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Prayer in the experience and thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo

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Prayer in the experience and thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo

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Content PRilXER lïJ THE EXPERIENCE AND THOUGHT
OP SAINT AUGUSTINE OP HIPPO
A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of the Graduate School of Religion
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Theology
By
James 8. Randle
October 1945
UMl Number: EP65152
All rights reserved
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Dlssertaiifen P W M isM n g
UMl EP65152
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This thesis, w ritten by
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and a p p ro v e d by a ll its m em bers, has been
presented to and accepted by the F a culty of the
School of R eligion in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the
requirements fo r the degree of
MASTER OF THEOLOGY
Dean
D a te û-G.t.Qbar..-X9-45-
Faculty Committee
..
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED 1
The Problem. 1
Statement of the Problem 1
Importance of the Study 3
Definitions of Terms Used 5
Organization of Material 8
II. MATERIALS USED AND RELATED LITERATURE 9
Materials Used 9
Related Literature 10
PART I. AUGUSTINE*S SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
III. BEFORE CONVERSION 12
Augustine’s Early Life 12
Events Leading to Conversion 17
IV. THE CONVERSION. 20
V. POST CONVERSION EXPERIENCES 38
Steps in Spiritual Development 38
The Later Stage of Growth 42
IV
CmPTER page
PART II. OTHER ASPECTS.
VI. INDIVIDUAL GHARAGTERISTICS. 54
Dominant Chords 54
Activist or ^uietist ? 62
VII. BELIEFS CONCERNING PRAYER. 73
Petitions For Himself 73
Intercession For Others 73
Revelation 77
Theory of Contemplation 81
VIII. CONCLUSION. 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY 95
APPENDIX 99
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS
OF TERMS USED
Prayer holds its important place in the belief of
many religious people in part because of their own
personal experiences of prayer and in part because of
tradition which has sprung from the experiences of great
leaders of religion* The achieving of a complete under
standing of prayer seems to point to a study of the prayer
life of these leaders as a basic point of departure.
Because the life of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, has
made a tremendous influence felt in the field of prayer
as well as in other fields of religion, the place that
prayer played in his life has been chosen as the object of
the present study.
I. THE PROBLEM
Statement of the Problem. An understanding of a
man’s experiences of prayer involves far more than a
knowledge of his doctrinal belief. It must reach deeper
into his human emotions and touch the vital springs of his
religious life. To study Augustine’s prayers is to learn
not only of his theology but of every aspect of his life.
2
It means feeling with him his emotions and sensing his
strong crying out for God in prayer. But even more than
an insight into his emotions, such a study must he an
analysis of his experiences and of his interpretation of
those experiences. Of course, it is true that his own
interpretation of what he felt can he traced to some extent
in his doctrine; and his doctrine to influences current in
that day. But to do so gives only a very incomplete
picture.' Prayer is more than belief; and it is more than
emotion. It is something vital which happens to a man
and within him. Augustine’s theological doctrine has been
thoroughly studied before now, and it is not our purpose to
examine it except at the points where it has a directly
traceable connection with his prayers and his interpretation
of them. What is intended here is an analysis of the
saint’s experiences in prayer in an effort to gain as deep
an understanding of them as possible.
This study will attempt to discover the nature of
Augustine’s type of prayer, its individual characteristics,
and its foundation in his personality. The causes and the
direction which his prayer took play an important part and
will be examined. Last of all, our study will endeavour
to discover the meaning which the Bishop of Hippo himseLf
found in prayer; his belief concerning prayer, and the
3
interpretation he put upon his experiences. In this way
it is hoped that our study will reach an understanding of
the vital spiritual life of Saint Augustine.
Im-portance of the Study. That comparatively new
devision of science, the psychology of religion, has made
a study of prayer that, seemingly, is rather comprehensive.
Yet the scholars, while many of them have made their
investigation from a historical viewpoint, have done so in
a very general way. A detailed analysis of an individual’s
character and life experiences is difficult to find.
William James^ and Freidrich Heiler,^ along with some others,
have made greater strides in this direction, probably, tlian
other scholars. However, both have made a general rather
than an individual study and even Heiler gives very little
material on individuals, though his penetration into the
peculiarities of their unaracters appears to be unique. Upon
3
Augustine he has this to say:
The practice of Christian prayer has been affected
almost more profoundly by Augustine than by Paul.
After Jesus and Paul no personality has exercised
such a lasting influence on the Christian religion
as this man, the greatest of the Church Fathers.
1 William James, Varieties of Religious Experience.
^ Freidrieh Heiler, Prayer.
^ Ibid. p. 126.
4
Whether or not this he exactly true, it will he
granted that a deeper penetration of the nature of this
saint’s prayer would be of much import for the psychology
of religion. While the literature written about the
Bishop of Hippo is extensive, and his theology has been
carefully criticized, an examination of this literature
reveals very little that scrutinizes his life in order to
study his prayer. It is the intent of the present study
to make such an examination of Augustine’s life.
It will be readily recognized that a complete
comprehension of the mystical experience can never be
reached by those who have not undergone a comparable
experience. The writer has had no such experience. None
the less, such a ’union’ with God as Augustine’s seems to
be extremely rare in any case, and even with this limita
tion it is hoped that the study may reach some deeper
/
insight into the nature, causes, and interpretation of
Augustine’s prayer.
II. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED
Contémulation. That state of being in which the
object is God and which is in essence an extreme form of
concentration characterized by a complete withdrawal of
attention from the external world, and in which the self
directly apprehends God in direct communion with Him; but
without losing its awareness of the gulf between itself and
God.
Conversion. (Typical or orthodox type as distinguish
ed from mystical conversion).^ The more or less sudden and
unexpected process of character change by which religious
ideas which have been peripheral in the consciousness
become central and dominant.
Dark Night of the Soul. The advanced stage of the
mystical life, which divides the Unitive Way from the
Illuminative Way; chfracterized by blankness and stagnation
of mystical activity, and a sense of being almost completely
separate from God.
Ecstasy or Rapture. A state of being very similar
^ Gf. post, p. 25f.
6
to contemplation but differing in two ways; in ecstasy the
self is no longer conscious of the gulf between itself and
God but believes that it has attained a union of natures
with God; and ecstasy is an involuntary state, uncontroll
able by the self, while contemplation is both voluntary and
controllable.
Illuminative Wav or Illumination. That stage of the
mystical life in which states of contemplation are attained
as the dominant form of prayer life.
Mvsterium Tremendum. The non-rational aspect of
the human reaction to that which is holy; the feeling
aroused by a ’numinous object’.
Mystical Experience. Any experience in which there
is a direct apprehension of God Himself or a communion with
Him.
Mystical Way or Mystical Life. The process of
spiritual growth distinguished by the several steps of the
Purgative Way, the Illuminative Way, and the Unitive Way,
and which bas for its goal the mystical experience of
’union’ with God.
7
Numen. That aspect of Ultixaate Reality which arouses
the non-rational feeling of the Mysterium Tremendum.
Prayer. Any experience of direct, active communion
with God. Prayer differs from the mystical experience in
that the latter may also include states of contemplation
which are passive, not active states, though still an
apprehension of God.
Purgative Way. That stage of the Mystical Way in
which the self is dominated by a strong desire to strip
itself of all that hinders it from attaining a union with
God and in which it undergoes a process of eradication of
sins and imperfections.
Recollection. A state of being in which the
attention is withdrawn from external stimuli and concentra
ted upon the ’inward self*; an entirely voluntary state.
Unitive Way. The last stage of the Mystic Way,
which is the end and goal of the mystical life; a state in
which the communion with God is exceptionally strong and
the characteristic belief is that a union of the self with
God has taken place.
8
III. ORGANIZATION
OF MATERIAL
For the purpose of this study Augustine’s life has
been divided up into three parts: that period before and
leading up to his conversion; the conversion experience
itself; and his life after conversion. Since his
experience of conversion proved to be such a definite
turning point this seems to be the natural division. It
must be remembered, of course, that the Confessions were
written probably some ten years after this turning point
and are without doubt an interpretation of his remembered
experiences, rather than an actual factual account. This
will be kept in mind during the study of his life and an
attempt will be made to evaluate its influence. Moreover,
since the book is an interpretation the second part of this
study will be devoted to discovering what meaning the saint
found in his prayer experiences. His own belief concerning
prayer and his method of praying color the whole account
of his life and for this study are of enormous importance.
CBAPTER II
MATERIALS USED
AND RELATED LITERATURE
I. MATERIALS USED
For obvious reasons, Augustine’s Confessions
provides the basic material for this paper. More, the
study has been limited to this one book in order to keep
it within workable bounds. This means not a rigid
limitation but a practical one; and where the use of
material from other works by Augustine will clarify a problem
it will be freely used.
To have made use of the Latin text of the source
material would undoubtedly have been the best procedure.
Failing this, because of a lack of knowledge of the
language, the writer was at pains to procure a translation
which commends itself as being trustworthy and reasonably
accurate. This was obtained in a translation by
William G. T. Shedd, published in 1864, ^ and has been used
throughout as the basis of the study.
^ Of. Appendix I.
10
II. RELATED LITERATURE
Among the secondary materials there is an abundance
on Saint Augustine. A large part of this centers around
his theology and the influences of the current philosophies
upon his doctrine. This is of value in a study of
Augustine, particularly because of the neo-Platonic element
in his mystic contemplation. Sister Mary Patricia Garvey
has made a very useful study of the neo-Platonic influence
upon Augustine in her work, St. Augustine. Christian or
Neo-Platonist ? Other works on his theology and its
development are readily found. In particular there are;
Cunningham, Saint Augustine and His Place in the History of
Christian Thought; Alejandro A. Ja^scalevich, Three
Conceptions of^Mind; Robert Lawrence Ottley, Studies-in
the Confessions of St. Augustine; Henjamin Breckinridge
Warfield. Studies in Tertullian and Augustine; Jaines
Morgan, The Psychological Teachings of St. Augustine.
Another group of writings deals more specifically
with mystical prayer, a,nd with the outstanding exponents of
mysticism. Of this group Heiler in his book. Prayer, makes
a historical study of prayer. He presents a very clear
insight into the various elements and the many varieties of
prayer. Although Heiler gives very little material on
11
Augustine himself, his work on prayer is one of the best and
of great help in understanding the subject,
Evelyn Underhill has a number of highly valuable
books on this subject also# Of these. Mysticism. The
Mystic Way, and The Life of the Spirit and the Life of
Today, particularly the first, are of the most significance
for a study of Augustine# However, in these works also,
there is not a great amount of material on Augustine#
Dom Guthbert Butler’s book. Western Mysticism, is
the best work discovered in relation to the subject under
consideration. His is a very thorough study of the three
mystics; St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, and St.
Bernard of Clairvaux. The three are compared as to
idealogy, doctrine of contemplation, the platonic element
in their belief, and the effect of contemplation upon their
lives. The scholarly thoroughness of this work makes it
an invaluable source of information.
PART I
AUGUSTIKE *S SPIRITUAL GROWTH
CHAPTER III
BEFORE CONVERSION
I. AUGUSTINE’S EARLY LIFE
In an inquiry into the Saint’s life two questions
immediately arise. First, assuming that there is such a
thing as a natural bent or genius for nystical experience,
does Augustine give evidence of the possession of such an
inborn, natural bent ? We should expect that, if this
were the case, it would reveal itself in early childhood.
That is, some incidents of an experience of communion with
God would likely be remembered and recounted at the later
date. We should remember that this is a very detailed and
searching account of his spiritual life which Augustine
writes; nothing that is relevant is omitted, apparently.
Surely if he had felt any very strong promptings toward
God while a boy, he would have remembered and described
them in his book.
Before his nineteenth year one incident of importance
for this question is recounted in the Confessions.
Evidently few others were remembered. This incident took
13
place when he was a hoy, (the exact age not given) and was
precipitated by a serious illness, with the doctrine of
eternal life playing an important part:
As a boy, then, I had already heard of an eternal life,
promised us through the humility of the Lord our God
stooping to our pride; and even from the womb of my
mother, who greatly hoped in Thee, I was sealed with
the mark of Eis cross and salted with His salt. Thou
sawest. Lord, how while yet a boy, being seized on a
time with sudden oppression of the stomach, and like
near to death- Thou sawest, my God (for Thou wert ay
keeper), with what eagerness and what faith I sought,
from the pious care of my mother and Thy Church, the
mother of us all, the baptism cf Tly Christ ay God and
Lord. Whereupon the mother of my flesh, being much
troubled (since, with a heart pure in Thy faith, she
even more lovingly -travailed in birth of my salvation),
would in eager haste have provided for my consecration
and cleansing by the health-giving sacraments,
confessing Thee, Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins,
unless I had suddenly recovered. And so, as I must
needs be again polluted should I live, my cleansing was
deferred, because the defilements of sin would, after
that washing, bring greater and more perilous guilt.
I then already believed: and ay mother, and the whole
household, except my father: yet did not he prevail
over the power of my mother’s piety in me, that as he
did not yet believe, so neither should I. For it was
her earnest care, tha,t Thou my God, rather than he,
shouldst be my father; and in this Thou didst aid her
to prevail over her husband, whom she, although she was
the better of the two, obeyed, because this was obeying
Thee, who hast so commanded.
This may indeed be a religious experience. But it
may be noted that there is no longing for God yet evidenced,
Nor does Augustine speak of a sense of the presence of a
Power greater than himself. An ’eagerness* is declared.
G Augustine, Confessions. I. 11. 17.
14
But evidently the source of this was not a mystical sense
of the presence of God, but a fear aroused by the doctrine
of eternal life, and, presumably, of damnation. Such a
■fear, in our estimation, has no element in it which points
to a naturally mystical spirit.
Lack of mention of early spiritual experiences
before his nineteenth year, when a great desire for wisdom
is aroused in him (as noted below), leads to the conclusion
that Augustine had no natural bent for mystical experience
more than is usual among mens or, if he did, it was
decidedly latent during his boyhood and the normal age for
conversion.
The second question has to do with his early training.
Did his mother succeed in teaching him the practice of
prayer while he was still young so that he turned to prayer
at least on occasion ? Of Monica’s Christian character we
7
know; and that she would train him in the Christian faith
is not to be doubted. In fact, Augustine himself attests
to this in the passage previously quoted.® But what was
her success ?
Ibid. IX. 7. 15.ff.
8
Augustine, Loc. cit. I. 11. 17.
15
Evidently, during her son’s early life, Monica was
forced to recognize failure with her son. In the same
passage, Augustine declares that he believed, but that his
father defeated all attempts of Monica to have him
baptized. One other mention he makes of prayer before his
nineteenth year, and this does seem to indicate some prayer
during his boyhood; ^
So I began, yet a boy, to pray to Thee for aid and
refuge; and I broke the fetters of my tongue to call
on Thee, praying, though small, yet with no small
earnestness, that I might not be beaten at school.
And when Thou hear de st me not (not thereby giving me
over to folly), my elders, yea, my very parents, who
yet wished me no ill, laughed at my stripes, my then
great and grievous misery.
This might, in a sense, be taken to mean that he
began the habit of prayer while a boy and continued it for
some time; perhaps even until his conversion. There is no
indication of the age at which this took place, nor of how
long his praying continued. Augustine does speak of ’no
small earnestness*. It does not seem probable, however,
that Augustine later would have declared that there was
much of prayer in his boyhood or in this incident he
relates. In recalling this he seemingly wishes to show
how he attempted to use God, saying nothing of any desire
® Ibid. I, 9. 14.
16
for a better life or for spiritual things. Indeed, the
picture that the Bishop of Hippo draws of his boyhood is a
rather dark one. Even his babyhood he sees as one of guilt
’ •The weakness then of infant limbs, not its will, is its
innocence.*' His boyhood he declares was filled with evil
and sin;
...with innumerable lies deceiving my tutor, my
masters, my parents, out of love of play, eagerness
to see vain shows and restlessness to imitate them I
Thefts also I committed, from my parents* cellar
and table, enslaved by greediness, or that I might
have to give to boys, who sold me their games, which
all the while they liked no less than I. In play,
too, I often sought unfair conquests, being conquered
myself by vain desire of preeminence. And what could
I so impatiently endure, or, when I detected it,
upbraid so fiercely, as that which I was doing to
others; and yet when I was detected and upbraided, I
chose rather to quarrel than to yield.
The truth is that Augustine is viewing his past from
a very idealistic later standpoint which includes a belief
in original sin, for he quotes from Job:^^ **.. .for in Thy
sight none is pure from sin, not even the infant whose
life is but a day upon the earth.* * Even so, the above
passage shows us a boy who had fallen into the company of
other boys whose influence was toward anything but a moral
and religious life. Moreover, it is the picture of one
10 Ibid. I. 7. 11.
Ibid» I. 18. 30.
12 Loc. Pit. I. 7. 11.
17
whose nature was essentially wilful and intractable* The
influences which in his boyhood encouraged this wilful
tendency had an increasing influence upon him, eventually
leading him to live a dissolute and sensual life, reaching
probably the lowest moral point in his eighteenth year
while he was living in Carthage.
II. EVENTS LEADING TO CONVERSION
The first evidence given in the life of St. Augustine
of spiritual growth came in his nineteenth year. The change
was precipitated by the reading of Cicero's Hortensius.l^
It produced in him a desire for wisdom; a desire of very
great strength. We note that this occurred at an age which
E. D. Starbuck found is ordinarily one of the peak years
of conversion for males; a period of storm and stress, and
of doubtings and questionings. For Augustine this was not
a conversion experience; but it was marked by a definite
change. It was a step in spiritual growth which coincided
with the rapid maturing of his intellectual powers.
Ibid. III. 1. 1. and III. 2. 2.
Ibid. III. 4. 7. Of. Appendix II.
E. D. Starbuck, Psyebology of Religion, p. 28ff
18
Augustine seems almost to make this a conversion
1 A
experience itself;
But this hook altered my feelings, and turned my
prayers to Thyself, 0 Lord; and made me hs,ve other
purposes and desires. Every vain hope at once became
worthless to me;...
♦. .how did I burn to remount from earthly things to
Thee;...
This is a minor conversion experience if conversion
is defined as ’the process by which ideals which had been
peripheral become central in the consciousness.’ But as
we have defined a religious conversion, this ’conversion*
does not qualify. In one sense it was a step in his
spiritual growth, for one of the results was a turning away
from ’vain hope’ and ’ earthly things’. But when he speaks
of ’returning to Thee’ he means an intellectual desire for
philosophical wisdom; no more. This is clearly shown by
the phrases: *'I longed...for an immortality of wisdom**;
**I was thereby strongly roused... to love, and seek to
obtain.. .wisdom itself, whatever it were;** And again in the
same passage he declares: ’ •For with Thee is wisdom.* * The
Platonic influence has so colored his thought that in this
passage at least God is Wisdom, and in turning to wisdom
he has turned to God. In actuality, it appears that an
18 Augustine.Ob. cit. III. 4.8.
19
intellectual desire for philosophical learning has seized
him; not a mystical longing for God.
Yet this was an intellectual mode of searching after
God, for the Truth which he sought was centered on God and
His creation. Augustine began by a search of the Holy
Scriptures, but he did not understand them, and was led
away from them. He then became a believer in the Manic he e
religion and for nine years taught and believed this
doctrine. But Augustine testifies that «I knew not how
to love Thee, not knowing how to conceive aught beyond a
material brightness.* * Even in his sorrow over the death
of his friend he came no step closer to God.
Ibid. IV.2. 3.
18 Ibid. IV. 5. lOff.
CmPTER IV
Tm C0J5IVERSI0H
Ordinarily, Augustine’s conversion is regarded as
timt experience in which, he heard a voice repeating * Take.
up and read’ and, having read a certain passage in the
Scripture, was thereupon delivered from his sins. Prior
to this unforgettable event, however, another which also
was unforgettable for him, took place. This occurred
sometime between his thirtieth year and his thirty second
year,(during which he was converted.) Possibly it was
in the thirty first year, not very long before the second
of these two experiences. This is probable, for it came
after a long stage of development beginning in the
thirtieth year of his life, and one which drew him away
from the doctrine of the Manichees, then from that of the
astrologers, and finally led him to a study of ’certain
books of the platonists’. This experience to which we
refer was one in which Augustine declares he
**..entered and beheld with the eye of my soul, (such as
it was), even above my soul, above my mind,- the Light
Unchangeable. * *
Ibid. VIII. 12. 29.
Itld. VII. 10. 16. Cf. Appendix III.
SI
speaking of this experience Butler says this:
Hot till the struggle had issued in full moral victory
and regeneration could Augustine attain to that clear
vision of heavenly things and that intimate realiza
tion that afterwards were his not infrequent experience.
And so in certain premonitory experiences and elevations
during the pre-Ohristian neo-Platonist phase described
in Book vii of the GonfesslOns. before he had emanci
pated himself from sinful habits, of the first, viz.
vision, he says: ’When first I knew Thee, Thou didst
take hold of me, that I might see there was Something
to see, but that I was not yet such as to see it’ (16);
and of the second, viz. realization, wherein he did
attain to a momentary glimpse: ’I was fully convinced
there was One to Whom I might cleave, but that I was not
yet such as to cleave to Him* (23). Thus it is
Augustine’s witness that there was for him neither clear
vision of God nor union with Him, until both mind and
heart should be effectively purged: Blessed are the
clean of heart, for they shall see God.
Butler therefore denies that this was an experience
22
of actual contemplation. Underhill, speaking of the
’awakening of the self’, as she terms it, seems to agree
for she quotes part of the selfsame passage which Butler
quotes, using it to describe the ’awakening of the self’
which we shall consider below. However, Underhill is
confusing on this point. In discussion of a later stage, of
the mystic life, that of illumination, she definitely
reveals that she considers this an experience of
O'*
contemplation:
^ Bom Cuthbert Butler, Western Mysticism, p. 38.
22 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, p. 178.
23 Ibid. p. 250.
22
Consider the accent of realism with which St .Augustine
speaks of his own experience of Platonic contemplation;
a passage in which we seem to see a horn psychologist
desperately struggling by means of negations to
describe an intensely positive state.
She then quotes Augsutine’s description of the
experience we have mentioned.
The difficulty in interpreting this passage is not
that one questions whether or not Augustine ever reached
the stage of the Mystic Way known as the state of Illumina
tion; but a question of whether or not he had a true
experience of contemplation as the very first experience of
his spiritual development. Butler believes that the
mystic must go through a stage of purification before he
is given such experiences; none but the pure in heart may
see God. In fact, the traditional Mystic Way consists of
three steps: purgation, then illumination, then union.
To say that Augustine experienced true mystic contemplation
seems to imply an inversion of the proper order of growth.
This complex situation arises partially because Augustine
himself, in his searchings for truth, did actually proceed
in a rather unusual order. Instead of the practice of
contemplation arising as a natural outgrowth of a previously
religious, ’converted’ life, his spiritual life began as an
intellectual search for wisdom and truth and the habit of
23
contemplation was a result of neo-Platonic doctrine. This
influenced all of his later experiences.
Moreover, if this were an experience of contempla
tion, it seems highly remarkable that the training period
which he underwent was so very short. At the latest, this
vision of the Sternal Light took place sometime in his
thirty second year, for it was at that age at which he was
converted. Some time had elapsed after his thirtieth
year before he discovered the Platonic writings. This
seems to allow only a year or so for him to learn the art
of contemplation; a remarkably short period.
There is, of course, the contrary consideration
that Augustine had spent nine years in the Manichean
belief and more time after being delivered from them in a
search for the truth. The last few years of this search
in particular had been an agonized search with many
periods when he despaired of finding that which he sought.
The event described may then be viewed as the culmination
and fruition of that long search, not just the beginning
of a new way of life. All of this may be true, but it
does not at all mean that this was a contemplative act.
In order to clarify, let us now turn to the outline
24
which Miss Underhill has given of the normal develop
ment of the mystic life:
(1). The awakening of the Self to consciousness of
Divine Reality. This experience, usually abrupt
and well marked, is accompanied by intense
feelings of joy and exaltation.
(2). The Self, aware for the first time of Divine
Beau%", realizes by contrast its own finiteness
and imperfection, the manifold illusions in which
it is immersed, the immense distance which
separates it from the One. Its attempts to elimi
nate by discipline and mortification all that
stands in the way of its progress towards union
with God constitute Purgation: a state of pain and
effort.
(3). When by Purgation the Self has become detached
from the •*things of sense,** and acquired those
virtues which are the * * ornaments of the spiritual
marriage**, its joyful consciousness of the
Transcendent Order returns in an enhanced form.
...This is Illumination: a state which includes
in itself many of the stages of .contemplation,
* * degrees of orison”, visions and adventures of the
soul described by St. Teresa and other mystical
writers....Illumination brings a certain
apprehension of the Absolute, a sense of the
Divine Presence: but not true union with it.
(4)'. In the development of the great and strenuous
seekers after God, this is followed- or sometimes
intermittently accompanied- by the most terrible
of all the experiences of the Mystic Way; the
final and complete purification of the Self,...
The Self now surrenders itself, its individuality,
and its will, completely. (The Dark Might of
the Soul.)
(5). Union: the true goal of the,mystic quest. In this
state the Absolute Life is not merely perceived
and enjoyed by the Self, as in Illumination: but
24
Ibid. T). 169-70.
25
is one with it...It is a state of equilibrium,
of purely spiritual life; characterized by peaceful
joy, by enhanced powers, by intense certitude.
The first phase, that of the awakening of the Self,
has its own particular, distinguishing characteristics. It
is based fundamentally on a radical rearranging of the self.
Without going deeply into an investigation of conversion,
we may note here that the theories of wliat constitutes a
conversion are numerous. William James 25 speaks of ’ the
hot place in a man’s consciousness’ as ’the habitual centre
of his personal energy’. and defines conversion in this
way:
To say that a man is ’converted’ means, in these terms,
that religious ideas, previously peripheral in his
consciousness, now take a central place, and that
religious aims form the habitual centre of his energy.
This places a very large emphasis on ideas, and makes
conversion the rearrangement of those ideas. A religious
conversion would be one in which religious ideas become
central and dominant. By the very same process, according
to this theory, the self may be ’converted’ to avarice,
license, etc. William James cites examples of such
26
’conversions’. J. B. Pratt operates on much the same
25 James, Op. cit. p. 193.
26 Ibid. p. 172 f.
theory:
26
27
How as I understand it, the essential thing about
conversion is just the unification of character, the
achievement of a new self,...
To speak of religious experiences such as those
which Augustine describes as being simply a process whereby
an idea becomes dominant seems very inadequate. This does,
it is true, describe some results of such experiences but
at the same time, there is left the impression that there is
a ’difference’. Miss Underhill’s description of her own
term ’the awakening of the Self’ is more mystical and does
mark out this difference. It, too, is a ’disturbance of the
equilibrium of the self*, and a shift in the center of
interest. It is the same process as that described by
James and Pratt but ”raised to the nth degree of intensity,
for...it means the first emergence of that passion for
the Absolute which is to constitute his distinctive
character.” The difference in quality specified is that
for the cystic this is the awakening of an apprehension of
God; not of an idea of God, but of the Transcendence of God
Himself. It may take two forms; either the apprehension of
a splendour without the self, or an awakening to the
27 J.B.Pratt, The Religious Oonsciousnéss. p. 123
Underhill, On. cit. p. 177.
27
immanent and personal God within.
Compared with the stage of development just described,
the ’illumination of the self’ is again entirely different.
It appears only after a long stage of purgation, wherein the
mystic seeks to purify himself not only of obvious sins and
imperfections, but seeks to attain the traditional virtues
of Poverty (or self stripping): Chastity (a limpid purity of
soul, cleansed of all personal desire); and Obedience (an
abnegation of selfhood; self abandonment). After the
purgation illumination comes as
...a form of mental life, a kind of perception,
radically different from that of ’normal’ men. His
preceding adventures and experi enc es ^cannot be
allowed this quality. His awakening to consciousness
of the Absolute- though often marked by a splendour
and intensity which seem to distinguish it from other
• psychic upheavals of that kind- does but reproduce
upon higher levels those characteristic processes of
conversion and falling in love which give depth and
actuality to the religious and passional life.
Three characteristics of this state are given by
Miss Underhill and seem to be as complete a definition
of it as may be possible for such an undefined, ineffable
condition:
^9 Ibid. p. 232.
39 Ibid. p. 240.
28
(1). A joyous apprehension of the Absolute: that which
many ascetic writers call "the practice of the
Presence of God". This, however, is not to be
confused with that unique consciousness of union
with the Divine which is peculiar to a later stage
of mystical development. The self, though purified,
still realizes itself as a separate entity over
against God.
(2). This clarity of vision may also be enjoyed in
regard to the phenomenal world. The actual
physical perceptions seem to be strangely heightened,
so that the self perceives an added,significance
and reality in all natural things...
(3). Along with this two-fold extension of cousciousnesa,
the energy of the intuitional or transcendental
self may be enormously increased... How it seizes
upon the ordinary channels of expression; and may
show itself in such forms as
(a) auditions,
(b) dialogues between the surface consciousness
and another intelligence which purports to
be divine,
visions, and sometimes
in automatic writings.
I:!
How, under what classification do Augustine’s
experiences fall ? We note that one clearly distinguishing
mark of the state of the newly awakened self is that of a
consciousness of the vast gulf between its own imperfect
31
condition and God. It is this which leads to the
Purgation. Augustine expemplifies this in his description
of his first vision of the Light Unchangeable.
Gf. ante, p. 24.
Augustine, Loc. cit. VII. 10.16.
29
• ••I trembled with love and awe: and I perceived
myself to be far off from Thee, in the region of
unlikeness, as if I heard this Thy voicé .from on high.
The second of the two passages quoted by Butler in
the excerpt above-33 expresses the same belief, although
we disagree with him in believing that the sentence refers
to a later experience, for the whole of that section of
Book seven, from chapter 10 through chapter 17 appears to
be a description, explanation, and exposition of the first
event, and no clear reference is actually made to a second
event before the traditional ’conversion’ experience.
It will be noted in the outline of the mystical life
given by Miss Underhill the awakening of the self is
accompanied by intense feelings of joy and exaltation. The
(
feeling of ’creaturehood’and sinfulness is the reaction of
the self when it turns back upon itself. Augustine
"trembled with love and awe"; then "I perceived myself to
be far off from Thee". It is true that the sense of
being different from God is not absent in the illuminative
stage. But the difference appears to be one of intensity,
and the awakening of the self is followed, if any spiritual
growth is to take place, by an intense desire for purifica
tion and the purgative state is entered. The difference
33 Cf. ante, p. 21.
30
too, between the illuminative and the awakening state is
that the former follows the purgation, the latter precedes
it. In Augustine’s life this preliminary experience was
followed by a period of purgation.
We note also that in many ways Augustine’s first
experience was very similar to the typical conversion
experience. Prior to the event Augustine’s condition was
that which is most aptly described as ’conviction of sin’.
8tarbuck 34 describes the emotions before and during
conversion as follows:
There are almost invariably two kinds of feelings,
immediately successive in time, experienced at the
time of conversion. The first are those of the
conviction period magnified until the subject is
brought to the last degree of dejection, humility,
confusion, uncertainty, sense of sinfulness, and
the likeL These directly give place to contrasted
feelings such as joy, lightness of heart, clarified
vision, exultation, the sense of free activity and
harmony with God.
The emotions of "dejection, humility, confusion,
uncertainty, sense of sinfulness" are declared by Augustine
to have been his own emotions immediately before discover
ing Plato: doubt and uncertainty assailed him: he was
"not clear even to myself"; fear of damnation was his
34 Starbuck, Op. cit. p. 81.
35
Augustine, Op. cit. VII. 1. 2.
31
great worry; "my miserable heart, overcharged with the
most gnawing anxiety ere I should die before I had found
the truth"; and a general sense of misery and doubt
distressed him. 37
The experience itself was one of "love and awe"; and
it brought a clarification of his understanding, his doubts
especially being dissolved, and replaced by a sense of
38
confidence and certainty:
I should sooner doubt that I live, than that Truth
is not, which is clearly seen, being understood by
those things which are made. ‘
And again: 39 «j^nd it was manifested unto me... "
And: 40 ##% ceased somewhat of my former self, and my
frenzy was lulled to sleep;..."
The cessation of doubt of which he speaks was but
one (probably the strongest) aspect of a great change of
life and desires. He first turned to the Scriptures,
36 Ibid. V I I 5. 7.
37 Ibid. VII. 7. 11.
IMd. VII. 10. 16.
39 Ibid. VII. 12. 18.
40 Ibid. VII. 14. 20.
32
studying Paul especially. He was now no longer filled with
ambition and hopes of honor# "Those things", he declares,
"delighted me no longer". Yet the transformation was not
complete. Hê was still bound by the lust of the flesh, not
able to give up his desires permanently to theJaigher voice
within him: "But still I was enthralled with the love of
woman", he continues.
Prom the characteristics outlined above, it seems
that the first experience of Augustine _was one of conversion,
very similar to the ’awakening of the self* described by
Miss Underhill as the mystic type of conversion. Both have
all the characteristics of the typical conversion; the
conviction of sin, the crisis experience, then the release
from doubt and fear with a consequent emotion of joy and
love for God, followed by a change in the manner of living.
But in addition are the characteristics which Miss Underhill
believes distinguish the mystic conversion from all other
types; namely, the awakening of a transcendental conscious
ness or an awareness of Godl. This awareness of God does
not at this time exhibit the quality or the intensity of
that which distinguishes the true vision of the contempla
tive. In Augustine this awareness of God is clearly shown
4^ Ibid. VIII. 1. 2.
■33
and it is also evident that one of its results is a
recognition of the gulf between himself and God, as we have
previously noted. This may also be characteristic of the
state of awakening. Augustine, however, qualifies his
description of his vision and so indicates that it was
42
different from the contemplative vision. Again we quote:
Thou liftedst me up, that I might see there was
somewhat for me to see, and that I was not yet able
to see.
* 43
And:
But I could not fix my gaze thereon; and my infirmity
being struck back, I was thrown again on ray wonted
habits.
And: "through the darkness of ray mind, I was hindered
from contemplating." Later he enlarges on this:
Thus with the baggage of this present world was I
held down pleasantly, as in sleep:.and the thoughts
wherein I meditated on Thee, were like the efforts
of such as would awake, who yet overcome with a
heavy drowsiness, are again drenched therein.
Apparently, then, it is the ’awakening of the self*
42 Ibid. VII. 10.16.
43 Ibid. VII. 17. 23.
44 Ibid. VII. 20. 26.
43 Ibid. VIII. 5. 11.
34
which the saint has undergone, not the contemplative
vision, for the experience had the characteristics of the
one and lacked the typical joy, peace, sense of communion
with God, and the exalted illuminated vision of the other.
It is interesting, however, that it seemed to take something
of the form of the neo-Platonic vision because of Augustine’s
practice of contemplation.
But if this be true, then what of the second
experience that has traditionally been considered his
conversion ? We note, of course, that this ’conversion’
has all the elements of the typical, traditional type of
conversion. There is the long period of struggle with the
self in which there is a great strife within and there seem.^
to be two separate contrary wills fighting with ea,ch other;
"Therefore I was at strife with myself, and rent asunder by
myself" says Augustine.^*^ And; "This controversy in my'
heart was self against self only."
There is, again, the period of crisis when the
tension is broken, and a reorganization takes place; the
46 Ibid. VIII. 12, 28-30. Of. Appendix IV.
47 Ibid. VIII. 10. 22.
48
Ibid. VIII. 11. 27.
35
struggle is won and the self is changed and regrouped
about a new central idea. In this case the fight against
the passions of the flesh is won, and Augustine arrives at
the point where his desire for a wife or mistress is
willingly sacrificed. It is worthy of note that this crisis
change is in every sense an experience of prayer. The strife
within him, combined with the organization of character
about the .idea of God which had previously taken place,
created in him a state of prayer which took the form of a
strong petitioning of God for help in the internal struggle.
So he declares:
And, not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose,
spake I much unto Thee: And Thou, 0 Lord, how long ?
...I sent up these sorrowful words; How long ? how
long ? ’ tomorrow, and tomorrow ?*
The voice which he heard may have been an ’audition’
but it is questionable. He himself at the time did not
think so, but questioned himself about whether children
were accustomed to repeat such words. He apparently
decided it was the voice of a child in a nearby house.
Yet another point of resemblance to a typical conver
sion was the vanishing away of all doubt, and a joy and
49
Loc. cit. VIII. 12. 28.
36
serenity which took its place.
A careful reading of the story, however, will at
once reveal that this experience lacks the one characteris
tic which Miss Underhill declares marks off the mystic
conversion (or ’awakening of the self’) from the ordinary
type of conversion; that is, the awakening of an apprehension
of God. Augustine says nothing whatever here about a vision
of the Eternal Light or a sense of the presence of God.
True, he does interpret the voice as a ’command from God’
but he still thinks of it as the voice of a child. And,
because it lacks the strong apprehension of God which is so
impressive to him in the first experience, Augustine does
not feel the great sense of difference between himself and
God. There is joy in the freedom from the inner struggle,
and the conversion is followed by decisive steps taken to
free himself from all worldly hindrances. He sells his
goods, gives up his teaching profession, and takes steps to
enter the service of the church. It may, in fact, be seen
that this latter is a continuation of the state of purga
tion begun at the first awakening experience.
This second incident,then, is a typical conversion,
and is the second climax of a process of character change
37
which began some time before the discovery of the Platonic
books. The first experience was the ’awakening of the
self’ of which Miss Underhill speaks, and was the first
climax in this process. The first actually began the
stage of purgation, of which the second experience was a
climax, the purgation being completed later.
CHAPTER V
POST GOHYERSIOH EXPERIENCES
We now come to the more advanced stages of spiritual
growth as shown in Augustine’s life. We shall ask first,
what steps of spiritual growth are indicated in the
Confessions and what forms they took; the% what state of
the Mystic Way Augustine had reached at the time of the
writing of the hook.
I. STEPS IE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Part of the difficulty of interpretation of the
saint’s experiences lies in the unusual (to modern ears)
language he uses, which is well flavored with Platonic
terms. fie speaks, for example, of his joyfulness after
his conversion in such terms that we are almost led to
believe that the Illuminative Way in an advanced stage
followed immediately upon the heels of the conversion.
Says Augustine:
Thou...enteredst in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure;
though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light;
but more hidden than all depths ;.. .And my infant tongue
spake freely to Thee...
60 Ibid. IX. 1. 1.
39
Later, hQ speaks of the joyful yearning toward
God produced by a reading of the Psalms, especially the
fourth Psalm:
Oh, in what accents spake I unto Thee, my God, when
.,.1 read the Psalms of David,.. .and how was I by them
kindled towards Thee,...
I trembled for fear, and again kindled with hope,
and with rejoicing in Thy mercy, 0 Pather;...
This brings to mind Miss Underhill’s description of
one characteristic of the stage of Illumination: 32 "its
joyful consciousness of the Transcendent order returns in
an enhanced form." Such a joyful consciousness is exactly
what Augustine is expressing. But at the same time he
gives an indication that this is not at all a fully
developed state of Illumination: "my infant tongue", he
says; and "a novice in Thy real love"; and, "I...yet
unwarmed by the heat of Thy Spirit,..." 33
But the stage of Purgation is also subject to
flashes of insight which are indistinguishable from those
of the Illuminative stage. This being so, it is possible
31 Ibid. IX. 4. 8,9.
Underhill, On. cit. p. 169.
Pp.-Pit. IX. 7. 15.
54
Underhill, On. cit. n. 241-2.
40
that this stage is still the Purgative Way, combined with
the beginning of Illumination. The apprehension of God
has appeared as a new faculty and has begun its long
development, bringing in its train the ’numinous’ emotions
of fear, hope, and rejoicing.
Another experience is related in this ninth book of
the Confessions which, if not indicating a growth in the
ability to communicate with God, does indicate a growth in
his belief concerning prayer. This is the account of the
curing of a, pain in the teeth which afflicted him: ^3
Thou didst then torment me with pain in my teeth;
which when it had come to such height that I could
not speak, it came into my heart to desire all my
friends present to pray for me to Thee, the God of
all manner of health. And this I wrote on wax, and
gave it them to read. Presently so soon as with
humble devotion we had bowed our knees, that pain
went away. But what pain ? or how went it away ?
I was affrighted, 0 my Lord, my God; for from
infancy I had never experienced the like. And the
power of Thy nod was deeply impressed upon me, and
rejoicing in faith, I praised Thy name.
Augustine next records a conversation with his
mother on the day in which her final illness began.
There is no doubt that the conversation made a great
35 Augustine, Op. cit. IX. 4. 12.
35 Ibid. IX. .10. 23-25. Cf. Appendix V.
41
impression upon him because it took place when it did. It
is of interest to us in part because it gives his theory of
57
contemplation, which we shall consider later. It is
also of interest because of passages which may or may not
be indicative of a higher state of prayer. Of these the
following indicates his thought:
...we, raising ourselves with a more glowing affection
towards the ’Self-same’, did by degrees pass through
all things bodily, even the very heaven.. .yea, we
were soaring higher yet, by inward musing, and
discourse, and admiring of Thy woi^ks; and we came to
our own minds, and went beyond them, that we might
arrive at that region of never-failing plenty,...where
life is the very Wisdom by whom all these things are
made,.. .And while we were discoursing and panting
after her, we slightly touched on her with the whole
effort of our heart; and we sighed, and there we left
bound the first fruits of the Spirit; and returned to
vocal expressions of our mouth,...
...that we ...might hear His very Self without these
(as we two now strained ourselves to hear, and in
swift thought touched on that Sternal Wisdom, which
abideth over all);
Augustine’s intention, in relating this, apparently
is to lead up to the story of his mother’s death and her
declaration that she had no further delight in anything in
this life. But the language speaks of a wordless contem
plation of Wisdom, the Logos by whom were all things made.
Saying that "we slightly touched on her with the whole
effort of our heart',* he seems to mean that both he and his
3*7 Cf. post, p.81.
42
mother were practicing recollection at least if not actual
contemplation* In all probability the date of his mother’s
death (placed at 387 A*D. by Schaff,^^ the date of his
’conversion’ being 386 Â.D.) marked a beginning of the
contemplation of the Illuminative Way and Augustine’s mind
at that time was much occupied with thoughts of the contem
plative method.
With this account of his mother’s death ends the
ninth book of the Confessions. The tenth book begins his
’confession’ of what his inner spiritual life is at the time
of the writing of the book. Eor, he says, (speaking of his
friends) "They wish to hear me confess what I am within".39
Our study therefore leads us to consider the question of the
stage of spiritual life he had attained at the time of
writing.
II. THE LATTER STAGE 0Ï* GROWTH
Previously there has been very little material to
indicate the actual stage of the spiritual growth of Saint
35 Philip Schaff, editor, Hicene and Post Hicene
Pa there of the Christian Church. Vol. I, p.. 25.
39 Augustine, Op. cit. X. 3. 4.
43
Augustine. How, in the following chapters, there is an
abundance of evidence of his actual spiritual state, for it
is his intention to give it.
Of the state of contemplative activity (which may
take many forms) William James 30 finds two qualities which
he holds to be definitive;
(1). Ineffability; so unlike anything experienced under
more normal conditions that he is unable to
describe the experience.
(2). Hoetic quality; these are felt to be states of
knowledge; and as a rule they carry with them a
curious sense of authority for aftertime.
Two other distinguishing marks are given by Evelyn
Underhill as being the basis of classification; 31
(1). It is an experience of the Absolute which is given,
not attained entirely by the efforts of the
mystic himself.
(2). It is apprehended by way of participation, not by
observation only. There is a communion with God.
On the part of the self, it is an outgoing donation.
The Confessions are not lacking in expressions of
these distinguishing marks of the act of contemplation.
Almost nowhere is the mystical language of ineffability
33 William James, Op. cit. p. 571f.
61
Underhill, Op. cit. p. 332.
44
better exemplified than in Augustine; partly, of course,
because he is so steeped in the Platonic expressions of
God: the Light Which is unseen by the eyes of the flesh;
Beauty, Truth, and Righteousness; and Wisdom, by Whom all
things were made. But there is also clearly to be seen the
fact that he knows not how to describe that which he has
’seen* except in the most vague terms and sometimes the
most apparently unsuitable similes. In the first part of
the tenth book, when he wishes to tell exactly what his
love for God is in order to describe his spiritual state he
. , 62
uses negatives:
But what do I love, when I love Thee ? not the beauty
of bodies, nor the fair harmony of time, nor the
brightness of light,... None of these do I love, when
I love ny God; and yet I love a kind of light, a kind
of melody, a kind of fragrance, a kind of meat, and
a kind of embrasement, when I love my God,- the light,
the melody, the fragrance, the meat, the embracement
of the inner man: where there shineth unto ny soul,
what space cannot contain,...
Ineffability of the highest orderl
The noetic quality is also expressed in a very
definite and positive manner: even in recounting the very
first experience of his life, in which took place the
awakening of the self, he declares that there is a quality
32 Augustine, Op. cit. X. 6. 8.
of certainty about its
45
63
I should sooner doubt that I live, than that Truth is
not, which is clearly seen# being understood by those
things which are made. ,
But it is in the last two books (expositions and
interpretations of Scripture) that he is most positive that
the experience has a noetic content which is an apprehension
of absolute truth:
Already Thou hast told me with a strong voice, 0
Lord, in mine inner ear, that Thou art eternal,...
Thou hast told me also with a strong voice, 0 Lord,
in my inner ear, that Thou hast made all natures
and substances,...
His answer to those who disagree with his exposition
65
is this:
Will you affirm that to be false, which with a strong
voice Truth tells me in my inner ear, concerning the
eternity of the Creator,...?
Of the other two definitive characteristics there is
also evidence. That this is an experience of God, the
Absolute, and that the vision, the hearing of the inner
voice, and the complete remaking of his life were given by
Ibid. VII. 10. 16.
64 Ibid. XII. 11. 11.
6® Ibid. XII. 15. 18.
46
the free grace of God, is a note that runs throughout the
whole hook of Confessions. Even long before his conversion,
God was guiding him, drawing him out of the heresies wherein
he had fallen: Thy grace I ascribe also whatever sins
I have not committed;..." And in another place: ”And
Thou sent est Thine hand from above, and drewest my soul out
of that profound darkness**... But probably the clearest
expression of this are these words:
These things considered, as Thou givest, 0 my God,
as Thou stirrest me up to knock, and as Thou
onenest to me, knocking, I find...
And:
Because Thou, 0 God, unto him that loveth Thee as
Thou commandest, dost show Thyself, and sufficest
him;...
The last of the four qualities, that of participa
tion rather than a passive observation, with a self giving
devotion on the part of the self, is reflected in numerous
passages. The wording of the book seems to express an
active communion taking place at the time of the writing
66 Ibid. II. 7. 15.
6? Ibid. III. 11. 19.
68 Ibid. XII. 12. 15.
69 Ibid. XII. 15. 18.
47
of the Confessions:
Let me not be own life; from myself I lived ill;
death was I to myself, and I revive in Thee. Do Thou
speak unto me, do Thou discourse unto me.
. 71
And in book thirteen:
Give Thyself unto me, 0 my God, restore Thyself unto
me; behold I love, and if it be too little, I would
love more strongly.
If these four criteria are definitive for the state
of contemplation, as we believe they are, we can little
doubt that Augustine at the time of the writing of the
Confessionswas in the stage of Illumination at least, for
contemplation is characteristic of the Illuminative Way as
well as for the Unitive Way. Contemplation, of course,
takes almost as many forms as there are individual mystics
and to say that Augustine was a contemplative provides not
a very sharp distinction, his book has omitted a very
large amount of informant ion that would be relevant to our
study of his life.
To pursue the quest further, we might ask if he gives
any indication of having reached or of having gone through
"^6 Ibid. XII. 10. 10.
71 Ibid. XIII. 7. 9.
48
the Dark Hight of the -Soul. The answer first is that he
says nothing whatever of having already gone through such a
period of dryness and pain, but we note that a long period
of his life is not mentioned. Of his being in a period of
trial and struggle at the time of the writing there is some
evidence: book ten, being a 'confession* of his present
spiritual state, speaks of the trials and temptations that
he fights against almost daily. He speaks of the •impure
72
motions of my sleep”; of concupiscence in eating and
drinking, of the delights of the ear and eye, which he
struggles against, and of the danger of curiosity, in
addition to his difficulty in keeping his attention fixed
upon God. But this is not a state of dryness, of indiffer
ence, or of lack of 'consolations*. On the contrary, the
many prayers in the book, the apparent spontaneousness of
these prayers, the many places where he speaks of his joy
(even in the same section which deals with his temptations),
speaks primarily of a state of strong yearning for God and
of a peace and joyfulness* This is not, after all, the
Dark Bight of the Soul but rather has the characteristics
of purgation still existing in the Illuminative Way.
72 Ibid. X. 30. 42.
49
It now remains to discover whether the saint had at
this time of his life attained to the Unitive Way. It will
he remembered that Miss Underhill makes the distinction
between the stage of Illumination and that of Union that of
a sense of being one with the Absolute (in the Unitive Way)
73
rather than a simpler communion. It is true that brief
glimpses of the unitive state are given at times to those
who are in the stage of Illumination; these are called by
the contemplatives passive or infused contemplation. But
the Unitive Life is a living in this union with God. The
mystic’s sense of individuality is lost as it was not in the
Illuminative Way. There is no longer a knowledge of the
gulf between the subject and the Absolute. It follows upon
the complete ’unselfing’ of the individual in the Lark Bight
and brings a complete absorption in the interests of the
Infinite. It brings also a consciousness of sharing the
strength of the Infinite and acting by Its authority, giving
a complete sense of freedom and serenity; and the individual
self becomes a center of energy, a dynamic creative power in
the world.
In giving this description of the Unitive Way, Miss
"^3 Gf. ante, p. 24-25.
Underhill, Op. cit. p. 245.
50
Underhill does not give any definite indication that she
believes Saint Augustine ever attained to that way of the
Mystic Life. Heiler agrees in'making the Unitive Way
a life of ecstatic union with God, but he also does not
say that Augustine had attained it. Sister Mary Patricia
76
Garvey, in her study of his neo-Platonism, declares that
there is no hint of an absorption of the self in the
Absolute in Augustine’s doctrine. Butler, however, quotes
a number of passages from Augustine, and says this:
Later nQrstics commonly designate their experience as
Union with God. St. Augustine does not employ this
term; yet there are passages in which he equivalently
expresses the same idea. That-in which,, he most nearly
approaches an utterance of the idea of union is the
one wherein he speaks of arriving in this life at
’ some kind of spiritual contact with the Light
unchangeable’.
The above quotation from Augustine is from the
Sermon lii. 16. Butler then quotes from the passage of the
Confessions which we have previously discussed in which
Augustine speaks of he and his mother having ’touched on
that Eternal Wisdom’. Another passage from the Confessions
quoted by Butler in the same connection is from the eleventh
"75 Heiler, Op. cit. p. 185.
Garvey, St. Augustine, Christian or Beo-Platoni;
5T T 56
Butler, Op. cit. p.62ff.
78
Of. ante, p. 40ff.
book:
51
79
What is that which gleams through me and strikes
my heart without hurting it; and I shudder and kindle ?
I shudder inasmuch as I am unlike it; I kindle
inasmuch as I am like it. It is Wisdom, Wisdom’s
self, which gleameth through me.
lie note, however, that in the passages quoted by
Butler the language used really expresses only a contact
with the Divine and not at all a self absorption or a
union in the sense which we have previously given it. Bor
do they express a Unitive life at all, but only mention
certain instances of contact. In the last quotation
especially, union in the sense of becoming one with God, is
repudiated, for the saint says "I shudder inasmuch as I am
unlike it.** We cannot agree with Butler, therefore, except
in his statement that Augustine does not use the term
’union’; at least, not in the Confessions.
We do nevertheless find evidence of a complete
absorption in the interests of the Infinite: "This is
my hope," he says, "for this do I live, that I may
contemplate the delights of the Lord." Other passages
express much intense interest in God and religious
subjects.
Augustine, Op. cit. XIi 9. 11
80 Ibid. XI. 22. 28.
52
There is also to be found the consciousness of
acting by the authority of God: "Bast not Thou, 0 Lord,
taught this soul, which confesseth unto Thee ?" And
again: "Will you affirm that to be false, which with a
strong voice Truth tells me in my inner ear...?" Also he
declares:
Por I will say the truth. Thyself inspiring me with what
Thou wiliest me to deliver out of those words. But by
no other inspiration than Thine, do I believe myself to
speak truth,...
But we find in the end no expression of the quality
which is the chief distinction between the state of union
and that of illumination; the sense of union with God
which is so characteristic of the former state. On the
contrary, there is ample evidence that the sense of great
difference between himself and the Infinite is very strong,
Bumerous passages which seem to be spontaneous outbursts
of feeling exhibit this, but we quote only a few:
Thou wilt increase. Lord, Thy gifts more and more in
me, that my soul may follow me to Thee,... and
bemoaning that wherein I am still imperfect; hoping
81 Ibid. XII. 3. 3.
82 Ibid. XII. 15. 18.
83 Ibid. XIII. 25. 38.
53
that Thou wilt perfect Thy mercies in me, even to
perfect peace.
I much fear my secret sins, which Thine eyes know,
mine do not.
Oh, let the Light, the Truth, the Light of my heart,
not mine own darkness, speak unto me*
And yet again, the soul is sad, because it relapses,
and becomes a deep, or rather perceives itself still
to be a. deep... Bope and endure, until the night, the
mother of the wicked, until the wrath of the Lord, be
overpast,... G7
Primarily, then, because of the utter lack of any
expression of any sense of union with God, and the large
number of expressions of a sense of a gulf between himself
and God, we have concluded that Augustine, at the time of
the writing of the Confessions, had not as yet achieved
to the Unitive Life of the Mystic Way, but was still in the
Illuminative stage of that Way of life.
84 Ibid. X. 30. 42.
85 Ibid. X. 37. 60.
86 Ibid. XII. 10. 10.
87 Ibid. XIII. 14. 15.
PART II
OTHER ASPECTS
CHAPTER VI
IHDIVIDÜAL GBABAGTERISTIGS
I . DOMIBABT CHORDS
Bot one but several dominant chords may be distin
guished in Saint Augustine’s symphony of prayer* We have
already noted that at the time of thé writing of the
Confessions there is a strong indication of the ineffability,
the noetic quality, the givenness of the experience of God,
and the communion or participation aspect of the mystic
contemplative experience* Of these, that which is most
prominent is the continual insistence that God has taken
the initiative in his life, leading him out of his errors,
correcting him, and in the end lifting him out of his sins
into a holy fellowship with Himself* The sense of his own
unworthiness and of the given nature of his inner prayer is
very strong in Augustine* This may stem from his study of
the Pauline letters and their doctrine of salvation by
faith* But it seems far more plausible that the belief
followed the experience; his doctrine grew out of his own
inner struggle which induced in him a strong sense of his
Cf» ante, p* 43ff*
55
helplessness because of the overpoweringness of earthly
temptations, and of a supra human power available for help
in the struggle against these temptations. Whatever is the
case, the book appears to have been written not only as a
spiritual exercise for himself, so that he may love God all
the more, but also to show God’s mercy and love before
others; that is, to show what God has done. The whole
book is meant to be an expression of his sense of the given
nature of his prayer.
Another powerful strain evidenced here is a strong,
urgent note of longing and yearning for God. In the
introduction to the translation used, Shedd notes that
the book "palpitates with a positive love of God and
goodness" and that along with his love of God there is a
corresponding hatred of sin and evil. It is quite true,
and the expression of the yearning for God, as we have
before noted, creates the impression at times that one is
reading not a written composition, but a prayer that comes
spontaneously out of the inner springs of the self. It is
this, we believe, that is in large part responsible for the
Augustine, Op. cit. II. 1. 1.
90 Ibid. X. 3. 4.
91 Ibid. p. xviii.
56
great influence that this book has created for itself. The
expression of this urgency toward God uses a style that is
strongly reminiscent of the language of the Bsalms, and
indeed quotes the Psalms frequently. Augustine speaks
specifically of the inspiration he received from the Psalms,
the fourth Psalm especially.
In connection with this longing for God which is so
clearly expressed by Augustine we note that the element of
fascination is one of the five elements named by Rudolph
Otto as the essentials of the Mysterium Tremendumi the
feeling aroused by the numinous object. 93 The word
’fascination* as used by Otto means the inclusion of a
feeling of joyfulness, of rest, peace, and comfort enjoyed
by him who apprehends the numen. And it is more than that
for it arouses a desire to possess and be possessed by the
numen. All of these feeling states are strongly exhibited
in the Confessions. Of the joy he finds in God he says; 94
Per there is a joy which is not given to the ungodly
but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose
joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to
rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this is it, and
there is no other.
92 Ibid. DC. 4. 8.
93 otto, The Idea of the Holy, p. 8ff.
94 Augustine, Op. cit. X. 22. 32.
Again, he describes it thus;
57
95
And sometimes Thou admittest me to an affection, very
unusual, in my inmost soul; rising to a strange
sweetness, which if it were perfected in me, I know
not what in it would not belong to the life to come.
Both his longing for God and his rest in God he
expresses in the following:
Thou madest the reasonable creature; to which
nothing will suffice to yield a happy rest, less
than Thee, and so not even herself... Give Thyself
unto me; behold I love, and if it be too little, I
would love more strongly.
A second of the five elements, that of energy, or
urgency, is closely related to the fascination of the
numinous and is a part of the expression of longing and
yearning for God which we see in Augustine; that is, it is
a part of the driving force of his strong love for God.
However, with Augustine the element of urgency is not so
powerful that it evolves into the state of ’ecstasy of love’,
the rapture of which mystics such as Teresa speak:
It is as if a person were on the point of dying the
death he desires, with a blest candle in his hands,
for in his agony the pleasure he enjoys is more than
Ibid-.-X. 40. 65.
96 Ibid.. XIII. 7. 9.
St. Teresa» Life, p. 150.
58
can be expressed;and this seems to be nothing more
than to die almost entirely to everything in the
world, tiiat so we may enjoy God alone.
We can find in the Confessions not the slightest
trace of this intense pain-pleasure state which Teresa and
others describe as almost unbearable ai^ which brings
physical trance. Rather, the ’energy* or ’urgency’ of the
numinous seems to take an entirely different direction. The
first step which Augustine took toward the higher life was
in the direction of intellectual enlightenment.^® It was
the intellectual problems of the concept of God which were
the great stumbling blocks in his pathway for the early
part of his life, even though the sins of the flesh were
not minor factors in separating him from God. But reason,
or intellect, held the place of major importance in the
saint’s.make up. That so much of our theological beliefs
for many centuries have their roots in Augustine’s system
of theology is evidence of its prominence in his life. The
channel, then, which the ’energy’ of the numen took was
that of the intellect, resulting in a strong craving for
Truth, or Wisdom. In Augustine there is a strong craving
for God Himself, in His essence, as a Personality. But
along with this, and merged into it is the craving and
longing to understand God; to have an answer to his
98 Of. ante, p. 17ff.
59
questioning about God, the universe, and reality. It is
significant that he speaks so often of the ’strong voice’
that speaks ;to his ’inner ear*; of the Light; and of
Wisdom. The Platonic doctrine of the Logos, Wisdom, of
course looms very large in his thinking, and need not be
expounded here. But it played a very large part in his
belief, and determined at least in part, the direction and
quality of his prayer life. Gharacteristic is his way of
expressing his desire for wisdom aroused by Cicero; it
seems to be speaking of prayer instead:
How did I burn then, my God, how did I burn to
remount from earthly things to Thee;... Por with
Thee is wisdom.
It will be seen, then, that his intellectual nature
was aroused and expressed itself in his contemplative
prayer, and that his many prayers for enlightenment show
that God was, for him, the Divine Revealer of Truth.
A third element which Otto ascribes to the numinous
Mysterium Tremendum is the sense of God being the ’wholly
other’; unlike in quality to man, so that the human being
is filled with a wonder that strikes him chill and numb.
We have noted already that Augustine expresses this many
Augustine, Op. cit. III. 4. 8.
60
times. That is, he realizes that there is a great gulf
between himself and God. It is, as we have seen, a chief
characteristic of the Illuminative phase. The best
expression of this, probably, is Augustine’s sentence: "I
shudder, inasmuch as I am unlike it;" which has been
quoted before. This element of the sense of the ’wholly
other’ arouses a strong interest and curiosity, says Otto;
and it in part may be accountable for Augustine’s intellec
tual longing.
The other two elements, those of ’awefulness’ and
’overpoweringness* probably cannot be distinguished in their
expression in literature as well as they can in a theoreti
cal discourse. The trembling and awe which the numinous
inspires is, however, clearly shown in the Confessions. In
a number of places his fear and trembling are declared; we
note a few: **I trembled for fear, and again kindled with
hope*'; "I considered, and stood aghast;" 103 "it is
awful to look therein; an awfulness of honor, and a
Cf« ante, p. E8f
101 Augustine, Op. cit. XI. 9. 11.
102 Ibid. IX. 4. 9.
103 Ibid. X. 40. 65.
61
trembling of love." 1^"^
Though he declares his fear and trembling, it is
still the element of goodness in the idea of the holy, not
analyzed by Rudolph Otto, which gives the form and content
to the non-rational aspect of awfulness and overpowering-
ness in Augustine, and plays a dominant role. The sense of
sin and unrighteousness is unusually strong in the Bishop
of Hippo. The struggle which led to his conversion was one
of conflict with earthly temptations; and his.joy is in
good measure a joy aroused in one who has been delivered
from such a conflict. It is a part of and responsible for
the feeling of separation from God. Augustine’s is a
struggle away from sin, as well as a struggle toward God.
Altogether, the five elements of the numinous as
delineated by Otto are well revealed in the Confessions,
with that of the ’fascination’ taking the form of a
longing for God and an intellectual craving for wisdom.
The feeling that his salvation and his prayer are given by
God is equally strong, and may indeed be derived from one
or another of the elements of the Mysterium Tremendum.
^04 Ibid. XII. 14. 17.
62
II. ACTIVIST OR qUIlTiST ?
Preidrich Heiler has made a distinction in regard to
the types of prayer. In his book Prayer he has divided
prayer into two main types; ’mystical prayer’ and’prophetic
prayer’. Mystical prayer, says Heiler,is the denial
of the will to live. It is passive, resigned,and contempla
tive. It aims for the delight of the ecstasy which is
bought at the price of killing the individual will for life.
Prophetic prayer, on the other hand, is active, challenging,
desiring, ethical. It does not deny, but affirms the will
to live. A desire for life, with an absolute security in
God as the Giver of life, creates faith, which is the key
note of prophetic religion. Heiler sums up his contrast
between the two types of prayer in this way:
Mysticism flees from and denies the natural life
and the relish of life in order to experience an
infinite life beyond it; prophetic piety, on the
contrary, believes in life and affirms it, throws
itself resolutely and joyfully into the arms of
life. On the one side we have an uncompromising
denial of life, on the other an unconquerable
belief in life.
The two types which Heiler describes are the
Heiler, Op. cit. p. 135ff.
106 Ibid. p. 144.
63
extremes, of course. Such immoderate examples of prayer
are exhibited on the one hand, by Madam Guy on, the
quietist, and the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah and
Jeremiah, on the other.
Christian mysticism has its roots in the neo-Platonic
school which plays such an important part in Augustine’s
thought.' But the Christianity of St. Paul, with its
theology of salvation by faith, also looms large in his
thought and works, so that the question of whether the saint
is a prophet or a mystic is an important one. Heiler 1^7
has concluded that Augustine’s prayer is a synthesis of both
in an extraordinary completeness, but with the mystical type
of religion taking precedence. A cursory examination of
Augustine’s life and works seems to bear this out. But for
the present study of Augustine, it is necessary to examine
the Confessions for the expressions of prayer in them and so
attempt to throw light of a more detailed nature upon this
question.
Before turning to the Confessions, however, we must
recognize that a man* s religion, and his prayers are not
to be understood without a knowledge of his whole life. In
107 Ibid. p. 126. Cf. Appendix VI.
64
the extreme quietist type of mysticism, all activity of
any kind is repudiated, and the whole life is given over
to passive enjoyment of contemplation. But in the
enormously productive life of the Bishop of Hippo there
is little to suggest this contented passivity. Here is
the description which Philip Schaff gives of the many
activities of Augustine: 108
He often preached five days in succession, sometimes
twice a day, and set it as the object of his preaching,
that all might live with him, and he with all, in
Christ. Wherever he went in Africa, he was begged to
preach the word of salvation. He faithfully administer
ed the external affairs connected with his office,
though he found his chief delight in contemplation.
This is no description of a passive quietist. Dom
Cuthbert Butler has reviewed the writings of Augustine in
an analysis of his teachings on the two ways of living. He
finds that Augustine teaches that the contemplative life is
definitely superior to the active life: but also that it
is not proper for one who is capable of the administering
of ecclesiastical charges or of government of the church to
withdraw himself wholly from the active life in order to give
himself up to the contemplative life'. Augustine emphasizes
that the great danger of the contemplative life is a
tendency toward laziness.
Philip Schaff, Op. cit. p. 195
65
It is evident therefore, that both in his actions
and in his theory of living Augustine combined his contem
plative life with activity in a very thorough manner. But
let us examine how this may be expressed in his prayers.
In prayer.does he affirm or deny life ?
First of all, we cannot escape the recognition that
there is very much in the Confessions toindicate a
contemplative withdrawal from life. Botable is the theory
of the method of contemplation given in the ninth book, in
109
the account of his conversation with his mother. He says:
If the tumult of the flesh were hushed, hushed the
images of earth, and waters and air, hushed also the
poles of heaven, yea the very soul hushed to herself,
and by not thinking on self surmounting self,... so
that life might be for ever like that one moment of
intuition which- now we sighed after; were not this the
Enter into thy Master’s .joy ?
Surely this sounds very much like a desire to with
draw from the strife of living and to find a life of enjoy
ing the ’moment of intuition’. But most notable of all the
expressions of this tendency to withdraw from life and even
from the usual lawful satisfactions of life is the section
of book ten which confesses his present spiritual state. Of
his ’joy which is not given to the ungodly* he says: "And
109
Augustine, Op. cit. IX. lO. 25.
66
this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for
Thee; this is it, and there is no other."
Augustine in this section of hook ten tells of his
conflict with the daily temptations of eating and drinking;
with the ’delights of the ear’, and of the temptation to
he drawn into a love of the music of the hymns, then just
being introduced into the church, he seems to consider it
a sin to be more pleased with the voice than with the words
sung, so that he does not know whether to approve the use
of singing in the church. He is also tempted by the
pleasures of the eyes of the flesh, for he says, "The
eyes love fair and varied forms, and bright and soft colors".
fie speaks also of his difficulty in the continual ’practice
of the Presence of God’, because of ’the disease of
curiosity.’ The illustration he uses for the latter is
that of a lizard catching flies and thus attracting his
attention. "I indeed go on from them to praise Thee..." he
IIP
says, "but this does not first draw my attention". "And
of such things is m y life full; and my one hope is Thy
wonderful great mercy."
110
Ibid. X. 22. 32*
m Ibid. X. 34. 51.
112 Ibid. X. 35. 57.
67
Speaking of the joy he finds in contemplating,
11*5
Augustine says:
...this I often do, this delights me, and as far as
I may he freed from necessary duties, unto this
pleasure have I recourse.
There seems to he no doubt that this mystical
turning away from life to seek for satisfaction in the joy
of the contemplation of God plays a very, very important
part in Augustine’s life. But what of the prophetic type
of prayer; the embracement of life ? Is this to be found
alongside of the other, as Heiler believes ?
In attempting to answer this question we note first
that prophetic religion is a struggle and a conflict; not
at all resigned. In its struggle with sin and temptation
it finds its faith in God through petionary prayer. Later
it becomes a prayer of thanksgiving and joy. Augustine’s
Confessions are full of this struggle and of its expressions
of faith. The very thought of writing the Confessions is
one expression of the struggle which is still going on at
that time. And it is an intent to express the faith and
confidence in God which has evolved out of the struggle
with temptations. Perhaps the best expression of his
Ibid. X. 40. 65.
68
effort to overcome in the conflict with himself is the
description of his inner strife just prior to the
’conversion’ in the garden:
Thus soul-sick was I, and tormented, accusing myself
more severely than my wont, rolling and turning me
in my chain, till that were wholly broken, whereby I
now was but just, but still was, held. And Thou, 0
Lord, didst press upon me inwardly by a severe mercy,
redoubling the lashes of fear and shame, ... For I
said within myself, ’Be it done now, be it done now;’
and as I spake, I all but performed it; I all but
did it, and did it not;...
Bor does this inward struggle for righteousness
ever leave Augustine; at least, until the time of the
writing of this book. The book continues the note of
contrition and prayerfulness which began in the earlier
years, and which later became colored and infused with the
more positive note of longing for God Himself. Both the
petion for cleansing and the desire for the knowledge of
God may be seen in the following quotation, the beginning
of the tenth book:
Let me know Thee, 0 Lord, who knowest me;^ let me know
Thee as I am known. Power of my soul, enter into it,
and fit it for Thee, that Thou mayest have and hold it
without spot or wrinkle. This is my hope,...
^^4 Ibid. VIII. 11. 25.
118 Ibid. X. 1. 1.
69
Particularly with Augustine, however, this struggle
of the life forces for growth and individual expression
takes another and perhaps even a more characteristic form.
In accounting for the changes which took place in his life,
he rememhers as one of the very first steps the awakening
of a hunger for intellectual wisdom aroused hy Cicero.
Later, the great stumbling block for him was the philosophy
of the Manichees and the false concepts of God which were
taught by them. Augustine was not able to approach God
until his intellectual conflict had been resolved, as he
himself attests: "...for I knew not how to love Thee,
not knowing how to conceive aught beyond a material bright
ness." We see by this that the struggle for life in
Augustine took, at least in part, the form of a craving
for intellectual understanding.
As expressed in prayer, the intellectual inclination
took two forms; one of these is a petitioning for enlighten
ment, a sort of questioning of God. The latter part of the
Confessions is a continuation of chapter ten in which he
* confesses* his spiritual state. These last chapters give
an insight, or 'confession* of his mental process of
philosophical speculation. In one place is a petition for
116
Ibid. IV. 2. 3.
70
117
the necessary time for these speculations: "Grant
thereof a space for our meditations in the hidden things •
of Thv law." Later he prays for enlightenment on a
118
perplexing question:
üy soul is on fire to know this most intricate enigma.
Shut it not up, 0 Lord my God, good Father; through
Christ I beseech Thee, do not shut up these usual, yet
hidden things from wy desire, that it be hindered from
piercing into them; but let them davm through Thy
enlightening mercy, 0 Lord.
Such a petitioning of God is typical of the
prophetic, life affirming type of religion, as Heiler
describes it.
The second form taken by this intellectual craving
for understanding is very closely related to the other. In
fact, making the distinction may not be entirely justified.
But one passage which describes his contemplait ion speaks of
11Q
referring his deliberations to God; 'consulting*him.
This does not seem to be the same as the prophetic petition
for enlightenment. It is a contemplation, rather. We quote:
Where hast Thou not walked with me, 0 Truth, teaching
me wloat to beware, and wiiat to desire, when I
ITjid. XI. 2. 3.
118 Ibid. XI. 22. 28.
11® Ibid. X. 40. 65.
71
referred to Thee what I could discover here below, and
consulted Thee? ...Thou art the abiding light, which
I consulted concerning all these, whether they were,
what they were, and how to be valued; and I heard Thee
directing and comma,nding me; and this I often do, this
delights me, and as far as I may be freed from necessary
duties, unto this pleasure have I recourse.
Just exactly what he means by this is impossible to
say. Ee seems to refer to a contemplative type of specula
tion. A few lines after this he declares that "sometimes
Thou admittest me to an affection, very unusual, in
inmost soul;". In book twelve,following, there are
repeated statements that "Thou hast told me with a strong
voice in my inner ear". In view of these statements
we believe that this passage refers to the meditative
process by which he hears this 'voice in my inner ear'. If
this be true, it is probable that the intellectual questing
has taken both a prophetic and a mystical form combined.
Lastly, there is one more indication of the
presence of the prophetic type of prayer. The nQrstical
type of religion, in its extreme form, has a tendency to
deny petition of any kind, especially petition for material
things. Augustine does not go this far. He petitions
chiefly for enlightenment; but in one place in the
Confessions he speaks of halving asked his friends to pray
120 Ibid. XII. 11. 12.
72
for him, after which a 'pain in the teeth' is cured.
In another place he prays God to heal his sorrow. In
yet another passage he prays for his dead mother and asks
God to inspire others to do the same. All of this is
clear evidence of the prophetic, life desiring, type of
prayer, not of mystical passive resignation.
To summarize: w^ find that Heiler is right in his
statement that Augustine blends the two types of prayer.
Both strains may be found in the Confessions. Moreover,
it is in all probability true that thé mystical, contempla
tive type is more predominant than the prophetic.
121 Ibid. IX. 4. 12.
122 Ibid. IX. 12. 32.
123 Ibid. IX. 13. ,34-37.
CmPTER VII
BELIEFS COMGEHEIEG PRAYER
I. PETITIONS FOR HIMSELF
It has been already noted that Augustine prays for
himself and asks others to pray for him. It may be added,
however, that by far the greater amount of this petition is
either for forgiveness of sins and a closer approach to God
or for intellectual enlightenment. In common with so many
of the nçrstics, Augustine prays very seldom for material
things. The prayer for the healing of the pain in his
teeth occurred soon after the 'conversion* in the garden,
and so probably was not typical of his later life. The
later type of prayer is more of the speculative questioning
of God and of praying for the Light, with a complete
deference to the Divine will.
II. IHTERCESSIOH FOR OTHERS
We have also noted the asking of his friends to
intercede for him when he was not able to speak. From the
account, Augustine evidently believed in the effectiveness
of such intercession. "And the power of THy nod was deeply
impressed upon me", he says.
74
Augustine strongly believes in another type of
intercession also. He says much of his mother's prayers
for him. She prayed for the health of his body, and he was
healed; and she prayed much more and with much weeping
for the health of his soul. This prayer also, Augustine
firmly believes, was answered:
Thou heardest her, 0 Lord; Thou heardest her, and
despisedst not her tears, when, streaming down, they
watered the ground under her eyes in every place where
she prayed; yea, Thou heardest her.
The type of intercession here spoken of, that of
prayer for the salvation of others, has a very much larger
place in the Confessions t3mn do other types. His whole
spiritual growth, from the very beginnings, he attributes
to the active participation of God in his life, leading him
gradually, step by step, in answer to the interceding
prayers of his mother. This is quite plain and is declared
over and over again in the Confessions. Even while he
was yet in a very low stage of spiritual growth he. believes
that God was so controlling matters that he was to be
eventually led away from his pride, lust, and other sins.
God had led him, unknown to him. "...and I erred through a
124 Ibid. V. 9. 16.
125 Ibid. III. 11. 19.
75
swelling pride", he declares,yet was steered by
Thee, though very secretly.'*
That he was awakened to a pursuit of Wisdom by
Hortensius he does not attribute to God, but he does give
to God the credit for the discovery of the Platonic books.
"Thou procuredst for me" is his tribute.Augustine even
goes so far as to say that God not only forgave his sins
but prevented him from committing others, although this
last thought is not at all elaborated: "To Tby grace
I ascribe also whatsoever sins I have not committed;".
In this manner Augustins declares his belief in the
power of his mother's prayers for his conversion. Of his
own praying for others in like manner he says very little,
except to say in one place only that in this his will is
subservient to that of God: "But when 1 pray Thee for
the salvation of any,...Thou givest and wilt give me to
follow Thee willingly, doing wiiat Thou wilt." Augustine
also hopes that readers of the Confessions will give thanks
126 Ibid. IV. 14. 23.
127 Ibid. Vll. 9. 13.
128 Ibid. 11. 7. 15.
129 Ibid. X. 35. 56.
76
on his behalf, and intreat for him.
A third type of intercession found here is that of
prayers for the dead. His mother at her death bed liad made
request that he pray for her. He does so in the
following words:
\
I know tiiat she dealt mercifully, and from her heart
forgave her debtors their debts: do Thou also forgive
her debts, whatever she may have contracted in so many
years, since the water of salvation...
And 1 believe Thou hast already done what I ask;...
And inspire, 0 Lord my God, inspire Thy servants my
brethren,... that so many as shall read these Confessions,
may at Thy altar remember Monica Thy handmaid, with
Patrieius her husband,..•
As the editor, William G. T. Shedd, points out in a
footnote, this is not a prayer either for her regenera
tion, or for her deliverance from penal torment. It is
simply a prayer for the forgiveness of the sins she has
committed after baptism. Apparently- it is the same
prayer which he would iiave prayed had she been still alive.
Ho where else in the Confessions does Augustine give approval
of prayers for the dead, either for their salvation or for
the forgiveness of their post baptism sins. But it is
130 Ibid. X. 4. 5.
131 Ibid. IX. 11. 27 - 13. 37.
132 Ibid. p. 231.
77
evident that he believes in the latter, certainly.
111. REVEtATlOH
It has been previously noted that the noetic -quality
of Augustine's mystical experiences is very strong.
Connected with his expressions of it are the frequent
statements that a distinct message, a revelation, has been
given him. Of this he leaves no doubt, at times giving
even the words which he declares were spoken with a 'strong
voice' in his 'inner ear*.
The manner in which he believes that revelations may
come to men are, however, varied. One manner of revelation
is through dreams. Ee recounts the dream of his mother in
which she saw herself standing on a wooden 'rule' and an
angel showed her that her son also was standing on the same
134
rule. This she took to be a promise that he later would
be converted. This dream the Bishop of Hippo himself
affirms to be from God: "Whence was this, but that Thine
ears were towards her heart ?" That there may be some
difficulty in adjudging which dream is a true revelation
133 Ibid. XIII. 29. 44.
134 Ibid. III. 11. 19.
78
he admits for he later states that
...she could, she said, through a certain feeling,
which in words she could not express, discern betwixt
Thy revelations, and the dreams of her own soul.
A second 'manner of revelation which holds a place in
Augustine's belief is shown in his story of the 'conversion'
in the garden. This was by means of a voice, as of a boy
or girl; an outward voice, certainly not a voice in his
'inner ear'. Eis interpretation of the voice was that it
was a direct command of God, and he opened the Scripture
and read the first chapter he saw as a message from God. In
this he believed that the revelation came through outward,
material things used by God; not through dreams, an inner
speaking, or through visions. Undoubtedly the fact that
the verse he read had a direct application to his own case
was of great influence in fixing this belief.
The third manner of revelation found in the
Confessions is the apprehension of Truth through his
contemplations. The description of it is confusing; it is
not at all clear as to what is meant. This is probably
due to the ineffable nature of the experience so that we
135 ibid. VI. 13. 23.
79
cannot be too exacting in attempting to find his meaning.
It is described as a vision and as hearing a voice,
sometimes both in the same sentence. He writes in
describing the vision which he and his mother enjoyed
together:
{...we two now strained ourselves to hear, and in swift
thought touched on that Eternal Wisdom, which abideth
over all);- could this be continued on, and other
visions of kind far unlike be withdrawn,...
Yet, though he uses the neo-Platonic language of
mysticism, (speaking of seeing the Unchangeable Light, and
of seeing the Beauty which is above our souls,) the
description generally given of his receiving the revelatory
message is that of hearing an 'inner voice*. The descrip
tion is varied, it is true. Probably the experience itself
is as varied as his descriptions, taking no set form. Of
his first ’apprehension of God* after finding the Platonic
books, he says that it was "as if I heard this Thy voice
from on high; ...And Thou criedst to me from afar;"
Only in this one place in the Confessions do we find this
particular description of his audition. Even so, it does
not seem to be his intent to describe it as an * external*
voice but rather to declare his sense of the distance between
136 Ibid. IX. 10. 25.
Ibid. VII. 10. 16.
80
God and himself. This is then probably the type of
audition belonging to the second class defined by Miss
Underhill; that which is a distinct, perfectly articulate
inner voice which is recognized as speaking only within the
mind.
The second manner of revelation described above (the
voice as of a boy or girl) may have belonged to the third
class of audition which Miss Underhill describes; the
hearing of what appears to be an external voice.
However, the manner of revelation which Augustine
describes in almost all instances is that of the second
class of audition; an articulate inner voice. He speaks
of the voice ’inwardly discoursing*; of it ’directing
and commanding me’; of the ’strong voice’ in his * inner
ear’; and of ’Thy Truth which whispers unto my soul’i"^^
In the end, that which is most noticeable in
Underhill, Op. cit. p. 273.
139 Augustine, Op. cit. XI. 9. 11; XII. 10. 10.
140 Ibid. X. 40. 65.
141 Ibid. XII. 11. 11; XII. 15. 18; XIII. 29. 44
142 Ibid. XII. 16. 23.
81
Augustine’s contemplative experiences is that he says
nothing of seeing visions in the form of images. He speaks
of seeing the Unchangeable Light, but this is not a light
comparable to that which may be seen with the bodily
senses. Augustine is not a ’visionary mystic’ in that
sense; he is an ’auditory mystic’, and his auditions take
the form of a distinct, articulate voice speaking to the
mind.
IV. THEORY OF GOHTEMPLATIOH
The Confessions give only a somewhat partial
exposition of his method of contemplation, and that in a
highly figurative and poetic manner of speaking. Hone the
less, it is possible to gain an idea of his theories on
this subject.
First, it is easily recognizable that Augustine
regards the vision of the Eternal Light as a gift; not as
a capacity of inner vision which he may acquire by his own
efforts. Speaking of his very first experience, the
awakening of the self, which opened the eyes of his soul,
he declares:
143 ihid. VII. 10. 16.
82
I entered into my inward self. Thou being my Guide;
and I was able to do so bscause Thou wert become
my Helper.
Moreover, he speaks of the transiency of his first
slight apprehension of the Divine Reality, and writes that
a longing was aroused "For what I had, as it were,
perceived the odor of, but was not yet able to feed on."
Even then he was not able to attain that which he desired
144
until he found the way through Christ:
Then I sought a way of obtaining strength, sufficient
to enjoy Thee; and found it not, until I embraced
that Mediator betwixt God and men, the Man Christ
Jesus...
And again:
But having then read those books of the Platonists,
and thence been taught to search for incorporeal
truth, I saw Thy invisible things....I perceived what
that was, which, through the darkness of my mind, I
was hindered from contemplating,....but had I not
sought Thy way in Christ our Saviour, I had proved
to be, not skilled, but killed... I might have thought
that it might have been obtained by the study of the
Platonic books alone.
This is Christian mysticism. Augustine is, of
course, referring to the later ’conversion’ experience in
which he underwent a Christian conversion, with faith in
144 Ibid. VII. 18. 24.
Ibid. VII. 20. 26.
83
Christ as the key to his victory in the conflict of self
with self. Augustine makes use of the neo-Platonic
methods of contemplation but at the same time gives them
a definitely Christian coloring. He is certain that he
cannot attain to the vision by his own efforts alone; and
his help came through Christ, the Mediator.
Turning to the act of contemplating itself, we find
that Augustine believes that it leads to a vision of the
Light which is above his soul. He makes much of the fact
that it is above his soul, explaining that the word means
not a difference in a material, spatial sense, but a
difference in quality. The Light is above his soul and
different from it in the way that the creature is different
from That which has created it.
Most important of all for his contemplation is his
belief that in order to find God it was necessary to enter
into his inward self. In the following we shall try to
discover what he means by this phrase.
Augustine has several ways of describing the same
process. The first is in a passage which follows the
146 Ibid. VII. 10. 16.
84
account of his first contemplative experience (book seven)
14-7
and seems to be an explanation of it. “ The second is
the account of the experience he and his mother found
together as they were discussing the after life just
before her -death. ^48 third is given in the chapter
which immediately follows the second account and which
explains it in other words. But all appear to be saying
essentially the same thing.
In order to compare the three we shall quote phrases
or sentences from each of the three in consecutive order,
then attempt to discover the meaning. In this way one
passage will illuminate the other.
First: "I passed from bodies to the soul which
through the bodily senses perceives;" (from the first of
the three accounts). Then; "...we, raising up ourselves
with a more glowing affection...did by degrees pass through
all things bodily,..." And: "If the tumult of the flesh
were hushed,"...
Hone of this is very clear, but the meaning probably
147 Ibid. VII. 17. 23
148 Ibid. IX. 10. 24.
85
is that he withdrew his attention from all external
material things: from sight and sounds of the material
world.
Hext follows this step: "Thence to its inward
faculty, to which the bodily senses represent things
external"; (from the first account). Then: "We came to
our own minds, and went beyond them..." (from "the second
account). And: "...hushed the images of earth, and waters
and air,".
The third of the above quotations is the most
illuminating. In speaking of ’the images of earth,* he
again means a withdrawal of attention; this time from the
images which the memory brings to the consciousness; from
faces, scenes, and remembered places. It will be seen that
the first two of these passages speak of going beyond the
inward faculty and the mind; tliat is, in dispelling the
images brought to the consciousness.
Thirdly, another step: "thence again to the reason
ing faculty, to which wiiat is received from the senses of
the body is referred to be judged." Again: "we came to
our own minds, and went beyond them", (we repeat the above
86
quotation). And: "the very soul hushed to herself, and
by not thinking on self surmounting self, hushed all dreams
and imaginary revelations, every tongue and every sigh,".
Again, the third quotation is the most clear. It
is by quieting the reasoning faculty that he takes the third
step. Doing this is a ‘hushing* of the mind; of all
dreams and of every tongue. Essentially, it is a stilling
of all inward conversation of the self with itself; of all
judging and thinking. It is a withdrawal of attention from
the dialectic process of the mind which goes on all during
the waking consciousness.
having done all of this, according to Augustine, God
Himself is to be heard; His Very Self, without all of these
external voices and interferences.
In yet another passage Augustine writes of ^49
...the fields and spacious palaces of ny memory,
where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought
into it from things of all sorts, perceived by the
senses.
Here again he is speaking of the ascent of the soul
149 Ibid. X. 8. 12.
87.
to God. After an analysis of his memory he then writes
I will pass even beyond this power of mine which is
called memory: yea, I will pass beyond it, that I
may approach unto Thee, 0 sweet Light.
!By this also he apparently intends a stilling of the
mind; an abandonment of the thinking processes and of the
activity of the mind in bringing to the consciousness
images and events which are remembered.
All of the foregoing, however, is a passive,
negative process. It describes only a withdrawal, and as
such his phrase of entering into his ’inward self is most
apt. It is thus far only a stilling of the "violent
trembling of the surface consciousness" 131 and is not a
positive reaching out for God at all. There is,
nevertheless, an indication of this more positive activity.
The stilling of the mind is, naturally, an activity. But
it tends toward a passive quietness and relaxation. The
more positive activity is an urgency toward God, a
concentration. The Confessions, in the second and third
of the descriptions of contemplation qdoted above, speaks
of "raising ourselves up with a more glowing affection";
150 Ibid. X. 17. 26.
151 Gerald Heard, "The Skill of Prayer". Christian
Century, 57:475-76, April 10, 1940.
88
of "panting after" Wisdom; of having "touched on her with
the whole effort of the heart"; of "having roused our ears
to Him Who made them"; and, lastly, that "we two nov/
strained ourselves to hear",. These all indicate, in our
belief, an activity within the self; a positive striving of
some sort.
To clarify this concept we turn again to Mysticism
by Evelyn Underhill. She describes the mystic contempla
tion as a "concentration":
Psychologically it is an induced state, in which the
field of consciousness is greatly contracted: the
whole of the self, its conative powers, being sharply
focussed, concentrated upon one thing. We pour
ourselves out or, as it sometimes seems to us, in
towards this over-powering interest; seem to ourselves
to reach it and be merged with it. Whatever the thing
may be, in this act it is given to us and we know it,
as we cannot know it by the ordinary devices of
thought.
This, then, is what we see in Augustine; a "pouring
out" of himself, with the sense of the power to do so being
given to him from Something which is transcendent to his own
self. This is that which he has tried to describe.
132 Underhill, Op. cit. p. 329-30.
CHAPTER VIII
COHCLÜSIOH
A complete understanding of the particular forms
which St. Augustine's prayers took must go back, finally,
to the individual attributes of his rather unusual tempera
ment. He belongs to that class of people who suffer from
what William James has called the "divided self", or
"discordant personality". 133 Having evidently an
intensive nature characterized by strong, slow reactions,
and taking years of struggle before passing from one stage
of psychological growth to another, his development was
marked by the crisis type of climactic change. This is
the type of personality that eventuates in the prophetic
type of religion. It is a conflict, a striving for life; and,
because its struggle is within the self itself, it feels sin
as within itself, not as an external discordance as does the
true mystical type of religion. Augustine’s divided self
was, basically, the groundwork for such a prophetic
religion with prayer expressing its struggle with inward sin
and becoming a crying out to God for righteousness. The
sense of sin which resulted was emphasized and exaggerated
153 William James, Op. cit. p. 168-69.
90
by the wilful and licentious manner of living that marred
his earlier years.
To this we may add that Augustine’s was a very
emotional temperament with very strong basic drives,
probably due in part at least, to an unusual store of
vitality. The many and varied activities in which he
excelled witness to an endowment of vitality in an extra
ordinary degree. Strogng sexual passions and warm emotions
are characteristic of his whole life. This emotional
nature, however, was balanced by an intellect of a very high
order. Philosophical and theological speculation were the
natural trend of this exceptional intellectual vitality.
Augustine’s great mental powers were in direct opposition
to his passionate nature, thanks to his mother’s influence
and training. Hot until he had reached the age of thirty
two and his emotional drivés were somewhat reduced and
more or less completely sublimated was Augustine to emerge
into a state of unified personality.
Adding to this conflict was the superimposition of
the neo-Platonic cystic ism. The contemplative stilling of
mental activity and the stimulus in the direction of a
withdrawal from the world which this type of religion gave
was to his innately active intellect but an added impetus
91
to inward strife. The result was in the end a type of
prayer that combined the characteristics of both mysticism
and prophetic religion. The elements of the ’wholly other’
and of’ awefulness ’ in the l^sterium Tremendum take such a
dominant place and are found in the powerful feeling of
separation from God and of sin because of the prophetic
striving for life. The mystical love for God, the joy,
and the self denial come from the neo-Platonic strain.
The unusual power of the k^sterium Tremendum as it
is seen expressed in the Confessions may be due to some
peculiar faculty, an inborn trait, which might classify him
as a ’natural mystic’. But we have been able to find nothing
in his early life to indicate any unusual facility for the
apprehension of a Transcendent Reality. In this instance
it appears to be far more likely that the saint’s strong
emotional nature and his great endowment of vitality, when
once sublimated and directed in the channels of contempla
tive prayer gave a greater than usual concentration of
energy in these directions. The discipline of an active
mind after the initial experience of awakening was also a
factor of importance.
One recognizes from the Confessions that the beliefs
concerning prayer which were held by the Bishop) of Hippo
92
were in part a result of M s mother’s training and in part
a result of his own experience. Some of the beliefs come
from certain aspects of the experience which William James
and others hold to be inherent in the aystical contemplation.
His belief that he had in actuality apprehended God
certainly is one of the qualities that are a part of the
mystical experience itself. But it was no doubt reinforced
and substantiated through the earlier education given him
by a devout mother. Again, the noetic quality of the
mystic contemplation reveals itself in the claim of revela
tion made so unequivocably in the twelfth book of the
Confessions. In Augustine, as we have seen, the claim of
divine revelation is neither vague nor indefinite. In
other mystics the noetic quality has taken the form of a
claim of having reached an understanding of inexpressible
truths. But with Augustine there is a declaration of
having received a positive truth which is at times expressed
in actual words. Her did he feel that the truth he had
acquired had an authority only over Mmself. He believed
that he had received an absolute truth, having authority
not only for himself but for all men in all times. Such a
belief fits well his neo-Platonic theology of God as the
Absolute; absolute Beauty, absolute Goodness, absolute
Truth. And the auditory nature of his contemplative
experience gave form and content to his belief and claim of
93
a revelation. Since Augustine’s doctrine has "been the
"basis for so much of Christianity’s later "beliefs his
assertion that he had o"btained a revealed truth is of the
utmost importance. Christianity has "been greatly influen
ced "by the fact that the Platonic doctrine in Augustine was
combined with an auditory type of mystical contemplation
with its inherent noetic quality. The combination resulted
in the declaration of a direct revelation and thereby became
for many an inspired truth.
Arising also out of prayer is Augustine’s belief in
the ’given’ nature of his very prayer itself. That he was
allowed to see the Light was due, he felt, not to his own
intellectual or moral powers but to the ’grace’ of God.
This is again an inherent part of the mystical experience
according to Underhill and others. Because it too has
played a very important part in the development of the
Protestant belief, this is another element of Augustine’s
prayer that is highly significant.
It has not been considered that the object of this
study has been to pass judgment on the truth of Augustine’s
beliefs concerning prayer. Rather, it iias been our object
to arrive at an understanding of his experiences of prayer.
94
ÎJone tîie less, "because of their importance in the history
of the Christian religion, we "believe that these "beliefs
must be examined more closely now than ever before. The
claim of revelation, in particular, needs very careful
thought before it is either accepted or rejected. If
empirical experience itself is the criterion for our
judgment, then the experience of such men as Augustine must
be the basis of study for our theories of revelation. If
it is true that the mystical experience of these men does
have an inherent noetic quality, that experience has a direct
bearing upon the question. More study seems necessary.
Possibly with a greater understanding of the psychological
make up of the greater ngrstics and other religious leaders
we can arrive at # greater degree of truth through a more
objective study.
BIKLIOGBAPHÏ
BIBLIOGRAPHY"
I. AUGUSTLKB
Adam, Karl, trans. by Bom Justin McCann, St. Augustine.
Hew York: The Macmillan Co., 1932. 65pp.
Butler, Bom Cuthbert, Western %rsticism. London: Constable
and Co. Ltd., 1922. 344pp.
Cunningham, William, St. Augustine and His Place in the
History of ChristTan Thought. London: C.J.Clay and
Sons, 1886. 283 pp.
Garvey, Sister Mary Patricia, St. Augustine, Christian or
Heo-Platonist ? Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 1939. 267pp.
Harnack, Adolf Von, trans. by E.E.Kellett and P.H.Marseille,
Monasticism- Its Ideals and History and the Confessions
of St. Augustine. London: Williams and Horgate, n.d.,
171pp.
Jascalevich, Alejandro A., Three Concertions of Mind.
Hew York: Columbia Univ. Press., 1926. 107pp.
Lacey, Thomas Alexander, Hature. Miracle, and Sin.
Hew York: Longmans, ureen ana Co., 19ib. lobpp.
Me Cabe, Joseph, St. Augustine and His Age. London:
Buckworth and Co., 1902. 441 pp.
Morgan, James, Psychological Teaching:s of St. Augustine.
London: E. Stock, 1932. 264 pp.
Ottley, R. L., Studies in the Confessions of St. Augustine.
London: Robert Scott, 1919, 138pp.
Scbaff, Philip, editor, A Select Library of the Hicene and
Post Hieene Bathers. Vol. I. Buffalo: The Christian
Literature Co., 1886. 619pp.
Shedd, William G. T., editor. The Confessions of St.
Augustine. Boston; Gould and Lincoln, 1864. 417pp.
96
Simpson, William John Sparrow, St. Augustine* s Conversion.
Hew York: The Macmillan Co.,.1930. 276pp.
Stokes, Ella Harrison, The Concept of a Kingdom of Ends
in Augustine. Aquinas, and Leibnitz. Chicago: Univ.
of Chicago Press, 1912. 129pp.
Tolley, William Pearson, The Idea of God in the Philosoohv
of St. Augustine. Hew York: R.R.Smith, Inc., 1930.
215 pp.
Warfield, Benjamin Breckenridge, Studies in Tertullian and
Augustine. London; Oxford Univ. Press, 1930. 412 pp.
II. GENERAL
Buttrick, George Arthur, Prayer. Hew York: Abingdon-
Cokesbury Press, 1942. 333pp.
Coe, George Albert, The Psychology of Religion. Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press, 1916, 365pp.
Fleming, W. K., Mysticism in Christianity. London:
Robert Scott, 1913.
Frost, Bede, The Art of Mental Prayer. London: Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1940. 269pp.
Heard, Gerald, “The Practice of the Presence". Christian
Century. 57:558-59, April 29, 1942.
A Preface to Prayer. Hew York; Harper and
Bros., 1944. 250pp.
“The Skill of Prayer". Christian Century,
57:475-6, April 10, 1940
Heiler, Friedrich, Prayer. trans. by Samuel McGomb,
London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1932, 376pp. -
Hermann, Mrs. Emily, Creative Prayer. Hew York; George
H. Doran and Co., 1925. 399pp.
_______ The Meaning and Value of Mysticism. Third Edit.,
Hew York: George H. Doran and Co., 1026. 397pp.
97
Hodge, Alexander, Prayer and Its Psychology. New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1931, 220pp.
Hughs on, Shirley 0., Qontemolatiye Prayer. New York: The
Macmillan Co., 1935. 204 pp.
Inge, William Ralph, Christian Mysticism. New York:
Charles Scribner*s Sons, 1899. 379pp.
James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience.
New York: Random House, 1902, 526pp.
Jones, Rufus M., Studies in Mystical Religion. London:
The Macmillan Co. Ltd., 1923. 512 pp.
New Studies in Mystical Religion. New York: The
Macmillan Co., 1928. 205pp.
Kelly, Thomas R., A Testament of Devotion. New York:
Harper and Bros., 1941. 124pp.
Kingsland, William, Ratidnal Mysticism. London: Geo. Allen
and Unwin Ltd., 1924. 431pp.
Leen, Edward, Progress Through Mental Prayer. New York:
Sheed and Ward, 1940. 276pp.
Lehmann, D. E., trans. by G.M.Hunt, Mysticism in
Heathendom and Christendom. London: Luzac and Co.,
1910. 293pp.
Lejeune, Abbe P., trans. by Basil Levett, An Introduction
to the Mystical Life. New York: Benzi'ger Bros., 1915.
314pp.
Maturin, Basil William, Some Principles and Practices of
the Spiritual Life. London: -Longmans, Green and Co.,
1927, 208pp.
Laws of the Spiritual Life. London: Longmans,
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Otto, Rudolph, trans. by John W. Harvey, The Idea of the
Holy. Fourth Edition, London: Oxford Univ. Press,
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Pratt, James Bissett, The Religious Consciousness.
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Starbuck, Edwin Diller, The Psychology of Religion.
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Stolz, Karl R., The Psychology of Religious Living.
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Strickland, Francis Lorette, The Psychology of Religious
Experience. New York: Abingdon Press, 1924, 320pp.
Underhill, Evelyn, Concerning the Inner Life. New York:
E.P.Dutton Co., 1926. 122pp.
The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today.
New York^ E.P.Dutton and Co., 1926. 311pp.
Mysticism. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co.,
Twelfth Edition, 1930. 515pp.
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APPENDIX
APPmDIX I.
ADVERTISEMENT
To The
CONFESSIONS OP AUGUSTINE
Edited by William G. T. Shedd
This edition of Augustine's Confessions is a reprint
of an old translation, by an author unknown to the editor,
which was republished in Boston in 1843. A very little
use has also been made of another edition, published at
Oxford. This contains only ten books,and where it differs
from the old version, almost uniformly differs for the
worse.
The principal labor in preparing this edition, has
been to make a careful comparison of the whole work with the
Latin text, and to add a few explanatory notes. The object
of comparing the old version with the original, was not so
much to make changes,- for the translation, as a whole,
like all the early English translations from Latin and
Greek, is remarkably faithful and vivid,- as to remove
obscurities. These arose, in some few instances, from too
great conciseness upon the part of the translator; but in
many more, from errors in printing and punctuating. In
100
course of time, under the hands of editors and proof
readers, the long and involved sentences of Augustine had
become so dislocated, that nothing but a recurrence to the
Latin text would restore them to the form in which the
translator had originally given them. This was especially
true of the last three books, which are exceedingly subtile
and abstract in their trains of thought, and in many
passages had become totally obscure. The editor flatters
himself that this revised edition exhibits the old transla
tion substantially as it was at first, and that it will be
found intelligible.
APPENDIX II.
THE CONFESSIONS OF AUGUSTINE
Edited by
William G. T. Shedd
Book III; IV. 7,8.
IV. 7. Among such as these, in that unsettled age of
mine, learned I books of eloquence, wherein I desired to be
eminent, out of a damnable and vainglorious end, a joy in
human vanity. In the ordinary course of study, I fell upon
a certain book of Cicero, whose speech almost all admire;
not so his heart. This book of his contains an exhortation
to philosophy, and is called"EortensiusV But this book
altered my feelings, and turned my prayers to Thyself, 0
Lord; and made me have other purposes and desires. Every
vain hope at once became worthless to me; and I longed
with an incredibly burning desire for an immortality of
wisdom, and began now to arise, that I might return to Thee.
For not to sharpen my tongue (which thing I seemed to be
purchasing with my mother's allowances, in that my nineteenth
year, my father being dead two years before), not to sharpen
my tongue did I employ that book; nor did it infuse into me
its style, but its matter.
102
8. How did I burn then, my God, how did I burn to
remount from earthly things to Thee; nor knew I what Thou
wouldest do with me. For with Thee is wisdom. But the
love of wisdom is in Greek called “philosophy", with which
that book inflamed me. Some there b;e that seduce through
philosophy, under a great, and smooth, and honorable name
coloring and disguising their own errors: and almost all
who in that and former ages were such are in that book
censured and set forth. There is also made plain that
wholesome advice of Thy Spirit, by Thy good and devout
servant: Beware Xest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And since
at that time (Thou, 0 Light of my heart, knowest) Apostolic
Scripture was not known to me, I was delighted with that
exhortation, so far only, that I was: thereby strongly roused,
and kindled, and inflamed to love, and seek and obtain, and
hold, and embrace, not this or that sect, but wisdom itself,
whatever it were; and this alone checked me, thus enkindled,
that the name of Christ was not in it. For this name,
according to Thy mercy, 0 Lord, this name of my Saviour Thy
Son, had my tender heart, even with my mother's milk,
devoutly drunk in, and deeply treasured; and whatsoever was
without that name, though never so learned, polished, or true,
took not entire hold of me.
APPENDIX III.
TEE CONFESSIONS OF AUGUSTINE
Edited by
William G. T. Shedd
Book VII: X. 16.
X. 16. And being thence admonished to return to myself,
I entered even into my inward self. Thou being my Guide:
and I was able to do so because Thou wert become my Helper.
And I entered and beheld with the eye of my soul, (such as
it was,) even above my soul, ahove my mind,- the Light
Unchangeable. Not this ordinary light, which all flesh may
look upon, nor as it were a greater of the same kind, as
though the brightness of this should be manifold brighter,
and with its greatness take up all space. Not such was
this light, but different, far different from all these.
Nor was it above my soul, as oil is above water, nor yet as
heaven above earth: but above my soul, because It made me;
and I below It, because I was made by It. He that knov/s
the Truth, knows what that Light is; and he that knows It,
knows eternity. Love knoweth it. 0 Truth Who art Eternity!
and Love Who art Truth! and Eternity Who art Love I Thou
art ry God, to Thee do I sigh night and day. When I first
knew Thee, Thou liftedst me up, that I might see there was
104
somewhat for me to see, and that I was not yet able to see.
And Thou didst beat back the weakness of my sight, streaming
forth Thy beams of light upon me most strongly, and I
trembled with love and awe: and I perceived myself to be far
off from Thee, in the region of unlikeness, as if I heard
this Thy voice from on high: “I am the food of grown men;
grow, and thou shalt feed upon Me; nor shalt thou convert
Me, like the food of thy flesh, into thee, but thou sliait
be converted into Me." And I learned, that Thou for
iniquity cijastenest man, and Thou madest my soul to consume
away like a spider. And I said, "Is Truth therefore nothing
because it is no^t diffused through space finite or infinite^"
And Thou criedst to me from afar; "Yea, verily, I AM that
I AM.** And I heard, as the heart heareth, nor had I room
to doubt, and I should sooner doubt that I live, than that
Truth is not, which is clearly seen, being understood by
those things which are made.
APPENDIX IV.
THE CONFESSIONS OF AUGUSTINE
Edited
William G. T. Shedd
Book VIII; XII. 28, 29.
XII. 28. And when a deep consideration had from the
secret bottom of my soul drawn together and heaped up all
my misery in the sight of my heart, there arose a mighty
storm, bringing a mighty shower of tears. Which that I
might pour forth wholly, in its natural expressions, I rose
from Alypius: solitude seemed to me fitter for the business
of weeping; so I retired so far that even his presence
could not be a burden to me. Thus was it with me, and he
perceived something of it; for I suppose I had spoken
something, wherein the tones of my voice appeared choked
with weeping, as I had risen up. He remained where we were
sitting, most extremely astonished. I cast myself down I
know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to
my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an
acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And, not indeed in these
words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto Thee: and Thou,
0 Lord, how long ? how long. Lord, wilt Thou be angry for
106
ever ? Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt
that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words;
How long ? how long ? "tomorrow, and tomorrow ?" Why not
now ? why this hour is there not an end to my uncleanness ?
29. So was I speaking, and weeping in the most bitter
contrition of my heart, when, lo J I heard from a neighboring
house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and
oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take up and read."
Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most
intently, whether children were wont in any kind of play to
sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the
like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose;
interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to
open the book and read the first chapter I should find. For
I had heard of Antony, ths,t coming in during the reading of
the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was
being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast.
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was
forthwith converted unto Thee.- Eagerly then I returned to
the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid
the volume of the Apostle, when I arose thence. I seized,
opened, and in silence read that passage, on which ray eyes
first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
107
chambering and wantormess. not in strife and envying; but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for
the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor
needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a
light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the
darkness of doubt vanished away.
APPENDIX V.
THE CONFESSIONS OF AUGUSTINE
Edited By
William G. T. Shedd
Book IX: X. 23-25
X. 23. The day now approaching whereon she was to depart
this life (which day Thou well knewest, we knew it not), it
came to pass, Thyself, as I "believe, by Thy secret ways so
ordering it, that she and I stood alone, leaning in a
certain window, which looked into the garden of the house
where we now lay, at Ostia; where removed from the din of
men, we were recruiting from the fatigues of a long journey,
for the voyage. We were discoursing then together, alone,
very sweetly; a,nd forgetting those things which are behind,
a.nd reaching forth unto those things which are before, we
were inquiring between ourselves in the presence of the
Truth, which Thou art, of what sort the eternal life of the
saints was to be, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
nor hath it entered into the heart of man. But yet
unsatisfied, we gasped with the mouth of our heart, after
those heavenly streams of Thy fountain, the fountain of
life, which is with Thee; that being bedewed thence
109
according to our capacity, we might in some sort meditate
upon so high a mystery.
24. And when our discourse was brought to that point,
that we perceived the very highest delight of the earthly
senses, in the very purest material light, was, in respect
to the sweetness of that heavenly life, not only not worthy
of comparison, but not even of mention, we, raising up
ourselves with a more glowing affection towards the "Self
same", did by degrees pass through all things bodily, even
the very heaven, whence sun and moon and stars shine upon
the earth; yea, væ were soaring higher yet, by inward
musing, and discourse, and admiring of Thy works; and we
came to our own minds, and went beyond them, that we might
arrive at that region of never-failing plenty, where Thou
feedest Israel for ever with the food of truth, and where
life is the very Wisdom by whom all these things are made,
both what have been, and what shall be. But Wisdom is not
made, but is, as she iiath been, and so shall she be ever;
yea * rather, to "liave been", and "hereafter to be", are
not in her, but only "to be", seeing she is eternal. For
to "have been", and to "be hereafter", are not eternal.
And while we were discoursing and panting after her, we
slightly touched on her with the whole effort of our
110
heart; and we sighed, and there we left hound the first
fruits of the Spirit; and returned to vocal expressions of
our mouth, where the word spoken has beginning and end.
And what is like unto Thy Word, our Lord, who endureth in
Himself without becoming old, and maketh all things new ?
25. We were saying to ourselves then: if the tumult of
the flesh were hushed, hushed the images of earth, and.
waters and air, hushed also the poles of heaven, yea the
very soul hushed to herself, and by not thinking on self
surmounting self, hushed all dreams and imaginary revela
tions, every tongue and every sign, and whatsoever exists
only in transition,- if they all should be hushed, having
only roused our ears to Him who made them (since if any
can hear, all these say. We made not ourselves, but He made
made us that abideth forever), and He alone should then
speak, not by them but by Himself, that we might hear His
Word, not through any tongue of flesh, nor angel's voice,
nor sound of thunder, nor in the dark riddle of a similitude,
but might hear Him whom in these things we love, might hear
His very Self without these (as we two now strained ourselves
to hear, and in swift thought touched on that Eternal Wisdom,
which abideth over all);- could this be continued on, and
other visions of kind far unlike be withdrawn, and this one
should ravish, and absorb, and wrap up its beholder amid
ill
these inward joys, so that life might be for ever like that
one moment of intuition which now we sighed after; were not
this the Enter into thy Master's joy ? And when shall that
be ? When we shall all rise again, though we shall not all
be changed ?
APPENDIX VI.
PRAYER
Friedrich Heiler
pp. 126-27
The practice of Christian prayer has been affected
almost more profoundly by Augustine than by Paul. After
Jesus and Paul no personality has exercised such a lasting
influence on the Christian religion as this man, the
greatest of the Church Fathers. His religious thought and
experience shows the most splendid synthesis of the
Hellenistic concentration on the mystic search for the
infinite and the biblical prophetic religion of revelation,
In his praying are united the most profound contemplation
and the most energetic strength of will, the passionate
power of the biblical psalms and the serene depth of neo-
Platonic absorption, Paul’s faith in forgiving grace
struggling out of a deep sense of guilt and the mystical
Eros of Plato and Plotinus hastening heavenwards; the
unconquerable trust in the divine will revealed in the
Bible and the blissful contemplation of the neo-Platonic
summum bonum. His praying is the expression both of the
deep woe and weal of the heart and of the elevation of the
113
mind to the Highest Good, of the humble cry to God "out of
the depths" and of the experience of essential oneness with
God in his inmost soul. Nevertheless, in this peculiar
fusion of the two opposed types of religion neo-Platonic
mysticism has the precedence. The goal of all prayer for
Augustine is the return to the infinite One, the essential
unity with the Highest Good. "Neither in the thought nor
in the feeling of Augustine", says Gcheel, "is the first
place assigned to specifically Christian ideas. The
genuine Augustine is the neo-Platonic Augustine." This
spirit of mystical prayer of the Bishop of Hippo was to
live and energize through the Christian centuries. The
spiritual legacy of Augustine nourished both the subtle
dogmatics and simple piety of the Middle Ages. Anselm and
Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Gertrude of Helfta, Bonaventura,
Thomas s? Kempis are dependent wholly on Augustinian
mysticism in their contemplative devotional life. But his
influence reaches far beyond the limits of the Catholic
Church and penetrates deeply into evangelical religion."The
religious language we use", says Harnack, "which is familiar
to us from hymns, prayers, and books of devotion, bears the
stamp of his mind. Without being aware of it, we still speak
with his words, and he has been the first to teach us how to
express the deepest feelings, and to find words for the
dialectic of the heart."

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Asset Metadata

Creator Randle, J. S. (author)

Core Title Prayer in the experience and thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Theology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,philosophy, religion and theology

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Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c39-351832

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