Abstract
One might think that the title above raises an idle question. And indeed in a sense it does. Could a theologian get on with his business at all without reasoning in universal terms about what universally is? Lacking general notions on the nature of being-ingeneral, could he even begin to work out a theory of its Principle ? By what means could he then build a theology?
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“Porro si sapientia Deus est, per quern facta sunt omnia, sicut divina auctoritas veritasque monstravit (Sap. VII, 24-27); et Hebr. I, 2, 3), verus philosophus est amator Dei. (The City of God, VIII, 1 (PL 41, 224-225); italics added. “Obsecro te, non sit honestior philosophia Gentium quam nostra Christiana, quae una est vera philosophia, quandoquidem Studium vel amor sapientiae significatur hoc nomine.” (Against Julian the Pelagian, IV, 14.72 (PL 44, 774); italics added.
See preceding note.
Sermon XLIII, 7.9 (PL 38,253). Cf. Epistle CXX, I, 3 (PL 33,453); On St. John’s Gospel, XXXVI, 7 (PL 35, 1667).
“Haec est sapientiae et scientiae recta distinctio, ut ad sapientian pertineat aeternarum rerum cognitio intellectualis: ad scientiam vero temporalium reum cognitio rationalis.” The Trinity, XII, 15.25 (P L 42, 1012).
Cf. Soliloquies I, 6.13 (PL 32, 876); On St. John’s Gospel, XXXV, 8.3 (PL 35, 1658). The texts on this “illumination” are very numerous. See A. Martin, S. Augustini Philosophia, II, ch. 32 (ed. Fabre) for a collection of many of the principal statements concerning this celebrated and much controverted topic in Augustine; and one especially recommends the excellent gathering of texts by L. W. Keeler, S.J., Sancti Augustini doctrina de cognitione, Romae, 1934. It would be irrelevant for us to enter here into the problems and controversies involved.
Confessions, X 23.33 (PL 32, 793); The Trinity, X, 3.5 (PL 42, 975); On the Blessed Life, II, II (PL 32, 965); 11, 14 (PL 32, 966); III, 18 (PL 32, 968), etc.
Against Julian the Pelagian, IV, 14.72 (PL 44, 774). Cf. The City of God, VIII, 9 (PL 41, 233); On the Christian Way of Life, I, 21.38 (PL 32, 1327).
E.g., Enneads, V, 1, 7.
E.g., Republic, VI, 508 E-509 B.
E.g., See Victorinus, On the Generation of the Divine Word (Liber de generatione Verbi divini, ch. 4-5), (PL 8, 1022; 13, 1027); The Book on Causes (Liber de Causis), e.g., Par 2, 5, 21 (ed. Bardenhewer, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1882, pp. 165, 168, 183; Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names (De divinis nominibus), IV, 3.
While this reading, based on the Septuagint (a Greek version of the O. T. made between 280 and 130 B. C), is not a perfectly literal rendering of the Hebrew original, that problem is here metaphysically irrelevant; for Augustine’s understanding of its ontological import agrees precisely with the Christian idea of God as the single Supreme Being and is therefore incompatible with any opposing metaphysical interpretation. It is pertinent to note that Augustine ascribes pre-eminent authority to the Septuagint because he firmly believed that God had provided that version for the instruction of the Gentiles even as He had provided the Hebrew text for the instruction of the Hebrews. That is why (according to Augustine) the Holy Spirit had inspired the Septuagint translators to deviate at times from the Hebrew text: only by doing so could they express the truth in the manner in which God willed it to be expressed to the Gentiles. See On Christian Doctrine, II, 15.22 (PL 34, 46); The City of God, XVIII, 43 (PL 41, 604). See below, Ch. X, p. 74 n. 3.
E.g., in Sermon VI, 3.4 (PL 38, 61); VII, 7 (PL 38, 66); The City of God, XII, 2 (PL 41, 350); The Trinity, V, 2.3 (PL 42, 912).
Etienne Gilson, Being and Some Philosophers, 2nd edition, Toronto, 1952, p. 31.
“Ipsum esse se vocari respondit; et tamquam hoc esset ei nomen: Hoc dices eis, inquit, Qui est, misit me” (Exodus 3: 14). Commentary on Psalm CXXXIV, 4 (PL 37, 1741).
Ibid.
Non dixit, Dominus Deus ille “omnipotens, “misericors,” “Justus,” quae si diceret, utique vera diceret. Sublatis de medio omnibus quibus appellari posset et dici Deus, “ipsum esse” se vocari respondit; et tamquam hoc esset ei nomen: “Hoc dices eis, inquit, Qui est, misit me.”Ibid. See above, note 3.
Note that Augustine says “essentia.” See below, chapter IX for the meaning of this important term in Augustine.
The City of God, XII, 2 (PL 41, 350).
On the True Religion, XVIII, 35 (PL 34, 137).
Ibid. See Augustine’s lengthy development of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo in his treatise Against Felix the Manichean, II, 18 (PL 42, 547-48). Cf. C. O’Toole, The Philosophy of Creation in the writings of St. Augustine, Washington, 1944.
On the True Religion, XVIII, 36 (PL 34, 137).
Confessions, XII, 6.6 (PL 32, 827).
Ibid., also XII, 8.8 (PL 32, 829).
A Literal Commentary on “Genesis,” I, 15, 29 (PL 34, 257).
Op. cit., PL 8, 1022; PL 13, 1027.
Enneads, V, 1.7.
Enneads, V, 1.10.
Enneads, V. 3.13. Italics added.
Parmenides, 141 E; Republic, VI, 509 B.
Plotinus, Enneads, V, 4.1.
Cf. Enneads, V, 5.6.
Enneads, V, 3.13.
See J. Anderson, The Bond of Beins, St. Louis: Herder, 1949, esp. pp. 67-68.
Cf. Op. cit., ch. III.
E.g., see L. Grandgeorge, Saint Augustin et le neéo-platonisme, Paris, Leroux, 1896; G. M. Manser, “Augustinus Philosophie in ihrem Verhàltnis und ihrer Abhàngigkeit von Plotin,” Divus Thomas, vol. X, 1932.
Answer to the Skeptics, III, 20.43 (PL 32, 957).
Summa Theologiae, I, q. 84, a. 5.
The City of God, VIII, I (PL 41, 224).
E.g., see On the True Religion, V, 8 (PL 43, 129); The City of God, VIII, 8 (PL 41, 232-33); VIII, 4 (PL 41, 227-29); The Christian Way of Life, 1,16.26 (PL 32, 1322); I, 8.13 (PL 32, 1316); I, 14.24 (PL 32, 1321).
Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 1, a. 2 and a. 6.
Cf. J. Maritain, Les degreés du savoir, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 4th ed., 1946, ch. VII, 8; authorized English version: Distinguish to Unite or The Degrees of Knowledge, translated under the supervision of G.B. Phelan, New York: Scribners, 1959.
Maritain, op. cit., p. 595; English version, p. 300.
E.g., see The City of God, VIII, 8 (PL 41, 232-33).
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© 1965 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Anderson, J.F. (1965). The Existence of Augustinian ‘Metaphysics’. In: St. Augustine and being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9447-1_1
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