"If those . . . [pagan writers] have said things which are indeed true and are well accommodated to our faith, they should not be feared; rather, what they have said should be taken from them as from unjust possessors and converted to our use. Just as the Egyptians had not only idols and grave burdens which the people of Israel detested and avoided, so also they had vases and ornaments of gold and silver and clothing which the Israelites took with them secretly when they fled, as if to put them to a better use. . . . In the same way, all the teachings of the pagans contain not only simulated and superstitious imaginings . . . but also liberal disciplines more suited to the uses of truth, and some of the most useful precepts concerning morals. Even some truths concerning the worship of one God are discovered among them."
Before he became a Christian, Augustine was not all that impressed with Aristotle. However, he was taken with New Age stuff. Something deep within pushed him in a scrambling religious direction. He took up with the Manicheans for about 12 years, hoping to find answers to his questions about the nature of evil and why he was so unhappy. Augustine eventually became disillusioned with the Manicheans, even while remaining connected with them, so when he finally made the break, it was not that hard, and his repudiation of them was total.
However, when Augustine found the “Platonists,” meaning what we now call neo-platonists, meaning especially Plotinus, he thought he had found heaven before he found the real heaven. The Platonists gave him the ability to conceptualize God in a non-material way. They also gave him insight into the nature of evil. They also helped him to understand his own profound dissatisfaction with his life and why the world was so beautiful while also disappointing and heartbreaking because of its mutability. After Augustine passed over from the Platonists to the Christian faith, he found that many of the conceptual tools the Platonists had given him helped explain some facets of Christian belief, such as the non-materiality of God. Perhaps the greatest gift the Platonists gave him was an ability to read the Scriptures. Previously, Augustine had been repulsed by the apparently vulgar, philosophically naive, and downright unreadable portions of scripture. No longer. His Confessions, for instance, are saturated in scripture with multiple references and allusions in each paragraph.
Augustine’s engagement with his pagan education and culture is instructive--some of it did nothing for him (Aristotle), though he didn’t despise it. Some of it seduced him, but it turned out to be ridiculous and self-serving and ultimately something he had to revolt against (Manicheanism). And some of it was luminous, elevating, deeply spiritual, and decisive in bringing him to full Christian faith (neo-platonism).
I think this is fairly accurate to our experiences--we are surrounded by competing Weltanschauungen that lace our post-Christian culture. Some of these might be outright repulsive to downright persuasive, usually on subconscious levels. Engagement with other worldviews does not mean standardized, uniform rejection. Augustine recognized spectrums of distance to or from Christ among various strands of Roman culture, and the same recognition holds true for us.
We test the spirits. We weigh and measure. We become historically and aesthetically sensitive, conserving the best and tossing the worst. This is a never ending act of obedience because we are creatures of time and place, tasked with living faithfully in an always changing world that God is taking to its fulfillment according to His plan, not ours.
 |
| The standard Augustine emblem: the heart, pierced by God, on fire with love, controlled by Scripture |