Theology Scout

Many introductory Literature, Philosophy, or Theology courses tend to include Augustine’s Confessions as a primary read, which is quite baffling, particularly for me as someone introduced to City of God first. Confessions is such a foundational work across the academy, which could be attributed to its utter simplicity, deep philosophical and theological underpinnings, and dynamic prosody (of course, many literary treasures are hidden from the modern reader because Augustine was a world-class orator in Latin, not English). However, I suggest that Confessions is appealing due to its grasping personal appeal. Augustine is relatable – i.e., a 5th-century monk/bishop/academic is appealing to Generation Z. But Confessions opens up a world to the simple realities of the human condition. In Book 2, Augustine steals pears because “why not.”¹ Book 3 showcases an Augustine who went to a party at the nude clubs of the time – stage plays.² In Book 4, Augustine follows the trend of being a Manichee, which was the pre-Y2K version of being spiritual but not religious. All of this is to say that Augustine was “woke!”

In this work, Augustine is setting up a philosophical foundation for the human condition – at least according to him. All three of the temptations I previously listed are “privations of the good,” which is a fancy way of saying that Augustine’s desires led to an absence of goodness, although the desires themselves could have been good. Augustine was appetitive – if he had asked for the pear because he was hungry, he may have gotten it. Augustine was thumotic – he was loving love (Confessions 3.1) but not in love – he lusted for love. Augustine was rational – he sought the truth at the expense of truth. These three desires could be oriented properly, which is Augustine’s point. The desires we hold are inherently good – and when we properly dispose of them, we are doing good things. We should nourish ourselves, we should love, and we should seek the truth. Nonetheless, our desire to desire leads to sin, which Augustine would define as desires misordered. The line between order and disorder is so small for Augustine, which is so resonant to all of humanity.

Augustine’s work is a confession, which, in Augustine’s case, should be defined using its historical definition: a praise of God, accusation of self, and profession of faith.³ Augustine is evangelizing in a way that realizes the fallenness of the world while reinforcing God’s goodness for all of the created order. And it is this message of goodness and hope that leads people to relate to this work.

Surprisingly, we live in a very religious world – though maybe not a Christian one, per se. Undoubtedly, Christianity has shaped the morality of the West, but this is not the religion I am thinking of. And neither is Buddhism, Islam, Yoga, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Inspired by William Cavanaugh’s The Uses of Idolatry, I think the religion of today includes nationalism and consumerism – we are so tied up on the tides of the political sphere, the “sacredness” of the American narrative, and the trendsetting of the free market that we have made “the free world” our religion. Cavanaugh suggests (in summation) that nationalism is operating religiously, complete with sacred symbols (flags and national anthems), communal rites (rallies, parades), and a theology of sacrifice (the veneration of fallen soldiers). Consumerism, too, follows rituals of purchase and consumption, which posies individuals to feel a sense of belonging with others indulging in similar purchasing patterns.⁴ By participating in this religion, it seems like we are confessing our praise to politics, the accusation of our social flaws, and professing our love of the middle class. I’m curious if this is fulfilling for anyone or if we have just bought into the narrative that one election cycle, one new technological improvement, or one more trip to Amazon.com will make us whole. Have we become slaves to our own creations? Are we cacophonously confessing ourselves to the manmade creation of the American dream?

I think now is the time to rediscover Confessions, not just in the classroom but in the household, too. Augustine can teach us how to properly confess – that is, confess to the God who shepherds and stewards us. Can we truly proclaim with our lips that He is good and He is God? Can we accuse ourselves of idolizing modern secularism? Can we truly profess our faith? We may claim to be a Christian nation, but all too often, it seems jaded by the topsy-turvey tides of the news cycle. Maybe Augustine can help us discover what it means to be Christian again.

1. See Confessions 2.4. Specifically, Augustine says “our only pleasure in [stealing the pears] was that it was forbidden. ↩︎
2. See Confessions 3.2. A lot of context is needed here. The Metropolitan Museum of Art posted an essay in 2006 describing that during the empire, “the most popular [form] of entertainment [was] mime (ribald comic productions with sexual innuendo).” Further, theatrical productions of the time were commonly ridden with sexual content. ↩︎
3. See Michael Foley, Editor’s Preface, In Confessions, F. J. Sheed (trans.), 2^nd ed. (Indianapolis and Cambridge, 2006). ↩︎
4. See The Uses of Idolatry by William T. Cavanaugh ↩︎