The fires are still raging in San Diego. We are safe, but many are not. Meanwhile, life continues and so I am in a Panera Bread right now finishing up what will probably be 11-page take-home essay exam for my Metaphysics and Epistemology class. Tomorrow, I go back to work.
So, as I am continuing to read Augustine (I finished the Confessions last week and have continued in De Trinitate) and read secondary material, I found the following blog post by Peter Leithart helpful:
Such efforts continue to be important, especially considering that in the last month in the Radical Orthodoxy group on Facebook, somebody posed a question prefaced with the following statement: “From what I have read about radical orthodoxy, Milbank and others want the church to go back to the neo-platonism of St. Augustine.” There are so many assumptions in this question that need to be addressed, but the first of which is what, exactly, is the kind of ‘neo-platonism’ held by Augustine? I know Michael Hanby’s book tackles this (I haven’t read it, but will in the next couple weeks), but Leithart’s post is also a good place to start in beginning to answer this question.
Eric,
If you want to see more “for yourself” on the Christian Platonism of Augustine, sometime (when you have like a free month or two!!!) read ‘The Republic’ and ‘The City of God’ back to back. Doing that convinced me. Of course, there’s much in Augustine that cannot be traced to and is, in fact, counter to Platonism, but much of his framework is Platonic thought. Anyway, that is what convinced me. I’m so glad to know you’re doing well.
Peace,
Rusty
A Radical Orthodoxy Facebook group?!? But is anything more indicative of decadent, nihilist modernity than Facebook? ;)
IIRC Augustine had little direct exposure to Plato, but was more heavily influenced by Plotinus and other late-antique neo-platonists. There are some significant differences between Plato and the neo-platonists, which is worth keeping in mind.
Glad to hear you’re safe, btw.
Thanks for the comments, mates.
Hmm, well I guess I actually don’t need convincing of the neo-platonism of Augustine — it is pretty self-evident in the Confessions alone. Take a look at book X where he does the inner movement of ascension through memory thing. However, what most people miss in this section (ch. 40) is that he says that what he finds at the end of this journey is a lie, because you do not “get” to God through inner reflection, but instead through Jesus Christ, who is fully human and fully divine (see X.40 where he undercuts the ‘intermediary’ language, going against neo-platonic ideas of the levels/ascensions to God where the Father, at least in gnostic thought, was thought to be the ‘demiurge’ and the Son the real God).
The point of contention, then, is that people just think that is all Augustine is, as if it somehow compromised his Christianity. So, there are claims that Augustine is always starting from the ‘unity’ of God and then moving to the Tri-unity, and so, the story goes, this is another indication that “the West” is so much more indebted to and at the stranglehold of Greek (neo-)Platonism than Christianity itself. Leithart’s post in referencing Ayers and others attempts to begin to cut through that. Also, in reading through De Trinitate myself, I also just don’t see how Augustine is “beginning” with the unity. He is always starting from Scripture where he finds the different persons of God and then also arguing that these are the same “substance” (saying, rather more humbly than people seem to remember: “whatever that is”) in God.
It would be interesting to ask Mark Bilby some of these questions about Augustine and neo-platonism — he’s teaching this year at PLNU and has done a lot of reading on Augustine but has also taken a class from Milbank (when he was at U. of Virginia) on neo-platonism.
I have a feeling that when I read through Hanby’s book I’ll be posting more thoughts as well, as I know he tackles this stuff…he’s really familiar with Plotinus and all that.
Thanks y’all.
Peace,
Eric
Eric,
My fellow NTS thesis writer from last year (we were the only two at the time) wrote his on Plotinus and Augustine, if you care to get some bibliographic info from him. Greg Miller: gmillhouse@gmail.com.