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Humblest 'apologies' for another new post. I am not pleased with my latest post not being
listed with the Blogger application as latest post and so therefore I offer a shorter post
with some repetition, however the repeated material is in pre-finalized PhD
form and this post is in post PhD Viva form and so not identical. I also offer
some additional material.
Send complaints to
Complaints
Department
Dr.
Russell Norman Murray
Maple
Didge, British Columbia, Socialist Paradise of Canada
Besides
many of my main pageviewers spend most of the time in the archives anyway…
Augustine’s Influences
Manichaeism
According to Alan
Richardson (1999), as a student Augustine was attracted to Manichaeism,[1] a movement began by the Persian, Manes (ca
215-275).[2] Vernon J. Bourke (1958) writes that
Augustine was in this religion for nine years from 373 A.D.[3]
The Manichees, according to Augustine scholar Henry Chadwick (1992), held that
matter itself was evil.[4] Augustine rejected
Manichaeism when he converted to Christianity,[5] but
this does not mean with certainty the views of Manes have no influence
whatsoever on Augustine’s theodicy.[6] However,
Augustine is historically known to have eventually challenged Manichaeism by
denying its views as mythology,[7] and in
disagreement with what he viewed as orthodox Christianity.[8]
Augustine’s view of the corruption and privation of matter and nature was that
they were good things as created originally by God,[9] but
had become less than they were originally intended through the rebellion of
creatures.[10] This view would therefore
contradict Manichaeism[11] which saw matter as
always by nature being inherently evil.[12]
Platonic Philosophy
Augustine was also
documented to have been influenced by Platonic philosophy.[13]
Scott MacDonald (1989) explains in his article ‘Augustine’s Christian-Platonic
Account of Goodness’ that Augustine held views influenced by Platonic thought.[14] Platonic philosophy was largely created by
Plato (427-347 B.C.).[15] Richard Kraut (1996) notes
Plato was a preeminent Greek philosopher who conceived the observable world as
an imperfect image of the realm of the unobservable and unchanging forms.[16] Plato, in Timaeus, written in 360
B.C, viewed these forms as divinely moved objects.[17]
Mark D. Jordan (1996) notes Augustine was primarily affected by Neoplatonism
before his conversion to Christianity.[18]
Augustine (398-399)(1992) states in Confessions he examined
Platonist writings that supported his Biblical understanding of the nature of
God.[19] Jordan states the Platonic writings
helped Augustine to conceive of a cosmic hierarchy in the universe in which God
was immaterial and had sovereign control over his material creation.[20] However, Jordan states Augustine saw philosophy
alone as being unable to change his life as only God himself could do.[21] Augustine’s use of Plato does not in itself
invalidate his understanding of Biblical writings where the two may happen to
be in agreement.[22] From my overall research of
Augustine and his free will theodicy, he places much emphasis on Biblical
theology as primary,[23] and therefore although it
is possible he could read Neoplatonism into his understanding of theodicy, it
is also very likely he rejects Neoplatonism where it contradicts his Scriptural
findings through in depth study.[24]
AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On
Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff,
Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions,
Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
AUGUSTINE
(400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur
West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver,
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion,
Translated by J.F. Shaw, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The
City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image
Books.
AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On
Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River,
N.J., Prentice Hall.
AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On
Christian Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University
Press.
BOURKE, VERNON J. (1958)
‘Introduction’, in The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh,
Garden City, New York, Image Books.
CHADWICK, HENRY (1992)
‘Introduction’, in Confessions, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
JORDAN, MARK D. (1996)
‘Augustine’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of
Philosophy, pp. 52-53. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
KRAUT, RICHARD (1996)
‘Plato’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,
Cambridge, pp. 619-629. Cambridge University Press.
MACDONALD, SCOTT (1989)
‘Augustine’s Christian-Platonist Account of Goodness’, in The New
Scholasticism, Volume 63, Number 4, pp. 485-509. Baltimore, The New
Scholasticism.
PLATO (360 B.C.)(1982)
‘Timaeus’, in Process Studies, Volume. 12, Number 4, Winter,
pp.243-251. Claremont, California, Process Studies.
POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy:
The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.
RICHARDSON, ALAN (1999)
‘Manichaeism’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New
Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd.
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