Augustine "Blessed" Aurelius (354-430)
Roman Christian philosopher, theologian, sage. A native of Numidia (in ancient times, a region in North Africa (the modern northern part of Tunisia and Algeria)). He was one of the key figures in the history of European philosophy. He came from a poor provincial family and in his youth was influenced by his Christian mother. Having been educated in Madavra and Carthage, he chose the career of a professional rhetorician (orator). In 383 moved to Rome, but soon got a job as a rhetorician in Milan, where he met Bishop Ambrose and began to study the writings of the Neoplatonists and the epistles of the Apostle Paul. In the spring of 387 he was baptized. A year later he returned to North Africa: from 391. - presbyter, and from 395 until his death - bishop of the city of Hippo. One of the most influential fathers of the Christian Church. St. Augustine. Fresco in the Chapel of Sancta Sanctorum in Laterano. 6th century
His legacy in theology and criticism is truly enormous. The most famous is the autobiographical work "Confession", which marked the beginning of the confessional genre. Augustine is called "blessed" by Catholic theologians. As a theologian and writer, he had a strong influence on the design of the entire dogma of Catholicism. The most famous works: “On Christian Doctrine”, “On the City of God”. The teachings of Augustine became an irrefutable authority in the Middle Ages. Benozzo Gozzoli. St. Augustine teaches in Rome. 1464-1465
Augustine the Blessed is the founder of the Christian philosophy of history (a branch of philosophy designed to answer questions about the objective laws and spiritual and moral meaning of the historical process). The following main provisions of the philosophy of Augustine the Blessed can be singled out: the course of history, the life of society is the struggle of two opposite kingdoms - the Earthly (sinful) and the Divine; The earthly kingdom is embodied in state institutions, power, army, bureaucracy, laws, emperor; The divine kingdom is represented by clergy - special people endowed with grace and close to God, who are united in the Christian Church; The earthly kingdom is mired in sins and paganism and will sooner or later be defeated by the Divine kingdom; Botticelli. "St. Augustine"
Due to the fact that most people are sinful and far from God, secular (state) power is necessary and will continue to exist, but will be subordinate to spiritual power; kings and emperors must express the will of the Christian Church and obey it, as well as directly to the Pope; The Church is the only force capable of uniting the world; poverty, dependence on others (usurers, landowners, etc.), submission are not pleasing to God, but as long as these phenomena exist, one must put up with them and endure, hope for the best; the highest bliss is the happiness of a person, which was understood as a deepening in oneself, learning, understanding of the truth; after death, the righteous as a reward from God receive for the grave life. Saint Augustine and Saint Monica
A special place in the philosophy of St. Augustine is occupied by reflections on God: God exists; the main proofs of the existence of God are his presence in everything, omnipotence and perfection; everything - matter, soul, space and time - are creations of God; God not only created the world, but also continues to create at the present time, will create in the future; knowledge (feelings, thoughts, sensations, experience) are real and self-sufficient (self-reliant), but the highest, true, irrefutable knowledge is achieved only when God is known.
The significance of the philosophy of Augustine the Blessed is that they: paid great attention to the problem of history (a rarity for that time); The Church (often subject to the state and persecuted in the Roman Empire) is also declared an authority along with the state (and not an element of the state); the idea of the dominance of the Church over the state, and the Pope of Rome - over the monarchs, is substantiated - the main idea, for the promotion of which and its subsequent embodiment in reality, the Catholic Church honored and idolized St. Augustine, especially in the Middle Ages; the idea of social conformism was put forward (humility with poverty and foreign power), which was also extremely beneficial for both the Church and the state; a person was sung, his beauty, strength, perfection, godlikeness (which was also a rarity for that time and suited everyone); at the same time, a person was recommended to mortify the flesh, develop and elevate the spirit, know God and completely submit to God.
Plan.
Introduction.
Conclusion
Bibliography.
Introduction.
The Middle Ages stands at the boundary between antiquity and the Middle Ages: collecting the fragments of ancient culture, at the same time it lays the foundations of the medieval, and partly of the newest European worldview. Medieval philosophy is a long period in the history of European philosophy, which is directly related to the Christian religion. This clearly defined content and direction of medieval philosophy differs from the previous ancient and subsequent philosophy of the Renaissance. Therefore, medieval philosophy was created mainly with the help of theologians, one of whom, Aurelius Augustine, is the subject of this work.
Augustine is in every respect the personification of that transitional era of the 5th century, when one dilapidated world collapses, and another is built on its ruins. This is in all respects a dual personality: in it all the opposites of his age were embodied and concentrated. Moreover, he anticipated and combined in himself the contrasts of modern times, for, being the father and, one might say, the founder of medieval Catholicism, he, along with other aspects of his teaching, was a prophet of Protestantism. And if Protestants and Catholics with the same right see in him their ancestor, then without any doubt we can recognize him as the father of Western Christianity in all its main branches.
The purpose of this work is to study the philosophical teachings of one of the representatives of the patristic period, Aurelius Augustine.
The study of the features of the philosophy of the period of patristics
Identification of the main features of the teachings of Aurelius Augustine
Analysis of one of the works of the philosopher - "Confession".
The structure of the work corresponds to the set goals and objectives.
§one. Philosophy of the period of patristics: general characteristics.
When periodizing the history of Western Europe of the new era, the starting point is usually taken as the 5th century - the century of the collapse of the slave-owning Roman Empire. From here originates the era of the Middle Ages, it continues until the XIII-XIV centuries.
The philosophy of the Middle Ages is a special phenomenon of the spiritual life of that period. The former signs of independence, characteristic of the philosophy of the ancient slave-owning society, have been lost by it. A new paradigm has arisen that constitutes the deepest foundations of human life. Man's attitude to himself and to other people, to power, to the state, to history, to knowledge has changed. Completely new authorities and social structures emerged, and new peoples entered the historical arena. With the advent and establishment of Christianity, people receive equal opportunities in the sense of spiritual being: everyone was equal before the one and only God; all who believed in him could address him personally and count on his attention and favor.
The history of medieval philosophy has its roots in the first centuries of the new era. In the works of the first Christian thinkers, we see attempts to use the ideas of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy in order to substantiate religious dogmas and ideas. In this case, something new arises in comparison with philosophy in its classical sense, namely, a kind of synthesis of a number of provisions of philosophy and theology solely in the interests of theology. The role of philosophy is reduced to the service of religion. “Therefore, it would be more accurate to speak not about philosophy as such, but about theology (from the Greek theos - god, logos - teaching), which is a theological doctrine that includes elements of philosophy”1.
In literature, it is customary to divide all medieval philosophy into two periods that have a qualitative difference, namely, patristics and scholasticism. “Patristics (from Latin pater - father) is the teaching of the founders of theology, who laid the foundations of Christian theology in a stubborn struggle against heretical ideas”2. This happened in the period from the 1st to the 8th (V) centuries. Scholasticism (from the Greek school) was a purely school (university, monastic) wisdom, in which the dogmas of Christianity were proved by means of formal logical reasoning. Scholasticism was formed in the period from VIII (V) to XII Art. and its heyday fell on the XIII - XIV centuries. Then it ceases to exist, giving way to the ideas of the Renaissance and the New Age.
What are the common features of medieval philosophy and the patristic period?
This is theocentrism, which means that in the center of the universe, the whole life of people and a particular person, there is God as the supreme being, the absolute beginning. This provision is supplemented and clarified by creationism (from the Latin creatio - creation) - the doctrine of the creation of the world and man by God according to his voluntary inclination and free will in a single act. From these two provisions follows the third - providentialism (from lat. providentia - providence), the doctrine according to which the development of human society is determined by external factors in relation to it, namely by God. Personalism and revolutionism are also essential to medieval philosophy.
The first is to understand a person as a person (from the Latin persona - a person), that is, an indivisible person with reason and free will, created in the image and likeness of God, endowed with a conscience. Each person is a special closed world, within which there is a struggle between the forces of good and evil, spirit and flesh, mind and sensuality, duty and inclination; at the same time, there is always a judge - the conscience and the law of the soul - the logos associated with the divine logos. This world is impenetrable to people, but it is open to God. Righteousness, purity of thoughts are no less significant than right deeds.
Revelationism (from Latin revelatio - revelation) refers to the principle of knowing the world; it consists in the fact that the most reliable way of knowing divine truths is to comprehend the hidden meaning of the sacred writings, which contain divine revelation. rational knowledge is not excluded, but divine revelation is considered higher and more significant for man.
Actually, the philosophical thought of antiquity in the first centuries comes into a state of decline. This happens against the backdrop of the growth and formation of theology, Christian doctrine, which at that time finds itself through the comprehension and development of its key, fundamental provisions. All this is happening in a very dynamic form: a clash of different approaches and interpretations, rivalry between religious sects, complex relations between the Christian religion and secular authorities, and so on. The approval of Christian dogmas and doctrine in general was associated with harsh reprisals against dissidents (torture, executions), official condemnation of heretics and anathematization of them.
Thus, in the period we are considering, patristic philosophy arose, that is, the teaching of the Church Fathers, the theological theorists, who in one way or another determined their attitude to ancient philosophy, themselves developed and expressed their vision of religious problems, resorting to the methods of philosophy (logical reasoning, comparison opposites, etc.).
Quintus Tertellian (160-220 AD) is called one of the first founders of patristics in literature. Tertullian is credited with substantiating the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which is fundamentally important for Christian theology. The essence of this teaching is this: each of the three persons is God; all three persons are also God. They differ as Persons, but their trinity is one as substance. "In the interpretation of the persons themselves - God, the Son, the Logos - Tertullian proceeded from the fact that in the beginning God was alone and thought alone with himself, then he was a single person"3. But at the moment when he wished to open himself, he uttered a creative word out of himself - to the world and for the world, and this word became the Logos - a real being. The Spirit also came from the Father and the Son. He, too, is an independent being, "a force that replaces the Son." In sources from medieval philosophy, Tertullian is credited with the following categorical judgment: "I believe, because it is absurd."
One of the other prominent representatives of the fathers of ecclesiastical science was Origen (182-251 AD). “The system of Origen, in which he expressed his vision of God, consists of the following sections: a) God and his revelation, b) the fall of created spirits and the consequences of this, c) salvation and restoration”4.
In the middle of the VI Art. at the Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, the views of this philosopher were recognized as heretical, and Origen himself was anathematized.
The formation of Christian patristics cannot be imagined without the participation of Platonism in it. This influence was realized through the school of Neoplatonism, the last major philosophical system of Western antiquity. Its founder was Plotinus (203-270 AD), he was born in the Roman province of Egypt in the city of Lycopolis; studied philosophy, in order to get acquainted with the philosophy of the Persians and Indians, participated in the military campaign of Gordian III; then ended up in Rome, where he founded his school.
Plotinus appears before us as an interpreter of Plato's ideas, but not all ideas, but only those that could in any way be associated with a new reality. It is primarily about the Christian religion. Plotinus is attracted mainly by Plato's doctrine of the world of ideas, of the one (Plato's dialogue "Parmenides"), the doctrine of the good ("State"), the doctrine of the antagonism of soul and body ("Phaedrus"), the doctrine of the bogenus-demiurge and the cosmic soul ("Timaeus"), as well as other ideas. Christianity was at enmity with Neoplatonism because of its adherence to the pagan roots of ancient Greek philosophy, but Neoplatonism itself was the sphere through which paganism was relatively painlessly transformed into Christianity.
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The semantic core of Neoplatonism is the doctrine of the One. One is God. According to Plotinus, it has a supra-world nature, it rises above many things; it is inaccessible to knowledge, because, due to its absolute separation from the many (the world of things), it is, in essence, nothing. It is neither a thought, nor a spirit, nor a will, much less an object; it is absolute and therefore unknowable. But at the same time, it is nothing but the generative principle, the root cause, the eternal root cause of everything that exists. Thus, everything arises, in principle, from nothing.
However, the One does not create the world, it radiates, in other words, an emanation takes place (from Latin emanate - flow, pour). The One is the top of the vertical (source of divine light); one step lower is the world mind generated by him (nous); even lower on the step is the world soul (the world of ideas, eidos); and finally, the last step is nature.
Thus, in Neoplatonism, we see much of what constitutes the core provisions of Christian theology: at the same time, the “readiness” of pagan philosophy to transform into Christian theology is manifested here, which, in turn, turns out to be not alien to ancient philosophy.
Aurelius Augustine can rightfully be considered one of the most prominent representatives of Neoplatonism and the patristic period as a whole, whose biography and philosophical teachings are devoted to the following paragraph.
§2. Philosophical views of Aurelius Augustine.
In the history of Christian patristics in the IV-V centuries. AD a figure appears who was destined to become almost at the center of the spiritual life of the Middle Ages. This is Aurelius Augustine (Sanctus Aurelius Augustinus Augustine Blessed) (354-430), known as the bishop of Hippo (a city in North Africa that has not survived). He was born in the city of Tagaste (on the territory of modern Algeria), in his youth he led a carefree life of a wealthy person, but then he joined the philosophical religious ideas and decided to devote himself to religion - he spoke about this frankly and in detail in his "Confession", which can be considered as an experience of the autobiography of the Middle Ages.
Blessed Augustine is one of the most interesting historical figures that has ever existed. Evaluation of it is one of the most difficult and difficult tasks in view of the diversity and richness of the elements that were part of his teaching and in one way or another influenced the formation of his character. Augustine is in every respect the personification of that transitional era of the 5th century, when one dilapidated world collapses, and another is built on its ruins.
“The son of a depraved pagan African and a Christian saint, Augustine throughout his life remains a dual product of paganism and Christianity, which struggle in him until the end of his life, not being able to completely overcome one another”5. Augustine receives a good education: he studied in Carthage, Rome and Milan. Under the influence of Ciceron's "Hortensius", which he met at the age of 19, this vague search turns into a conscious philosophical reflection. This work of Cicero, which has not come down to us, is an eloquent exhortation to philosophizing. According to Augustine's own admission, it awakened in him a conscious love for wisdom, a conscious need to seek it. “Suddenly,” he says, “I was sick of all vain hope, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an inexpressible, fiery desire of my heart.” thus, already at the earliest stage of its development, Augustine's philosophical thinking is sharply idealistic. But this idealism of youth was not expressed in any definite philosophical outlook, but had only an impulsive character. Philosophical reflection only destroyed for him that world of illusory interests and vain dreams, which he had lived up to that time, destroyed his complacency. Philosophical idealism, expressed in the realization of the discrepancy between reality and the desired ideal, was for him only a new source of pain and torment. He did not heal, but on the contrary, exacerbated the painful state of moral division and discord in him. From this arises that pessimistic mood, which soon finds expression in the Manichaeism of Augustine. “Looking closely at Manichaeism, we will be convinced that this religious-philosophical system, especially in its Western form, which was adopted by Augustine, is nothing but a kind of pessimism of that time.”6
Disillusioned with Manichaeism, Augustine falls into the skepticism of the new academy. But this skepticism was only a passing moment in his development and could never completely take possession of his energetic and passionate nature.
It was only a temporary and, moreover, a short-lived state of hesitation and indecision. “It seemed to me,” writes Augustine, “that those philosophers who are called academics were more cautious than others, arguing that everything should be doubted and being in doubt about everything, I decided to leave the Manicheans, thinking that I should not remain in this sect to which I have already preferred certain philosophers.
Augustine's skepticism, indeed, was for him only a transitional stage to the mystical worldview of the Neoplatonic philosophers. “You excited me, O God,” we read in Confession8, “with inner urges, so that I would burn with impatience until I became convinced of You through inner contemplation.” The painful state of doubt and hesitation was only a manifestation of an unsatisfied search, and Augustine's skepticism was only a consequence of his innate mysticism, which did not allow him to calm down on dogmatic constructions. The school of Neoplatonists, in particular Plotinus, had a greater influence on the formation of the personality and beliefs of the philosopher.
But Aurelius Augustine is not known as a Neoplatonist; Augustine finds the object of his search in the Divine Self. In the energy of the personal self-consciousness of the Divine, the lost unity is restored and the single personality is saved. This is the objective place where the human "I" finds its peace, that inner peace that frees from the torment of a divided consciousness. Having lost God, we wander, not finding a place for ourselves, and only in it we find ourselves, we come to ourselves. “Where was I, Lord, when I was looking for You? You were before me, but I came out of myself, did not find myself, and even more so - You. God is "the life of my life." Having lost Him, we lose the integrity of our being, losing the inner world. “You made us for You, Lord,” we read in the Confession, “and our heart is anxious until it rests in You.” Having found God, we wake up, as it were, from a heavy sleep. “I awakened in You and otherwise saw in You the infinite, and this vision was not carnal. And I looked at everything that exists and saw that all things owe their existence to You and everything finite is in You, but not like, as in any extended place, since You hold everything in Yourself by the power of truth. Having thus taken into himself the Neoplatonic elements, Augustine, however, in this period was not a completely Neoplatonist. For him, the vital, practical task is in the foreground, and the speculative, mystical ideal of these philosophers does not satisfy him because of its abstractness.
Perhaps this determined the range of issues that Aurelius Augustine devoted his numerous works to the development of.
The subject of Augustine's search is God, interested in the salvation of man, in which the human, personal element is not destroyed, but is preserved, receiving the highest content and focus. That is why Neoplatonism in him immediately acquires a Christian coloring. In place of the abstract “One” Plotinus and Porfiry, he has the energy of the personal self-consciousness of the Deity, which enters into a dialogue with a person, answering his search.
This is the logical process that pushes Augustine from Neoplatonism to Christianity and the Church. Looking deeper into the philosopher's new worldview, we will see that it retains that powerful philosophical idealism that awakened in him under the influence of Ciceron's Hortensius. Further we will find Manichaean elements in it. At the same time, “he contrasts the pessimism of the Manicheans with an optimistic theodicy, at the same time retaining a share of the truth contained in it: for, being an optimist in the hope of a better life, he retains a pessimistic attitude towards earthly life that is completely consistent with Christianity”9.
Delving further into the worldview of our Father of the Church, we will find in him that skepticism, which, as we have seen, is expressed in humility of mind, in the consciousness of man's inability to know the truth by his own forces alone. Needless to say, it retains the mystical ideal of the Neoplatonists; like the Neoplatonists, it considers everything that exists sub specia aeterni, referring all individual things to their eternal supersensible idea.
But Augustine attached great importance to the Christian basis of his philosophy. He carried out what his predecessors only indicated: he made God the center of philosophical thinking, his worldview was theocentric. In other words, Aurelius Augustine believed that God is primary. This primacy has both a metaphysical and epistemological and ethical character. God is the highest essence, he is the only one whose existence is independent, everything else exists only due to the divine will. God is the cause of the existence of every being, of all its changes; he not only created the world, but also constantly preserves it, continues to create it. Augustine rejects the notion that the world, once created, develops on its own.
In the doctrine “On the City of God”, Augustine also puts forward the idea of the unity of human and divine history, which flow in opposite, but mutually inseparable spheres, the content of which is the battle of two kingdoms (city) - divine and earthly. In this case, “the Church in history occupies a special position: it is the community of Christ, it unites, according to the will of God, the elect, and outside of it it is impossible to find salvation. The Church is the visible representative of the kingdom of God on earth. The secular city and its state are also established by God, but they do not have a privileged position, like the church, which occupies the highest position, and the state must serve it. Accordingly, Augustine's socio-political doctrine is based on the idea of inequality, which he defends as an eternal and unchanging principle of social life. Inequality is part of the hierarchical structure of the social organism created by God. The earthly hierarchy is a reflection of the heavenly hierarchy, the "monarch" of which is God. Trying to prevent the masses from turning to heretical teachings, Augustine also refers to the Christian idea of the equality of all people before God - all people come from one forefather.
Only under such conditions is it possible to create a harmonious social organism.
In addition to the doctrine of the two cities, Augustine also develops questions of the essence of man, the confrontation in him of the body and soul.
Augustine understands the soul as an original substance that does not contain anything material, has only the function of thinking, will, memory, but has nothing to do with biological functions. The soul differs from the body in perfection. Moreover, the soul, and not the body, knows God, while the body prevents knowledge. The superiority of the soul over the body requires that a person take care of the soul, suppress sensual pleasures. Such an understanding also existed in Greek philosophy, but Augustine was the first to say that this perfection comes from God, that the soul is close to God and is immortal.
The whole philosophy of Augustine focused on God as a single, perfect, absolute being, while the world matters as God's creation and reflection. Without God, nothing can be done or known. In all of nature, nothing can happen without the participation of supernatural forces. Augustine's worldview was very clearly opposed to naturalism. God as a single entity and truth is the content of metaphysics, God as a source of knowledge is the subject of the theory of knowledge; God as the only good and beautiful is the subject of ethics, God as an all-powerful person and full of mercy is the main issue of religion. Happiness can be achieved in one thing - in God. The achievement of human happiness presupposes, first of all, the knowledge of God and the testing of the soul.
Continuation
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Reason cannot know the truth about God, but faith can. Emphasizing the role of feelings or the heart, Augustine asserted the unity of faith and knowledge. “Understand so that you can believe, believe in order to understand” - this is the quintessence of his idea. Augustine's philosophy rejects the concept of an autonomous position of science, where reason is the only means and measure of truth. This understanding corresponds to the spirit of Christianity, and on this basis the subsequent phase, scholasticism, could be built.
Evaluation of good and evil in the world, their distinction was the most problematic in the philosophy of Augustine. On the one hand, the world as a creation of God cannot be unkind. On the other hand, the existence of evil is certain. When defining the concept of theodicy, or defense of the perfection of creation, Augustine proceeded from the fact that evil does not belong to nature, but is a product of free creativity. God created good nature, but its evil will poisoned it. Evil comes from man, has an earthly character, while good comes from God, the product of God's mercy. Man is responsible for evil, but not for good.
Augustine tried to explain such basic categories of time as present, past, future11.
So, Aurelius Augustine made a significant contribution to the development of medieval philosophical thought and was the author of the original teaching. He reflected his views in various works. The next section is devoted to one of these works.
§3. "Confession" of Augustine the Blessed.
Aurelius Augustine was the author of a very interesting and relevant concept at that time. The philosopher worked very fruitfully. Augustine wrote many books in Latin. We will mention only some of them: About order, Monologues, About the teacher, About music, About the immortality of the soul, About true religion, About free will.
You can dwell on four of his works, such as:
Against Academicians (Contraacademicos), where he refutes skepticism.
On Free Will (Deliberoarbitrio), where the problems of evil and free will are discussed
On the city of God (DecivitateDei), in which Augustine develops his vision of history and offers the doctrine of two cities - God's and Earth's.
Confessiones, where Augustine reveals the vicissitudes of his spiritual struggle. In this book, the philosopher with deep psychologism and utmost sincerity described his life and the foundations of his faith. “Augustine appears in it not as a Greek citizen, but as a separate individual, a person involved in the struggle of soul and body, where emotions prevail over reason.”12
Let's dwell on the "Confession" in more detail. The path of his philosophizing here is from discord and bifurcation of personal life to objective peace and unity. Since we close ourselves in our sensory world, we find only darkness and suffering in ourselves. “Don’t you see and are you not horrified by this abyss?” exclaims Augustine. And so we seek to know it more than we really understand it.” All of Augustine's thinking in his pre-Christian era is a series of gigantic efforts to break out of this negative, gloomy depth of subjective consciousness to objective light and truth, to free himself from his sinful personality and its fatal split.
He himself speaks in his Confession about that period of his life when, having already freed himself from Manichaeism, he had not yet converted to Christianity: . The only thing that raised him to the objective light of God, he says, was that his will was just as certain for him as his existence. And the arguments of the skeptics have never been able to shake this inner certainty of self-consciousness. But in his very will he found one internal contradiction, one hopeless discord. “For this will is the cause of my sin, but I myself do not want sin and do what I hate. When I commit a sin involuntarily, I endure it rather than commit it.“, and, therefore, this state of unfreedom is rather a punishment than guilt, moreover, a punishment that I suffer justly.
Therefore, there is something absolutely certain that rises above my contradictions: in the very discord I recognize the objective law of absolute justice; - such is the way of thinking of Augustine. The absolute certainty of my will, of my existence, is reduced to the absolute certainty of that objective good, that objective world and order that my will requires. Split and discord is a form of temporary reality, but peace and unity are its eternal ideal. "The main motive of Augustine's philosophy is the search for such a universe that would overcome the contrasts of temporal reality, its evil duality in the unity of universal peace and rest"13. This search is, first of all, a painful and painful process; in it the pangs of the spiritual birth of the new world are combined with the dying sufferings of the old.
But in addition to his own searches, this work of the philosopher also reflected his main ideas ... In the "Confession" Augustine the Blessed talks a lot and with unsurpassed intellectual ingenuity about the problems of time and space.
Aurelius Augustine poses bold theological questions: could God create this world earlier or later than he did? what did God do before he created the world? How does God relate to the concepts of time and eternity? In solving them, Augustine adjoins the Platonic interpretation of time, that is, he considers time to be a created substance. The world was not created in current time, the theologian says, but time begins to flow from the creation of the world.
God is in eternity, and therefore temporary concepts are not applicable to it: “earlier”, “later”, it is unlawful to ask God what he did when there was no world. Therefore, God could not create the world either earlier or later than he created, that is, time begins to go only and immediately with the creation of the world.
Aurelius Augustine restores the Aristotelian understanding of time as a measure of movement, and opposes the ordinary identification of these concepts. “I heard from a learned person that the movement of the sun, moon and stars is time, but I do not agree with this. Why then not consider the movement of all bodies as time? If the heavenly bodies stopped, and the potter's wheel continued to move, then there would be no time by which we measure its revolutions? ”Augustine asks14. When Joshua, says Augustine, in order to complete the victory in the battle, asked the sun not to set, and through his prayer it happened, did time pass then? Yes, time goes on at its own pace, regardless of the movement of celestial or any other bodies, because we believe that time passes even when they are at rest and say that such and such a body stood so much, thereby implying independence time from the movement of bodies.
Are the questions of longitude and brevity of time, the duration of the past, the measurement of time, psychological approaches to time reflected here? Time is divided into past, present and future, and the first is no longer there, the third is not yet there, and the present is elusive, continuously passing. “Time, becoming from the future to the present, comes out of some kind of hiding place, and the present, having become the past, goes into some kind of hiding place.” However, we could not measure some kind of illusion, therefore, time is some kind of reality. What do we measure in time, if we can’t grasp its essence in any way? he asks. Reality can be called the past, which was once the present, and the future, which is yet to become the present. Each of us carries the image of the past in our soul, remembers it. The predictors see the future. This means that all three hypostases of time actually exist, do not have a dreamy existence.
In our soul there is that hiding place or source of duration by which we measure the depth of the past, which does not exist in itself, but only in connection with the depth of memory. Nothing but memory carries words and images of things. The amount of a particular memory for us is equal to the strength and depth of impressions. In the same way, prediction, preliminary reflection on the basis of those images that we have inside, in memory, draws the image of the future for us. Therefore, says the philosopher, there is neither future nor past in themselves, but there are three faces of one time - the present of the past, the present of the present and the present of the future, associated with memory and impression, which are the most important tools for understanding time. God wants to tell us that we must not allow distraction; our duty in relation to beings is to remember everything that has passed, to keep it in our souls.
More distinctly than the philosophers of antiquity, Aurelius singles out the concept of space, which was then generally called place. “For him, just like time, space has a certain reality independently of the things that fill it”15. He calls space a non-moving vessel, that is, not coinciding with the boundaries of bodies.
The reasoning of Aurelius significantly cleared the tradition of Plato and Aristotle from layers and developed a substantial concept of time, whose adherents seek to justify the independence of the flow of time and the existence of space from the movement of material bodies. Logical constructions and the philosopher's unexpected posing of questions about time and space have always aroused philosophical interest; even today they are able to serve as a source of new images and associations.
Reading Augustine's Confession, we feel the bottomless depth of subjective consciousness opening up before us, but in this depth we can see the struggle of objective world contrasts. It reveals to us that psychological process which, to a greater or greater extent, is experienced by everyone who gains faith at the cost of struggle and effort, who comes to it through long searches and doubts. At the same time, this same “Confession” can be considered as a subjective reflection of the society of that time, split between the opposite poles of unbridled sensual nature and ascetic holiness.
Conclusion.
The teachings of Augustine became the defining spiritual factor of medieval thinking, his philosophical views influenced the entire Christian Western Europe. At the same time, Augustine is a very vivid reflection of the period of patristics, the teachings of his predecessors.
Augustine laid the foundations for a new Christian philosophy. He rejected the classical approach of the Greeks, based on objectivism and intellectualism, his approach was introspective, he attributed primacy over reason to the will. Reviewing all his literary activity, we will note in the development of his teachings three stages corresponding to his struggle with three Christian heresies: Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism. 1) against the Manicheans, he develops the doctrine of the objective unity of the world plan and contrasts their rationalism with the unity of church authority; 2) against the Donatists, the same principle of the unity of the world order is specified as unitas ecclesiae; Catholic universalism is opposed to their ecclesiastical particularism; 3) against the Pelagians, who deny grace, the unity of the action of grace is affirmed as an objective saving principle, unity, as a universal predestination triumphing over individual human freedom.
Continuation
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Developing certain aspects of his teaching against heresies that deny this or that side of Christianity, Augustine concentrates and summarizes it in its entirety against the pagans. Here the ideal of our thinker receives its most complete and perfect expression, is formulated as Civitas Dei, as the unity of universal divine power.
Bibliography
Augustine. against academics. Institute of Philosophy RAS; Per and comment. O.V. head. – M.: Greco-Latin. office.Yu.A. Shichalina, 1999 - 192 p.
Blinnikov L.V. Great Philosophers. Word-reference book. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Logos, 1997 – 429 p.
Gartsev M.A. The problem of self-consciousness in Western European philosophy (from Aristotle to Descartes) - M. Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1987 - 214p.
History of Philosophy. Proc. for universities. / Ans. editor: V.P. Kakhanovsky, V.P. Yakovlev. - Rostov-on-Don.: Phoenix, 2001 - 573 p.
Mussky I.A. One hundred great thinkers. – M.: Veche, 2000 – 687 p.: ill.
Skirbeck G., Gilier N. History of Philosophy./[Transl. from English. IN AND. Kuznetsova]. - M.: Vlados, 2000 - 799s.
Aurelius Augustine Confession.// www.rchgi.spb.ru
Aurelius Augustine On the city of God.// www.rchgi.spb.ru
Trubetskoy E.N. The world outlook of Blessed Augustine in its genesis.// www.rchgi.spb.ru
Site Information books.atheism.ru,
Site information www.PHILOSOPHY.ru
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St. Augustine. Fresco in the Chapel of Sancta Sanctorum in Laterano. 6th century
Roman Christian philosopher, theologian, sage. A native of Numidia (in ancient times, a region in North Africa (the modern northern part of Tunisia and Algeria)). He was one of the key figures in the history of European philosophy. He came from a poor provincial family and in his youth was influenced by his Christian mother.
Having been educated in Madavra and Carthage, he chose the career of a professional rhetorician (orator).
In 383 moved to Rome, but soon got a job as a rhetorician in Milan, where he met Bishop Ambrose and began to study the writings of the Neoplatonists and the epistles of the Apostle Paul.
In the spring of 387 he was baptized. A year later he returned to North Africa: from 391. - presbyter, and from 395 until his death - bishop of the city of Hippo. One of the most influential fathers of the Christian Church.
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BenozzoGozzoli. St. Augustine teaches in Rome. 1464-1465
His legacy in theology and criticism is truly enormous. The most famous is the autobiographical work "Confession", which marked the beginning of the confessional genre. Augustine is called "blessed" by Catholic theologians. As a theologian and writer, he had a strong influence on the design of the entire dogma of Catholicism.
The most famous works: "On Christian Doctrine", "On the City of God." The teachings of Augustine became an irrefutable authority in the Middle Ages.
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Botticelli. "St. Augustine"
Augustine the Blessed is the founder of the Christian philosophy of history (a branch of philosophy designed to answer questions about the objective laws and spiritual and moral meaning of the historical process).
The following main provisions of the philosophy of Augustine the Blessed can be distinguished:
The course of history, the life of society is the struggle of two opposite kingdoms - the Earthly (sinful) and the Divine;
The earthly kingdom is embodied in state institutions, power, army, bureaucracy, laws, emperor;
The divine kingdom is represented by clergy - special people endowed with grace and close to God, who are united in the Christian Church;
The earthly kingdom is mired in sins and paganism and will sooner or later be defeated by the Divine kingdom;
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Saint Augustine and Saint Monica
Due to the fact that most people are sinful and far from God, secular (state) power is necessary and will continue to exist, but will be subordinate to spiritual power;
Kings and emperors must express the will of the Christian Church and obey her, as well as directly to the Pope;
The Church is the only force capable of uniting the world;
Poverty, dependence on others (usurers, landowners, etc.), submission are not pleasing to God, but as long as these phenomena exist, one must put up with them and endure, hope for the best;
The highest bliss is the happiness of a person, which was understood as a deepening in oneself, learning, understanding of the truth;
After death, the righteous receive the afterlife as a reward from God.
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A special place in the philosophy of St. Augustine is occupied by reflections on God:
God exists;
The main proofs of the existence of God are his presence in everything, omnipotence and perfection;
Everything - matter, soul, space and time - are creations of God;
God not only created the world, but also continues to create at the present time, will create in the future;
Knowledge (feelings, thoughts, sensations, experience) are real and self-sufficient (self-reliant), but the highest, true, irrefutable knowledge is achieved only through the knowledge of God.
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The significance of the philosophy of Augustine the Blessed is that they:
Much attention is paid to the problem of history (a rarity for that time);
The Church (often subject to the state and persecuted in the Roman Empire) is also declared a power along with the state (and not an element of the state);
The idea of the dominance of the Church over the state, and the Pope of Rome - over the monarchs is substantiated - the main idea, for the promotion of which and its subsequent embodiment in reality, the Catholic Church honored and idolized Augustine the Blessed, especially in the Middle Ages;
The idea of social conformism (reconciliation with poverty and foreign power) was put forward, which was also extremely beneficial for both the Church and the state;
A man was sung, his beauty, strength, perfection, godlikeness (which was also rare for that time and suited everyone);
Slide 8
Aphorisms:
“Let us believe if we cannot understand”;
"Faith asks, reason reveals";
“All human troubles come from the fact that we enjoy what we should use, and we use what we should enjoy”;
“If there is no evil, then the very fear of evil is evil”;
“Evil is called both what a person does and what he endures. The first is sin, the second is punishment. A person commits the evil that he wants, and suffers the evil that he does not want”;
"Who hates the world? Those who tore the truth to pieces";
“Love for one’s neighbor is limited by how much each person loves himself”;
"Love for the temporal can only be banished by feeling the sweetness of the eternal."
Dmitrieva Julia
The biography of Aurelius Augustine, the facts that influenced his worldview are considered.
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Municipal budgetary educational institution Gymnasium No. 14 Presentation on the topic: Augustine's teachings Completed by: Student of grade 10a Dmitrieva Yulia
The concept of patristics Patristics (from Greek πα τήρ, lat. pater - father) is the philosophy and theology of the church fathers, that is, the spiritual and religious leaders of Christianity until the 7th century. The teachings developed by the Church Fathers became fundamental to the Christian religious worldview. Patristics made a huge contribution to the formation of ethics and aesthetics of late antique and medieval society.
Augustine's patristics Augustine's patristics is his earthly life with the Truth, life and creativity in and for Her, the life of a person sharing the Truth, helping others to find It and accept it. "You created us for yourself, and our heart does not rest until it rests in You." With this formula, Augustine, at the beginning of his Confession, explains the origin and nature of not only his spiritual quest, but also the human philosophical quest in general.
Childhood of Augustine Augustine Aurelius was born in 354 in the African city of Tagaste, in Numidia, not far from Carthage.
Augustine's Acquaintance with Cicero's Work and with the Bible He felt his first serious attraction to philosophy as a result of his acquaintance with Cicero's now lost dialogue "Hortensias". Inspired by ancient philosophy, Augustine begins to search, and, among other books, reads the Bible. But the rhetorician, familiar with Aristotle and Plato, accustomed to the clear, conversational style of the ancient authors, was not ready for the perception of a text that was not very clearly written and contradictory.
The dualistic sect of the Manichaeans Being unprepared for the perception of the Holy Scriptures, in Carthage, Augustine joined the dualistic sect of the Manichaeans, whose representatives professed duality of principles, that is, they attributed to the devil, or evil in general, an independent existence on a par with God.
Invitation to Mediolan In 384, Augustine was invited to Mediolan (now Milan) to head the court school of rhetoric there. Wanting to break with the Manichaean milieu, he gladly accepts this invitation. In 386, Latin translations of the Ennead by the Neoplatonist Plotinus fell into the hands of Augustine.
Moving to Hippo In 388, Augustine takes his second step in Christianity: he sells his parental estate and distributes money to the poor. The next step is to become a monk. After some time, he moved to Hippo and, having received the blessing of the bishop, founded a small monastery.
Augustine's teachings In the first years of his bishopric, he wrote the most fundamental works of a theological nature: an exposition of Christian dogma "On the Trinity", an interpretation on the book of Genesis, "On the City of God" (Augustine's largest treatise in terms of volume, devoted to the theological understanding of history and sociological problems, from which Christian philosophy of history began), as well as "Confession".
Death of Augustine Augustine died in 430 during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. And in 1928, Pope Boniface VIII officially declared him a teacher of the church.
The Philosophy of Augustine The philosophy of Augustine is often called Christian Platonism. Considering the history of ancient philosophy (mainly in the work "On the City of God"), he recognizes Platonism as its greatest achievement. In general, in the "City of God" Augustine quotes about 40 ancient authors, which indicates his excellent knowledge of all ancient philosophy, which, as shown above, played a crucial role in his spiritual development.
Concerning the subject of his philosophical studies, Augustine wrote: "I desire to know God and the soul, and absolutely nothing more." It is to this topic that his most inspired and capacious philosophical postulates and formulas are devoted: "God, without changing, creates the changing, out of time creates the temporary." "Holy God! You did not create the earth and the sky out of Yourself, otherwise they would be like You. However, there was nothing outside of You from which You could create them. Therefore, You created them out of nothing." "There is something in a man that the human spirit itself, which lives in him, does not know." "The image of God - this indestructible property of man - is, in fact, not in the external, but in the internal man, not in the body, but in the immortal rational soul." "You, O God, breathed into the bodily structure of man a living soul that moves and governs." "What are we made of? Spirit and body. Which one is better? Spirit, of course." "Reason is the soul, or it is in the soul." "Reason is the gaze of the soul, by which it itself, without the mediation of the body, contemplates the true."
The Augustinian apologia for traditional Christian ideas about the creation of the world was founded. After all, even when discussing time, St. Augustine remains true to his formula of knowledge - and here he tries to know God and the soul and poses bold theological questions: could God create this world earlier or later than he created it? what did God do before he created the world? How does God relate to the concepts of time and eternity? The world was not created in current time, Augustine answers, but time begins to flow from the creation of the world. God is in eternity, and therefore temporary concepts are not applicable to it: "earlier", "later". It is unlawful to ask God what he did when the world did not exist.
References 1. Augustine Aurelius On the city of God // Blessed. Augustine. Creations. Brussels: Life with God, 1974. Book. 10, part 3 (Repr. ed. Kyiv, 1906) 2. Aurelius Augustine. Confession. M.: Enlightenment, 1991
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