MODULE 8: THE SPIRITUALITY OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

A. AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY
The spiritual legacy associated with Augustine of Hippo can be considered from a
twofold perspective: the actual thought and teaching of St. Augustine, and subsequent traditions
of spirituality associated with and based upon the figure and thought of Augustine. The saint
himself represents an approach to what will subsequently be called spirituality that is thematic
rather than systematic. Subsequent traditions associated with Augustine will highlight,
emphasize, and accordingly systematize aspects of his spirituality.

B. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

There are a variety of specific CHARACTERISTICS associated with Augustine of Hippo
which, when taken together, constitute his distinctive spiritual vision. They find expression in all
his writings, but are particularly noteworthy in the Confessions, his preaching on John's Gospel
and the Psalms, the Trinity, and his Sermons. The following are considered the most important:
CHRISTOLOGICAL. Christ as the Way, Christ as the Homeland (Via and Patria )—this
is one of many Christological titles used by Augustine both to affirm and to explore the central
place and role of Jesus Christ in the Christian life. To affirm the centrality of Christ is likewise to
affirm the centrality of the Trinity for Augustine's spirituality, since it is Christ who reveals the
Father and promises the Spirit, it is the Father who sends the Son, it is the Spirit who inflames
the hearts of the followers of the Son. Every dimension of Augustine's vision of the spiritual life
is vitally linked to and grounded in his profound sense of the identity and work of the Son of
God, expressed in key affirmations such as Christ-Physician (medicus ), Teacher (magister ),
Word (Verbum ), and the uniquely rich Christus totus —the whole Christ.
GRACE-CENTERED. From his earliest writings to his final work Augustine provocatively
placed God's gratuitous initiative (grace) at the center of the divine-human relationship. This
emphasis on grace is both profoundly Christological and deeply Anthropological, for it reveals
both God's gracious initiative in Christ and total human dependence upon this initiative. "Without
me you can do nothing" is equally, for Augustine, an affirmation of God's absolute sovereignty in
the process of salvation and a confirmation of the total incapacity of human nature without this
sovereign initiative.
INNER-DIRECTED. Drawing upon the affirmation of Genesis that humans are created in
God's image (imago Dei ), Augustine continually calls the Christian to turn within to discover that
divine presence, seal, and identity. The heart (cor) becomes for Augustine a key term and
symbol for the profound and challenging depths every human being finds and faces within.
However, "Return to yourself" is never for Augustine a selfish movement of escapism but a true
opening to and discovery of authentic human identity.
SCRIPTURAL. The New and Old Testaments provide the vocabulary, ideas, and content
of Augustine's spirituality. Sharing with all patristic authors a profound sense of the centrality of
the Word of God for worship, prayer, and daily living, Augustine's spiritual writings are so filled
with Scripture that it is often difficult to know when Augustine ends, and Scripture begins. Key
texts occur over and over again in Augustine's writings and provide his thought with coherence
and continuity (e.g., Gn 1:27; Jb 7:1; Is 7:9 [LXX]; Jn 1:14; Rom 5:5; 7:24–25a; 11:33–36; 1 Cor
1:31; 3:6–7; 4:7; Gal 5:6; etc.). This profoundly scriptural spirituality finds its apex in the
Confessions, where scripture text and Augustine's voice are blended together indistinguishably.
COMMUNAL. The community of Adam and Eve in the garden of Paradise is profoundly
emblematic for Augustine of humanity's communal nature. "You have made us for yourself, O
Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Augustine's own human make-up was
decidedly social, poignantly portrayed in the Confessions as he shares both grace and sin.
Augustine took a communal key text from Acts 4:32, describing the early apostolic community in
Jerusalem, as a guidepost for not only his monastic community but the Church as a whole.
LOVE-MOTIVATED. Both enthralled and terrified with the scriptural affirmations that
"God is love" (1 Jn 4:16) and Christ's own description of the Final Judgment in terms of love of
the poor Christ (Mt 25), Augustine saw love as the central command of Jesus that summed up
the whole Christian life. "Love and do what you will" was, for Augustine, an affirmation not only
of the centrality of love but of its nature as guarantor of the Christian life.
PROGRESSIVE. The "restless heart" that Augustine places within every true Christian,
marks his spirituality with a fundamental dynamism and vitality that is expressed in his frequent
use of the word "pilgrimage" to describe the life of the Christian. Following Christ is always a
matter of ongoing conversion, taking up new challenges in response to God's call. Conversion,
progress, ascent—Augustine's model for the Christian life demands an ongoing journey of
transformation.

CONVERSION: KEY TO UNDERSTANDING AUGUSTINE’S SPIRITUALITY

I. SAINT AUGUSTINE’S CONVERSION: A SPLENDID TRANSFORMING MOMENT
A. Augustine’s Conversion: A Key to Understanding his Spirituality
Fr. Eusebio Berdon, OSA, former Father Provincial of the Augustinian Order - Sto. Nino
Cebu – Province, wrote an article concerning Augustine’s conversion. Fr. Berdon claims that “on
August 28, the universal Church, and the whole Augustinian family celebrated the Feast of our
great father, Saint Augustine, a proclaimed Doctor and Father of the Church, and the occasion
was appropriate for reflection on the many aspects of his life or on the variety of topics in his
teachings. To discuss the relevance of Augustine’s conversion is important in the understanding
of his Spirituality, and on the need, therefore, to constantly celebrate such event among us. In
fact, every celebration of his feast is a celebration of his conversion.
To place in proper perspective, this sharing on the conversion of Saint Augustine, Pope
Paul VI declared: “For us, Saint Augustine is an always productive mind, or better yet, an ever
flowing fountain. One never finishes admiring or drawing from his words, his insights, and the
richness of his Spirit, treasures which can be of great importance, not only for scholarship and
for the religious life ... but also for that of the modern world. Really, he is the one who has
spoken of the Interior Master better than anyone else (“Show Your Love for Augustine...” Living
in Freedom under Grace, Rome: 1979, p. 38).
It is obvious from the above papal statement that a celebration of the conversion of this
great “man for all seasons”, is not simply a re-enactment of that moving drama in the garden of
Milan, faithfully recorded and transmitted to us through the immortal book of the author, The
Confessions, but a celebration of the return to God of a great multitude, and whose spirit and
wisdom have renewed, strengthened, and even transformed the life of the Church herself.
Concretely, in celebrating the conversion of Augustine, we pay tribute to a man who has
discovered the true meaning of life after a long, tortuous, and painful search; we proclaim to the
whole world the ever alive Christian hope for personal and eventually social transformation,
because of the dynamic presence of God’s grace and Spirit; and we perform an act of faith in
the transforming work of the same Spirit in our personal lives, and in our communities. To
celebrate this event is to honor the man, to pray to our God, and to proclaim the good news.
Fr. Berdon claims that Augustine himself would have wanted us to retell the story of his
conversion. As Jose Rodriquez, commenting on Augustine’s proselytizing temperament, rightly
remarks: “He was a man who felt an impressible need for sharing with his friends his own
restlessness and discoveries... Augustinian proselytism becomes more vividly active when it is a
question of sharing values capable of giving meaning to human existence. Every time Augustine
thought he was in possession of a way of salvation, he felt the powerful urge to show it to others
and to travel in their company (“The Search for God and Apostolate”, in Searching for God,
Rome: 1981, pp. 301-31).

B. AUGUSTINE’S INTERNAL JOURNEY

The life of Augustine is an open book to us who have read his previously mentioned
great book, The Confessions. There is no need, therefore, to retell it here. But for the sake of
having a comprehensive view of his internal journey, it is necessary to underline a few but
important factors which contributed to the transformation of his life.
Despite having a great and saintly mother or a catechist during his early childhood,
Augustine perhaps because of his father’s influence or simply because of universally shared
shortcomings of born Catholics, that is, presumed conviction towards one’s inherited faith – led
the normal life of a boy of his time with a semi-pagan culture. The only difference was that, he
was gifted with a brilliant mind, a genial character, and a strong sense of dedication to whatever
task he had at hand. Moreover, he was, in his own right, ambition of having a better life than
that of many of his peers. This means more education, and eventually more money, honor, and
power.
His first conversion, as he himself tells us, took place after reading a philosophy book of
Cicero titled “Hortensius”. The book propounds the stoic doctrine that the happiness of man
does not exist in the possession of wealth, honor, or power, but in the possession of wisdom.
Let us humbly listen to Augustine himself: “The prescribed course of study brought me to a work
by an author named Cicero...the title of the book is Hortensius, and it recommends the reader to
study philosophy. Augustine freely states: “It altered my outlook in life. It changed my prayers to
You, O Lord, and provided me with new hopes and aspirations. All my empty dreams suddenly
lost their charm and my heart began to throb with a bewildering passion to the wisdom of eternal
truth. I began to claim out of the depths to which I had sunk, in order to return to You, My God,
how I burned with longing to have wings to carry me back to You, away from all earthly things,
although I had no idea what You would do with me!” (Conf. 3.4).
From this moment, at the age of nineteen, Augustine spent most of the time looking for
this philosophical ideal. And this search brought him to the fold of religious sects, like
Manichaeism. Augustine, however, soon discovered the shallowness of the teachings of these
sects, and when already in Milan, as panegyrist of the Emperor, he began listening to the
sermons delivered by a former governor of the city, now the Catholic bishop, Saint Ambrose,
and the edifying presence of the Church and her leaders led to Augustine’s second conversion:
acceptance of the authority of the Church and of the Sacred Scriptures. Boyer thus says: “The
complete conversion which has to transform his heart and life will occur later. But his adhesion
to the Church, the conviction that she possesses the truth, in other words, his return to the true
faith, is taking place at this time” (cited by Capanaga, V. In “S. Agustin en nuestro tiempo....’
Augustinus: 1956, p. 38).
Capanaga himself adds: “In Milan, the Church showed itself as a social entity, firm and
evident, attracting the attention of all with the strong presence of Christ. These things above all
impress the young professor from Carthage, and the crowd of the faithful - the sanctity and
leadership of the Church” (ibid. p. 39).
Despite this positive impression, Augustine still entertained some doubts particularly in
the understanding of some doctrines, like the Divinity of the Word, Christ. While finding himself
in this predicament, Neo-Platonism came to his aid. And this is described by some authors as
the third conversion of Augustine.
Briefly, following the doctrine of Plato, this school of philosophy claims that the visible
world is but a manifestation or reflection of the “spiritual world”, the world of ideas (Spirit), which,
in turn, is the creation of the Absolute (Unum), through the instrumentality of the Word (Logos).
Since the true home of the spirit or soul is in the realm of the spiritual, it is, but natural that
creatures should yearn and search for their origin. Man, particularly a rational creation, enjoys a
privilege, through interior illumination, of having a power to communicate with or contemplate
this Unum (God) in this life. Now, while Augustine did not fully accept this purely philosophical
explanation of the spiritual origin of man – he believed in the God of the Scriptures, who directly
created man and other creatures – he found answers to some of the intellectual doubts. With
this acceptance of the Divine Revelation, and the Authority of the Church (Magisterium), his
heart was ready for a complete conversion. As to understanding of the concept of spiritual
substances, and therefore of the concept of a spiritual God, his reading of the books of Plato
and of his disciples, the Platonists, led him to a method of research similar to today’s
transcendental meditation whereby he was able to arrive at a certain contemplative experience
of God. Augustine likes to read the Platonists especially on their idea of God; how the world is a
manifestation of the Divine and how the Spirit of God is present in all things.
But for a time still, Augustine remained uncommitted. In the words of Capanaga, (op. cit.,
p. 37), he was convinced but not touched, that is, the conversion was more intellectual than
effective. In fact, Augustine himself confirms this: “The words of your Scriptures were planted
firmly in my heart... Of you, eternal life I was certain... But in my worldly life all was confusion... I
should have been glad to follow the right road, to follow our Savior Himself, but still I could not
make up my mind to venture along the narrow path” (Conf. 8.1).
Only after a painful period of struggle, through study, prayer, and dialogue with close
friends, Augustine was able to arrive at that dramatic climax of his return to God. Vividly, he
describes the scene to us: “I probed the hidden depths of my soul and wrung its pitiful secrets
from it, and when I mastered them all before the eyes of my heart, a great storm broke within
me, bringing with it a great deluge of tears... For I felt that I was still the captive of my sins, and
in my misery, I kept crying, how long shall I go on saying ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow? Why not now?
Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment? I was asking myself these questions...
when all at once I heard the singing voice of a child ...Take it and read, take it and read’” (Tolle
lege experience).
“So, I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting... (where) I had put down the
book containing Paul’s Epistles (Rom. 13:13-14). I seized it and I opened it, and in silence I read
the first passage: “not in reveling and drunkenness... in an instant, as I came to the end of the
sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of
doubt was dispelled” (Conf. 7.12).
Evidently, the process of conversion of Saint Augustine did not end here. It was only a
turning point in his life during which he, with his whole being, embraces GOD. But that was just
the beginning of a life with and for GOD. Jose Rubio, on this point observes: “It would be wrong
to presuppose that the Augustinian crisis was definitely solved in the garden of Milan. For many
years after, he would exert effort to uncover the existential mystery of his conversion and
explain the more intimate and personal aspects of the experience.. Later, his experience will be
projected socially with a universal application, thus, illustrating and supporting the Christian
tradition” (Hacia una teoria agustiniana de la conversion”, Augustinus 9, 1964, p. 472).

C. THE PROCESS OF AUGUSTINE’S CONVERSION

In the light of the above presentation and description of Augustine’s internal journey, it is
quite possible for us to draw a synthesis of his theology on conversion.
Before man’s fall, he possessed a total rectitude and his spirit governed all his faculties
in harmony with the Divine Plan. He was in the admirable state of tranquil peace, of the
authentic knowledge of self in God through participation in and impression of the eternal truths
(intellectus Dei) and hierarchically arranged values (amor Dei) in his rational soul. But with the
entrance of sin, man lost such internal equilibrium. His faculties were, so to say, blinded and
confused. Man embraced, in the words of Augustine himself, man found difficulty in determining
which are truths of eternal and lasting values, because of disordered will, man’s objects of love
were not always the eternal goods. The senses took control of reason and will so that these
faculties confused the temporal with the eternal as their objects (Jose Rubio, op. cit., pp. 481-
82; also Trape, The Search for God in Contemplation, Searching for God, Rome, 1981, pp. 10-
13).
However, because man was made in the image and likeness of God and therefore
capable of the immediate vision of the Infinite God (capx Dei), though he himself is finite and
has a profound drive “which carries him towards God whether he realizes it or not| (indigens
Deo), he conserves a vague memory of what he once was (memoria Dei). This memory and this
in-built dynamism which propels man towards God cause in man’s restlessness or existential
thirst for the eternal. This thirst is especially accentuated with the experience of frustration and
desolation on the transitoriness of things, like honor, riches, power, human friendship, etc. This
awareness and the consequent action of man searching for God is the process called
conversion.
To stress this point, Trape comments: “The search for God is an essential element in the
experience and thought of Saint Augustine... Saint Augustine was a man dominated by a thirst
for God, an insatiable thirst… He sought God everywhere in the beauty of nature, in the
inexhaustible richness of Scriptures, in the depths of the interior man, in the life of the Church, in
the events of history (op. cit., p. 8).
Because God is primarily encountered in the inner self of man (of course, as far as the
man searching for God Himself is concerned) then the direction of man’s search is inward,
which processed Augustine calls RETURN TO SELF. In De Vera Religione, he says: “Don’t go
out of yourself. Enter into yourself, for the Truth inhabits in the interior of man. And if you
discover that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself” (39.72). Also, in his commentary on
the Gospel of Saint John, he adds: “In the interior of man Christ dwells. And in the interior you
will be renewed according to the image of God. Recognize then in the image of its Author (XVII,
10).”
Now, how to transcend oneself? How to bridge the gap between our finite self and the
infinite God? Augustine himself answered: through PRAYER. Trape identifies this prayer with a
contemplative one: “Contemplative prayer is intrinsic to the search for God and even constitutes
its very essence ... It could not have been otherwise seeing that contemplation is the practical
recognition of the primacy of God over reason for the search for God” (op cit., p. 13).
And man’s inner journey to encounter God is best helped by lectio (listening to God and
responding in love), interior silence (inner presence of a more genuine and higher love), and
purification (a strict ascetical program along with the consequent progressive exercise of the
moral virtues) (See Trape, op cit., pp. 18-23).
But does this emphasis on the interiority not undervalue the importance of apostolate, of
encountering God in neighbors? The answer is definitely it does not! Here we are speaking only
a personal journey that is true to all individuals. Everybody is exhorted to cultivate this love for
interiority, but not to the abandonment of a Christian concern for the common good. One could
cite hundreds of texts to prove that Augustine greatly stressed the greater value of common
good over private one in fact, he repeatedly stressed that genuine love is always
communitarian; while private love is destruction and un-Christian. Let us allow Augustine to
speak for himself: “Struck with terror at my sins and at the burden of my misery, I had been
tormented at heart and had pondered flight into the desert. But you forbade me, and comforted
me saying: There Christ died for all; that they who live may now live not to themselves, but to
him who died for them” (Conf. X, 43, 70).
Augustine added: “If Mother Church has need of your help, do not accede to the request
with eager pride, nor refuse it with slothful complacence; rather obey God with a meek heart...
and do not prefer your peaceful retirement to the needs of the Church” (ep., 48,2).
Defending Augustine’s genuine interest in active apostolate, Jose Rodriguez says: “The
servant of God who has completely bound himself over to God’s will, can no longer be guided
by his own pleasure or interests. Those who belong to Christ, who died for all, are more
important. This conviction takes deep root in Augustine’s heart and is of capable importance in
understanding his dedication, body and soul, to apostolic activity” (op. cit., p. 35).

THE AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY

Augustinian spirituality is a unique lens through which one can discover God. Stemming
from Saint Augustine’s own life, his writings, and his teachings, Augustinian spirituality can
largely be summed up as the act of journeying together in search of the truth that is God. This
journey, as Augustine’s own life gives example, was not merely a communal and internal
journey toward God, but rather a communal and outward journey. Augustine took scripture as a
guide for truth, and specifically followed the example of the first Christian community described
in the Acts of the Apostles. As such, he and the communities in which he lived followed Christ’s
outward model of love through service to others. The Augustinian identity may be summed up
as “The Search for God Together” by means of a Community through which we share our faith
and life in a nurturing environment, and out of which is mutually generated our wholehearted
service to society, the Church and world. Augustinian Spirituality does not take us out of the
world (into the cloister or desert) but places us firmly in the midst of life to form community in the
face of the individualism and competitiveness of our post-modern society. Augustinian
Spirituality takes its inspiration from Augustine’s encounter with God’s Mystery as it is revealed
in his writings and prayers. Among the ruins of the Basilica of Peace which lie in the Algerian
city of Hippo (present day Annaba) on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, you can still see
signs of Augustine’s hand at work in the design of hearts that he had carved into the decorative
supports which were used to hold up the roof of his small cathedral. The heart is the enduring
symbol for Augustine’s love ablaze a] for God, b] for Scripture and c] for the Community of
friends and strangers that surrounded him at every stage of his life. Instead of making a sharp
distinction between the love we have for God and the love we have for people, Augustine
concluded that ‘authentic love for a human being is at the same time love of God’. The Search
for God: [the Movement OUT] this experience is described as “the affectionate reaching out of
the mind for God”. This very desire for God is itself a prayer and he writes: “if you have an
unceasing longing for God then you also pray unceasingly”. (Sermon 80, 7) It is just this ability
when we allow our attention to go out in delight at recognizing God’s presence in the world
around us or observe and wonder at God’s beauty in Nature and in our relationships with
others, as well as in the wisdom we glean from Sacred Scripture, this becomes the starting point
of our spiritual discovery. The Search for Truth: (the Movement IN) Augustine then invites us to
bring our life experience into an inner room of the heart to ponder and digest what has been
happening. It is this “going inside” which is so characteristic of Augustine’s spirituality. The
technical term for this is “Interiority” as he takes what is going on outside of himself and brings it
inside and there discovers that it is not his alone. We go from the outer experience to an inner
place where the one whom Augustine calls “The Teacher Within” will surface for us what we are
meant to know. “Enter then into your heart, (he tells us) and if you have faith, you will find Christ
there. There he speaks to you. I, the preacher, must raise my voice, but he instructs you more
efficiently in silence. I speak in sounding words. He speaks within”. (Sermon 102:2) The Graced
Community of the Trinity: [The Movement Beyond] This third movement of St Augustine’s
approach to prayer takes him beyond or upwards into a graced silence that has about it a
promise that can only be fully achieved in heaven, but glimpsed from time to time, if only for a
moment, here on earth. “Standing on the earth you are in heaven if you love God”, as we allow
God to draw us into the mystery of