Augustine and Diotima: Comparing Concepts of Love

Introduction: Love as Union with the Good

In the Symposium, Socrates repeats the words of Diotima that love "is of the good's being one's own always" (Symposium 268). These words essentially get to the heart of Augustine's own feelings towards his mother Monica, who would be recognized by the Church as a saint. As Augustine observes, she was faithful to God all her life, dutiful to her husband, careful of her children, and always laboring to serve God's servants. Through her actions she showed herself to be in love with God, full of the spirit of God, and in possession of the good. If love is of the good's being one's own always, as Diotima suggested, Monica was certainly the personification of love. This paper will show that Augustine's conception of love has much more in common with Diotima's than it has differences, for both get to the heart of love as a union between the source of all goodness and the human soul.

For both Socrates and Augustine, love is a kind of holy union with the divine — the ultimate source of all that is good. When one is "in love," one is united to that goodness and possesses it completely and permanently, never losing it. Love is also a process of begetting — of engendering, of bringing forth fruit.

Love as Engendering: Diotima and Monica

Augustine observes that this engendering quality of love is certainly evident in his mother Monica, who brought her children into the world, raised them, and even looked after them when they went astray — as Augustine himself did — so that they might return to the good they were born to be a part of. Diotima explains it to Socrates thus: "For eros is not, Socrates, of the beautiful as you believe." "Well, what then?" "It is of engendering and bringing to birth in the beautiful." "All right," I said. "It is more than all right," she said. "And why is eros of engendering? Because engendering is born forever and is immortal as far as that can happen to a mortal being" (Symposium 269). Love produces fruit, in other words. Love produces children, either in the flesh or in the spirit.

For Monica it was thus, as Augustine says in his Confessions, speaking to God: "Such a one was she — Thou, her most intimate Instructor, teaching her in the school of her heart" (Confessions 9.9.21). Monica emphasized union with God and held that this union was all that mattered, even on her deathbed. Augustine recounts that when his brother asked whether she would not prefer to be buried in her homeland, she stated that it mattered not to her where she was buried, but only "that you will remember me at the Lord's altar, wherever you be" (Confessions 9.11.27). By observing how faithfully Monica observed the laws and spirit of God and made them part of her own life — converting her husband, her mother-in-law, and her own children to the spirit of God — Augustine shows that Monica's love is just like Diotima's conception of love: of being one's own always.

The Core Difference: Christian vs. Pagan Conceptions

The main difference between the two conceptions is that Diotima's sense of love is based upon the pagan experience and the natural philosophy of her time. She has no conception of Christ as the Man-God. Monica does have this belief, and thus for her, love is rooted in the Christian religion and in acting according to the example given by Christ — that is, in showing love and patience towards all, so that they might come to believe in the love and mercy of Christ, her God. For Diotima, love is not personified by Christ and consists of a much more abstract notion, though in essence the idea of love is similar to what Monica evinces in her daily life, as depicted by Augustine: love is unconditional, love is lasting, love is faithful, and love is total.

The quality of love is that it is transformative and lifts one above the mediocre and ordinary. For Monica, by possessing the love of God, she became a saint, living her life in the holiness of one who is in possession of love and radiating love in all directions. It is her unwavering possession of this love, her example of love, that causes Augustine to grieve when she dies: he has lost her example in his own life and must now remember her and use her as a guide — that he too might engage in the engendering of love wherever he goes.

Conclusion: A Shared Vision of Love

In conclusion, it could be said that Diotima and Augustine are both of the same spirit in terms of how they see love. They do not see it as a feeling or as a possession of the beautiful. Rather, they see it as a process — a work of begetting, of engendering. They see it as a holy union. Monica had that holy union with God and passed it on to Augustine. Diotima understood this concept intimately even in the pre-Christian era.