Chapter 74 (continued)
to commit himself to philosophy's rigors. Joining the Manichees seemed, at the time, to flow naturally from such a commitment to reason and wisdom. Only later and only gradually did he judge it, in dark terms, as a gravely mistaken false start. This disillusionment led him by his early 30s to revert to his philosophical starting point, to the skepticism of Cicero and the Academics (as the skeptical successors of Plato were then known). In Milan, Augustine momentously encountered another Platonism, the Platonism of Plotinus or Porphyry (or both). This Neoplatonism, as we now call it, offered fresh new ways of conceiving God, the soul, eternity, beauty, and much else. Augustine found these writings all the more intriguing because what he heard in Ambrose's preaching was a brand of Christianity clearly conversant with and, in key ways, harmonious with such sophisticated Neoplatonism.
In this chapter, we focus on Augustine's earliest writings, those composed from 386 to 391, that is, between his dramatic conversion in Milan and his ordination in Hippo Regius. These works hover around topics we associate with philosophy, both ancient and modern: the existence and nature of God, the mind-body problem, the freedom of the will, the nature of evil, the role of language, the quest for truth, the character of time and eternity, and the search for happiness. These works include four philosophic dialogues composed at Cassiciacum in the months after his conversion but before his baptism: Against the Skeptics (Contra Academicos), On the Happy Life (De beata vita), On Order (De ordine), and Soliloquies (Soliloquia). There are, as well, two later philosophic dialogues: On the Magnitude of the Soul (De animae quantitate), composed in Rome; and On the Teacher (De magistro), composed in Thagaste. Some philosophic works were left incomplete, such as his On the Immortality of the Soul (De immortalitate animae), or left aside after sketching out some rough drafts, such as his planned series on the liberal arts (one of these, On Music (De musica), was completed and preserved). He also carried on a philosophically-oriented correspondence with his friend Nebridius (epp. 3–4, 9–14) and wrote a magisterial apology for Christianity, On True Religion (De vera religione).
These writings offer glimpses into Augustine's career-altering transitions. The first was his sabbatical at Cassiciacum in the fall of 386, an agitated respite between his conversion and his baptism. He spoke of it as a "pause," and was alert to its dizzy and sometimes confusing liminality.5 At the time, he alluded obliquely to his own situation: "many persons are suddenly converted to a good and edifying life, but until they become notable by
Harald Hagendahl, Augustine and the Latin Classics, Studia Graeca et Latina XX (Guteborg: Acta Universitatis Cothoburgensis, 1967).
5. Conf. 9.4.7 (BA 14:82). See Catherine Conybeare, "The Duty of a Teacher: Liminality and disciplina in Augustine's De ordine," in Augustine and the Disciplines: From Cassiciacum to Confessions, ed. Karla Pollmann and Mark Vessey (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 49–65.