The Essential Augustine
ceedings; so that, as he [Cicero] says, apart from trifles of commonplaces, matter may contend with matter, cause with cause, reason with reason. Wherefore let them give over that saying, which they have in their mouths as though of necessity, when anyone who has been for some long time a hearer has left them: "The Light hath made a passage through him." For you see, you who are my chief care (for I am not overanxious about them), how empty this is, and most easy for anyone to find fault with. Therefore I leave this for your own wisdom to consider. For I have no fear that you will think me possessed by indwelling Light, when I was entangled in the life of this world, having a darkened hope, of beauty of wife, of pomp of riches, of emptiness of honors, and of all other hurtful and deadly pleasures. For all these, as is not unknown to you, I ceased not to desire and hope for, at the time when I was their attentive hearer. And I do not lay this to the charge of their teaching; for I also confess that they also carefully advise to shun these. But now to say that I am deserted by light, when I have turned myself from all these shadows of things, and have determined to be content with that diet merely which is necessary for health of body; but that I was enlightened and shining, at a time when I loved these things, and was wrapped up in them, is the part of a man, to use the mildest expression, wanting in a keen insight into matters, on which he loves to speak at length. But, if you please, let us come to the cause in hand.
For you well know that the Manichees move the 4. unlearned by finding fault with the Catholic Faith, and chiefly by rending in pieces and tearing the Old Testament: and they are utterly ignorant, how far these things are to be taken, and how drawn out they descend with profit into the veins and marrows of souls as yet as it were but able to cry. And because there are in them certain things which are some slight offense to minds ignorant and careless of themselves (and there are very many such) they admit of being accused in a popular way: but defended in a popular way they cannot be by any great number of persons, by reason of the mysteries that are contained in them. But the few who know how to do this do not love public and much talked of controversies and disputes: and on this account are very little known, save to such as are most earnest In seeking them out. Concerning then this rashness of the Manichees, whereby they find fault with the Old Testament and the Catholic Faith, listen, I entreat you, to the consider-
FAITH AND REASON 31 ations which move me. But I desire and hope that you will receive them in the same spirit in which I say them. For God, unto Whom are known the secrets of my conscience, knows, that in this discourse I am doing nothing of evil craft; but, as I think it should be received, for the sake of proving the truth, for which one thing we have now long ago determined to live; and with incredible anxiety, lest it may have been most easy for me to err with you, but most difficult, to use no harder term, to hold the right way with you.
THE RELATION OF AUTHORITY TO REASON*
And so even the very medicine of the soul, which 24.45. Divine Providence and ineffable Goodness administers, is perfectly beautiful in degree and distinction. For it is divided between authority and reason. Authority demands faith, and prepares man for reason. Reason leads him on to knowledge and understanding. But reason is not entirely useless to authority; it helps in considering what authority
- is to be accepted. Certainly the greatest authority is that of the known and clearly evident Truth Itself. But since we dwell.among the temporal and are drawn by love of them from things that are eternal, some temporal medicine which calls not the learned but the believers to salvation is of primary importance, not in the order of nature or excellence, but in the order of time. For wherever you fall, there you must strive to rise. Therefore, we must strive by use of the very material forms which hold us down, in order to understand those which the body does not report. I call those 'forms material which our bodies can perceive, that is, those which our eyes, ears, and other bodily senses perceive. To cling eagerly to material, bodily forms of cognition is a necessity for children, a near necessity for the adolescent, but no necessity at all for adults.
Divine Providence, then, not only counsels individual 25.46. men in private, but also counsels the entire human race in common. Therefore, what goes on in the individual soul, God, who gives the inspiration, and the souls He inspires, are aware. But what God advises all men, He has
True Religion, 24.45-25.47; trans. Gerald R. Sheahan, S.J., De vera religione (Chapters 18-38) (St. Louis University Master's Thesis, 1946), pp. 27-35. Used with permission.