of Augustine’s Early Theology of the Imago Dei” PhD Thesis, Durham University, 2013. 2 See Appendix A. 3 Where I treat claims by Augustine about the image of God that are substantiated or corroborated in contemporaneous texts, I provide additional citations in the footnotes. Introduction 2 aims to elucidate Augustine’s mature understanding of the image of God—what it is and how it evolves—by attending not only to the increasing specificity Augustine gives to this concept but also to the particular reasons and interesting ways in which his mind changed.4 Not long ago scholars could write of Augustine that “it is reasonable to regard his opinions on most theological issues as having been established by the time he became sole bishop of Hippo in 396.”5 Careful attention to Augustine’s expositions of biblical 4 For the dating of Augustine’s works, consult the Zentrum für Augustinus-Forschung and the Augustinus-Lexikon, ed.
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