Augustine\'s View of the Body From the Confessions

Augustine and Science

Science in the modern sense did not exist for Augustine, or indeed for any of his contemporaries, nor were the events of the material universe and the physical-temporal bodies located within it of any great importance to him. Nor was his purpose in writing the Confessions to explain the natural world, but rather to uphold the Truth (in the sense of absolute and eternal Truth as revealed by God) of the Bible and Christianity against its opponents, particularly the Manichean dualists. Augustine has no interest in the natural world in and of itself, or even any real curiosity about nature except as it turns the mind to reflection about the enteral nature of God and the soul (Confessions, 10.6). He rejects the pride, lust and vanity of the material world, including the pride that philosophers took on their wisdom and learning, in favor of following the example of Christ (10.42). All human beings really need to know is that Christ died for their sins and stands and a mediator between a sinful world and an eternal Creator.

In Books 11-13 of the Confessions, Augustine takes aim at his Gnostic and Manichean opponents, who rejected the creation stories in Genesis 1. Of course, neither side in the argument can be faulted for having no knowledge of the Big Bang and evolution, which would have been impossible in the 5th Century. As Augustine understood these matters, the Bible stated that God created time, space and physicality, and originally only "form without matter" existed (Wills, 2011, p. 122). By an allegorical reading of Genesis, rather than what he regarded as a naive and literal one, God then went on to create light, eternal patterns (similar to Plato's Perfect Forms) and angels as the first beings with "created wisdom" (13.4). Light did not simply refer to stars or the visible spectrum, but spiritual enlightenment and eternal Truth, which can only be discovered internally, though intense reflection and introspection (13.12). Once again, for Augustine, any mention or description of the material world leads immediately and inexorably to reflection on higher, spiritual Truth.

God was timeless, and in fact created time itself, but also acted constantly within a physical-temporal world and sent Jesus Christ to be incarnated within that world in order to redeem it from sin. Because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, humans were now "disarticulated into time" (ego in tempora disilui) but because of God's saving grace now had the chance for eternal life where they would "melt into the fire's" of divine love (11.39). Human beings were still crude, carnal and limited creatures, who concentrated on the "visible works of God" rather than their Creator (12.24), but Augustine's duty as a Christian bishop was to direct their thoughts, emotions and desires away from physicality to the "divine mysteries that are cloaked in human language" (Wills, p. 121).