The many conversions of Saint Augustine

Dr Jamie Wood

RELT10311 – Intro to the Study of R&T

Lecture 3, 9th October 2012

Aims of lectureHelp you to think

about conversion as a religious phenomenon

Introduce you to Augustine, perhaps the key figure of late ancient (and medieval) church

Prepare you for the first assignment (on Augustine)

Structure of lectureThinking about conversionIntroducing you to Augustine,

his world and his writingsComparing conversions:

Augustine’s sourcesBreakAugustine’s conversionsLater influence of AugustineConclusion

What is conversion?

ConversionChangeMovement from one state to anotherRealisation of potentialEventProcessIntellectualLifestyle Religious? Social or individual?Done by someone or to someone?

Conversion in the OED14 different meanings (34 sub-

definitions); not including compoundsI. Turning in position, direction,

destination.

II. Change in character, nature, form, or function. 

8.a. The bringing of any one over to a specified religious faith, profession, or party, esp. to one regarded as true, from what is regarded as falsehood or error. (Without qualification, usually = conversion to Christianity.)

Theories of Conversion (1): James

Psychological analysis of conversionThe divided and unhappy self becomes unified

and happy2 types of conversion:

◦ Gradual ◦ Instantaneous (more affectively intense than the

gradual type; result of a more active subconscious)Sharp distinction between ‘institutional’ and

‘personal’ religion,Only the convert's immediate experience is of

interest◦ Problem: severing the personal from the

institutional prevents James from appreciating how a convert's immediate experience is intimately connected with the ongoing life of a community and how stories about conversion reflect common life

William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: New American Library, 1958), pp. 157-206

Theories of conversion (2): NockDraws on James work

Similar focus on the individualBut positioned it within broader religious

context; esp. to explain success of Christianity in the Roman world.◦ ‘conversion’ to Christianity (or Judaism) involved

something very different from the adoption of other religious options

◦ adopting an additional religious affiliation is 1 thing, but renouncing all previous religious associations for exclusive participation in a new one v. different

Conversion a move from an inferior to a superior religion: realisation of truth of new religion: ‘the reorientation of the soul of an individual, his

deliberate turning from indifference or from an earlier form of piety to another, a turning which implies a consciousness that the old was wrong and the new is right.’

Arthur Darby Nock, Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion From Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (London: Oxford University Press, 1933).

Theories of conversion (3): Berger & Luckman

Sociological analysis Socialization: social process by which individuals are

inducted into society◦ Primary socialization: begins at birth; continues until an

individual has taken over and understands the world to which they belong

◦ Secondary socialization: presupposes primary socialization, transmits ‘role-specific knowledge’

Resocialization: process by which deviants or outsiders are inducted or re-inducted into society (e.g. correction of criminals; induction of immigrants)

Berger and Luckmann: ◦ In conversion to a new religion individuals undergo

resocialization because a radical transformation of their understanding of social reality occurs;

◦ Similar to primary socialization BUT it is more complex and difficult because the original social world must be cognitively displaced and destroyed in order to give the person a new social identity. Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of

Reality (London: Penguin, 1966)

Who was Augustine?

Roman/ African rhetorician turned bishop

Late 4th-early 5th century CE

Theological heavyweight

Merging of Graeco-Roman rhetorical tradition with Judaeo-Christian scriptural tradition

Augustine’s world (1): No place like RomeChristian Roman

Empire: ◦Banning of paganism at

end of 4th C; but then problems with heretics

A Roman Empire of two halves: East and West

Africa perhaps the most important province in the West ◦bread basket of Rome;

birthplace of emperors

Augustine’s world (II): Rocking Rome378: Roman

Emperor killed by barbarians in battle

410: the city of Rome sacked by barbarians

430: as Augustine lay dying, barbarians had overrun Africa and were besieging his city

The Roman Empire

Augustine’s early lifeBorn 354In Thagaste, small city in

Numidia (modern Algeria)Middling family

◦not mega-rich, but not poor either◦have slaves, but sometimes

unable to attend school/ university

Father: pagan; mother: XtianExcellent student (except

Greek)Patronage from local aristocrat

who paid for schooling

Education @ CarthageCapital of Roman Africa (2nd most

important city in Western Empire)A moved to Carthage twice:

◦Studies in rhetoric after primary education in Thagaste

◦After the death of close friend in Thagaste becomes teacher there

2 bad experiences:◦A ‘cauldron of illicit loves’; the Wreckers

(this is when the assignment reading is set)

◦Students too rowdy and decamps for Rome

The boy done good: Rome and Milan

Rome – ancient capital of the empire◦A moves to Rome from Carthage, hoping to

find better behaved students◦But students in Rome don’t pay their fees◦Augustine (or his contacts) finds sponsor who

secures him a professorship in MilanMilan – current imperial city

◦Professorship; close to imperial court◦Mother tries to organise an advantageous

marriage for him; he has to send his long-term concubine (Wills calls her ‘Una’ – ‘the one’) back to Africa

◦Lives with African friends Alypius and Nebridius pursuing truth through study

◦386 CE: conversion of Augustine in Milan (seminar reading)

Throwing it all away? Going home to Africa

Leaves professorshipLives an ascetic life,

rejecting the world (seminar reading)

Death of his son and mother

Returns to Africa395/6 CE: becomes Bishop

of Hippo Regius30 years of office

◦Preaching, writing, problem solving

430 CE: death of Augustine

3 Announcements

1. PASS2. Theology

Network Group3. Meeting about

Study Abroad options: 2pm today in Roscoe 4.4

◦Email John Zavos if you are unable to make it

Groupwork: Augustine’ sources? Take a handoutIn groups of 3-4, read

ONE of the conversion accounts (either Paul or Antony)

Answer the questionsBe ready to feed back

the most significant points of your discussion

You have 10 mins

The conversion of PaulMOTIVATION OF CONVERSION

◦ Miraculous appearance of the lord (zapping him!)◦ He was scared = fear plays a role◦ He felt helpless◦ He was blinded (blinding opens his eyes to the truth)

ISSUES OF AUTHORSHIP◦ Paul was converting people himself = he may have an

interest in selling a particular model of conversion◦ Acts presents a more detailed version of P’s

conversion to that which Paul himself wrote (which is more reliable?)

◦ Some facts within the accounts don’t match one another

The conversion of AntonyMOTIVATION OF CONVERSION

◦No family ties = means he can convert◦Reflecting on the examples of others helps (in

Gospels)◦Listens to someone else reading aloud from the

Bible (compare with Augustine, who has read Life of Antony)

ISSUES OF AUTHORSHIP◦Not a first-hand account; written by Athanasius

(uncompromising orthodox bishop); may be using his depiction of Antony to put across particular points

◦Problems of translation from Greek to Latin?◦Written some time after Antony’s death by an

outsider

The Confessions: An introduction

397- 400 CE: A writes the Confessions when he is a bishop (i.e. not contemporary with the conversion)

Themes:◦ A spiritual/ intellectual journey

(predetermined end point)◦ An African’s tale? A sub-elite story? ◦ Central role Monnica (his mother)

What is it?◦ A bestseller◦ A guidebook/ model for others◦ An attempt to understand how his life

had turned out the way that it did◦ An autobiography?

Early ‘conversions’ or intellectual development? The Manichees

A becomes interested in Manichee sect in Carthage during his studies

Almost 10 years as adherent of dualist Manichee doctrine

Mani (ca. 216-276 CE), Iranian founder of the sect: ◦ Emphasis on ongoing struggle between good

and evil◦ Claimed God was not omnipotent and struggled

against the opposing substance of evil◦ Believed human soul was of the same

substance of God◦ Division between ‘Elect’ and ‘Hearers’

Confessions and other of A’s writings refute many of these views, e.g. anti-elitist views

Intellectual adventures: NeoplatonismNeoplatonism: late antique development of the ideas

of PlatoKey figure is PlotinusEnfuses Augustine's conception of God and Creation;

e.g.: 1. God as a spiritual substance inherent in all things:

◦ everything exists only to the extent to which it participates in God:

◦ ‘in filling all things, you [God] fill them all with the whole of yourself’ (Augustine, Confessions, book I).

2. Evil has no actual existence: ◦ things are evil according to a hierarchy of being in which

some are closer to God's supreme and infinite being ◦ evil is a relative/ comparative quality◦ view that goodness of individual things varies but everything

is part of a whole from God's point of view, allowed Augustine to answer Manichee challenges about the source of evil

Ambrose of Milan and Christian reading

Ambrose was Catholic Bishop of Milan, the imperial capital

Ambrose's method for interpreting the bible (esp. the OT) has big impact on Augustine, who was previously put off by its simple and apparently literal language.

Ambrose interprets the scriptures in an abstract, spiritual sense

Allowed Augustine to overcome Manichee objections to specific phrases in the text.

Ambrose baptized Augustine alongside Adeodatus, his son, and Alypius, his close friend.

Augustine, Confessions, VI. iii (6, 8): I was also pleased that when the old writings of the Law and the Prophets came before me, they were no longer read with an eye to which they had previously looked absurd, when I used to attack your saints as if they thought what in fact they did not think at all. And I was delighted to hear Ambrose in his sermons to the people saying, as if he were most carefully enunciating a principle of exegesis: ‘The letter kills, the spirit gives life’ (2 Cor. 3: 6). Those tests which, taken literally, seemed to contain perverse teaching he would expound spiritually, removing the mystical veil. […] Already the absurdity which used to offend me in those books, after I had heard many passages being given persuasive expositions, I understood to be significant of the profundity of their mysteries. The authority of the Bible seemed the more to be venerated and more worthy of a holy faith on the ground that it was open to everyone to read, while keeping the dignity of its secret meaning for a profounder interpretation.

This week’s seminar readingDiscussion of: Augustine, Confessions, 8.6(13)-8.12(30), trans.

H. Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 141-154

Overview: ◦Layering of narratives within the story is

significant◦Account of renunciation of sexual desire (and the

‘world’ and service to the state)◦Account of impact of reading the Life of Antony on

a fellow African ◦Leads to self-examination by A and his friends◦ Importance of education◦Augustine hears mysterious voice in the garden:

‘pick up and read’ – very spiritual description◦This is the moment of his definitive conversion to

Christianity – the one to which all others point

Assignment 1With reference to

Augustine, Confessions III.iii(6)-III.vi.10 (trans. Chadwick, pp. 38-41), explain Augustine’s concept of “conversion” and comment on it in relation to Augustine’s other conversion narratives.

Assignment 1Early in the ConfessionsA is talking about his studies in

Carthage and his rowdy fellow studentsHis first reading of Cicero’s Hortensius

opens his mind to rhetoric and philosophy – a personal/ intellectual conversion?

Reads the bible and finds it lacking in style by comparison

Joins the ‘wrong crowd’ – a social conversion?

QUESTION: Where is Christianity in this extract? What does A say he is getting from these experiences?

Questions about assignment 1

Later Influence of Augustine

Theological-political influence:Sex and original sinChurch-state relationsForced conversion/

treatment of heretics

Writings such as the City of God and the Confessions have lasting influence

His sermons and letters are still being discovered and revealing a lot about

Ubiquitous AugustineProbably the most quoted/

cited/ discussed Latin author for the entire middle ages

Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, 6.7.3: ◦‘Augustine, with his

intelligence and learning overcomes the output of all these, for he wrote so much that not only could no one, working by day and night, copy his books, but no one could even read them.’

Bibliography on Augustine and conversion

E. V. Gallagher, ‘Conversion and Community in Late Antiquity,’ The Journal of Religion 73 (1993), 1-15

J. J. O’Donnell, Augustine: Confessions (1992), see esp. introduction and sections 1-3: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/augustine/

P. Frederiksen, ‘Paul and Augustine: conversion narratives, orthodox traditions, and the retrospective self‘, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 37 (1986), 3-34

C. Bennett, ‘The Conversion of Virgil: the Aeneid in Augstine’s Confessions’, Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes 34 (1988), 47-69

See also: bibliography at the back of your module syllabus

A’s conversion journey: an overview

1. Rhetoric and philosophy (your assignment)

2. Manichees (also mentioned in assignment)

3. Neo-Platonism4. Christianity (Thursday’s readings)5. Catholic (orthodox) Christianity

Note: A’s story of these conversions is always infused by the knowledge that he will eventually get to 5 (so he describes the earlier conversions with this in mind)

Question: can you spot any other conversions [e.g. in lifestyle]?

ConclusionsConversion can be both a personal/ intellectual/

spiritual experience and a social/ communal process

Augustine’s account of his own conversion is not historical fact, it is autobiographical invention◦He is interpreting his past in the light of the present

(as a Christian bishop)◦He was the greatest rhetorician of his day – so we

need to be careful when using him as evidence; he has particular messages to sell

◦He is promoting a model of what he thinks conversion should be, not necessarily what it was for him

◦His conversion to Christianity is presented as both a one-off event and a drawn-out process of intellectual investigation