Volume 19, 2007 - Brown University

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122 Zohar Atkins vilest person contains a divine spark, 3 and therefore a self, but his evil deeds result from an ignorance of God and a denial of the self. In the same way that Augustine prays to know God, the sinner sins because he knows not God. Thus, Augustine beseeches God not only to reveal His face so that he may know Him better, but so he can keep far from sin. Augustine struggles to conquer his concupiscent urges by channeling them towards his ultimate desire, to be as one not with a strumpet, but rather with God Himself. In Augustine’s biographical narrative, focusing not on his physical aging and his worldly accomplishments, but on his spiritual journey, we glimpse the magnificence of his individual soul, even if it is simply a function of God’s identity. Augustine surely recognizes the strong assertion of selfhood required to write, and acknowledges that no other self could produce a replica of his written works, his life, and his soul. In Book VI, upon witnessing Ambrose pouring silently over a Scriptural text, he stands mesmerized by the power of the written word, the fixity of the otherwise open, seeing Scripture as an embodiment of the Divine, in the same way that he calls Christ “the voice of your [God’s] truth” (Conf. 6.10). In Book XII, he offers an exegetical interpretation of the creation story, justifying his elucidation with one of the most poignant verifications of the self within a divine framework: If we both see that what you say is true and also that what I say is true, what enables us to recognize this truth? I do not see it in you, nor do you see it in me, but we both see it in the immutable Truth which is above our minds. Therefore, since there is no dispute between us about the light which shines from the Lord our God, why do we argue about the thoughts of a fellow man, which we cannot see as clearly as we see the immutable Truth? Even if Moses were to appear to us and say ‘This is what I meant,” we should not see his thoughts but would simply believe his word. (Conf. 12.25) Augustine sees the corpus of God as necessary, because it allows people to grab hold of the immaterial, but he also enunciates the importance of remembering that behind each personal connection and construal remains a singular objective, Truth. Augustine mentions God significantly more than he pays pen service to Jesus, because he has, in a certain sense, replaced Jesus, and his Confessions have, to an extent, supplanted the Bible. Though Augustine still adamantly vouches for the Son of God and the Biblical brainchild of God, he places profound importance on the internal revelation of the self, the individual’s mechanism for bonding with the divine. Augustine’s self has room to coexist with God, to nourish itself with its mother’s milk of God’s love. Augustine privileges the plurality of paths, joyfully promulgating the singular ends betokened them if they embrace God—namely, eternal salvation. Building upon the Socratic command of “know thyself,” Augustine sees self-knowledge and 3 Book 7.12, pp. 148. Augustine writes, “But if they are deprived of all good, they will not exist at all.”
Augustine’s Imitatio Dei—A Rejection of Self Sacrifice 123 God-knowledge as one and the same. The universality of God, of the self, of the soul, still preserves individuality, because it tenders a model of existence that is simultaneously external and internal, innately given and difficultly attained, unified and differentiated. Augustine’s self becomes the highest rung of existence, and the foundation for all substance. References Saint Augustine. <strong>19</strong>61. Confessions. Enbland: Penguin Books. The Holy Bible. 2006. New York: American Bible Society.
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Law Codes of Gortyn, Crete, Greece,
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