Augustine

Aurelius Augustinus (354-430)

A Christian thinker during the ancient Roman Empire and an important representative of Christian theology in the European Middle Ages. The author of "On Beauty and Suitability" has been lost. Aesthetic thoughts are mainly reflected in his theological works and "Confessions".

Before converting to Christianity, Augustine was fond of secular literature and art, had in-depth research on ancient Greek and Roman literature, and served as a teacher of literature and rhetoric. After that, he criticized secular literature and art for leading them astray, and vigorously attacked secular literature and art (such as Homer's epics). He reconciled philosophy and theology and used Neoplatonism to demonstrate Christian doctrine.

Augustine believed that all beauty comes from God. Beauty is divided into levels. The highest, absolute beauty is God, followed by moral beauty, and physical beauty is the lower, relative beauty. Low-level limited physical beauty itself has no independent value, it is just a ladder leading to infinite absolute beauty. Beauty is embodied in unity and harmony, and unity and harmony are created by God according to mathematical principles, so the basic element of beauty is number. This view was obviously influenced by the Pythagoreans. On the issue of beauty and ugliness, he advocated that beauty is absolute and ugliness is relative. Isolated ugliness is a positive factor in the formation of beauty. This view is dialectical.

Augustine advocated that art should abandon the real world and reflect God to achieve the purpose of serving religion. Plastic arts should be used to decorate churches, and poetry and music should praise God. When people appreciate works of art, they actually appreciate the essence of works of art. The idea of ??God contained. He believed that secular art was untrue, that it stirred up people's evil desires and kept people away from God, who is absolutely beautiful.

Augustine’s religious mystical aesthetic thoughts had a great influence on later generations. His attack on secular art involved literary and artistic theoretical issues such as fiction, imagination, conception, symbolism and image, and had an influence on many subsequent literary and artistic schools.

Since the time of the apostles, the religious thought of the ancient church reached its peak with Augustine. He was born in North Africa (present-day Algeria). My father was a pagan of high status, but he did not have much property. He was lazy and worldly, and he did not believe in the Lord until he was dying and was baptized. But Aurobindo's mother, Monica, was a loyal Christian and was very concerned about her son's future. She cried bitterly and prayed for him before God. She was deeply disgusted with her son who had died in his faith. God gave instructions through dreams, allowing her to persist in praying with faith. Augustine had two temperaments; one was a temperament that indulged in sexual desire; the other was a sincere and upward temperament that pursued the truth. Perhaps the qualities of both parents were inherited from him. Therefore, the depths of Aurobindo's soul became the battlefield of a fierce struggle between good and evil.

When he grew up, Aurobindo left the place of his birth and went to school nearby. Later, he went to Carthage to study rhetoric. At this time, he met a woman and lived with her for at least fourteen years. He was only seventeen years old at the time. In 372, an illegitimate son was born, who was extremely dear to Aurobindo.

Although Augustine was the first to indulge in lust, he was also the fastest to awaken in pursuit of truth. When he was nineteen years old, after reading the works of Cicero, he was determined to pursue truth as the only value of life. After that, he began to study the Bible, "but the Bible seemed to be of no value to me, not comparable to the majestic writing style of Xiserou." So he turned to a kind of dualism with mixed thoughts, that is, a Manichean, pursuing the soul and reason. of comfort. His loving mother was very sad to learn that he believed in heresy. Fortunately, a kind-hearted bishop comforted her and said: "The son you prayed for with so many tears cannot perish."

Augustine believed in Manichaeism. For nine years, he studied and taught at the same time. He wrote a dramatic poem in Carthage and became famous. After believing in Manichaeism for a long time, he began to doubt the intellectual efficacy of this sect. So he went to see the leader of Manichaeism, but because the leader had difficulty in justifying himself in doctrine, Aurobindo was disappointed in his pursuit of reason. In 383 he moved to Rome. The following year, he was appointed to teach rhetoric in Milan, the capital of the Western Empire at that time.

While in Milan, Augustine heard Ambrose's powerful preaching, but he only came here to admire Ansius's eloquence, because at this time he was enamored of the new skeptical philosophy. This was the period when his moral standards were at their lowest. His mother arranged a marriage for him, but because the woman was still young, she could not consummate the marriage for a while). Although Ao Shi broke away from his former concubine, he soon formed an illegal relationship with another one, and his behavior was even more improper than before.

Later, he read the Neoplatonist biography of Victorin and was deeply moved when he saw how he came to Christ in his old age. Now he knew that God was not only the source of all good, but also the source of all truth. Because he listened to Ambrose's sermons a lot, he had a deep impression of the authority of the church. In addition, after hearing about the noble and holy life of the monks in Egypt, I felt ashamed that although I was an intellectual, I was slaves to lust. In grief and self-reproach, he ran to the garden, lay down under a tree and cried bitterly. Suddenly, he seemed to hear a child's voice saying: "Pick it up and read it!" His expression changed drastically, and he suppressed his tears. He picked up a letter he had read and hurriedly opened it, and his eyes fell on this passage: "Do not waste time. Revel in drunkenness; do not be lustful and debauched; do not quarrel or envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make arrangements for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

"(Romans 13:13-14) From then on, Augustine had peace in his heart. He felt that there was power from God to overcome sin, and there was a great change in his heart.

Austin His repentance came at the end of the summer of 386, when he left his mistress, resigned from his teaching position, and retreated to a mountain villa to study philosophy with his friends, and wrote many papers at Easter the following year. Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in Milan with his friend and son. Monica had been praying with tears for thirty-two years, and God heard her. Unfortunately, Monica died of fever on their way back home. Augustine's account of his mother's death is one of the noblest monuments in ancient Christian literature. Soon after he returned to his hometown, his son also died. He went to Hippo and was ordained as a priest. Four years later, he inherited the post of bishop. Soon after his appointment, the full power of the local bishop was in his hands.

In Hippo, Austria. He founded the first monastery in that part of Africa as a place to train church leaders. He devoted the rest of his life to pastoring churches, preaching the gospel, and relieving the poor. In order to resolve various disputes in the North African church. He worked tirelessly and held religious meetings in his spare time.

Aurobindo wrote more than 113 books and more than 500 sermons in his life, and his knowledge was vividly reflected on the paper. . And every time he argued with a heretic, his theological genius was even more obvious, attracting the attention of the theological community. In fact, as early as when he was baptized, he made arguments against Manichaeism; Several heresies debated, defended the truth, strived for the unity of the Church, and helped the orthodox schools clarify the concepts of original sin and grace.

His works can be summarized into five categories: theology, exegesis, ethical preaching, and philosophy. and autobiography. The outstanding ones include "Confessions" and "City of God". The former is Aurobindo's autobiography. He uses his personal experience to witness the wonderful deeds and grace of God in people, and puts forward the concept that people can have close relationships with God. It is a model of all religious experience writing and a world famous work, which has been passed down to modern times.

"City of God" can be said to be the first historical philosophy of the church. This book shows that Aurobindo is not only a philosopher, Theologian, apologist, moralist, political thinker, literary and drama critic, commentator on the times and history, this book has a total of twenty-two volumes. It took fourteen years (412-426) to complete. The first ten volumes provide a powerful defense of Christianity and refute paganism and Roman patriotism; the last twelve volumes discuss the origin, development and development of the earthly city and the heavenly city. It means that the city on earth will eventually weaken because it does not love itself and despises God, but the city of God will prosper and last based on divine love.

Aurobindo’s theological thoughts are as rich as his life. On the one hand, he maintained the establishment of the biblical canon, and he also had profound insights in the interpretation and elucidation of basic beliefs or doctrines; and his thoughts particularly influenced the Western Roman Church. In addition, he established Christian philosophy; he used God as the foundation. as the center, revelation as the foundation, and philosophy as the handmaiden of theology; he advocated that faith enables people to see the truth, and reason enables people to understand more of the truth, but faith is the ultimate, "If you want to understand, you should believe, because unless you believe , you can’t understand. ”

The leader of the African Latin Church later died of fever in Hippo at the age of seventy-six. However, his influence continues throughout history.