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DOCTORES ECCLESIAE
AUGUSTINE ON GOD AS LOVEAND LOVE AS GOD
Lewis Ayres
HOW SHOULD WE CALL GOD LOVE?
There comes a point at which talking of God as love can seem intenselyspeculative or simply self-deluding. Love is a term which, perhaps
To say more than any other of those which Christians apply to God, is com-"God loves " prehensible only in the context of a personal relat ionship with another ,
has always or at least in terms of the love ofa person for something else. To saycome easily "God loves" has always come easily to the lips of Christians, and yet
to the lips perhaps too easily if such statements result in our failure to thinkof Christians, through the implications of what it means for the triune mystery of
God to "love." This does not mean that we should stop talking of Godas love, in fact one of the things I want to suggest here is that the veryambiguity of the term allows "love" to be one of the most important,most fruitful, theologically potent and suggestive terms which Christians apply to God.
Lewis Ayres, Lecturerin Systematic andHistorical Theology, School of Hebrew, BiblicalandTheological Studies, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
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However, this complexity and suggestivenes should perhaps meanthat when we try to construct a theology ofGod's love we can bestproceed with a simultaneous discussion of the means by which welearn about that love, including, centrally, discussion ofhow and on
what basis our love may or may not be compared with God's. Goingfurther, the methodological discussion indicated in the last sentenceshould itself be understood as part ofa wider exercise in Christology,theological analogy, eclesiology, and, centrally, trinitarian theology.
My intention here is to offer an account of one key, but often controversial, resource in the theological taskoftalking about God's love, theworkofSt. Augustine ofHippo (AD 356-430). A great deal ofmodernsystematic theology has tended to offer a very clear story of theologicalhistory in which Augustine is both the originatorofmuch subsequent
thought in the West and in particular the originator ofmany thingstaken to be bad in that tradition. My own position is that this historyis often far too simplified: many of the later positions supposedly takenfrom him bear little relation to his actual thought; many ofthe thingshe is taken to have originated are the product or even commonplace ofhis day and can be found in many ofthose ofhis contemporaries andnear contemporaries that recent theologians have treated much moregenerously. However, we will best find the true nature ofhis genius,and the real problems with his thought, ifwe attend more carefully tohis actual text.
Augustine's corpus ofwriting is huge in quantity and vast in range. Iwill be centrally concerned here with his commentary in ten homilieson 1 John, delivered almost certainly in the year 407. I will also useAugustine's Tractates on the Gospel ofJohn as corroboration at somepoints; the tractates on 1 John were preached during the Easter octave,interrupting his series ofsermons on John, and we find in these two
1. For an attempt to describe some of the problems ofsuch readings ofAugustine in the areaof trinitarian theology see M. Barnes, "Augustine in Contemporary Trinitarian Theology/'Theological Studies 56 (1995), pp. 237-250.
2. The literature on these homilies is still rather thin, despite the frequency with whichAugustine's treatment of God as love is referred to. A key introduction to Augustine'sincarnational theology now available in English is to be found in B. Studer, Trinity and
Incarnation: The Faith ofthe Early Church (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1993). On the homiliesthemselves see D. Dideberg, Saint Augustin etla premire ptre de s. Jean (Paris: Beauchesne,1975); for a brief introduction in English E. G. Cassidy, "Augustine's Exegesis of the First Epistleof John," in V. Twomey Se T. Finan (eds.), Scriptural Interpretation in the Fathers (Dublin: FourCourts Press, 1995), pp . 201-220. More generally on the subject oflove in Augustine see R.Canning's recent The Unity of Love for God and Neighbour in St. Augustine (Leuven: AugustinianHistorical Institute, 1993), on the specific theme ofthis paper see p. 301ff. I have used the editionof P. Agaaesse, Sources Chrtiennes, vol. 75 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1961). The translation usedhere is the very recent St. Augustine: Tractates on the GospelofJohn 112-24: Tractates on the FirstEpistle ofJohn, tr. J. W. Rettig, The Fathers ofthe Church, vol. 92 (Washington, DC: CatholicUniversity ofAmerica Press, 1995). References to homilies are given by section number in thetext.
3. For quotation here I have adapted the older translation: St. Augustine: Homilies on the GospelofJohn, et al, tr. J. Gibb & J. Innes, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, vol. 7 (Grand Rapids MI:Eerdmans, 1983). The Latin text is available in R. Willems (ed.), CCSL 36 (1990). Again,
A great dealof modernsystematic
theology hastended to offervery clear stortheological hisin which
Augustine is bothe originator much subsequethoughtin theWest andin
particular theoriginator ofmany thingstaken to be bain thattraditio
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works both many similar themes and very close mirroring of phraseol
ogy at a number of points. Once we are aware that the 1 John series
was preached at the time of baptising chatechumens and celebrating
the mystery of Easter, it is no surprise August ine focuses this work on
the nature of Christian faith, love and community.
Three sections of the homilies on 1 John will be considered here: in the
initial sections of the paper I concentrate on the first homily in the
series, which does not deal directly with God as love, but which to some
extent can be read as a microcosm of the whole series. My aim is to
follow the argument of this sermon to get a feel for that whole, and to
get a basic grasp of the interconnection of themes found in the homily.
The final sections of the paper are devoted to sections of later homilies,
in which Augustine looks directly at God as love.
THE CHURCH AS WITNESS TO THE INCARNATE WORD
Augustineintroduces a
key theme of
his Christology
by saying also
that the Word,
which should
naturally be
manifest to
the heart, is for us
manifest now intheflesh,
to the eyes.
The first homily comments on 1 John 1:1-2:11, and links together the
theology of incarnat ion and an unders tanding of the role and function
of the church in witnessing to that event. The homily begins with the
statement that Christ is the manifestation of God. This a key theme of
the whole series, and is immediately interpreted as meaning that the
Word which previously had been manifest only to the angels is now
manifest to people. Augustine introduces a key theme of his Christology by saying also that the Word, which should naturally be manifest
to the heart, is for us manifest now in the flesh, to the eyes (1):
"And the life itself was manifested" ... and in what way was itmanifested? For "it was from the beginning," but it was not manifestedto men; it was, however, manifested to the angels, seeing [it] and feedingupon [it] as their bread. But what does Scripture say? "Man ate the breadof angels" Therefore, life itself was manifested in the flesh ... in orderthat that the reality that can be seen by the heart alone might be seenalso by the eyes, in order that it might heal hearts.
This initial statement, which follows fairly closely the actual words of
1 John 1, hints both at the importance for Augustine of Christ as the
one who can lead us through and in the material and tempora l world
to "see" God, and also that Christ is usually portrayed by Augustine
not abstractly or generally as the manifestation of "God," but concrete
ly as the manifestation of "life itself," of the "one through whom all
things were made." This reading of the importance of "life itself" is
borne out strongly by the second of Augustine's tractates on John's
Gospel (10):
"He was in the world, and the world was made by him." Do not thinkthat he was in the world as the earth is in the world ... [as] the stars,
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trees, cattle and men.... But in what manner then? As the artist andmaker ruling what he had made... God, infused (infusus) into theworld, fashions it; being everywhere present he fashions... his presencegoverns what he made.... "The world was made by him and the world
knew him not." Did not the heavens know their Creator? ... "he cameunto his own" because all these things were made by him "andthe world knew him not." Who are they? The men whom he made.
Returning to the first homily on 1 John, in the par agr aph s which follow
his initial description of Christ's manifestation, Augustine continues
his commentary on 1 John 1:2-3, emphasizing both the physical, the
material side to the Word's appearance and the nature of Christian
reaction to that appearance. Augustine takes the example of the mar
tyrs and, in 2 of the homily, plays on the wording of his text of 1 John
to make the equation between witnesses and martyrs. The martyr s and
witnesses that is the members of the contemporary church are
living testimony to the Wor d's appearance and thus those in the church
bearing witness to Christ are parallel to the marty rs bearing witness by
dying for their beliefs. In context, August ine 's point seems to be
and this will I hop e be borne out by the development of the homily
not only that the act of witnessing is a serious one involving a poten
tially life-threatening commitment but, more subtly, that the act of
witnessing is a material, a physical, "fleshy" act which witnesses to the
material, "fleshy" manifestation of Christ.
Augustine ends this section (2) with the complex and interestingstatement, "the martyrs are God's witnesses. God wanted to have men
as witnesses in order that men also may have God as a witness." This
statement parallels one in 8 of the second tractate on John's Gospel:
there Augus tine explains that evil came into the world not because God
departed but because people were deceived into willing against God.
Our "witness" to God ideally involves speaking of the truth present to
us , "witnessing" to that truth; in present circumstances we need some
means of restoring and preserving our attendance on that truth. God
has not ever turned from us, our primal act of will has "wounded our
hearts" (factus es sanctus corde), the organ by which he was previously
"seen," with the result that we can no longer "see" him. In such a
situation it is as if God has turned from humanity, as if we have been
The martyrs an
witnesses are
living testimon
to the Word's
appearance and
thus those in th
church bearing
witness to Chri
are parallel to th
martyrs bearing
witness by dyin
for their beliefs.
4.1 have translated the one Latin word artifex as "artist and maker": the word implies here bothone who plans and makes, and also one who does so with great skill and artistry.
5. Augustine's text reads "the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and are witnesses (etuidimus et testes sumus). The Vulgate reads "...we saw it, and testify..." {et uidimus et testamur).This is a small point but it does make more easy Augustine's statement Vidimus, ettestes sumus:uidimus, et martyres sumus (SC 75,114).
6. In so doing Augustine continues the fourth and fifth century trend to find candidates to take
over the role of the martyrs in the structures of Christian rhetoric and theology. It is of partiuclarinterest here that a) Augustine does not opt for the frequent substitut ion of ascetic for martyrin Christian discourse, and b) that Augustine locates a theology of witness in general termswithin Christology as described in the text of this paper
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We come to"see" Godin
the growing inour status as
image of God,through
performanceofour status
as image.
Because Christ'slife was the realmanifestation of"life itself," wemay be assured
that our inabilitythrough sin to see
God's presencecan slowly be
overcome throughmitation of Christ.
deserted. In allowing us to offer testimony or not to God, God allowsus to judge ourselves. Christ has come in the flesh, in a way which wecan now see, to enable us to offer testimony to that which hasalways beenpresent. When we testify to Christ, to God's presence in Christ, we grow
again in awareness of the presence of God who never departed.
Thus one of the tasks of these sermons, and of this essay, is to pointtowards the full paradox of "seeing" God: witness to God in the fleshworks through the development of accord between the spiritual andthe material, between our conception of ourselves and our task in theworld and the presence of God to us. And yet, as we shall see, thisaccord does not result in our being able to "see" "directly": we cometo "see" God in the growing in our status as image of God, through
performance of our status as image. "Seeing" God is not what we
imagine when we think of seeing an object (remember that for Augustine seeing "through a glass darkly" does not mean looking through awindow at some-thing, but seeing in a mirror, by means of a mirror,that fails to reflect fully because God is not an object to be reflected: cf.On the Trinity XV, 8,14ff.).
To say that, hence, God may now be ourwitness is, I think, to say thatGod's presence now may be aseffective as it once was before we turnedaway. This theme is in continuity with a number of other usages ofsemi-legal terminology in the homilies, all of which seem to argue that
our witness, our active co-operation in the redemptive structures of thechurch is mirrored by God's faithful return of our witness through anew effectiveness of his continual presence. Further, the language ofGod answering our witness with his own for us needs also to beunderstood as saying that, with the beginning of Christian practice inthe material life of Christ, we may have real hope that our material andtemporal witness may again be in accord with God's faithful presenceto us. Because Christ's life was the real manifestation of "life itself,"we may be assured that our inability through sin to see God's presencecan slowly be overcome through imitation of Christ. He creates the
possibility ofa new accord between our action and the reality of God'spresence. In this light we can understand Augustine's frequent insistence that the testimony of Christian hope may be relied on as something that will be taken up and fulfilled by God, Christ has establisheda mysterious analogy between our growing hope and the reality which
7. Another instance of this semi-legal terminology is given below in the discussion of Christ's advocacyof our cause; the "loving community" is discussed further in the latter sections of this paper.
8. For similar reasons Augustine strongly holds out against any justification oflying. In On theTrinity, Books 8 and 15, he uses the Stoic theme of the inner word which is conceived in themind and the outer word spoken on its basis as a metaphor for Christ's relationship to the
Father. In both places Augustine unfavourably compares the absolute accord between Son andFather to our own ability for deception and self-deception. Overcoming this lack of accord inus is at the heart of recovering the sense of God's presence to which Augustine so often returns:hence his horror at lying
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awaits. Later I hope to show that God 's "witness " for us takes the form
of the prevenient Spirit continually offering himself to realise the
accord between human willing and acting and the divine exchange of
love. However, in the next paragraphs this initial conception of the
incarnation is expanded through seeing the accord between Christ's twonatures, and between God's presence and the "body" of Christ.
Just as, in 1-2.1 of the first homily on 1 John, Augustine links the
manifestation of the Word to the physical witness of the mar tyrs , in the
next sections, 2.2-3, Augustine links the two-natures of Christ's per
son both to his revelation of the order of creation and to the need to
educate his "body," the church. First, then, Christ is a manifestation
not of himself but of the true relationship of the world and God, of the
physical and the spiritual. Augustine works initially, in 2.2, through
using the picture of Christ as the bridegroom and champion in Psalm 19and Isaiah 61 who pitches his tent in the sun that all may see him:
But how could he who made the sun be seen in the sun except that "hehas pitched his tent in the sun and he, as a bridegroom coming out ofhis bridal chamber, has rejoiced as a giant to run the course..." the trueCreator... in order that he might be seen by carnal eyes that see the sun,he pitched his tent in the sun, that is, he showed his flesh in themanifestation of this natural daytime light.
Augustine's allusion to Psalm 19 in particular emphasizes that Christ
manifests at a particular point what should already be clear: as the
bridegroom or champion Christ takes a place in the created order so
that those who now see only according to the material part of that order
may understand him. He does not take his place as part of this order
he is not himself created but in order that we might see that of
which this orde r should be a many faceted manifestation.
Augustine places the doctrine of the two natures at the core of his
exposition. He continues, immediately after the passage quoted in the
previous paragraph (2.2):
And the bridal chamber of that Bridegroom was the womb ofa Virgin,
for two have been conjoined in that virginal womb... For it has beenwritten, "And they will be two in one flesh" [Gen. 2:24]... One personseems to speak, and he has both made himself the Bridegroom and thebride, because not two, but one flesh for "the word was made fleshand dwelt among us." To that flesh the Church is joined, and therecomes to be the whole Christ, Head and Body.
The bridegroom coming forth from his chamber in order to be marri ed
is symbolic for Augustine of the Word taking flesh, the two natures
becoming one. The significance of this equation (which has many other
parallels in Augustine's work) is hinted at strongly through the last
9. This point is the essence of Augustine's annoyance at Cicero's scepticism about the relationship between present hope and the actual reality of God, see On the Trinity, XIV, 19,25-26.
Augustine links
the two-natures
Christ's person
both to his
revelation of the
order of creation
and to the need
educate his
"body," the
church.
Augustine place
the doctrine of th
two natures at th
core of his
exposition.
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As the Father hasshown grace
through the unionofGod andhumanity in the
person of Christ,so we are united
by grace to theperson of Christ
Our participationin and learning ofthat mystery takes
the form of acomplex
interweaving ofour Christian
practice and ourcontemplation, in
which we learnthat we may keep
God'scommandments
only ifwe accepthis priorlove.
sentence of this particular passage: the union of the two natures inChrist enables both the manifestation of the God who is continually inhis creation, andthe assumption of redeemed humanity into the bodyof Christ. The whole Christ is manifest to us when the head is joined
to the bodythe mediation of the Word is completed through Christ'sassumption of the church as his body. Augustine's exegesis in thesepassages is theologically very dense, but it should now be apparentthat, like so many of the best exegetes of the early church, his presentation of the incarnation is inseparable from his presentation of howwe participate in the incarnation as part of the body of Christ.
It will be helpful here to note one aspect of Augustine's 82nd tractateon John's gospel, a short sermon on the relationship between theFather's love for his Son and Christ's love for humanity. There, in a
fairly dense argument, Augustine interprets John 15:9 ("As the Fatherhas loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love") as refering to thehumanity of Christ, not to his divinity. For Augustine this statementreflects the truth that humanity is united to divinity in Christ throughthe grace of God, and that Christ functions as mediator because hishumanity has been the subject of sucha great act of grace. As the Fatherhas shown grace through the union of God and humanity in the personof Christ, so we are united by grace to the person of Christ (this isargued through sermons 82-89). That primal act of grace in Christdemonstrates the absolute priority of love, and the way in which we
are incorporated into Christ: neither we nor Christ are saved throughmerit, and we may see that we are not by looking to the structure ofthe incarnation. This theological picture may help to show that Augustine does not conceive of the incarnation as something through whichwe "see" God: rather the incarnation is that which makes God's creating and sustaining mystery (sacramentum) present. Our participationin and learning of that mystery takes the form ofa complex interweaving of our Christian practice and our contemplation, in which we learnthat we may keep God's commandments only if we accept his prior
love. In this "complex interweaving" we may then progress towardsa redeemed, created and transformed bodily existence in which welearn to act in ways in accord with that always present love. The earlierpicture I offered of a new accord between our bodily existence and thepresence of God is here deepened and given further theological coherencethrough the link Augustine draws between the two-natured person ofChrist and the nature of our incorporation into a redeemed humanity.
In 2.3 of the first homily on 1 John Augustine returns to the meaningof witness, adding also to his picture of the incarnation and the church.
10. Augustine's development of this theme in the slightly later context of the Pelagian disputeis clearly presented in R. Dodaro, "Sacramentum Christi: Augustine on the Christology ofP l i " S di P i i 27 (1993) 274 805
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At the core of this second mention of the witness theme is the figure of
the apostle Thomas:
...we, therefore, have heard, but we have not seen... And yet how does
he add, "that you may also have fellowship with us?" They have seen,we have not seen, and nonetheless we are fellows, for we hold a certainfaith. For a certain one, even in seeing, did not believe and wanted totouch and so believe... And at a suitable occasion he offered himself tobe touched by the hands of men, he who always offers himself to beseen by the eyes of angels. And that disciple touched him and exclaimed, "My Lord and my God." Because he touched the Man, heconfessed the God. And the Lord now sitting in heaven, comfortingus who cannot with the hand physically touch him, but can come intocontact [with him] by faith said to him, "Because you have seen youhave believed; blessed are they who do not see and believe."
The physical touch led to the confession of what lies beyond: "Because
he touched the Man, he confessed God" (quia tetigit hominem, confessus
est Deus). It is important that we notice how closely this follows
Augustine's earlier presentation of Christ's role: Thomas does not
confess Christ himself, but sees the significance of the Word's pedagogi
cal appearance in the flesh and Godis immediately confessed as present
in Christ, as having acted in Christ. As Augustine says in 1 of tractate 79
on John: "he perceived and touched the living flesh, which he had seen in
the act of dying, and he believed in the God enfolded in that flesh."
In the course of offering this interpreta tion of Thomas ' actions Augus
tine also passes comment on present-day Christians: "Christ, now
sitting in heaven, comforting us who cannot with the hand physically
touch him, but can come into contact [with him] by faith..." Post-
Thomas Christians stand in the light of Thomas: just as he touched and
confessed, so too we may "touch" in faith and confess. In the case of
Thomas, Christ's human nature acts as a pointer to God's action: God
is not seen by Thomas but confessedly him. The event of touch ing Christ
results in Thomas having faith: he has seen and believed as opposed
to those who do not see and believe, but the result in both cases is faith,belief which forms hope and love. In our case we also cannot see Christ,
but we may have the same faith as Thomas through believing without
seeing. We believe it for August ine on the author ity of those who have
seen, and if we do so believe then we may have faith in what lies beyond
sight. Our belief, repetition and imitation of the belief of those who
have seen is answered by the gift of faith through the presence of the
Spirit. The two discussions of witnessing both mirror each other and
are both dependent on the account of the Incarnation which forms their
constant background. The end of this paragraph offers a vision of the
result of faith: faith results not primarily in fellowship (societas) with
11. For an account of the distinctions between faith, hope and love, and for hints of what counts
Post-Thomas
Christians stand
in the light of
Thomas: just as
he touched and
confessed, so
too we may
"touch" in faith
and confess.
In ourcase we
also cannot see
Christ, but we
may have the
samefaith
as Thomas
through believin
without seeing.
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This ecclesiology
of witness is
directly dependent
on a Christology
which sees the
two-natured
person of theincarnate Word as
enabling the
restoration of a
createdpractice
in accordwith
God's sustaining
presence in
his creation.
other people understood without reference to God's presence, but infellowship with the love and unity of Father and Son.
This section ofthe paper has followed a path from noting the impor
tance ofChrist's manifestation ofthe Word to seeing how Augustineconceives of the church as a community of witnesses. This ecclesiologyof witness is directly dependent on a Christology which sees thetwo-natured person of the incarnate Word as enabling the restorationofa created practice in accord with God's sustaining presence in hiscreation. Seeing' in these texts is a concept used with conscious ambiguity to explore the nature of "seeing" God. In the next section I wantto follow the way in which this account is immediately taken up anddeveloped through more detailed discussion of Christian practice.
FAITH, LOVE AND HUMILITY
Augustine pursues this theme at the beginning of2.4 by discussing 1John 1:5: "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimto you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all." ForAugustine the second half of the verse gives us the very confession orteaching (adnuntiatio orpraeceptum) essential for true faith in answer tothe question posed in the first half of the verse. The argumentationwhich draws out this reading is again very dense, but vital for thewhole enterprise of these homilies.
The opposition oflight and darkat the core ofthe "answer" given by1 John 1:5 is to be understood as an exhortation to a new way oflife.This style ofinterpreting biblical metaphor follows through a keyprinciple outlined previously in his On Christian Teaching (De doctrinaChristiana): whatever in the biblical text is unclear should be taken torefer to the building up of virtue or the expunging of vice: "So anyonewho thinks he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them,but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and
neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them." Augustinethus tries to interpret 1 John 1:5 by describing how we should grow inawareness that "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all": suchgrowth in awareness pertains directly to our love of God and neighbor.
We come to understand this statement in three stages: first comes therealization that God's light far surpasses what we know, second adesire grows as sinful people to see that light and to be enlightened by it,and third we realize that such "seeing" will only come when we learnto live in such a way that we do not sin. Thus mirroring the Thomas
episode, true confession ofGod, true faith in the reality ofGod leads12. On Christian Teaching 1,36,40.1 have used the new translation with text in R. P. H. Green, ed.
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to the expression of appropriate love, not to introspective despair aboutthe possibility of "seeing" God. Confession of God here involvesconfession of his existence symbiotically with confession of our sinful
ness; in this process we do not first discover God's nature and then formour desire for him, the process is far more complicated. The third stage,the realization that seeing God comes only through learning to livecorrectly is developed in the next section of the homily.
5 of the hoirJly concentrates on the difficulty of following this road tobeing enlightened by God. We are able to talkof drawing near to Godall too easily without noticing the purpose of the revelation that Godis light. As we saw earlier, the purpose and goal of this revelation asdescribed in 1 John 1:3 is fellowship (societas) with the Father and Son.Augustine reinforces the imperative nature of the metaphorical light
and dark image used by John by commenting on 1 John 1.6, "If we saywe have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie anddo not live according the truth," which makes clear that we cannotsimply talkof light but must also "walk" in it. Once we realize that thisis the case then we might find ourselves in despair at the seeminglyabsolute separation of light and darkness, and the seemingly completeseparation of sinful humanity (inescapably part of darkness) from thesocietas Dei (5,2). However, we should not stop at this point because theattempt to walk in the light is immediately pre-empted, followed, andfacilitated by Christ's removal of our sins (5,3): "Therefore, let a man dowhat he can; let him confess what he is, so that he may be healed by himwho always is what he is. For he always was and is;we were not and are."
"Light" and "Truth" are equivalent here for Augustine: 1 John 1:8, "Ifwe say that we have no sin, we decieve ourselves, and the truth is notin us," indicates that we cannot come near to God's "light" withoutentering a process of confession. In the first two part-sections of 6Augustine balances confession, humility and love within the processof Christian life. In 6.1, then, our confession is essential to beginning alife offormedlove: "Before all, therefore, confession, then love" (ante
omnia ergo confessio, deinde dilectio). In 6.2 love and humility aredescribed as essential to correct confession and to the attempt to movebeyond sin: "...humility strengthens love, love extinguishes offenses.Humility is conducive to confession by which we confess that we aresinners." Thus John calls us to love as the best way to avoid beingovercome by the strains of post-baptismal life.
This dynamic of humility, love and confession is again linked toChristology and to the invocation of God in 7 of the homily. Augustine
13. My argument is not that Augustine is unaware of the possibility ofself-deception, or of thepossiblity ofunquestioning fideism; rather I am pointing towards a way ofreading Augustinewhich does not accuse him of a modernist interiority, and which takes full account of theclassical rhetorical origins of his notion offaith, in which the building up ofappropriate faithis all important.
Confession of Ghere involvesconfession of his
existencesymbiotically wiconfession of ousinfulness.
The attempttowalkin the light
immediatelypre-empted,followed, andfacilitated byChrist's removaofoursins.
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We come to
understand true
reliance on God
through reflection
on the true
advocate, and we
come to see the
full nature
of Christian
humilityby reflection
on Christ's
universal
advocacy.
Augustine's
interpretation of
loving one'senemies is
thus given
a christological
foundation
through
interpretation
of Christ's attitude
to the thieves
crucifiedwith him.
again uses semi-legal imagery to emphasize the nature of invocation
of God in two ways: first, to attempt persuasion before the final court
while having lived badly will be to no good end; only true invocation
of our only advocate will prepare us. Secondly, and taking up thecentrality of Christ's removal of sin in 5, Augustine connects the
possibility of constant confession, which is necessary for us, with
reliance on the constancy of our advocate. In this second sense he says,
Make the effort not to sin, but if from the weakness of life sin stealthilycreeps upon you, immediately look to it... immediately condemn it.And when you have condemned it, you will come before the judge, freeof anxiety. There you have an advocate; fear not that you may lose thecase due to your confession... you are entrusting yourself to the Word... shout out "we have an advocate before the Father/'
We come to und erstand true reliance on God throu gh reflection on the
true advocate, and we come to see the full nature of Christ ian humili ty
by reflection on Christ's universal advocacy: in 8, John himself is taken
to be careful to say that we have an advocate, not you. Augustine charac
terizes the church as a community of equals: although the bishops pray
for the people, the people must also pray for the bishops, and all must pray
to Christ as the one who will intercede. Taking account of Augustine's
earlier emphasis on the link between confession of God and learning how
to live connecting awareness of God with awareness of the right
relation between God and creation humility is the virtue of beings
taught by Christ to be aware of the constancy of their Creator.
In 9 of the homily, commenting on 1 John 2.3, Augustine explores
further how Christians come to knowledge of God. Once again the key
is love: "and in this we know him, if we keep his commandments."
Augustine then resolves "his commandments" into the one command
of love and makes the statement that for us ultimate love is and "even
to love enemies, and to love them to this end, that they may be
brothers. " To love our enemies is to love them in orderthatthey become
our brothers, to love someone is to love them that they may be at one
with us, that they also may love. We love them that they may love, and
hence also that they may equally desire humil ity before God: to be "at
one" is always in this sermon to be at one under Christ, as we saw in
discussion of Christ's advocacy. Augustine's interpretation of loving
one's enemies is thus given a christological foundation through inter
pretation of Christ's attitude to the thieves crucified wi th him: Christ prays
for them absolute forgiveness, which is complete fellowship with him.
I want to leave this homily here, but one can perhaps summarize its
theological progress, and the direction in which it point s in three steps:
14 1 h f d G J ' E b d i F i A Th l i l A l i (G d R id MI
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first, Christ manifests the one through whom all things were createdthrough combining two natures in his one person. Second, Thomastouches Christ and confesses God's action, and we may repeat thatconfession as response to true teaching about true witnessing to
God's appearance in the flesh. Third, through a dynamic of love andconfession we may come to see how our witness reveals God's constantfaithful and prior witness for us: our act of faith is responded to by God,is found to have been the result of God's presence. Through themystery of the two-natured one person of the incarnation, we may beincorporated by the Spirit into the fellowship of Father andSon, which,as we shall see in the next section, is itself the communion of Father,Son and Spirit. Third, such an incorporation takes the form ofa struggleto see the presence of this movement in all, the struggle to be in accordwith God's forming of a community in which we love that love maybe in all.15 This third point has begun to hint at ways in whichAugustine insists that the struggle for a life of correctly formed lovein the body of Christ is at the core of our attempts to understand thescope of doctrine and Scripture, and of attempts to understandourselves: we seek such understanding within the dynamic of loveand confession. The temporal and bodily practice of love of neighbor is the process at the core of all our attempts to come to termswith the mystery of God's presence.
Before moving on, it is important to note that Augustine's picture of
the theological foundation of the Christian communityas a communitydrawn into active participation in and manifestation of the "fellowshipof God" is deeply eschatalogical. This theme is not at the forefront onthe first homily in the series, but is central to a number of the laterhomilies. In 6 of the fourth homily, for instance, Augustine uses thepicture of a pocket stretched by what is put in it to describe the soulbeing "stretched" by God. The longing and training which we learnthrough Christian lives is described as stretching our capacity toreceive God when the longing is ended. The stretching is, note, a
training, and appropriate hope is formed through learning to loveproperly. This image follows in 5 a picture of the just at the last dayas those who will see Christ as Word andas "Word made flesh," but inseeing the latter will finally see the truth of Christ's manifestation inthe flesh.16 Thus, our "training" again depends on the confession ofGod in Christ and the development ofa life which longs to see and livethe mystery of God's presence to all. The image is a profoundlytemporal one: Augustine's metaphors emphasize the process of longing, the growth of our love and hope.
15. My understanding oflove here is greatly indebted to R. Williams, "Sapientia and the Trinity:Reflections on the De trinitate," in B. Bruning et al. (eds.), Collectanea Augustiniana: Mlanges T.J. VanBavel (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990) [=Augustiniana 40-41 (1990-91)], vol. 1, pp. 317-332.
16 Cf O th T i it 1 13 30 31
Augustine'spicture of thetheological
foundation ofthe Christiancommunity as a
community drawinto active
participation inand manifestatiof the "fellowshofGod" is deepeschatalogical.
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GOD'S TRINITARIAN LOVE
Thus we
understand
Christ's laying
down his life as an
expression of the
common willing
of Father and
Son in love,
an expression
of the love
of the Trinitytowards us.
I want now to turn to some of the passages later in the series where
August ine directly comments on the theme of God as love. The central
passage in this examination is Augustine's commentary on 1 John 4:4-12which is the subject of Sermon 7 in the series. In 1 of homily 7 God is
said to have indicated to the Church that love {caritas) is the fountain,
the pillar, which directs through our desert. Indeed the whole of the
gospel can be explained as the command of love, and love, says
Augustine, is the reason for the incarnation.
In 2 denial of love, a failure to practice love, is also a denial of the
incarnation, for one must judge the presence of the Spirit by acts rather
than by words (Augustine here takes up a key theme of homily 6).
August ine goes on to say that we learn the nature of love by watchinghim who embodies love most fully. John 15:13, "Greater love has no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" is to be
understood as pointing to the example of Christ. Christ has shown us
the su preme act of love and has done so as part of his taking flesh. The
two themes of love as the test of faith and Christ as the focus for the
formation of faith are joined: "How could the Son of God lay down his
life for us unless he put on flesh whereby he could die? Whoever, then,
violates love, whatever he may say with his tongue, by his life denies
that Christ has come in the flesh..." Later in the same sermon, in 7,
August ine links this display of love by Christ with the Father's displayof love in sending his Son: both display the love of God. Again the key
is Christology: God does not hand over Christ as Judas hands over:
God hands over himself m love, while Judas betrays his master. Thus
we understand Christ's laying down his life as an expression of the
common willing of Father and Son in love, an expression of the love of
the Trinity towards us (7 is discussed again below).
Turning back to 4, we find Augustine commenting on that most
famous passage of the letter 1 John, 4:6-9:
We are ofGod. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is notofGod does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and thespirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, andhe who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not lovedoes not know God; for God is love {quia Deus dilectio est). In this thelove of God was manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into theworld, so that we might live through him.
18
August ine is happ y to take the step from which so man y theologians
have fought shy and say that not only is God love, but hence, love is
17. A similar interpretation of John 15:13 is to be found in the 84th tractate on John's Gospel.
18. Unimpeded, it is important to note, by the significance of the article in the original Greek
which prevents the linguistic, if not theological move in that language.
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God. He moves to this statement in a number of stages. First, Scripture
says we are "of God" because of the presence of love in us; second,
Augustine adds that to act against love is to act against God; third,
because the Spirit dwells in those who love, true love is thus the
presence of God.
This third stage thus depends on trinitarian theology, in 6 we find:
How then... "love is of God," and now "love is God"? The Son is GodofGod; the Holy Spirit is God ofGod. And these three are one God notthree gods. For God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit... If the Son isGod and the Holy Spirit is God and he in whom the Holy Spirit dwellsloves, therefore love is God, but God because [it is] of God. For you haveboth in the epistle, both "love is of God" and "love is God."
19
This is a dense argument , and depends on the exegetical principle that,
because of the principium of the Father, things said to be God and to beof God are best understood to refer to the Son or to the Spirit.
Following this principle, Romans 5:5, "...God's love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us,"
indicates for Augustine that the presence of love within us is most
proper ly the presence of the Spirit. To show love is to accept the gift of
the Spirit, which is to accept the Spirit itself: "...even an evil man can
have all these mysteries [the sacraments]. But he cannot have love and
be evil. This then is the peculiar gift.... For drinking of this the Spirit of
God encourages you; for drinking of himself the Spirit of God encourages
you...." It is this theology of the Spirit's presence which completes the
vision of the redeemed, loving community, loving through God's
presence, which I began to outline in the first sections of the paper.
The gift of the Spirit is cont inually offered, and in 7 in the passage
mentioned only a few paragraphs ago Augustine relates this theme
of God as love to the overall thrust of the homilies by using 1 John 4.9,
"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent
his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him," to
emphasize that the gift is offered prior to our acceptance. The
prevenience of the gift is demonstra ted through the act of incarnation.This picture is reinforced in 9 where Augustine emphasizes the in
timate relationship between the form and purpose of God's love. God
has loved us in order that we might love, and has offered himself as
sacrifice: the way in which he offers himself thus mirrors the offering
of love within the Trinity itself. Turning to Book XV of On the Trinity
God has loved u
in order that we
might love, andhas offeredhims
as sacrifice: the
way in which he
offers himself
thus mirrors
the offering of lo
within the
Trinity itself.
19. Most commentators agree that the parallel with John 1 is important in Augustine makingthe equation between "of God" and being God.
20. Things which are both said to he and to be o/God are taken to most appropriately refer tothe persons who are both God and of God, i.e., Son and Spirit. This is one exegetical principlewhich needs to be understood in the context of others which cannot be set out here: but seealso On the Trinity XV, 19,37, where it is also made clear that to call the Spirit "love" is also tospeak of the Trinity as a whole as love.
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The Father is
principium in
the Trinity, but is
the originator of a
truly self-giving
reciprocal
communion, not
of a hierarchy of
powers.
The Spirit, as
the gift of God
which is God,
continues and
is a central part of
his theology of
God's self-offering
on the cross.
(26, 47), we might note first the importance Augustine places on the
Father giving the Son "to have life in himself," taking this to imply that
the Son is not temporally "after" the Father, and that the Father's utter
self-gift to the Son does not imply a subordinationist Trinity. Second,
in the same section, one might note that the Father's gift to the Son
includes the power to bestow the Spirit, wh o is also the communion of
both: the Father's act of generation and spiration involves an act of
sharing himself absolutely as loving, continually self-offering com
munion. The Father is principium in the Trinity, but is the originator of
a truly self-giving reciprocal communion, not of a hierarchy of powers.
Thus, returning to homily 7 of the 1 John series, if we are to love, love
involves this form: he offered himself. "Most beloved, if God has so
loved us, we also ought to love one another ."
Two aspects of this vision of love which have been hinted at now need
to be drawn out again. First, Augustine does not here offer a theologyin which God offers his Son as propitiation, an exchange simply
analogous to one subject's offering of an object. August ine rather
combines an unders tanding of the Son's self-offering wi th a conception
of the Father's self-gift through the use of their unity and separation in
the Trinity. Although we use the language of a father sending his son,
we only understand the form of the transaction when we see that
although the son comes to make an appropriate sacrifice he actually
offers himself as victim. The Son offers himself as sacrifice, showing
the extent of God's love for us. Also the absolute accord between thewill of the Father and the will of the Son means that the whole
"sending" is an act expressive of the exchange of love of the Trinity.
The second aspect which needs drawing out concerns Augustine's
conception of the Spirit as the gift of love. The Spirit, as the gift of God
which is God, continues and is a central part of his theology of God's
self-offering on the cross. God 's redempt ive dispensation {dispensatici)
involves both the life death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and
the sending of the Spirit. The incarnation reveals God's prior love for
us, the Spirit leads us to share in that love through forming the church
into a community which participates in the love of the Trinity throughincorporation into the body of Christ. Augustine's understanding of
the work of the Spirit seems to involve two aspects. On the one hand
the Spirit is a "unifying" force, drawing us all into a form of loving which
participates in the always prior loving exchange of God; on the other
hand the Spirit permits a diversity through calling us to participate in this
love by showing love to others that they may be our "brothers." Only
21. Despite their different understandings of God's unchangeability this theology is in someways paralell to von Balthasare theology of the cross: especially as seen in Mysterium Paschale:The Mystery ofEaster, tr. A. Nicholls (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1990).
22. See On the Trinity, XV, 17, 31; 19, 37.
23. See On the Trinity, XV, 19, 34.
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in the love of neighbour can we "see"
revealed in Christ.
the priority of God's love
This section has attempted to draw out Augustine's discussion of
God as love and love as God. Because of the presence of the Spirit
with us when we love, love is God. This picture is reliant on a
theology of the Christian community as the community taken up by
the gift of incarnation and Spirit into the life of the Trinity, and that
in turn is understood here as expressive of the potential of creation:
Christian practice is understood as a realisation and discernment of
God's presence to creation through attendance on the practices
inaugurated within the body of Christ. Because of Augustine's
theology of the person of Christ these practices draw us to par
ticipate in the incarnation which manifested God to us. In the finalsection of the pap er I want to turn aga in to the relationsh ip between
"seeing" God and the practice of love.
Because of the
presence of the
Spirit with us
when we love,
love is God.
"SEEING" THE TRINITY
The "seeing" of God in the practice of Christian charity is the subject
of the next few sections of homily 7, and provides clearer textual
justification for the hints about the ambiguit ies of "see ing" God that
have been offered in earlier sections of the paper. In 10 Augustinesearches for a way to reconcile 1 John 4:12, "No man has ever seen
God," with Matt. 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
God." We should avoid trying to imagine God with the "desire of the
eyes" {concupiscentiaoculorum) because we would in that way be unable
to avoid imagining God according to size and limit: we need rather to
see him according to the "eyes of the heart." This leads Augustine to
state that we see God in love, and in the actions of love:
[This] is what you should imagine if you wish to see God: "God is love."
What sort of face does love have? What sort of form does it have? ... Noone can say. Nonetheless it does have feet, for they lead to the Church.It does have hands, for they are stretched out to the poor man... It doeshave ears, about which the Lord says, "he who has ears to hear, let himhear." They are not members separated by places, but by means of theunderstanding he who has love sees the whole at one time. Dwell andyou will be a dwelling, abide and you will be an abode.
Towards the end of 10 Augustine insists that love is something
present to all people, and that the acceptance of love is not dependent
on our taking something external to us; it is there with us prior to our
acceptance. Nevertheless the preservation of love, the subject of 11,involves the formation of loving habits, a process of discernment and
We see Godin love, and
in the actions
of love.
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The dove which
descends rests
above the head
of Christ
symbolising thatChristreceives
baptism in order
at he may give it.
We neverbecome
equal to God
because he is the
one whose love
is always prior;
we love because
he loved us.
correction. The dove which descends on Christ at his baptism is apeculiarly appropriate form for the Spirit: the dove is both loving andyet defends its children; the dove expresses love and anger with love.The dove which descends rests above the head of Christ symbolising
that Christ receives baptism in order that he may give it (just as hereceives love and all that he is from the Father so that he may showlove); we receive baptism from Christ and must refer all that we dobackto him. His baptism is thus an expression of the trinitarian life intowhich we are drawn.
This passage can be helpfully supplemented with one from homily 9in the series where Augustine directly examines the question oftheological analogy. In 3, commenting on 1 John 4:17, "...because ashe is so are we in this world," Augustine asks how far we may draw
analogies between our lives and our love andGod. The answer followsthe general thrust of what we one finds in considerations of analogy inthe series (and Augustine himself points back to 9 of homily 4), buthere Augustine adds to the picture his conception of our being madein the image and likeness ofGod. The argument can perhaps be set outin three stages: first, the "as" in the phrase "we are as he is" is to beunderstood as indicating not equality but resemblance. There is acertain appropriate place in creation for us, a certain "measure" appropriate to us, and only by understanding this can we see how weresemble the creator and how we do not. Second, this growth towardsresemblance must be understood in the light of the theology of love inthese sermons; we may be like him in this world by following hisexample of love and attempting to love our enemies. Third, we neverbecome equal to God because he is the one whose love is always prior;we love because he loved us.
This passage takes up and follows again the structure of homily sevenwhere we learn to love through our learningto attend to the love shownin Christ. Perhaps we can identify three key facets of Augustine'sview of theological analogy here: first, our drawing analogies from our
world to God is dependent always on God's prior act towards us in theincarnation; second, our drawing analogies is integrally related to ourparticipation in the redemptive life of Christian love (because that loveis simply God present in us), learning to see how the material acts asrevelation of the divine, the created of the uncreated; third, that life isa continual movementinto a theology of creation: only as we learn to
25.1 have attempted to set out and hint at the possible appropriation of the theological dynamicof this text without appropriating the particulars of its clear polemical context. Augustine isopposing the Donatists as schismatics on the grounds that they are claiming the right to havepower over the sacraments which is properly Christ's (this parallels other treatments of Simon
Magus in Augustine's work).26. What we often take to be "love" is what we might perhaps call a "love-shaped desire," a"love-shaped space," not love itself. I am grateful to Rowan Williams for suggest ing this way
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see God as love under the impetus of the incarnation and the sending
of the Spirit do we come to see the purpose of the creation and the true
appropr iate relations between Creator and created.
Thus talk of learning to "see" God in love must be understood in thecontext of Augustine's insistence that true love is the presence of the
Spirit. We are not called to see in our human love an image of the
trinitarian God, as some readings of his trinitarian theology suggest:
we are called to see through the process of faith and longing how God
is present to us, and how the redemptive dispensation of God takes us
up into the trinitarian life, which God has always intended to share
with his creation. The process of theological analogy for Augustine
depends on coming to see beyond our picture of a material or simply
distan t God and learning to see how our created lives may be both like
and unlike the exchange of love which is the Trinity, ho w our love may
both be simply a realisation and a shar ing of God's love and yet always
dependent on the prior love of God towards us. To draw analogy
properly is to come to terms with the reality of God's love for his
creation. It is because of this perception that Augustine is so insistent
on the need for us to undergo the discipline of actual love in com
munity, if we are to see how God may be called love, and hence how
he may be loved.
We cannot understand what it means for Augustine to call God love,
and to call love God, wi thout beginning to get an overall picture of theinterrelationship between his theology of the Trinity, his theology of
incarnation and his ecclesiology. I hope here I have offered the begin
nings of such an account. I have not been able to consider how one
might read in any detail the process of drawing analogies for the Trinity
which is so famous a part of his On the Trinity, bu t I have offered a
context within which those texts should be considered. Augustine's
theological point of departure here and elsewhere I would like to
suggest is our participation in the mystery of Easter, the participa
tion of the contemporary Christian community in the saving events of
God's redemptive dispensation. His vision is always that this dispen
sation is a revealing and sharing anew of that sharing of the tr initarian
God which we call creation. On this basis he is able to build up a
profoundly trinitarian theology which is also a theology attentive to
the process of actual Christian life and formation, attentive to the
central place of our created temporal existence as a gift of God, a gift
enabling our sharing in God. Calling God love is for Augustine an
activity which thus only makes sense within the slow process of
coming to realize that the one who is love has revealed himself and
inauguarted a practice of formed love and confession through whichwe may share in the Triune life of love itself. D
We cannot
understand wh
it means for
Augustine to c
God love, and
call love God,
without begin
to get an overa
picture of theinterrelationsh
between his
theology of the
Trinity, his
theology of
incarnation an
his ecclesiolog
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