Augustine: Earlier Writings
THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF 315 silver and other such things may be recognized at sight even if one does not possess them. But wisdom cannot be seen by the mental eye of anyone who lacks it. Things with which we make contact by a bodily sense are presented to us from without, and with the eye we can see what belongs to another even if we do not ourselves possess it, or anything like it. Things intellectually perceived are within the mind, and possession and seeing are identical. The fool lacks wisdom; therefore he does not know wdsdom. He cannot see it with his eyes. He cannot see it and at the same time lack it; and he cannot possess it and be at the same time a fool. He does not know it, and, so long as that is so, he cannot recognize it anywhere. So long as he remains a fool, no one can with absolute certainty discover a wise man, by obeying whom he may be delivered from the evil of his folly.
29. When rehgion is the object of our quest God alone can provide a solution for this great difficulty. We ought not to be seeking true religion unless we believe that God is, and that he brings help to human minds. For what are we trying so hard to investigate? What do we hope to obtain? What do we desire to reach? Something that we do not believe exists or can possibly be ours? Nothing could be more perverse. In that spirit you would not dare to ask a favour of me, or at least it would be impertinent to do so, yet you come expecting to find religion when you think that God does not exist or, if he does, cares nothing for us. What if religion be such that it cannot be found unless it be sought with the utmost care and assiduity? What if the extreme difficulty of finding it exercises the mind of the seeker to fit it to grasp what it does find? What is more pleasant and familiar to the eyes than the light? Yet after long habituation to darkness they cannot endure it. What is more suitable for a body, exhausted by disease, than food and drink? Yet we see that convalescents are restrained and prevented from venturing to indulge in a satiety for which only strong men are fit, lest food may itself bring back the disease which caused food to be refused. Convalescents, I say. Don't we urge the sick to take some food? Assuredly they would not try so hard to obey us against their inclination did they not believe that so they would recover from their sickness. When will you give yourself to diligent and laborious search, or dare to impose on yourself such thought and care as the thing is worthy of, unless you believe the thing you seek actually exists? Rightly, therefore, and in full accord with the majesty of the Catholic discipline, it is 3l6 AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS insisted that those who come to re Hgion must be asked to have faith before everything else. xiv, 30. What reason, then, pray, will your heretic give me? For, of course, we are speaking of those who desire to be styled Christians. Why does he ask me to refrain from believing, as if from some rash act? He bids me believe nothing. Very well then.
Suppose I do not believe there is such a thing as true religion among men. I do not believe it exists. Therefore I do not seek for it. And yet, I suppose, he wants to demonstrate it to some inquirer. For it is written: He that seeks shall find. Unless I had some belief I should not come to him who forbids me to believe. Can there be any greater absurdity than that he should be displeased by my simple faith supported by no knowledge, when it was my simple faith that brought me to him?
3 1 . But all heretics exhort us to believe in Christ? Could they be more inconsistent? Two points are to be pressed home here.
First, I must ask them where is the promised reason, where is the rebuke of rashness, where the assured knowledge. If it is disgraceful to believe without a reason why do you expect me and urge me to believe anything without reason given, so that I may be the more easily led by your reason? Will your reason build some strong edifice on a foundation of temerity? I am speaking like those who take offence at our believing. For my part I judge that believing before reasoning, if you are not able to follow reasoning, and cultivating the mind by faith in order to be ready to receive the seeds of truth, is not only most wholesome, but is indeed the only way by which health can return to sick minds. But these men impudently try to get us to believe in Christ though they think believing is to be derided as utterly rash. Again, in the second place, I confess I have come to believe in Christ, and to hold that what he said is true, though supported by no reason. Are you, my fine heretic, going to lead me on from this starting-point? But let me consider for a moment.
I myself did not see Christ as it was his will to be seen by men; for it is declared that he was seen by common eyes like mine. From whom did I derive my faith in him, so that I may come to you duly prepared by faith? I see that I owe my faith to opinion and report widely spread and firmly established among the peoples and nations of the earth, and that these peoples everywhere observe the mysteries of the Catholic Church. Why, then, should I not rather ask most diligently of them what Christ taught, seeing that I was brought by their authority to believe that what he taught was profitable? VJilljou indeed give
THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF 317 me a better exposition of his teaching, though I might not have believed you if you had urged me to beheve that he once existed or still exists? This I have come to believe on the ground of a report confirmed by its ubiquity, by its antiquity, and by the general consent of mankind. But you are so few in numbers, so confused in thought, so recent in time, that no one could imagine that you could offer anything worthy of being received as authoritative. What utter absurdity! "Believe those," you say, "who have taught you that Christ is to be believed; and then learn from us what he taught!" Why on earth should I? Supposing they failed me and could teach me no more, I could be much more easily persuaded not to believe in Christ, than to learn anything about him from others than those by whom I had been taught to believe in him. What amazing audacity or rather absurdity! "You believe in Christ, and I undertake to teach you what he taught." But if I did not believe, you could teach me nothing about him, could you? "But you ought to believe." On your commendation? "Oh no. We instruct by reasoning those who already believe in him." Why then should I believe in him? "Because of firmly rooted report." Does this report reach us through you or through others? "Through others." So I am to believe them in order that you may teach me? Possibly I might, did not my friends give me special warning to have no dealings with you at all, for they say you have pernicious doctrines. "They lie," you will reply. But how am I to believe them about Christ whom they have not seen, and not believe them about you whom they could see but don't want to? "Believe the Scriptures." But if any new or unheard-of writing is produced or commended by a handful of people without reasonable confirmation, we believe not it but those who produce it. Wherefore if you, being so few and unknown, produce
Scriptures, we are unwilling to believe. And at the same time you are acting contrary to your promise in demanding faith rather than giving a reason. You will appeal again to tradition and general consent. At long last restrain your obstinacy and your wild lust to propagate your own sect, and advise me rather to consult the leaders of the great mass of believers. This I shall do most diligently and with the greatest possible efforts, so as to learn something about these Scriptures from men apart from whom I should not know there was anything to learn. But do you go back to your lurking place, and lay no more snares in the name of truth which you are trying to take away from those whose authority you yourself admit.