Lis ibid. VIIl233:
PREFACE
it wills and its influence is as varied as it is multiple. Nevertheless one can say that his contribution to Christian spirituality applies both to the personal realm by the themes of conversion, of interiority, of the reflection of the mind upon itself and on God; and to the realm of community, of the Church, the total Christ, the two cities, and last but not least with the ideal of religious life in common: anima una et cor unum.
At the time of his conversion, Augustine, while reading the Libri platonicorum, received a "liberating shock," says P. Henry.® These books directed him toward an interiority in which the mind finds itself while going beyond itself in order to meet God, its foundation, Absolute Being. On several occasions Augustine recognized his indebtedness to Neoplatonism. Consequently certain people find reasons for maintaining that this dependence with respect to philosophy compromises his understanding of the Christian faith; but Mary Clark insists rightly on the differences.' The God of Augustine is not the One of Plotinus. As E. R. Dodd said most aptly: "Plotinus never gossiped with the One as Augustine gossiped in the Confessions."® When P. Alfaric affirmed that Augustine in 386 was converted morally as well as intellectually to Neoplatonism rather than to the Gospel,' he was gravely mistaken as to the importance of Augustine's decision to be baptized. It is true that the Confessions do not emphasize this point,!° but reading the account of Marius Victorinus's conversion will be sufficient to make it clear that becoming a Christian did not necessarily go along with being an intellectual Neoplatonist. It was not enough to recognize Neoplatonic principles in John's Prologue; one had to "enter the Church of Christ" and "confess Christ before men without blushing at the mysterious humility of the Word."!?
It is also true that the conversion of Augustine was not limited to the decision to be baptized. It was also a commitment to a life of asceticism and contemplation, which the reading of the Hortensius of Cicero made him desire.!* This meant renouncing
6. P. Henry, Plotin et l'occident (Louvain, 1934), p. 78.
7. Cf. Introduction, below. 8. E. R. Dodd, Hibbert Journal 26 (1927-1928); 471. 9. P. Alfaric, L evolution intellectuelle de S. Augustin (Paris, 1918), p. 399. 10. Cf. Confessions, IX.6.14.
Lis ibid. VIIl233: 12. Cf. Introduction, below. xiii