WEBVTT 00:01.267 --> 00:05.127 PAUL FREEDMAN: Alright, so you may be asking 00:05.133 --> 00:08.573 yourself, "Why are we reading the Confessions?" I think I 00:08.567 --> 00:15.627 gave a preliminary answer before, but since it seems to 00:15.633 --> 00:20.533 be perhaps more appropriate for religious studies or 00:20.533 --> 00:22.633 philosophy, let me remind you why we're 00:22.633 --> 00:25.103 struggling through this. 00:25.100 --> 00:27.970 First, the impact of Christianity 00:27.967 --> 00:29.397 on the Roman Empire-- 00:29.400 --> 00:36.730 that is to say, the social and intellectual setting of the 00:36.733 --> 00:39.433 rise of Christianity in the late 00:39.433 --> 00:42.803 fourth, early fifth centuries. 00:42.800 --> 00:48.570 The second is to understand some of the Christian moral 00:48.567 --> 00:52.997 and doctrinal problems and their implications. 00:53.000 --> 00:55.570 Once again, we're not exactly interested in these for 00:55.567 --> 00:59.867 reasons of theology or morality, but we need to get 00:59.867 --> 01:02.667 into the minds of people at the time in order to 01:02.667 --> 01:07.697 understand what bothered them, what controversies they were 01:07.700 --> 01:12.100 involved in, and how those controversies indeed divided 01:12.100 --> 01:15.100 the Roman Empire and the successors 01:15.100 --> 01:16.500 to the Roman Empire. 01:16.500 --> 01:18.070 Some of those problems-- 01:18.067 --> 01:22.327 well, under that second heading of Christian moral and 01:22.333 --> 01:25.903 doctrinal problems, let me just mention three, which by 01:25.900 --> 01:30.200 no means exhausts them, but are three that we can sort of, 01:30.200 --> 01:33.700 if not identify with, I think see their importance. 01:33.700 --> 01:39.670 One, the problem of evil. 01:39.667 --> 01:42.697 Second, the relation between body and soul. 01:46.433 --> 01:48.873 And three, the Christian understanding of sin and 01:48.867 --> 01:50.527 redemption. 01:50.533 --> 01:53.303 Now, it turns out these are all aspects of the same 01:53.300 --> 02:01.470 problem, and they are dealt with in Augustine's works most 02:01.467 --> 02:06.467 thoroughly, more thoroughly than any other thinker of the 02:06.467 --> 02:09.767 ancient world. 02:09.767 --> 02:12.997 The third reason we're looking at this is the interaction 02:13.000 --> 02:14.900 between Christianity and 02:14.900 --> 02:16.730 classical culture and religion. 02:19.633 --> 02:23.403 Roman life and politics, Augustine's career and his 02:23.400 --> 02:27.670 giving up his career, what that means, other ideas within 02:27.667 --> 02:31.997 the Roman Empire, such as Manicheaism, Platonism. 02:32.000 --> 02:36.300 And then finally, this is a document of philosophical and 02:36.300 --> 02:38.070 psychological investigation. 02:38.067 --> 02:42.827 And while that is not our primary purpose here, you 02:42.833 --> 02:46.273 should not get out of a liberal arts college program 02:46.267 --> 02:50.697 without reading this and pondering it a little. 02:50.700 --> 02:57.400 This can be summarized in terms of the importance of the 02:57.400 --> 03:01.670 humanities, even, or of philosophical investigation, 03:01.667 --> 03:04.097 as opposed to mere investigation of natural 03:04.100 --> 03:07.500 phenomena, in words that Augustine uses in Book X, 03:07.500 --> 03:09.230 which we have not read. 03:09.233 --> 03:13.403 After Book IX, Book X is a turning. 03:13.400 --> 03:16.670 It discusses time and the meaning of time. 03:16.667 --> 03:21.827 Books XI, XII, and XIII are a commentary on Genesis. 03:21.833 --> 03:25.703 Worth reading, if you like, and interesting to think about 03:25.700 --> 03:30.630 how they do or do not mesh with the more confessional 03:30.633 --> 03:31.973 parts of the Confession. 03:31.967 --> 03:37.497 But in Book X, he says, "Men go out and gaze in 03:37.500 --> 03:42.500 astonishment at high mountains, the huge waves of 03:42.500 --> 03:47.570 the sea, the broad reaches of rivers, the ocean that 03:47.567 --> 03:51.997 encircles the world, or the stars in their courses, but 03:52.000 --> 03:57.900 they pay no attention to themselves." They are busy 03:57.900 --> 04:00.500 looking at external phenomena and not 04:00.500 --> 04:02.370 examining their own heart. 04:02.367 --> 04:06.497 And if the Confessions is anything, it is certainly an 04:06.500 --> 04:09.200 examination of the author's heart. 04:11.933 --> 04:15.603 But it's not an examination of his heart in a purely 04:15.600 --> 04:19.400 emotional sense, in the way we're familiar with in 04:19.400 --> 04:21.330 so-called confessional literature. 04:21.333 --> 04:23.203 I had a tough upbringing. 04:23.200 --> 04:24.030 This happened to me. 04:24.033 --> 04:25.373 That happened to me. 04:25.367 --> 04:27.227 I struggled with addiction. 04:27.233 --> 04:29.333 I beat my kids. 04:29.333 --> 04:30.833 Now I'm a great person. 04:30.833 --> 04:32.373 Whatever. 04:32.367 --> 04:35.227 This is an intellectual investigation as well as an 04:35.233 --> 04:36.633 emotional investigation. 04:36.633 --> 04:41.133 And indeed, Augustine doesn't see these as separate, or to 04:41.133 --> 04:43.733 the degree that he does, it's in a more complicated way than 04:43.733 --> 04:46.033 just saying intellectual versus non-intellectual. 04:46.033 --> 04:48.803 He is an intellectual, obviously. 04:48.800 --> 04:52.930 And he awakened to being an intellectual, an experience 04:52.933 --> 04:54.733 that many of you may have had. 04:54.733 --> 04:58.633 Remember, he reads this dialogue by Cicero, now lost, 04:58.633 --> 05:00.773 called the Hortensius. 05:00.767 --> 05:05.097 And this convinces him that the life of the mind is the 05:05.100 --> 05:08.330 most important thing to pursue. 05:08.333 --> 05:11.473 And I wouldn't say that we all have had this experience, but 05:11.467 --> 05:14.497 maybe you-- 05:14.500 --> 05:16.300 what was the point at which you discovered that you 05:16.300 --> 05:20.500 weren't like other people, that they lived more for 05:20.500 --> 05:23.730 immediate sensations, or pleasure, or what Augustine 05:23.733 --> 05:29.033 would call debauchery, and you wanted to read or think about 05:29.033 --> 05:34.033 stuff or do lab experiments? 05:34.033 --> 05:37.173 I think the essence of Yale, if I understand it correctly, 05:37.167 --> 05:40.867 is I don't have to choose between fun and the 05:40.867 --> 05:42.097 intellectual life. 05:44.533 --> 05:48.503 So it's not actually perhaps relevant to your lives now, 05:48.500 --> 05:53.730 but particularly if you went to a public high school, grew 05:53.733 --> 05:57.033 up in a non-intellectual environment. 05:57.033 --> 06:00.433 Those of you whose parents are professors and went to some 06:00.433 --> 06:04.033 school where everybody was reading Latin at the age of 06:04.033 --> 06:05.473 six, I'm not talking to you. 06:05.467 --> 06:09.067 But I'm talking to the vast majority who woke up one day 06:09.067 --> 06:14.867 and realized, either with pride or with dismay, "I'm 06:14.867 --> 06:18.197 different from other people." Ideas have meaning to me. 06:18.200 --> 06:22.070 I'm going to suffer in life for that, though there're 06:22.067 --> 06:23.667 going to be some rewards. 06:23.667 --> 06:27.797 And I leave you to discern what the rewards are and to 06:27.800 --> 06:30.870 mull over what the suffering has been or maybe will 06:30.867 --> 06:31.827 continue to be. 06:31.833 --> 06:35.103 I hope not, and I suspect you'll have an 06:35.100 --> 06:36.870 easier time of it. 06:36.867 --> 06:43.597 But this book is about a search for truth and a search 06:43.600 --> 06:48.300 that takes a number of wrong turns, at least from 06:48.300 --> 06:52.170 Augustine's opinion looking back on the situation when he 06:52.167 --> 06:55.627 wrote this in the 390s. 06:55.633 --> 06:58.433 It's a confession of sin. 06:58.433 --> 07:02.703 It's also, as I said before, a confession of praise for the 07:02.700 --> 07:09.000 God whose love directed him back to the right path. 07:09.000 --> 07:12.530 It is personal, but exemplary. 07:12.533 --> 07:16.633 It is about spiritual yearning, but it is also about 07:16.633 --> 07:19.703 intellectual yearning for truth. 07:23.700 --> 07:26.530 It's a book about the education of a young man and 07:26.533 --> 07:29.233 the adventures of this young man and what 07:29.233 --> 07:31.903 he learns from them. 07:34.767 --> 07:38.667 Now, in the first place, he is both an intellectual and a 07:38.667 --> 07:40.267 passionate person. 07:40.267 --> 07:47.797 He is someone who is unusually frank about his desires. 07:47.800 --> 07:53.270 But notice that he's not just opposed to desire. 07:53.267 --> 07:59.797 He is not someone who believes that desire, love are to be 07:59.800 --> 08:04.670 simply repressed or ignored. 08:04.667 --> 08:06.697 Love is a psychological need. 08:06.700 --> 08:09.770 And he has a very discerning and interesting passage in 08:09.767 --> 08:18.227 describing his teenage years and his lusts when he 08:18.233 --> 08:21.933 frequented the brothels of Carthage. 08:21.933 --> 08:27.133 In Book III, at the beginning, he says, "I was in love with 08:27.133 --> 08:31.203 the idea of love." So he was not only in love, but he was 08:31.200 --> 08:37.230 in love with the idea of being an emotional being, of love 08:37.233 --> 08:41.903 that is both sexual and spiritual, in which these two 08:41.900 --> 08:48.370 things are not well marked off from each other. 08:48.367 --> 08:51.267 He is also a believer in friendship. 08:51.267 --> 08:53.467 And it's funny, because in our own culture, I think 08:53.467 --> 08:55.567 friendship has changed. 08:55.567 --> 08:59.727 When I started teaching, people had trouble dealing 08:59.733 --> 09:04.773 with the affection that he has for his friends, like Alypius 09:04.767 --> 09:08.497 and Nebridius, or the mysterious unnamed friend who 09:08.500 --> 09:11.500 dies after being baptized. 09:11.500 --> 09:14.270 Augustine is always surrounded by friends. 09:14.267 --> 09:16.627 Even in the most intimate moments, when he's undergoing 09:16.633 --> 09:18.703 this conversion, there're all sorts of people 09:18.700 --> 09:20.300 right around him. 09:20.300 --> 09:22.800 And as I said before, this seemed to be-- 09:22.800 --> 09:25.730 the explanation was, well, he must've been homosexual, or he 09:25.733 --> 09:29.533 must have these desires, or maybe it's part of Roman 09:29.533 --> 09:31.033 culture of friendship. 09:31.033 --> 09:35.633 But in recent decades or years, where we have a culture 09:35.633 --> 09:37.873 of friendship, where your friends are extremely 09:37.867 --> 09:38.667 important-- 09:38.667 --> 09:43.297 admittedly, if you have 900 of them, it's a little bit, 09:43.300 --> 09:44.470 perhaps, weakened-- 09:44.467 --> 09:48.897 but I think we can understand some of this better than might 09:48.900 --> 09:52.030 have been the case a little while ago. 09:52.033 --> 09:56.903 This friend who dies after being baptized, here is an 09:56.900 --> 10:00.800 example of another form of seriousness. 10:00.800 --> 10:03.300 They go out and have fun together. 10:03.300 --> 10:05.130 The friend becomes ill. 10:05.133 --> 10:07.003 The friend is suddenly very serious. 10:07.000 --> 10:11.130 The friend gets baptized, because to be baptized, as 10:11.133 --> 10:16.573 with Constantine, means that you are committing yourself to 10:16.567 --> 10:22.727 a much more stringent and moral life than before. 10:22.733 --> 10:25.503 And then he dies. 10:25.500 --> 10:27.300 And this certainly disturbs Augustine. 10:30.767 --> 10:32.267 What is life all about? 10:32.267 --> 10:35.127 Any of you who've had the experience of contemporaries 10:35.133 --> 10:40.403 of yours who have died will understand this, I think. 10:40.400 --> 10:42.400 Augustine's also ambitious. 10:42.400 --> 10:44.130 He is a successful person. 10:44.133 --> 10:46.303 Even though he's from a modest family-- 10:46.300 --> 10:55.070 his father, a pagan or non-Christian, middle class 10:55.067 --> 10:59.697 official of North Africa, his mother, a Christian-- 10:59.700 --> 11:02.700 He's clearly marked for success because of his unusual 11:02.700 --> 11:07.930 gifts, his unusual gifts being intellectual, ability to 11:07.933 --> 11:11.473 write, ability to argue. 11:11.467 --> 11:13.797 He's marked out as extremely smart. 11:13.800 --> 11:20.970 And at that time, success for such a person, the course of 11:20.967 --> 11:24.327 success was through government service-- 11:24.333 --> 11:26.103 this is the era of post-Diocletian, 11:26.100 --> 11:28.500 post-Constantine-- 11:28.500 --> 11:31.830 and related particularly to a combination of 11:31.833 --> 11:33.903 rhetoric and law. 11:33.900 --> 11:37.670 This is not all that different from societies familiar to us. 11:37.667 --> 11:41.927 That is to say, the training in law gives one access to a 11:41.933 --> 11:44.373 number of different kinds of political offices. 11:44.367 --> 11:47.767 But rhetoric is perhaps a little stranger to us. 11:47.767 --> 11:52.197 Rhetoric in this context means the art of persuasion. 11:52.200 --> 11:56.370 So it's very closely related to law and legal pleading. 11:56.367 --> 12:02.497 It is the art of writing well, of writing elegantly, and it 12:02.500 --> 12:06.470 is very, very highly valued in the Roman Empire. 12:10.133 --> 12:15.003 His mother, Monica, is extremely pious. 12:15.000 --> 12:22.130 In fact, the first section, class rather that I taught-- 12:22.133 --> 12:24.803 no, I guess I was a section leader-- 12:24.800 --> 12:29.270 when I was a graduate student, the first section I had, my 12:29.267 --> 12:32.197 students were arguing with me about Augustine's patronizing 12:32.200 --> 12:34.030 attitude towards his mother. 12:34.033 --> 12:36.433 And I said, well, no, he's not patronizing. 12:36.433 --> 12:37.873 He's smarter than his mother. 12:40.800 --> 12:42.270 His mother's just an ordinary person. 12:42.267 --> 12:47.127 After all, Augustine becomes a saint, and his mother doesn't. 12:47.133 --> 12:52.333 Some guy from Santa Monica Catholic School said, who do 12:52.333 --> 12:55.033 you think Santa Monica is? 12:55.033 --> 12:57.073 This is Augustine's mother. 12:57.067 --> 13:00.297 So anyway, I've learned. 13:00.300 --> 13:01.570 Augustine's mother is a saint. 13:01.567 --> 13:04.527 She is a more steadfast kind of person than Augustine. 13:04.533 --> 13:07.533 She's not someone who stays up all night wrestling with the 13:07.533 --> 13:08.933 problem of evil. 13:08.933 --> 13:12.403 Nevertheless, she does not want him to be baptized. 13:12.400 --> 13:14.000 She wants him to be successful. 13:14.000 --> 13:17.970 Like most mothers, she wants her child to be a good person. 13:17.967 --> 13:20.127 But even more than that, she wants her 13:20.133 --> 13:22.103 child to be a success. 13:22.100 --> 13:25.630 And that means delaying baptism, because if he's going 13:25.633 --> 13:28.303 to be a success, he's going to have to be involved in the 13:28.300 --> 13:30.570 world of high government, and that may mean-- 13:30.567 --> 13:35.367 well, that definitely means involvement in sinfulness, 13:35.367 --> 13:39.127 involvement in the shedding of blood, involvement in legal 13:39.133 --> 13:40.933 wrangling and stuff like that. 13:40.933 --> 13:46.773 And so he is encouraged to lead a normal life, "normal" 13:46.767 --> 13:48.767 meaning, at least in his own retrospective 13:48.767 --> 13:53.427 view, sinful life. 13:53.433 --> 13:56.873 This is what Augustine is giving up in his conversion. 13:56.867 --> 13:59.927 He is giving up a career. 13:59.933 --> 14:06.503 He is giving up a social expectation of success or 14:06.500 --> 14:09.300 social definition of success. 14:09.300 --> 14:14.300 He is giving up the pleasures attendant on that career, 14:14.300 --> 14:23.300 which range from parties to honors to sexual conquests and 14:23.300 --> 14:27.570 the whole life of a well-established member of the 14:27.567 --> 14:28.827 Roman elite. 14:33.567 --> 14:35.297 What is bothering Augustine? 14:39.833 --> 14:48.603 What bothers him is, in part, the problem of evil, which 14:48.600 --> 14:50.470 we've alluded to already. 14:50.467 --> 14:55.227 Why does a good and omnipotent god allow evil to flourish? 15:00.900 --> 15:08.600 A related problem is that compared to the works of the 15:08.600 --> 15:13.200 Greek writers and philosophers, the Bible seems 15:13.200 --> 15:17.070 awfully crude to him, rhetorically, in terms of 15:17.067 --> 15:21.927 style, and conceptually, in terms of its ideas. 15:21.933 --> 15:26.103 The Old Testament god-- and we're probably at various 15:26.100 --> 15:29.000 levels of familiarity with the Old Testament-- 15:29.000 --> 15:34.370 but the Old Testament god is temperamental, I think it's 15:34.367 --> 15:35.967 fair to say. 15:35.967 --> 15:37.427 Here's a guy who decides to destroy-- 15:37.433 --> 15:38.403 a guy-- 15:38.400 --> 15:45.000 a deity who decides to destroy the world by flood, destroys 15:45.000 --> 15:53.030 the cities of the plain, kills one of the people bearing the 15:53.033 --> 16:00.273 tabernacle back to Jerusalem because he stumbles. 16:00.267 --> 16:01.797 What kind of god is this? 16:01.800 --> 16:03.970 This bothers Augustine. 16:03.967 --> 16:07.897 And his anthropomorphism bothers Augustine. 16:07.900 --> 16:13.100 In the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Bible, a god speaks 16:13.100 --> 16:14.570 with people. 16:14.567 --> 16:16.267 Adam hears him walking in the garden. 16:16.267 --> 16:17.297 How can that be? 16:17.300 --> 16:22.730 How can this human-seeming god be the real God? 16:22.733 --> 16:25.473 So these two anxieties put Augustine in the camp of the 16:25.467 --> 16:27.067 Manicheans. 16:27.067 --> 16:30.597 Remember, the Manicheans believe that the solution to 16:30.600 --> 16:34.430 the problem of evil is that God is not omnipotent. 16:34.433 --> 16:38.533 God is trying, but there's another evil god who is 16:38.533 --> 16:39.733 opposing Him. 16:39.733 --> 16:42.403 And that evil god is the god of the flesh and the god of 16:42.400 --> 16:49.430 the Old Testament, Jehovah, the creator god, the god of 16:49.433 --> 16:52.103 matter and flesh. 16:52.100 --> 16:55.730 We are souls imprisoned in flesh. 16:55.733 --> 17:00.903 Our true home is the spiritual, and we have to 17:00.900 --> 17:04.630 renounce everything that has to do with the flesh in order 17:04.633 --> 17:05.473 to go there. 17:05.467 --> 17:10.897 So Manicheanism would seem to be extremely ascetic. 17:10.900 --> 17:13.470 You should have absolutely nothing to do with the world. 17:13.467 --> 17:17.697 But as is always the case with the statement, "everything 17:17.700 --> 17:22.100 that's material is evil, but we are material," Manicheanism 17:22.100 --> 17:25.130 also offers or affords you an opportunity to be completely 17:25.133 --> 17:28.703 involved in the world, totally involved in the world, because 17:28.700 --> 17:31.030 there's nothing you can do about it. 17:31.033 --> 17:33.573 All you can do is say, the flesh is evil, I'm in the 17:33.567 --> 17:36.927 flesh, I'm just going to have to deal with it until I am 17:36.933 --> 17:39.773 liberated into the spirit. 17:39.767 --> 17:45.427 So Manicheanism is not necessarily world-renouncing, 17:45.433 --> 17:48.233 but they do identify the source of evil with the body. 17:48.233 --> 17:49.933 The body is wicked. 17:49.933 --> 17:52.133 The immaterial soul is good. 17:52.133 --> 17:58.503 This is not Christianity, as Augustine discovers or 17:58.500 --> 18:00.530 elaborates. 18:00.533 --> 18:04.733 Even though we may think of Christianity as exalting the 18:04.733 --> 18:07.033 soul over the body, nevertheless, it 18:07.033 --> 18:08.833 also exalts the body. 18:08.833 --> 18:15.473 Christian doctrine is that the bodies of human beings will be 18:15.467 --> 18:18.297 resurrected, not just the souls. 18:18.300 --> 18:21.430 There will be bodies after the Last Judgment in 18:21.433 --> 18:24.303 heaven and in hell. 18:24.300 --> 18:27.800 God created the world, and it was good. 18:27.800 --> 18:30.500 What then explains the presence of evil? 18:30.500 --> 18:34.830 Augustine at this stage turns to Platonism for an 18:34.833 --> 18:37.533 understanding of the nature of evil. 18:37.533 --> 18:40.333 Evil is not a thing in itself. 18:40.333 --> 18:43.073 It is rather the absence of good. 18:43.067 --> 18:45.597 Now, if anyone has ever said that to you, you will have 18:45.600 --> 18:51.630 found that unconvincing, at least in its first iteration. 18:51.633 --> 18:55.003 Because we're not just talking about the absence of good, as 18:55.000 --> 19:00.470 in, this bowl of chili is not very good. 19:00.467 --> 19:02.567 It's not very flavorful. 19:02.567 --> 19:06.597 It's OK, but it's lacking in something. 19:06.600 --> 19:08.670 But that's not evil. 19:08.667 --> 19:13.467 Evil is not like, not particularly good. 19:13.467 --> 19:18.327 Evil is much more vivid, gratuitous, cruel, 19:18.333 --> 19:21.033 all-encompassing. 19:21.033 --> 19:22.503 The Platonists don't deny that. 19:22.500 --> 19:25.600 What they mean by saying it's the privation of good is that 19:25.600 --> 19:27.730 it is nothingness. 19:27.733 --> 19:32.873 Evil is, in fact, the absence of being and meaning. 19:32.867 --> 19:39.097 The reason it produces such spectacular effects as war, 19:39.100 --> 19:48.470 oppression, crime, is that people turn away from the 19:48.467 --> 19:54.597 good, or they turn away from what is truly good to prefer 19:54.600 --> 19:56.370 lower goods. 19:56.367 --> 19:59.127 They turn away from the things of the spirit to the 19:59.133 --> 20:00.703 things of the flesh. 20:00.700 --> 20:04.800 They prefer their own lusts and desires, their own 20:04.800 --> 20:10.030 ambitions and greed, to the common good or to the 20:10.033 --> 20:12.003 immaterial and spiritual good. 20:12.000 --> 20:17.230 And it's this turning away from the Sun, this turning 20:17.233 --> 20:24.903 away from good, that seems to be a human problem. 20:24.900 --> 20:28.970 Human beings, generally speaking, don't understand 20:28.967 --> 20:32.827 what they're on Earth for, according to the Platonists. 20:32.833 --> 20:36.903 Many of you are familiar with the metaphor of the cave from 20:36.900 --> 20:37.930 The Republic. 20:37.933 --> 20:45.033 This is the classic depiction of this wrong preference. 20:45.033 --> 20:49.733 The people in the cave are chained facing the back wall 20:49.733 --> 20:54.603 of the cave, and they see images of what's passing in 20:54.600 --> 20:58.330 front of the cave reflected on the wall. 20:58.333 --> 21:00.803 As time goes on, they come to believe that 21:00.800 --> 21:03.230 those images are reality. 21:03.233 --> 21:05.403 They forget that they're chained. 21:05.400 --> 21:09.230 They forget that they can't see the real things. 21:09.233 --> 21:12.373 They forget the Sun. 21:12.367 --> 21:16.397 If you were to liberate them and turn them around and show 21:16.400 --> 21:21.000 them the light, first of all, they couldn't bear it, because 21:21.000 --> 21:22.870 they're used to the world of shadow. 21:22.867 --> 21:26.727 Secondly, they'd kill you, because you are destroying 21:26.733 --> 21:29.273 their assumptions and their world. 21:29.267 --> 21:32.897 They would at least persecute you. 21:32.900 --> 21:34.370 They're not interested in the truth. 21:34.367 --> 21:35.867 They're interested in getting by. 21:39.333 --> 21:44.403 So for the Platonists, evil is the result of this error in 21:44.400 --> 21:50.330 perception, assuming that it's a great thing to get rich. 21:50.333 --> 21:54.603 Or assuming that it's a great thing to beat people up 21:54.600 --> 21:57.530 because you're stronger than they are. 21:57.533 --> 22:05.673 Or it's a great thing to conquer and subjugate. 22:05.667 --> 22:10.967 Or all of these things, some of which are evil but are 22:10.967 --> 22:14.197 really the preference of things that you should not be 22:14.200 --> 22:17.900 pursuing or that you should be pursuing for reasons inspired 22:17.900 --> 22:19.830 by spiritual truth. 22:23.033 --> 22:24.833 How do you get rid of this? 22:24.833 --> 22:27.173 In the Platonists' imagination, by education. 22:27.167 --> 22:29.127 That's the whole point of Plato's dialogues. 22:29.133 --> 22:33.973 That's why they are dialogues, many of them, with a question 22:33.967 --> 22:35.427 and answer. 22:35.433 --> 22:38.573 They're very didactic. 22:38.567 --> 22:40.097 They're like being in a class. 22:40.100 --> 22:42.930 Socrates quizzes people, and then he shows the solution. 22:42.933 --> 22:46.173 And they say, "Oh, wow, Socrates, now I understand. 22:46.167 --> 22:49.367 Now I'm going to be a Platonist, and I'm going to 22:49.367 --> 22:51.527 build a perfect society." End of story. 22:57.800 --> 22:59.970 The important thing to understand about Platonism is 22:59.967 --> 23:03.797 that it is not dualist in the way that Manicheanism is or 23:03.800 --> 23:07.130 the way that we instinctively think about evil. 23:07.133 --> 23:09.273 Evil is not opposed to good. 23:09.267 --> 23:13.167 It's hierarchically inferior to good. 23:13.167 --> 23:16.467 The Platonists' universe is like a ladder with many rungs 23:16.467 --> 23:23.827 going up from mud, bugs, rocks to the immaterial One, and 23:23.833 --> 23:26.833 with many, many steps, as I said, many rungs or steps or 23:26.833 --> 23:29.533 levels in between. 23:29.533 --> 23:31.203 Human beings are in the middle. 23:31.200 --> 23:34.970 And also, human beings-- unlike animals, mud, slugs, 23:34.967 --> 23:39.567 but also unlike angels and demiurges and deities-- 23:39.567 --> 23:42.427 human beings can move up and down the ladder. 23:42.433 --> 23:43.833 That's what free will is. 23:43.833 --> 23:45.333 That's what being human is. 23:45.333 --> 23:51.803 You can read Hortensius, read the Confessions, fall in love 23:51.800 --> 23:56.400 with the liberal arts, and ascend to some very high realm 23:56.400 --> 23:57.470 of the spirit. 23:57.467 --> 24:02.227 Or you can choose the downward path to 24:02.233 --> 24:05.573 debauchery and mere pleasure. 24:05.567 --> 24:09.027 It's a question of how free you are, but we do have the 24:09.033 --> 24:12.473 opportunity to move up and down this ladder, unlike the 24:12.467 --> 24:18.827 animals and all other created forces that are fixed. 24:18.833 --> 24:20.103 Now, the question is what makes us 24:20.100 --> 24:21.330 move up and down this? 24:21.333 --> 24:23.633 Or what'll motivate us to move up? 24:27.667 --> 24:30.167 And here we come to some key differences between Platonism 24:30.167 --> 24:32.667 and Christianity with regard to evil. 24:35.433 --> 24:37.933 Platonism tends to ascribe evil to ignorance. 24:37.933 --> 24:41.233 Christianity tends to ascribe evil to sin. 24:41.233 --> 24:47.673 The difference between sin and ignorance is that sin is 24:47.667 --> 24:49.027 deliberate. 24:49.033 --> 24:52.833 You know you shouldn't do this, and you do it anyway. 24:55.933 --> 24:57.903 You're not overcome by desire. 25:00.800 --> 25:03.200 So to anticipate one of the paper topics-- 25:03.200 --> 25:08.800 but I don't think I'm going to be giving away the answer-- 25:08.800 --> 25:11.270 what is it about the pear-stealing incident that 25:11.267 --> 25:12.497 makes it so important? 25:15.800 --> 25:19.770 Anybody want to venture a preliminary response to this? 25:19.767 --> 25:22.167 STUDENT: Well, it's the fact that he 25:22.167 --> 25:24.497 doesn't need the pears. 25:24.500 --> 25:27.770 He just does it because he feels like sinning. 25:27.767 --> 25:29.697 PROFESSOR: So the pears-- he 25:29.700 --> 25:33.200 doesn't need the pears. 25:33.200 --> 25:34.900 It is just a desire. 25:34.900 --> 25:37.130 I mean he doesn't say to himself, I want to sin. 25:37.133 --> 25:38.873 I haven't sinned in two days. 25:41.867 --> 25:43.367 He doesn't need the pears. 25:43.367 --> 25:45.467 What do they do with the pears when they get them? 25:45.467 --> 25:46.867 STUDENT: They chuck them. 25:46.867 --> 25:48.367 PROFESSOR: Yeah, they throw them out. 25:48.367 --> 25:50.697 They throw them to the pigs. 25:50.700 --> 25:52.500 So they're not hungry. 25:52.500 --> 25:59.930 It's not like, I was overcome by desire, and that led me 25:59.933 --> 26:02.403 into some sinful behavior. 26:02.400 --> 26:04.270 They weren't overcome by desire at all. 26:04.267 --> 26:07.967 How would you describe their pre-pear-stealing state? 26:07.967 --> 26:12.067 At least, what would you guess was their pre-pear-stealing 26:12.067 --> 26:13.297 frame of mind? 26:15.667 --> 26:17.727 There's one word that'll describe it, but if you want 26:17.733 --> 26:20.973 to, use a few more. 26:20.967 --> 26:24.197 Some guys go and they steal some pears from an orchard. 26:24.200 --> 26:25.730 They fool around with them. 26:25.733 --> 26:27.633 They throw them to the pigs. 26:27.633 --> 26:28.473 STUDENT: Bored? 26:28.467 --> 26:30.627 PROFESSOR: Bored. 26:30.633 --> 26:31.033 Bored. 26:31.033 --> 26:34.203 Now, here's something we can identify with. 26:34.200 --> 26:35.130 They're bored. 26:35.133 --> 26:37.273 They need to amuse themselves. 26:37.267 --> 26:40.267 They cannot amuse themselves by saying, "I'm a good 26:40.267 --> 26:45.827 person," or, "I'm going to contemplate the One," or, "I'm 26:45.833 --> 26:53.933 going to do some homework." It doesn't end. 26:53.933 --> 26:57.933 Young people are thought to be easily bored, but the boredom 26:57.933 --> 27:03.003 of old people, it's a different kind of bored. 27:03.000 --> 27:03.900 But there it is. 27:03.900 --> 27:06.200 It's persistent. 27:06.200 --> 27:08.470 That's not the only reason people sin, but it is a 27:08.467 --> 27:09.497 gratuitous reason. 27:09.500 --> 27:11.930 And that's what's interesting about the pears. 27:11.933 --> 27:13.103 It's gratuitous. 27:13.100 --> 27:16.030 It's not from need. 27:16.033 --> 27:19.933 The Platonists don't have a good response to why this 27:19.933 --> 27:23.133 happens, because it's not a question of education. 27:26.800 --> 27:30.670 Now, Augustine does not invent Christian ideas of sin. 27:30.667 --> 27:33.127 If you said to Augustine, "Come on, why are you so 27:33.133 --> 27:35.503 worried about the pears?" He's not worried about 27:35.500 --> 27:36.670 the pears as such. 27:36.667 --> 27:41.927 It's just a little emblem or a little example of a different 27:41.933 --> 27:42.803 kind of problem-- 27:42.800 --> 27:47.200 that is to say, knowing how to behave doesn't change us. 27:50.400 --> 27:54.070 Feeling how to behave-- 27:54.067 --> 28:02.597 to put it in Freudian terms, it's not the ego that decides. 28:02.600 --> 28:03.300 It's the id. 28:03.300 --> 28:07.670 It's the instinct, not the intellect. 28:07.667 --> 28:10.697 And that's what his conversion means. 28:10.700 --> 28:13.870 His conversion is not: "Suddenly, I was convinced 28:13.867 --> 28:17.097 that Christianity was true." He already knows that 28:17.100 --> 28:20.870 Christianity is true, but he knows it intellectually. 28:20.867 --> 28:24.667 The conversion is a conversion to an emotional 28:24.667 --> 28:25.897 apprehension of it. 28:25.900 --> 28:30.830 So however intellectual he may seem to you, however formed in 28:30.833 --> 28:35.073 the tradition of Greco-Roman classicism he was, however 28:35.067 --> 28:38.567 much the Hortensius awakened him to the life of the mind, 28:38.567 --> 28:42.227 he is ultimately a theologian and philosopher of the 28:42.233 --> 28:46.333 irrational, of the supra-rational. 28:49.700 --> 28:53.800 And indeed, Christianity in its history has an oscillation 28:53.800 --> 28:59.700 between intellectualization and the rediscovery of sin and 28:59.700 --> 29:01.000 God's grace. 29:04.167 --> 29:09.227 If you think of movements like the Reformation of Martin 29:09.233 --> 29:12.003 Luther, John Calvin, et cetera, in the sixteenth 29:12.000 --> 29:17.600 century, it takes issue with the notion that we can do 29:17.600 --> 29:20.970 works that give us merit in the sight of God, and that the 29:20.967 --> 29:25.127 Church tells us we have accumulated merits, and 29:25.133 --> 29:27.573 therefore we'll go to heaven. 29:27.567 --> 29:31.597 The Reformation teaches that we are face to face with God 29:31.600 --> 29:33.900 and that our so-called good deeds 29:33.900 --> 29:35.700 don't amount to anything. 29:35.700 --> 29:37.570 We are all sinful. 29:37.567 --> 29:40.327 If God operated according to justice, we 29:40.333 --> 29:42.673 would all go to hell. 29:42.667 --> 29:47.297 It's faith and grace that save people, hence the Reformation. 29:47.300 --> 29:52.330 But it's also the Great Awakening of Britain and 29:52.333 --> 29:55.403 America in the eighteenth century, the development of 29:55.400 --> 30:03.100 Methodism, the Fundamentalist movement, all of these tend to 30:03.100 --> 30:09.370 reject attempts to approach God contractually, attempts to 30:09.367 --> 30:11.967 approach God in terms of a deal. 30:16.900 --> 30:25.900 So if human beings are sinful and if education is not going 30:25.900 --> 30:29.470 to get them out of sin, what will? 30:32.367 --> 30:34.627 Now, the Augustine of the Confessions is different than 30:34.633 --> 30:37.173 the Augustine of 20 years later when he 30:37.167 --> 30:38.197 wrote The City of God. 30:38.200 --> 30:43.570 And we're not studying The City of God, but this book, 30:43.567 --> 30:50.097 written in response to the sack of Rome in 410, develops 30:50.100 --> 30:56.570 some ideas that are found in the Confessions about the 30:56.567 --> 31:03.197 nature of sin and how we get out of it. 31:03.200 --> 31:06.200 The nature of sin is the pears. 31:06.200 --> 31:10.770 How we get out of it is at least in part the conversion. 31:13.400 --> 31:15.800 We got the pears sufficiently for the time being? 31:19.167 --> 31:22.467 The conversion is started-- 31:22.467 --> 31:25.627 well, it started long before the event. 31:25.633 --> 31:30.233 But what precipitates it as a drama is this conversation 31:30.233 --> 31:39.833 with Ponticianus in Book VIII, Part VIII, who has traveled 31:39.833 --> 31:42.633 and describes the monks of Egypt. 31:42.633 --> 31:45.173 Now, we'll be talking lots and lots about monks, but the 31:45.167 --> 31:49.367 monks of Egypt are the first example of Christian monks, 31:49.367 --> 31:59.297 men who flee the world into the desert and there live on 31:59.300 --> 32:03.630 weeds, saline water, locusts, other 32:03.633 --> 32:06.903 insects, basically nothing. 32:06.900 --> 32:12.570 And they have visions, and they are sought out by 32:12.567 --> 32:14.427 ordinary people. 32:14.433 --> 32:18.403 It's key to understand that to be a hermit in this society 32:18.400 --> 32:21.270 does not necessarily mean that you have 32:21.267 --> 32:23.797 nothing to do with people. 32:23.800 --> 32:28.230 People start to want to find you, because you must have 32:28.233 --> 32:31.303 special power. 32:31.300 --> 32:35.000 Back in Alexandria, their baby is sick. 32:35.000 --> 32:40.770 "Maybe you, oh hermit, living on locusts and out in the 32:40.767 --> 32:45.327 desert, have some spiritual power to help my baby." 32:45.333 --> 32:46.433 This is shamanism. 32:46.433 --> 32:49.333 It happens in all sorts of religions. 32:49.333 --> 32:53.933 You can't just be a shaman, a medicine man, a wise man, and 32:53.933 --> 32:56.373 hold down a regular old job. 32:56.367 --> 32:58.467 Or you can, but it helps. 32:58.467 --> 33:01.327 And that's the conceit of a lot of TV 33:01.333 --> 33:03.173 ideas, secret heroes. 33:03.167 --> 33:05.927 They're the real estate agents, but they're battling 33:05.933 --> 33:07.803 the forces of darkness. 33:07.800 --> 33:11.230 But generally, most of the time, you've got to be 33:11.233 --> 33:13.933 special, and you've got to look special. 33:13.933 --> 33:15.873 And you've got to be a reject. 33:15.867 --> 33:21.727 You can't have a spouse, kids, a mortgage, a 33:21.733 --> 33:24.433 garden, a swing set. 33:24.433 --> 33:28.533 You've got to be a seer. 33:28.533 --> 33:32.803 You've got to have your vision focused on the other world. 33:32.800 --> 33:35.830 Ponticianus tells Augustine about these men, and his 33:35.833 --> 33:41.503 response is not only to be impressed by them, but to be 33:41.500 --> 33:43.430 humiliated by them. 33:43.433 --> 33:48.773 First of all, here are these guys who are intoxicated with 33:48.767 --> 33:53.797 God, while I'm still thinking about my career. 33:53.800 --> 33:56.630 But-- and this is the ancient world speaking-- 33:56.633 --> 33:59.933 they are uneducated, these monks of Egypt. 33:59.933 --> 34:05.803 They didn't study The Republic, the Hortensius, the 34:05.800 --> 34:12.830 Timaeus, the rhetoric of Quintilian, 34:12.833 --> 34:14.973 the Satires of Juvenal. 34:14.967 --> 34:16.027 They don't know anything about this. 34:16.033 --> 34:17.303 They're uneducated people. 34:17.300 --> 34:18.570 Many of them are illiterate. 34:18.567 --> 34:21.497 And yet they are closer to God. 34:21.500 --> 34:25.030 They have an apprehension of the divine that causes them to 34:25.033 --> 34:26.803 renounce the world, whereas we-- 34:26.800 --> 34:29.370 Augustine says of him and his circle-- 34:29.367 --> 34:34.967 we "lie here groveling in this world of flesh and blood, 34:34.967 --> 34:38.397 while they storm the gates of heaven." And this is the 34:38.400 --> 34:39.630 moment of his conversion. 34:43.033 --> 34:47.373 Now, after his conversion, Augustine's plan was to lead a 34:47.367 --> 34:52.327 life of contemplation with his friends. 34:52.333 --> 34:55.533 They would retreat from the world, meaning they would give 34:55.533 --> 35:02.903 up their careers, but it would be a little bit like one of 35:02.900 --> 35:05.330 your friend's parents have a lot of money and have this 35:05.333 --> 35:09.073 wonderful cabin somewhere in the Rockies or 35:09.067 --> 35:10.267 the Sawtooth Mountains. 35:10.267 --> 35:15.367 And you're going to figure out some kind of way of-- 35:15.367 --> 35:18.727 you'll be on the Internet and everything, but you're going 35:18.733 --> 35:24.173 to have this kind of beautiful, contemplative life. 35:24.167 --> 35:26.197 But the beautiful part is that it's not going to be 35:26.200 --> 35:27.170 uncomfortable. 35:27.167 --> 35:29.297 It's not the desert of Egypt. 35:29.300 --> 35:30.470 It's remote-- 35:30.467 --> 35:31.827 you're not going to be bothered-- 35:31.833 --> 35:33.203 but there are beautiful mountains, 35:33.200 --> 35:35.530 trouts in the stream. 35:35.533 --> 35:37.573 It's idyllic. 35:37.567 --> 35:40.627 And you and your friends are going to talk about reality 35:40.633 --> 35:44.333 and the spirit and philosophy and-- 35:46.900 --> 35:48.930 I don't know how idyllic this sounds to you, but it's 35:48.933 --> 35:53.133 certainly an understandable idea of a way of life. 35:53.133 --> 35:58.373 It is the ancient idea of what's called "leisure with 35:58.367 --> 36:01.797 dignity." And indeed, that's what being a professor was 36:01.800 --> 36:04.170 supposed to be when I signed up for it. 36:04.167 --> 36:07.667 Otium cum dignitate, leisure with dignity. "Leisure" 36:07.667 --> 36:13.467 meaning not wasting time leisure, but not responding to 36:13.467 --> 36:19.497 clients, or not responding to urgent scheduling 36:19.500 --> 36:22.270 phone calls, deals. 36:22.267 --> 36:27.197 You've got to show up to your classes, but 36:27.200 --> 36:30.070 that's not really onerous. 36:30.067 --> 36:31.597 At least, that was the idea. 36:31.600 --> 36:34.670 And I won't go into the frustrations of being a 36:34.667 --> 36:38.267 professor or the dissatisfactions. 36:38.267 --> 36:42.427 But the classical idea is otium cum dignitate, "dignity" 36:42.433 --> 36:47.303 meaning not being naked in the desert, not having to eat 36:47.300 --> 36:49.170 locusts and figure out how to-- 36:49.167 --> 36:51.667 "OK, I had curried locusts last night. 36:51.667 --> 36:56.167 Tonight, I think I'll have locust casserole." No, no, no. 36:56.167 --> 36:59.467 Something nicer than that. 36:59.467 --> 37:03.567 But in fact, he did not follow through on this. 37:03.567 --> 37:08.127 He did not lead a life of cultivated classical dignity 37:08.133 --> 37:09.373 with his friends. 37:09.367 --> 37:11.327 He went back to North Africa. 37:11.333 --> 37:13.603 He became a bishop. 37:13.600 --> 37:19.900 His years were consumed by disputes over doctrine or with 37:19.900 --> 37:20.770 heretical-- 37:20.767 --> 37:21.997 as he deemed them-- 37:22.000 --> 37:25.930 tendencies, like Donatism, most notably. 37:25.933 --> 37:32.333 And he died defending his city of Hippo, Hippo Regius, in 37:32.333 --> 37:36.703 modern Tunisia, from the Vandals, one of those 37:36.700 --> 37:41.400 barbarian invaders who will occupy us next week. 37:41.400 --> 37:44.630 He then was very much involved in the world. 37:44.633 --> 37:48.203 To be a bishop in the Roman Empire was by no means an 37:48.200 --> 37:50.770 office of dignified leisure. 37:50.767 --> 37:54.627 It was right in there in the political trenches. 37:54.633 --> 38:01.173 It's a position of honor, to be sure, but his understanding 38:01.167 --> 38:04.467 of the Christian's duty in the world was that you cannot lead 38:04.467 --> 38:06.197 a life of perfection. 38:06.200 --> 38:11.170 You cannot lead a life of sin-free contemplation. 38:11.167 --> 38:15.197 We all are sinners. 38:15.200 --> 38:22.070 He becomes more and more the theologian, philosopher who 38:22.067 --> 38:24.227 combats perfectionism. 38:24.233 --> 38:29.233 Perfectionism is a doctrine that human beings can be made 38:29.233 --> 38:31.303 radically better-- 38:31.300 --> 38:32.530 perfect, even. 38:34.733 --> 38:38.773 There are debates throughout societies about the degree of 38:38.767 --> 38:40.897 human perfectibility. 38:40.900 --> 38:44.530 This is indeed supposedly and to some extent I think really 38:44.533 --> 38:47.033 at the heart of debates between what is called 38:47.033 --> 38:50.333 liberalism in the United States and conservatism. 38:50.333 --> 38:52.903 Liberals believe in human perfectibility. 38:52.900 --> 38:58.770 If you educate people, if you help them, if you encourage 38:58.767 --> 39:02.397 them, if you provide government subsidies, you will 39:02.400 --> 39:04.770 build a better society. 39:04.767 --> 39:08.267 The response upon the part of conservatives to that is, 39:08.267 --> 39:12.127 people are the way they are because that's the way they 39:12.133 --> 39:15.073 want to be, or they made wrong choices. 39:15.067 --> 39:21.697 But all the help from some public authority isn't going 39:21.700 --> 39:24.700 to help, isn't going to really make a difference. 39:24.700 --> 39:26.600 Are people perfectible? 39:26.600 --> 39:28.270 People who believe in education tend to 39:28.267 --> 39:30.627 believe that they are. 39:30.633 --> 39:33.003 On the other hand, very well-educated 39:33.000 --> 39:37.600 people have been bad. 39:37.600 --> 39:39.800 Hitler loved classical music. 39:39.800 --> 39:41.270 So did Stalin. 39:41.267 --> 39:44.597 Just because you are a connoisseur of art doesn't 39:44.600 --> 39:45.830 make you a good person. 39:49.433 --> 39:53.003 Augustine is a radical imperfectionist, more so in 39:53.000 --> 39:55.330 The City of God than in the Confessions, which is 39:55.333 --> 39:57.903 teetering on the brink. 39:57.900 --> 40:03.230 The pears is a kind of imperfectionist moment. 40:03.233 --> 40:09.003 He glimpses the power of sin. 40:09.000 --> 40:12.770 By the time of The City of God, by the time that the end 40:12.767 --> 40:14.997 of the Roman Empire is at least glimpsed as a 40:15.000 --> 40:18.870 possibility and the rise of the barbarians, Augustine has 40:18.867 --> 40:23.527 become someone who does not believe that human beings can, 40:23.533 --> 40:27.933 in any way, earn salvation. 40:27.933 --> 40:30.203 Human beings are irrevocably sinful. 40:33.533 --> 40:37.333 Once again, if God judged people according to their 40:37.333 --> 40:41.373 merits, they would all be damned. 40:41.367 --> 40:48.527 Since the Christian belief is that some people are saved, 40:48.533 --> 40:54.533 they are saved by a mysterious process called "grace." Grace, 40:54.533 --> 40:59.003 by its very meaning, is undeserved. 40:59.000 --> 41:03.600 You don't show up at the door of Heaven with a ticket of 41:03.600 --> 41:06.970 admission earned by your deeds on Earth. 41:09.500 --> 41:13.770 What opens the doors to you is a 41:13.767 --> 41:17.497 generous, arbitrary decision. 41:17.500 --> 41:21.630 Well, "generous" may mean, I had good intentions. 41:21.633 --> 41:22.873 I didn't kill anybody. 41:27.300 --> 41:32.070 But "arbitrary" may mean that we can't figure out who's 41:32.067 --> 41:35.667 going to Heaven and who's going to Hell. 41:35.667 --> 41:41.697 It may even mean that since God knew before we were born, 41:41.700 --> 41:47.100 God predestined us for Heaven or Hell. 41:47.100 --> 41:48.170 This is a harsh doctrine. 41:48.167 --> 41:51.597 It gets periodically rediscovered and then dropped. 41:51.600 --> 41:54.530 It's at the heart of the belief of the people who 41:54.533 --> 41:56.733 settled Massachusetts and Connecticut. 41:56.733 --> 42:00.873 It is the heart of Calvinism and of Puritanism, the belief 42:00.867 --> 42:03.027 in the elect. 42:03.033 --> 42:06.673 The question is, are these elect visible or invisible? 42:06.667 --> 42:08.467 The elect are people who are going to go to heaven. 42:11.267 --> 42:13.027 Are they visible? 42:13.033 --> 42:17.733 Can we say, this guy is so good, he's going to heaven? 42:17.733 --> 42:25.373 This woman is so loving, nurturing, self-effacing, 42:25.367 --> 42:27.867 whatever, she's going to go to heaven? 42:27.867 --> 42:30.727 That's the notion of a visible elect. 42:30.733 --> 42:37.733 An invisible elect is, "We don't know, we have no idea." 42:37.733 --> 42:38.933 And this is a crucial difference. 42:38.933 --> 42:41.973 Because if you believe in the visible elect, even if you say 42:41.967 --> 42:45.627 they're not guaranteed, but anybody outside of this circle 42:45.633 --> 42:48.103 is for sure going to hell, then you 42:48.100 --> 42:50.830 have Puritan New England. 42:50.833 --> 42:56.303 You have a small community of people pursuing perfection. 42:56.300 --> 42:59.770 Or you have the Amish. 42:59.767 --> 43:05.867 Or you have any small pious community that believes that 43:05.867 --> 43:11.027 outside of it is more or less given over to sin and more or 43:11.033 --> 43:13.433 less doomed. 43:13.433 --> 43:17.133 Inside of it, maybe it's not guaranteed, but your chances 43:17.133 --> 43:18.433 are much, much better. 43:22.167 --> 43:28.797 But if you believe that we don't have a visible elect, 43:28.800 --> 43:32.130 that we have no idea, then everybody ought 43:32.133 --> 43:34.303 to be in the Church. 43:34.300 --> 43:39.230 Everybody ought to have access to the sacraments that provide 43:39.233 --> 43:43.133 initiation into the Church. 43:43.133 --> 43:46.833 You ought to start converting pagans, even savage pagans. 43:46.833 --> 43:50.433 You ought to be out there roping in as many people into 43:50.433 --> 43:52.333 the church, including people who don't want to be. 43:54.833 --> 43:55.903 Because you just never know. 43:55.900 --> 43:57.170 Maybe their kids will be. 43:59.700 --> 44:06.570 Augustine is behind ideas of things like forced conversion. 44:06.567 --> 44:08.397 As long as they're baptized, there's a chance 44:08.400 --> 44:10.330 of them being saved. 44:10.333 --> 44:15.173 And baptized as infants, preferably, because baptism 44:15.167 --> 44:20.697 does not any longer mean, in Augustine's world, perfection. 44:20.700 --> 44:22.130 It means the beginning. 44:22.133 --> 44:25.633 It means entering the process. 44:28.867 --> 44:32.167 So the three things that he is teaching that are implicit in 44:32.167 --> 44:36.727 the Confessions and that he is important for in terms of his 44:36.733 --> 44:42.573 intellectual impact are his opposition to perfectionism, 44:42.567 --> 44:50.597 his exaltation of grace, and the notion of sin as 44:50.600 --> 44:52.800 indelible, not solvable. 44:57.133 --> 45:01.903 Where this becomes of key historical importance is in 45:01.900 --> 45:04.270 the Church. 45:04.267 --> 45:10.427 The Church is a body that can either be sectarian and small, 45:10.433 --> 45:17.733 as with the Amish or Puritan New England, or it can be huge 45:17.733 --> 45:21.433 and universal, as with the medieval Catholic Church. 45:21.433 --> 45:24.403 Augustine stands behind the medieval Catholic Church, 45:24.400 --> 45:30.200 which is a political body, a body of doctrine, a structure 45:30.200 --> 45:35.330 ruled by princes, and a structure that has a 45:35.333 --> 45:41.003 missionary impact on the rest of the world. 45:41.000 --> 45:42.970 Now, the papers. 45:42.967 --> 45:44.097 You have the paper topics. 45:44.100 --> 45:48.270 If you didn't get them, come up and see me after. 45:48.267 --> 45:50.327 You can choose any one of them, or you can choose 45:50.333 --> 45:51.633 something else. 45:51.633 --> 45:54.533 But if you choose something else, please talk to your 45:54.533 --> 45:56.673 teaching fellow or to me. 45:56.667 --> 45:58.527 And talk to us anyway about these papers. 45:58.533 --> 46:01.003 We'll give you plenty of opportunity to 46:01.000 --> 46:02.770 bounce ideas off us. 46:02.767 --> 46:07.527 Now, next week, we talk about the fall of the Roman Empire. 46:07.533 --> 46:10.703 But this is implicit in what we've talked about today, 46:10.700 --> 46:13.700 because the bottom line is the Roman Empire is going to fall 46:13.700 --> 46:17.070 in the West, and the Church is not going to. 46:17.067 --> 46:20.997 And so we'll look at how that works next week. 46:21.000 --> 46:22.270 Thanks.