Education, Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes, International Philosophical (continued)
PREFACE
One recalls, for instance, the explanations in his sermons of how we draw near to God, not "in a spatial sense, moving as it were from point to point, but by becoming like unto him", or of how we can reach God with the sharp inner insight of the spirit and become happy in that contemplation, or his remarks on the incorporeal and transcendent nature of God, on the relations between the three divine persons, on aspects of Christology, on the Holy Ghost as the soul of the Church, or on the illumination which God grants to the soul so that she is enabled to gain knowledge. He speaks of all this quite freely and in such simple terms that the unlearned can follow him.
Augustine's spirituality is nothing else than the ideal of the Christian life. There is a danger of making a mistake if one looks only for what is original and peculiar to him. After his conversion to the Christian faith Augustine wished to be only one of the fidelis; he sought first of all to understand what he believed.? After returning to Thagaste, he shared the fruits of his meditation and prayer with those present and absent, with some by conferences, with others by his books.? As a priest and later as bishop, he exerted himself for the 'defense and illustration" of Christian truth, as he conceived it. And he still wants simple readers with fraternal attitudes who are ready to share the fruit of his confessions.*
But the spirituality of Augustine certainly is marked by his experience as a convert and by his own doctrinal personality. In fact, he has interpreted his own spiritual journey as identified with biblical man: with Adam the sinner renewed and saved in Jesus Christ; with David, with the prodigal son, with Paul. And that is why so many Christian readers, such as Teresa of Avila,° can identify with the author of the Confessions for all time, whatever the cultural differences. The spirit of Augustine breathes where
1. F. Van der Meer, Augustine the Bishop (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961), pp. Gy GiB.
2. Cf. Augustine, Contra Academicos, III.20.43. 3. Possidius de Calama. Vita s. Augustini, 3. 4. Augustine, Confessions, X.4.5-6.
5. Cf. Introduction, below.