Augustine: Earlier Writings
concerning religion. You could not decently make any other reply. Now suppose you are in the presence of a man who is going to hand on religion to you, how are you going to assure him that you come in a true frame of mind, that there is no guile or dissimulation in you so far as concerns the matter in hand? You will say your conscience is clear, that you are void of deceit. You will assert this with all the words you are master of, which are, however, only words. For you cannot lay bare the lurking places of your mind, that you may be intimately known as man to man. But if he said: I indeed believe you, but would it not be equitable that you also believe me, seeing that, if I possess any truth, you are going to receive a benefit and I am going to confer one; what would you reply? Surely: Yes, I ought to believe you.
24. But you say: Would it not have been better to have given me a reason so that I might follow where he led without any rashness? Perhaps it would. But it is a difficult matter for you to know God by reason. Do you think that all men are fitted to grasp the reasons by which the human mind is drawn to the knowledge of God? Or are a good many so fitted, or only a few?
I think only a few, you say. Do you believe you are of their number? That is not for me to say, you reply. Do you think, then, that your religious teacher ought to believe this of you. Suppose he does so. Then remember that he has twice believed you when you said things he could not be certain of; but you were unwilling to believe him even once when he was speaking about religion. Granted then that you approach religion with a true mind, and that you belong to the small number of those who are able to grasp the reasons by which divine power leads to certain knowledge, do you think that religion is to be denied to other men who are not endowed with so clear a mind? Are they not to be brought to the inmost sanctuary gradually step by step? You see what is obviously the more religious thing to do; for you cannot think that any man who desires so great a possession ought to be abandoned or rejected. But don't you think that he will not attain real truth otherwise than by first believing that he will reach his goal; then by presenting his mind as a suppliant; finally by purifying his life by action in obedience to certain great and necessary precepts? Of course you do. But what of those who can easily grasp divine secrets with certain reason? I dare say you belong to that class. Is it any disadvantage to them to come by the way by which those come who start with believing? I trow not. And yet you ask: THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF 3II Why must there be delay? Because, even if they do themselves no harm by by-passing faith, they harm others by their example. Hardly anyone thinks of himself as he ought. He who thinks too little of himself must be stimulated. He who thinks too much, must be repressed, so that the former may not be broken by despair, and the latter fall headlong through over-boldness. The easy way to effect this is to compel those who are able to fly, and who might be a dangerous incitement to others, to walk as is safe for those others. True religion provides for this very thing. This has been divinely commanded and handed down by our blessed predecessors and preserved to our own day. To want to disturb or pervert this practice is nothing but to seek a sacrilegious way to true religion. Those who do so, even if they are allowed to, cannot reach their goal. However they may excel in genius, unless God be with them, they merely crawl along the ground. But God is only with those who, seeking him, have also a care for human society. No surer step towards heaven can be found. How can I say that nothing is to be believed when knowledge is impossible? I cannot resist the argument that there cannot be friendship of any kind unless something is believed which cannot be rationally proved. A master is not blamed for trusting the slaves who serve him. But in religion what can be more unfair than that God's ministers should believe us when we profess to be sincere but that we should be unwilling to believe them when they instruct us. Finally, what way can be more sound than first to become fit to receive the truth by believing the things which God has appointed for the preparation and cultivation of the soul? Or, if you are already fitted, to follow a somewhat round-about but entirely safe path rather than to thrust yourself into danger so as to be an example of rashness to others. xi, 25. It remains for us to consider why we should not follow men who promise to guide us by reason. We have already explained why it is not blameworthy to follow those who bid us believe. But some think that it is not only not blameworthy but in fact praiseworthy to go to these self-styled sponsors of reason.
It is not so. In religion two kinds of people are praiseworthy: those who have already found the truth, whom we must judge to be entirely blessed; ^ and those who seek it rightly and earnestly. Of these the former are already in possession. The latter are on the way that leads most certainly to possession.
1 Cf. Retract. I, xiv, 2. Augustine corrects this, and says that such blessedness of possession is not possible in this life.
There are three other classes of men who are certainly to be disapproved and detested. There is the opinionated kind. They think they know what they do not know. The second class is composed of those who realize that they do not know, but do not seek in such a way that they may find. In the third class are those who do not think they know and are unwilling to seek at all. There are also in men three mental activities, closely related but needing to be distinguished, viz., knowing, believing and holding an opinion. If these are considered in themselves the first is always faultless, the second is sometimes so, the third never. To know important, honourable, even divine things is perfect blessedness. To know superfluous things does no harm, but perhaps in learning them we waste time that should be used for more necessary purposes. There is no harm, even, in knowing harmful things, but doing or suffering them is bad. If a man knows how to kill his enemy without danger to himself, the knowledge does not make him guilty as the desire to act on it would. If that desire is lacking nothing could be more innocent. Believing is blameworthy if one believes anything unworthy of God or if one believes too readily in man. In other matters, if anyone believes anything, knowing that he does not know it, there is no fault committed. I believe that most wicked conspirators were once put to death by the virtuous Cicero. Not only do I not know that, but I am quite certain that I cannot possibly know it. To hold an opinion is disgraceful for two reasons. In the first place, he who is persuaded that he already knows cannot learn, even if the thing in question is something that may be learned. And in the second place temerity in itself is the mark of an ill-disposed mind. Suppose someone thinks he knows the fact I have just mentioned about Cicero. Nothing prevents him from learning it, though it cannot be a matter of knowledge strictly speaking. But if he does not know the difference between true knowledge, i.e., rational knowledge, and belief in what has been profitably handed down to posterity either by report or in writing, he certainly errs, and there is no error without disgrace. Our knowledge, therefore, we owe to reason; our beliefs to authority; and our opinions to error. Knowledge always implies belief, and so does opinion. But belief does not always imply knowledge, and opinion never does.
If we, now, apply these three modes of mental activity to the five classes of men just mentioned, the two approved classes which we put first, and the three faulty ones which we put next, we find that the first class, the blessed, believe the very truth,