A colossus bestriding two worlds

Most philosophers are strange people. Greek philosopher Diogenes lived in a barrel like a dog. In fact, he was called “The Dog.” Socrates drank a cup of hemlock to honour the country’s laws. He refused to run away from the prison when some of his well-wishers volunteered to bribe the jailers and secure his release. Similarly, Aurelius Augustine (354-430 AD) upheld the Greek philosophical view that logic could unlock the keys to the universe. However, after some time, he contradicted himself by saying that faith was more important than reason. This he did after embracing Christianity.

According to Christian theology, man and everything in the universe are created by God. Humans are corrupt and ignorant creatures who inhabit the earth. After this life, those who commit sin will suffer in hell and others who do good deeds will live happily in heaven.

An all-powerful loving God is always there to redeem mankind. Thus Christian theologists place more emphasis on faith in God than reason. Faith can move mountains, as the saying goes. Even the great physicist Albert Einstein said, “God does not play dice with the universe.”

Study of God

In the Middle Ages, most philosophers turned to the study of God from the study of man. They studied theology to unravel the mystery of man and the universe. In the process they confronted many questions: Can man understand God through reason? Can a Christian question the concept of God? The first Christians were not interested in the classical view of life expressed by Greek philosophers. Gradually, Christian doctrine increased in complexity.

Aurelius Augustine tried to synthesise the Christian theology with Platonic philosophy. In the process, he was caught between two worlds. His mother, Monica, who was a devout Christian influenced him to embrace Christianity. However, he found that something was missing in his life. Then he tried to satisfy his bodily desires such as sex.

He said that in his tender youth love and lust seethed within him. Under the influence of his mother he started reading the Bible and the first part he read seemed written just for him: “Let us behave with decency as befits the day; no drunken orgies, no debauchery or vice, no quarrels or jealousies!”

Augustinian Order

Augustine was baptised in Milan. He sold his inheritance, helped the poor and founded the Augustinian Order, supposed to be the oldest Christian monastic order in the West. After becoming a Bishop, he challenged non-believers to public debates. He wrote a number of treatises including the Confessions and the City of God. Before his death, he wrote his own epitaph: “What maketh the heart of the Christian heavy? The fact that he is a pilgrim, and longs for his own country.”

After embracing Christianity, Augustine rejected Greek philosophical concepts such as Platonism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. He said that faith was a prerequisite for any philosophical inquiry. He believed that reason was dangerous without faith in God. On more than one occasion he ridiculed Greek philosophy.

Augustine firmly believed that it was only through faith that wisdom could be attained. According to him, religion or philosophy were quests for finding the truth. the philosopher without faith could never find the ultimate truth. He said, “Unless thou believe thou shalt not understand.”

Conversion

As a youth, Augustine renounced religion but after his conversion to Christianity he realised that faith was the forerunner to everything. In reply to his detractors Augustine said all men were born in sin and they were sinners. However, a redemption is possible by the grace of God irrespective of what we do on earth.

In recent times, leading philosopher Wittgenstein paid a compliment to Augustine’s Confessions, not for its religious or even philosophical pronouncements, but for the way in which Augustine describes the learning of language: “When my elders named some objects and accordingly moved towards something, I saw this and I grasped that the thing was called by the sound they uttered when they meant to point it out.” Augustine will be remembered as a colossus bestriding two worlds.