A bit of a hiatus, but hoping to continue with this blog a little more semi-regularly. Today's post will deal with some work on Augustine to live-up to my initial concept for this blog, which was to compile commentary on all aspects of Augustine, even commentary on commentary.
Brown ends his magisterial study of sexuality in early Christianity with a chapter on Augustine's work. Brown argues that sexuality and virginity were variously regarded by early Church Fathers who were affected by their audience, social class, as well as how solid a foothold Christianity had on a local level. For Brown, Augustine is the end of an era. Augustine is a figure who must struggle with an active sexuality. Marriage was not an option for hum, so his early life is marked by life with a concubine with whom he fathered a child. Once Augustine renounces sexuality, as Brown phrases it, he is "free to serve God" (388).
Brown points out that male friendship was where "deeper" satisfactions were found. Calling him a "young professor on the make" Augustine was faithful to his concubine, but his marginal social class in Carthage left hm little options in terms of relationships. The relationship with his concubine was "frankly sexual" (390) and the fact that they had only one child in thirteen years indicates to Brown that they must have practiced birth control.
Augustine's sexual experience influences his theological thinking in a very explicit way (perhaps, more so considering Brown's discussion of the other Church Fathers). Brown interprets Augustine's use of sexual love to show how much we have fallen. Sexual love is a shadow or "leaden shadow" (394) of sex in Paradise. Augustine doesn't get too hung up on virginity and sexuality like figures such as Jerome, for Augustine death in the form of martyrdom is a greater thing than conquering sexuality through virginity.
What is perhaps the most interesting element of Augustine's theology in Brown's work, and one I relish to read more about throughout this project, is Augustine's reading of Adam and Eve. Rather than situate Adam and Eve in a time of distant past, even in a mode that is so different than our own, Augustine insists that sex, marriage, even society, are "not alien to the original definition of humanity" (399). Rather, God had created Adam and Even for "the joys of society" (400). Augustine's exegesis reflects Adam and Eve as familiar with the form of society. Thus, Adam and Eve were already fully sexual beings.
Sexual drive post-Fall, however, indicates how the soul is out of whack with the body. The sexual will shows us how "disruptive" the Fall is to our world. As Brown writes, "Augustine never found a way, any more than any of his contemporaries, of articulating the possibility that sexual pleasure might in itself, enrich the relationship between husband and wife" (402).
Marriage, for Augustine, was a sign that men and women could live in concord. But, death is unnatural--death reveals how the soul wants to be with the body. Another sign that the body and soul are aligned as they were in Prelapsarian Eden. Augustine's ideal was the body, the soul and society living harmoniously and not twisted by the fallen will (407).
I'm looking forward to further insights from Brown in his biography of Augustine. It is on the stack.
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