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Contra Academicos as autobiography: a critique of the historiography on Augustine's first extant dialogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 June 2011
Abstract
Contra Academicos is not one of Augustine's masterpieces and, as such, modern scholarship has largely ignored this text in favour of examining Augustine's more mature works. Scholars do, however, attempt to use it as a way of interpreting Augustine's psychological state of mind at the time of his conversion because this is his first extant text. I argue that this attempt at reading Contra Academicos as autobiography is dangerous because Augustine was deliberately offering a self-representation to a pagan-philosophical audience and, therefore, scholars should not attempt to interpret this dialogue as if it offered neutral insight into Augustine's state of mind around 386. This article will first review the history of the scholarship which has attempted to read Contra Academicos as autobiography to prove that Augustine was only a Neoplatonist at the time of his conversion, or to disprove this theory. In either case, the authors of both positions have relied on Contra Academicos to support their claims. Then, I will make three arguments why reading Contra Academicos as autobiography is dubious. First, I will argue that the literary genre of the dialogue shows that Augustine's intended audience was for pagan-philosophers. Second, I will argue that the dedication of the text shows that Augustine's audience is a pagan-philosophical audience. Augustine's dedicatee plays a larger role in this text than do most dedicatees of texts in late antiquity. Third, I will show that the specific content demonstrates that Augustine's text was focused on a pagan-philosophical audience. Augustine never quotes scripture but goes to great pains to demonstrate his knowledge of Vergil and Cicero.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2011
References
1 Augustine, , Retractiones, trans. Bogan, Sister Mary Inez (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1968), 1.1Google Scholar. ‘Cum ergo reliquissem, vel quae adeptus fueram in cupiditatibus hujus mundi, vel quae adipisci volebam, et me ad christianae vitae otium contulissem; nondum baptizatus, contra Academicos vel de Academicis primum scripsi, ut argumenta eorum, quae multis ingerunt veri inveniendi desperationem, et prohibent cuiquam rei assentiri, et omnino aliquid, tanquam manifestum certumque sit, approbare sapientem, cum eis omnia videantur obscura et incerta, ab animo meo, quia et me movebant, quantis possem rationibus amoverem. Quod miserante atque adjuvante Domino factum est.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
2 Augustine, , Contra Academicos, trans. O'Meara, J. J. (Westminster: Newman Press, 1950), p. 18Google Scholar.
3 Although the argument that I make in this article may be applied to all of the Cassiciacum dialogues, I am strictly concentrating on Contra Academicos in order to remain focused and for the sake of brevity.
4 Trout, Dennis, ‘Augustine at Cassiciacum: Otium Honestum and the Social Dimensions of Conversion’. Vigilae Christianae 42 (1988), p. 132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 For example, Augustine quotes Matthew 7:7 ‘Search and you shall find’. But it is probable that the majority of his pagan-philosophical audience would not have known this was a scriptural reference. Augustine, , Contra Academicos, trans. King, Peter (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co. 1995), 2.3.9Google Scholar.
6 This quote comes from O'Meara's translation, p. 20. There are earlier scholars, during the nineteenth century, who also argued that Contra Academicos sheds light on Augustine's mind. Some of these are: Naville, A., Saint Augustin, étude sur le développement de sa pensée jusqu'à l'époque de son ordination (Geneva, 1872)Google Scholar; Revue des Deux Mondes, 85 (Jan. 1888), pp. 43–69; cf. Boissier, G., La fin du paganisme (3rd edn.Paris, 1898), pp. 291–325Google Scholar; Harnack, Adolf, Augustins Confessionen (2nd edn.Giessen, 1895), p. 17Google Scholar; Loofs, Friedrich, ‘Augustinus’ in Realenzyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, vol. 2, 3rd edn. edited by Hauck, A., (Leipzig, 1897), pp. 266ffGoogle Scholar; Gourdon, L., Essai sur la conversion de saint Augustin (Geneva, 1900)Google Scholar; W. Thimme, ‘Augustins geistige Entwicklung in den ersten Jahren nach seiner Bekehrung’ (386–391) (Berlin, 1908), p. 11. These entries come from O'Meara's introduction to his translation of Contra Academicos, noted here, on pp. 19–20 and footnotes on pp. 159–60.
7 All trans. from French are mine. Prosper Alfaric, L'évolution intellectuelle de Saint Augustin: Du Manichéisme au Néoplatonisme (Paris, Emile Nourry, 1918), p. viii. ‘Quand il a reçu le baptême, il accordait si peu d'importance à ce rite que, dans les écrits de cette époque, où il parle fréquemment de lui-même et de tout ce qui l'intéresse, il n'y fait jamais la plus lointaine allusion. Il était alors assez peu catholique. Sans doubte il acceptait la tradition chrétienne, mais il ne la considérait que comme une adaptation populaire de la sagesse platonicienne. Ce n'est que long temps plus tard qu'il est arrivé à donner à la foi le pas sur la raison.’
8 Ibid., p. 527. ‘En lui le Chrétien disparaît derrière le disciple de Plotin. S'il était mort après avoir rédigé les Soliloques, on ne le considérerait que comme un Néo-Platonicien convaincu, plus ou moins teinté de Christianisme.’
9 Boyer, Charles, Christianisme et Néo-Platonisme dans la formation de Saint Augustin (Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne, 1920), p. 166Google Scholar. ‘Nous l'avons successivement reconnus . . . il est Chrétien avec ferveur.’
10 Ibid., pp. 166–7. ‘Nous avons admis que les Confessions présentaient avec exactitude la psychologie de saint Augustin justqu'à sa conversion. Il y a toute raison de croire que le néophyte de Cassiciacum n'avait pas modifié sa manière de conçevoir les rapports de la philosophie et de la religion chrétienne. Mais trouve-t-on dans les Dialogues des textes qui en fassent foi?’
11 Ibid., p. 169. ‘On retrouve sans peine dans ces declarations des Dialogues sur les rapports de la philosophie et de la foi, la conception que saint Augustin, dans les Confessions, affirme s'en être faite à cette époque de sa vie.’
12 Other scholars who assert that Contra Academicos may be read as autobiography should be noted in passing: Mourant, John A., ‘Augustine and the Academics’, Recherches Augustiniennes 4 (1966), pp. 67–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John Heil, ‘Augustine's Attack on Skepticism: The Contra Academicos’, Harvard Theological Review 65/1 (Jan. 1972), pp. 99–116; Roberts, David E., ‘Augustine's Earliest Writings’, Journal of Religion 33/3 (July 1953), pp. 161–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Augustine, Contra Academicos, trans. J. J. O'Meara; , O'Meara, ‘Neo-Platonism and the Conversion of St. Augustine’, Dominican Studies 3 (1950), pp. 331–43Google Scholar; , O'Meara, The Young Augustine: The Growth of St. Augustine's Mind up to his Conversion (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1954)Google Scholar; Kavanagh, Denis J., Answer to Skeptics: A Translation of St. Augustine's Contra Academicos (New York: Cosmopolitan Science and Art Service Co., 1943)Google Scholar; Gilson, Etienne, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine, trans. Lynch, L. E. M. (New York: Random House, 1960)Google Scholar; Testard, Maurice, Saint Augustin et Cicéron (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1958)Google Scholar.
13 McWilliam, Joanne, ‘The Cassiciacum Autobiography’, Studia Patristica 18/4, ed. Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (Kalamazoo, MI: Peeters Press, 1990), p. 17Google Scholar.
14 Ibid., p. 15.
15 Harrison, Carol, Rethinking Augustine's Early Theology: An Argument for Continuity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. viCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 Ibid., p. 4.
17 Ibid., pp. 3–4.
18 Ibid., p. 7.
19 Ibid., p. 9.
20 Denis J. Kavanagh in his Answer to Skeptics, p. xx.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid., p. xx.
23 O'Meara, The Young Augustine, pp. 192–3.
24 One need only see 1.1.4 and 3.4.7 by way of example. Augustine. Contra Academicos, trans. King.
25 For a discussion of Augustine's use of the dialogue genre and concerning the historicity of Contra Academicos see Augustine, Contra Academicos, trans. O'Meara, pp. 28–30.
26 Augustine. Contra Academicos, trans. King, 1.1.3. ‘Evigila, evigila, oro te; multum, mihi crede, gratulaberis quod pene nullis prosperitatibus quibus tenentur incauti, mundi hujus tibi dona blandita sunt: quae meipsum capere moliebantur quotidie ista cantantem, nisi me pectoris dolor ventosam professionem abjicere et in philosophiae gremium confugere coegisset. Ipsa me nunc in otio, quod vehementer optavimus, nutrit ac fovet: ipsa me penitus ab illa superstitione, in quam te mecum praecipitem dederam, liberavit.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
27 Augustine. Contra Academicos. trans. King, 2.3.8. ‘Quorum primum, si tamen inest, ista tibi disputatio fortasse detrahet. Saepius enim succensuisti Academicis, eo quidem gravius, quo minus eruditus esses; sed eo libentius, quod veritatis amore illiciebaris.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
28 Curley, Augustine J., Augustine's Critique of Skepticism: A Study of Contra Academicos (New York: Peter Lang, 1996), p. 26Google Scholar.
29 There are a number of other pagan references which should be mentioned. Those listed here are not exhaustive but offer a brief sample of where the references may be found in the King trans.: Carneades, 2.1.1; Vulcan, 2.1.1; Celsinus, 2.2.5; Aesop, 2.3.7; Zeno, 2.5.11; Philo's pupil Antiochus, 2.6.16; Verres, 2.9.22; Daedalus, 3.2.3; Helicon, 3.4.7; Plato, 3.9.18; Democritus, I3.10.22; Epicurus, 3.10.23; Catiline, 3.16.36; Socrates, 3.17.37; Pythagoreas, 3.17.37; Pherecydes of Syros, 3.13.37; Polemo, 3.17.38; Arcesilaus, 3.17.38; Chrysippus, 3.17.39; Arcesilaus, 3.17.39; Plotinus, 3.18.41; Philo, 3.18.41; Cynics, 3.19.42; Peripatetics, 3.19.42; Platonists, 3.19.42; Aristotle, 3.19.42.
30 Augustine. Contra Academicos. trans. King, 1.5.14. ‘Diu ille tacuit; deinde: En, inquit, iterum definio, si hoc tu nunquam finire statuisti. Sapientia est via recta, quae ad veritatem ducat. Similiter et hoc, inquit ille, refellitur: nam dum apud Virgilium Aeneae dictum est a matre: Perge modo, et qua te ducit via dirige gressum. Sequens hanc viam ad id quod dictum erat, id est ad verum, pervenit. Contende, si placet, ubi pedem ille incedens posuit, sapientiam posse dici: quanquam stulte prorsus istam descriptionem tuam effringere conor; nam causam meam nulla plus adjuvat. Etenim sapientiam non ipsam veritatem, sed viam quae ad eam ducat, esse dixisti.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
31 Augustine, Contra Academicos. trans. King, 1.5.15. ‘Quamobrem aut definitio sapientiae ne requiratur, aut judex noster in ejus patrocinium dignetur descendere. Tum ego, cum jam stilum nox impediret, et quasi de integro magnum quiddam disserendum viderem oboriri, in alium diem distuli: nam disputare coeperamus sole jam in occasum declinante, diesque pene totus cum in rebus rusticis ordinandis, tum in recensione primi libri Virgilii peractus fuit.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
32 Augustine. Contra Academicos. trans. King, 2.4.10. ‘Post pristinum sermonem, quem in primum librum contulimus, septem fere diebus a disputando fuimus otiosi, cum tres tantum Virgilii libros post primum recenseremus, atque ut in tempore congruere videbatur, tractaremus.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
33 Augustine. Contra Academicos. trans. King, 1.3.8. ‘Ergone Cicero sapiens non fuit, a quo in latina lingua philosophia et inchoata est, et perfecta?’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
34 Augustine. Contra Academicos. trans. King, 3.7.14. ‘Tamen ne aut Academicorum argumenta quasdam nebulas videantur offundere, aut doctissimorum virorum auctoritati, inter quos maxime Tullius non movere nos non potest, superbe nonnullis resistere videamur; si vobis placet, prius pauca contra eos disseram, quibus videntur disputationes illae adversari veritati.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
35 Augustine, Contra Academicos, trans. King, 3.16.36. ‘Imo solertissime prudentissimeque viderunt, nec mihi ullo pacto tantum arrogaverim, ut M. Tullium aliqua ex parte sequar industria, vigilantia, ingenio, doctrina: cui tamen asserenti, nihil scire posse hominem, si hoc solum diceretur, Scio ita videri mihi; unde id refelleret non haberet.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
36 Augustine, Contra Academicos, trans. King, 2.11.26. ‘Talia, inquit Academicus, mihi videntur omnia quae probabilia vel verisimilia putavi nominanda; quae tu si alio nomine vis vocare, nihil repugno. Satis enim mihi est, te jam bene accepisse quid dicam, id est quibus rebus haec nomina imponam. Non enim vocabulorum opificem, sed rerum inquisitorem decet esse sapientem. Satisne intellexistis, quomodo mihi ludicra illa quibus vos agitabam, de manibus excussa sint?’, Patrologia Latina, 32.
37 Augustine. Contra Academicos, trans. King, 3.7.15. ‘Difficile est prorsus, ut quemquam non moveat, quod ibi dictum est, Academico sapienti ab omnibus caeterarum sectarum qui sibi sapientes videntur, secundas partes dari, cum primas sibi quemque vindicare necesse sit. Ex quo posse probabiliter confici, eum recte primum esse judicio suo, qui omnium caeterorum judicio sit secundus.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.
38 Augustine, Contra Academicos, trans. King, 3.14.31. ‘Si igitur nec certi est quidquam, nec opinari sapientis est; nihil unquam sapiens approbabit.’ Patrologia Latina, 32.