St.

Augustine and Neo-Platonism

by Cherrey Mae Bartolata

Augustine briefly believed in Manichaeism, a dualistic religion between good and

evil. However, he was opposed to the idea that man could not save himself nor pull
himself out from the grasp of evil. The idea that man had no absolution to this tragic
human state lead him to lean on other doctrines that would, later on, open him to
Neo-Platonism, which also consolidated his conversion to Christianity and subsequently
influenced early Christianity. St. Augustine made such influence possible through his
works. The transmission of Plato’s influence in Christianity, although unrecognizable,
was made possible when St. Augustine got introduced to the works of Plotinus.

As I went about learning more about Neo-Platonism and St. Augustine of Hippo,
it became evident that he reared his philosophical influence on the nature of evil, the
concept of soul, and the trinity on Neo-Platonism. There were interactions and parallels
of these thoughts that can be found in his theological and philosophical works.

The evidence of such influence can be found in his City of God, which was
discussed briefly in the succeeding topic below St. Augustine – God and Soul. St.
Augustine discussed the deliverance of the soul in comparison to the points of Plotinus
and Porphyry. Another point of reference, Johannes Brachtendorf said, “The
Neoplatonists taught Augustine in Milan the metaphysical truths about God, namely that
he is immutable, immaterial, highest unity, and highest good.” From once believing that
God is material to becoming an immaterialist with also a belief in an immaterial soul, St.
Augustine took Christianity to a fascinating development with the merging of pagan
Neo-Platonism to the Christianity that we know today.

So reality, for Plotinus, must be a perfect, immutable, completely unified existent,

which you can call "God" or "the First" or "the Absolute" or "the infinite" or "the Good" or
"the One." It is essentially Plato's Form of the Good. The One is nothing - ineffable. It is
from what it is.

It is evident in the City of God that he thought highly of Plato and Platonism.
Augustine questioned and evaluated his Manichaean knowledge of God against
Neo-Platonism's God or The One, the emanating source, the ultimate reality, and the
highest being. Along with this is the view of good and evil. Consider an emanating
source of light and beyond its stretch is gradient darkness to complete darkness. In
Neo-Platonism and the most coherent among all the explanations of evil at that time,
the dark periphery of the emanating source explains the existence of evil. That the
non-lighted stretch of it was the absence of good. Evil is only corruption or perversion of
what is good. Evil is parasitical of the good.

It is the problem of evil. Evil things occur in the world. If the universe is ruled by
an all-powerful good, why does he permit evil? But Plotinus, with his emanation
scheme, has a better answer to the problem of evil. And because it was a somewhat
better answer than the standard ones, it was attached by Augustine to Christianity.

The Manichaean view of good and evil surely did not sit well anymore for St.
Augustine. It allowed him to challenge their idea of it. Whereas, for the part of
Neo-Platonism, there were derivations to St. Augustine's idea of good and evil. For St.
Augustine, the evil that we do is because of the free choice of will. It is the voluntaristic
account of human behavior. Sin is the result of the free choice of the will. Deliverance
does not come through contemplating the higher good but by freely loving and choosing
the higher good. Augustine's disagreement with Platonism is through the gospel.
Augustine developed a higher view of the body compared to a Platonist view of it. For
Plato, the intellect is the middle-level between good and evil. But St. Augustine believed
it is the will.

It is important to discuss the tenets of St. Augustine's belief. “I believe to

understand” or “Credo ut intelligam” in Latin. This is an argument that everything we
know to some degree depends on the premise of faith. The Manichaeans were
rationalists. For Augustine, faith is necessary to understand everything.

Augustine echoes the platonic emphasis of two loves. However, directing the
emphasis of our will toward God. Love is the underlying significance of the whole moral
law.

With Augustine's contribution to Christianity, questions still prevail among

scholars - was St. Augustine committed to Neo-Platonism or Christianity? Or was he
committed to both? What exactly was influenced by Neo-Platonism in the doctrines of
Christianity? But to end this point, Neo-Platonism awakened Augustine’s Catholic faith
and eventually turned him from a non-believer into a believer in Christianity.