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Augustine: The Providence of God through Rhetoric
by Carol Kinney
for COM405 Rhetorical Criticism California Baptist University Dr. Maryann Pearson
December 15, 2014
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Bob Dylan once penned, “I dreamed I saw St. Augustine alive with fiery breath” (1967). As a professional orator and preacher of the third and fourth centuries, his skills in rhetoric were masterful, even fiery. He dedicated much of the latter half of his life to the study and practice of oratory that came to influence the church and all influential theologians for centuries later, even to this day. Amidst turmoil in the world and within the Christian community, Augustine poured his heart and soul into developing arguments for his understanding of scripture that would eventually become Western Christian church doctrines that are still in use today. His influence on rhetorical study is so great that no contemporary study of the subject would be complete without acknowledging his contributions. Born on November 13, 354 to a pagan father and Christian mother just south of Hippo, which is “now the large village of Souk-Ahras in Algeria” (Chadwick, 2009; 26), Augustine was raised as a Christian, yet as a teenager and young adult, denounced Christianity in favor of a hedonistic lifestyle. “His undergraduate prayer [in the sinful city of Carthage] was ‘Grant me chastity, but not yet’” (Chadwick, 2009; 30). In addition to the pursuit of satisfying his sexual desires, he committed himself to membership in a Persian cult called Manicheanism. Yet, despite his youthful debauchery and cultic ties, happenstances and circumstances showed that God was in high pursuit of Augustine. That pursuit would eventually shape Augustine into a highly skilled rhetorician that would uses that skill in fiery service to God. The first of those happenstances occurred at Carthage in 373. “The 19-year-old Augustine was required by the syllabus of study to read a text ‘by a certain Cicero’ [Hortensious] . . . The book . . . had a moral character which Augustine, in his retrospect of a quarter of a century later, felt to have changed his life” (Chadwick, 2009; 31). Even though Augustine felt a tug at his
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heartstrings when reading Cicero’s theories on morality, he was not yet ready to commit to his mother’s Christianity. Instead, Augustine “turned for a few years to astrology” (Chadwick, 2009; 33). Shortly after, Augustine found himself called back to his home to care for his mother. In order to put food on the table, Augustine “opened a school of grammar and rhetoric” (Chadwick, 2009; 33). This trip back home would prove providential for his spirituality and his profession. During that time back home, Augustine worked as a paid rhetorician and teacher, and dove into the studies of law, mathematics, geometry and music, using Manicheanism as a guiding light for his philosophy and rhetoric. Between the years 386 and 391, Augustine penned several rhetorical and philosophical works including “Against the Skeptics,” “On Order,” “On the Immorality of the Soul,” and “On Music” (Fitzgerald, 1995), all of which were heavily influenced by the cult’s dualistic theology. During those cultic years, God was still present. Monica, his mother, prayed fervently for her son and in 385, Augustine took a highly prestigious position as “professor of rhetoric at Milan” (Chadwick, 2009; 38) where God would place him in the path of another masterful rhetorician who also happened to be the Bishop of Milan. At the point of Augustine’s happenstance hearing of Ambrose’s preaching, Augustine was moving away from Manicheanism into the realm of skepticism and Neoplatism. Augustine learned about Ambrose from his mother, who admired and followed Ambrose’s teachings. As a skilled rhetorician, Augustine was curious about Ambrose’s oratory skills and only went to church to critique the Bishop’s skills. Before he knew what was happening, Augustine could feel himself being persuaded by Ambrose’s preaching on Old Testament texts. It appears that Augustine’s revelation about Christianity and God came at the right time in history for God to use Augustine’s impassioned rhetorical skills.
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James Herrick writes, “Augustine’s world was marked by conflict between a dying pagan culture and an Emerging Christian one . . .” (2009; 131). The great Roman Empire was beginning to unravel, the Dark Ages was looming, and Christianity was growing in popularity, thanks to a famous rhetorical event, the Council of Nacaea. The Council of Nacaea (325 AD) was a gathering of the world’s church leaders to argue for or against the teachings of Arius concerning the nature of God. Both sides passionately used rhetorical skills to argue their case before the audience. At the end of hearing arguments, the council decided that Arius and his teachings (Armenianism) were heretical and the Nicene Creed, a document specifying the nature of God, made the Trinity a formal church doctrine. While the Nicene Creed is important to the history of the church, it was ineffective in practice and enforcement. That all changed right about the time Augustine was beginning to have a change of heart towards God and listening to Ambrose’s rhetorical preaching. In 381, Roman Emperor Theodosius proclaimed himself a Christian of the Nicene Creed, and called a meeting of the church council at Constantinople to put an end to Armenianism. In terms of theology, Ambrose fully supported Theodosius’ view that Armenianism was heresy and preached this from his pulpit, the same pulpit in which Augustine was drawn to for rhetorical learning. What Augustine was learning from Ambrose at that time would come to shape his greatest and historically significant rhetorical works that have withstood the test of time and which would shape the Western Church for all time. After some time of listening to Ambrose’s preaching, Augustine converted to Christianity and formally and publically “turned away from his profession” (Farrell, 2008, 265) of rhetoric. Yet, at the same time no one can deny that in his post-conversion works, Augustine greatly employed rhetoric to state his case for Christianity. “The size of the literary output of Augustine is
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astonishing. A contemporary Augustinian scholar estimates it as being equivalent to approximately that of writing a 300-page printed book every year for almost 40 years” (Augnet.org, 2010). Some of his most famous rhetorical works include De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Teaching), Confessiones (Confessions), and De Ciuitate Dei (City of God). Prior to his Christian conversion, Augustine felt that rhetoric was a means to an economic ends which he found enjoyable: “it was my ambition to be a good speaker” (Augustine [Confessions] quoted in Farrell, 2008; 267). That ambition proved valuable as he “won praise from the people whose favour I sought” (Augustine [Confessions] quoted in Farrell, 2008; 267). His training as a rhetorician include “the full system of classical [Second Sophitic] rhetorical theory [which included] . . . an emphasis on style and delivery” (Farrell, 2008; 268). By the time of his conversion, Augustine had come to see how the profession of rhetoric was being corrupted by pagan beliefs and immoral ethics. He viewed the commonplace public oratory contests and tournaments as “all so much smoke without fire” (Augustine [Confessions] quoted in Farrell, 2008; 268) Augustine would dedicate the remainder of his life using his training as rhetorician to put the fire back into the profession by using his skills and to write letters and complete volumes that proclaimed his thoughts that would become church doctrine, including the denunciation of Manicheanism. Augustine saw the political climate of his time, specifically the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity as an opportunity as a way to use his rhetorical skills, specifically “good models of eloquence” (Herrick, 2009; 135) to teach Christians how to defend their faith. This rhetorical tool is known as apologetics.
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While apologetics had been taught for centuries as a way for believers of Christ to know how to answer questions about their faith to unbelievers and to persuade unbelievers that Christianity holds all the answers to life’s biggest questions, “Augustine’s apologetic works are unique in their systematic and holistic nature. . . Augustine seeks to locate his approach to defending the faith in a thoroughly developed philosophical and theological framework” (Beilby, 2011; 45). “On Christian Doctrine exerted a nearly unparalleled influence on European though for more than a thousand years” (Herrick, 2009; 135). Even today, Augustine’s form of apologetics is being used by Christians all over the world. Apologetics 315, a website dedicated to apologetics resources, created a list of “100 Christian Apologists” (2009). Some of the contemporary “world-class philosophers and thinkers . . . [who] all have made an impact with their works and ministries” (Apologetics 315) include: R.C. Sproul, C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, and Albert Mohler. Thus, while Augustine saw rhetoric as a “moral dilemma” (Farrell, 2008; 275) attached to the profession, in his teaching of apologetics, he actually employs the rhetorical tools to argue his case for the need to be able to defend one’s Christian faith. And in doing so, Augustine becomes the author of what some call the “first manual of Christian rhetoric” (Farrell, 2008; 278). That manual is De Doctrina Christiana. On Christian Teaching or On Christian Doctrine is “a work with strong connections to Cicero’s De Oratore and Orator” (Herrick, 2009; 134). According to W.R. Johnson, “De Doctrina was written for clergy and highly educated members of the laity to help them in their efforts to read the Bible and to give them advice about how to go about sharing what they had learned with fellow Christians who were less educated. . .” (quoted in Herrick, 2009; 134). Centuries later, De Doctrina and other Augustinian apologetic rhetorical works would be used by John Calvin and Martin Luther as the basis for the Reformation doctrines.
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Calvin, a principal theological figure during the time of the Protestant Reformation, studied Augustine’s works and based his “treatise Concerning the eternal predestination of God (1552)” (Han, 2008; 74) upon Augustine’s “argument . . . and affirmation” on the topic. Calvin’s doctrine of predestination would become an important doctrine of all subsequent reformed theologians to this day. S. J. Han says, “There is no one as influential as Augustine in Calvin’s writings, though Calvin did not use the opinions of Augustine for the sake of using them. He judged and criticized them . . . according to their dependability upon the single standard of scriptures” (2008; 81). Of course, this was Augustine’s intent of apologetics, as “wisdom consists in knowing the contents and sense of scripture” (Herrick, 2009; 135). Calvin’s reformed theology, based upon Augustine’s rhetorical apologetics is still thriving today. As an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther utilized Augustine’s apologetics even more than Calvin. “Augustine had emphasized the primacy of the Bible rather than Church officials as the ultimate religious authority” (History Channel), and Luther based his famous 95 Theses upon this theology. Just as Augustine criticized the Donatists and Manicheans theology and misuse of the sacraments and theologies (Chadwick, 2009; Chapter 8), Luther’s 95 Theses did the same of the Catholic Church. Oddly though, Luther held Augustine’s apologetic style of rhetoric in high esteem. In the thirty-sixth volume of his The Adoration of the Sacrament, Luther writes this glowing critique of Augustine thoughts on rhetoric: “And, further, if I could bring it to pass among you, I should like to ask that You do not neglect the languages but, since it would not be difficult for you, that you have your preachers and some of your gifted boys learn Latin, Greek and Hebrew well. I know for a fact that one who has to preach and expound the scriptures and has no help from the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, but must do it entirely on the basis of his mother tongue, will make many
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In reading this, one has to ask how Luther arrived at this interpretation of Augustine’s thoughts on learning language because Augustine himself “never mastered” (Watson, 1982; 5) Greek. This is a common criticism of Augustine. Peter Brown (quoted in Watson, 1982; 6) says, “Augustine’s failure to learn Greek was a momentous casualty of the Late Roman educational system; he will become the only Latin philosopher in antiquity to be virtually ignorant of the Greek.” According to Watson, Augustine is quoted after his conversion to Christianity as seeing his failure to learn Greek a sin (1982; 5). This discrepancy between Augustine’s lack of language skills and his theories of apologetics, and Plato’s and Manichean influences on Augustine’s rhetorical apologetics are the main reasons detractors of Augustine’s works question the validity of reformed theology. First, many criticisms of Augustine’s rhetorical apologetics begins with questioning how Augustine could be considered “The Father of the Church” when he could not understand the original languages of the biblical transcripts, relying upon translators and translations of the original transcripts to base his theology and rhetorical apologetics upon. A. J. Wallace and R. D. Rusk write, “Unfortunately, Augustine relied on a Latin Bible translation with had inaccuracies in some places. One of those inaccuracies occurred in a key verse upon which he based his” (2011; 281) on original sin. Augustine’s thoughts on original sin helped shape Calvin’s doctrine on predestination and Luther relied upon Augustine’s interpretation of Paul’s Romans scripture to shape his own theology. The second criticism of Augustine’s influence on reformed theology is
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that his life spent as a pagan Manichean and his Platonic influence his Christian rhetorical apologetics. However, both of these arguments are not as entirely persuasive. First, while even Augustine felt that he should have learned Greek and Hebrew, he addresses this in De Doctrina Christiana when he gives instruction on how Christians are to interpret scripture: through the work of the Holy Spirit. He also theorized that Christian rhetoric was more about speaking in a style that the uneducated masses could comprehend Christ and the Bible. For the Christian Augustine, rhetoric that could not be easily understood was worthless and tainted. Christian rhetoric, therefore, must be spoken in the language of the masses and must help the “preacher to discover divine truth in scripture, and to teach that truth to the congregation” (Herrick, 2009; 133). If Augustine’s instruction is true, then Luther’s sola scriptura doctrine is also true. Since both have stood the test of time against scripture. Roy Zuck (1984) defends the Holy Spirit’s help in interpreting the Bible for believers. The fallacy of the argument against Augustine’s lack of basic knowledge can be interpreted in Zuck’s theories in which the “role of the Spirit in interpreting the Bible does not mean that one’s own interpretations are infallible,” that “the Holy Spirit in interpretation means that lack of spiritual preparedness hinders accurate interpretation,” and “the role of the Holy Spirit in interpretation is no substitute for diligent study” (184). Augustine’s fallibility in learning Greek and Hebrew, and his fallibility in interpreting a few scriptures just mean that he was human, and does not negate the ability of the Holy Spirit’s work in Augustine’s rhetorical theories. Also, that Augustine deferred the completion of De Doctrina Christiana to write Confessions might have meant that he was convicted by the Holy Spirit that he was not spiritually capable of offering instruction on scriptural interpretation just yet. This is another theory in support of God’s providence at work in Augustine.
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Second, scripture provides insight into the argument against Augustine’s previous nonChristian influences. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their savior, “he is a new creature” and the old things are no longer evident in that person’s life. Additionally, Joseph, Jacob’s son, says in Genesis 50: 20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about” his plan. Herrick writes that Augustine wrote in Phaedrus that “a true art of rhetoric could be used in the service of transcendent truth . . of the Christian scriptures” (2009; 132). So, even though Augustine frequently lamented over rhetoric as an authentic and ethical profession for a Christian, just like Joseph knew that God could use bad for his purpose, Augustine knew that he was new in Christ and God could use his former experiences to carry out God’s plan for his people, thus showing further evidence of God’s providence in Augustine’s life. If this is not evidence enough to refute critics of Augustine, then surely the fact that Augustine spent his life after Christian conversion discrediting the theology of the Manichees (i.e. Against the Basic Letter of the Manichees, 397). And “by the time he [Augustine] composes the Confessions (397-401C.E.), he is already aware that there are significant points of divergence” (Mendelson, 2010) between his now longstanding Christian beliefs and that of Plato and the Neo-Platonists. For Augustine, the “Platonists are ultimately incapable of doing anyone any good” (Williams, 2003; 8) because “Platonists know the goal, but the refuse to acknowledge the Way, which is Jesus himself.” Historically and surprisingly, Augustine and his rhetorical theories may be one of the few things that Catholics and many Protestants agree upon. Augustine was canonized by the Catholic Church a few years after his death sometime between the years 430 AD and 460 AD. In addition to Calvin and Luther, contemporary theologians often refer to Augustine’s works as
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evidence of scriptural doctrines. These include John Piper, R. C. Sproul, Al Mohler, D.A. Carson, Kevin DeYoung, and many others. Just before Augustine died in 430 AD, the Vandals moved toward invading Hippo where he served as Bishop of the Catholic Church. Already dying from fever, Augustine refused to leave his fearful flock so that they may find faith in perseverance. Shortly after Augustine’s death, the Vandals laid siege to Hippo, and burned Christian churches and other important buildings. Christians fled Hippo, but providentially, “Possidius stayed on in the ruined city and managed to save from destruction the personal library of Augustine’s works” (Fitzgerald and Cavadini, ;256) preserving his vast rhetorical works and “his body.” Sadly, after Augustine’s death, the church turned away from Augustine’s teachings and returned to near Armenianism thoughts regarding sin, grace and salvation. Augustine’s rhetorical works would not be fully embraced until Calvin and Luther based their own theologies and rhetorical works on them. God’s providence in Augustine’s life and death can surely be seen. Augustine can best be summed up as the classical rhetorician who disclaimed rhetoric. This may be well and good in theory, but in practice Augustine could not ignore rhetoric’s usefulness in arguing his theologies. Even though he preferred to call his form of rhetoric apologetics, the very notion that he had to argue his case for apologetics was proof that he was in fact a rhetorician. If that is not enough evidence, every one of his works after his Christian conversion, especially Confessiones and De Doctrina Christiana taught principals of style and form that is consistent with rhetorical practices. The vast amount of rhetorical work that Augustine left behind was staggering. It is believed that Augustine’s works consists of the largest collection of Latin rhetoric in antiquity that we still have today.
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Despite his reluctance to be called a rhetorician, mainly because he did not want to associate himself with the unethical practices of other rhetoricians of his time after his conversion to Christianity, Augustine’s rhetorical works have lived on in several ways. Many of his works have been translated into English, for the masses to read. Calvin and Luther changed church history by using Augustine’s rhetoric as a basis for their reformed theologies and doctrines that catapulted The Reformation more than a thousand years after Augustine’s death. And modern theologians still study and cite Augustine in their arguments against a works based faith that refuses the Trinity (Armenianism). And, despite his public denial of rhetoric, Augustine himself could not deny that his works were fervently and fiery when it came to arguing against church heresy, cults and how church leaders should teach the masses. His rhetorical apologetics have burned on and on through the centuries. So many rhetoricians and theologians for nearly fifteen-hundred years have seen St Augustine’s “fiery breath” (Dylan) and found it compelling and persuasive. And so many have used Augustine’s rhetoric to defend basic Christian doctrines and scripture that it can be seen as God’s providence to use something (rhetoric) that was considered undesirable, and in some ways still is, as something worthwhile for his people.
Cited Sources Apologetics 315 (2009). 100 Christian apologists. Retrieved from http://www.apologetics315.com/2009/06/100-christian-apologists.html. Augnet.org. (2010). His [Augustine’s] writings. Retrieved from http://www.augnet.org /default.asp?ipageid=223. Beilby, J. (2011). Thinking about christian apologetics: what it is and why we do it.
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Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL. Chadwick, H. (2009). Augustine of Hippo: A life [EBook]. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/calbaptist/reader.action?docID=10351346. Dylan, B. (1967). I dreamed I saw St. Augustine. On John Wesley Harding. Nashville: Columbia Records. Farrell, J.A. (2008). The rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine’s Confessions. Augustinian Studies 39(2), 265-291. Retrieved from http://bc8vs6ds4b.search.serialssolutions.com. Libproxy.calbaptist.edu/?sid=EBSCO:Academic%20Search%20Premier& genre=article&title=Augustinian%20Studies&atitle=The%20Rhetoric% 28s%29%20of%20St.%20Augustine%27s%20Confessions.&author= Farrell%2C%20James%20M.&authors=Farrell%2C%20James%20M.&date= 20080701&volume=39&issue=2&spage=265&issn=00945323. Fitzgerald, A. (1995). The works of Augustine: chart 1. Retrieved from http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=1095. Fitzgerald, A. & Cavadini, J.C. (1999). Augustine through the ages: an encyclopedia. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, MI. Han, S. J. (2008). An investigation into Calvin’s use of Augustine. Acta Theological, (28)2, 70-83. Retrieved from http://www.ajol.info/index.php/actat/article/view/52214/40840. Herrick, J. A. (2009). The history and theory of rhetoric: an introduction. Pearson Education: Boston, MA. History Channel. (2014). Martin Luther and the 95 theses. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses. Mendelson, M. (2010). Sainte Augustine. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [website]. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine/#HisEsc. Phillips, M., Dr. (2014). Martin Luther, Augustine and the languages. Brothers of John the Steadfast [website]. Retrieved from http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=39159.
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Wallace, A. J. & Rusk, R. D. (2011). Moral transformation: the original christian paradigm of salvation. Bridgehead Publishing: New Zealand. Watson, G. (1982). St. Augustine’s theory of language. The Maynooth Review, 6(2), 4-20. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.calbaptist.edu/discover/10.2307/20556950?sid= 21105479651263&uid=2477747983&uid=2134&uid=3739256&uid=70&uid= 20019&uid=60&uid=2477747993&uid=67&uid=20018&uid=2&uid=62&uid=8024032 &uid=3&uid=3739560. Williams, T. (2003). Augustine and the Platonists [lecture transcript]. Retrieved from http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~thomasw/aug&plat.pdf. Zuck, R. B. (1984). The role of the Holy Spirit in hermeneutics. Bibliotheca Sacra, 141, 120129. Retrieved from http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_spirit_zuck.html.