ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO 13 November 354 – 28 August 430
Doctor of the Church | Bishop
Philosopher | Theologian Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY INTRODUCTION Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY It is absurd for someone to be without friend. The human person is naturally sociable in nature and this is exhibited more in these modern times where there are different kinds of associations, coalitions and associations. It is also usual to see welcoming ties within a family and within academic, and religious communities. Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY For St. Augustine of Hippo, friendship is one of the most indispensable life’s possession.
Friendship is at the core of human
existence
“… what could make me happier than
to love and be loved” (Confessions II, 2; III, 1) Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Here in LCUP, as an Augustinian school, we value true friendship above all other core achievements within the school. To live friendship is to live as one with each other in truth and love. It is Unitas, Veritas, Caritas. We value true friendship.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
In Augustine’s life there are many stories of friendship but his book Confessions is not a story of those friendships – Confessions, his best known book, is a story of how he comes to understand the mirror relationships of friendship with one another in terms of our relationship with God.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIP TO AUGUSTINE Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Few people in human history have lived friendship as intensely as Augustine did. Throughout his life he was a person who could not live without friends: to "love and to be loved was the sweetest thing to me" (Confessions, 3, 1, 1). Augustine stated that there are two things necessary for "life in this world: health and a friend" (Sermon 229, D, 1). Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendships were for him of supreme importance. He always lived with an attitude of openness to others. Among other things, his Confessions is a history of his friendships, some bad (Confessions, 2, 4, 7-9, 17) and others good although simply human (Confessions, 6, 7, 11-16, 26).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Some of his friendships - like that with Alypius - matured and acquired a different character; they acquired an eternal quality that was founded in his Christian faith. In as far as Augustine came closer to God, his concept and practice of friendship became deeper and deeper.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
This was especially so even at the point of his converting to the Christian faith, when he thought that the ideal Christian living would be to dwell with his friends in community, having everything in common, and in calm leisure to the study the Bible. (Confessions, 6, 14, 24).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Later in his life, Augustine continued living this vision of friendship with those who shared community life in the monasteries he founded, and with those who, like himself, were called to be church leaders in North Africa: Alypius, Possidius and Evodius.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
He maintained to the end of his life his natural clannishness as an African. As a number of his close friends at Hippo were called by the Church to become bishops of other dioceses, his circle of face-to-face friends grew smaller, and this was one of the great trials of his life.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
In Letter 84, he reflected, "But when you yourself begin to have to surrender some of the very dearest and sweetest of those whom you have reared to the needs of churches located far away from you, then you will understand the pangs of longing that stab me on losing the physical presence of friends united to me in the most close and sweet friendship." Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY "There is no greater consolation than the sincere loyalty and mutual love of ... true friends" (City of God, 447). God was at the core of friendship for Augustine.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
THE SIGNS OF GOOD FRIENDSHIP Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship can be a key human component in our growth towards God. Of everything that exists in the natural world, Augustine held that only true friendship could lead one to God. He saw friendship as a relationship between two people, one that was based on love, leading each friend to work for the other's happiness. Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship is an image of the love of God for us, according to Augustine, since authentic and generous friendship mirrors the love that Christ showed for us on the Cross, and which He described teaching that "no greater love can one have than to lay down one's life for one's friend" (John 15:13).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
"For what else is friendship but this? It gets its name from love alone, is faithful only in Christ, and in him alone can it be eternal and happy." (Against Two Pelagian Letters 1, 1).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
"I know that I can safely entrust my thoughts and considerations to those who are aflame with Christian love and have become faithful friends to me. For I am entrusting them not to another human, but to God in whom they dwell and by whom they are who they are." (Letter 73, 3).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
THE GOAL OF FRIENDSHIP Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY It is a common notion that the Great Father Augustine’s understanding of friendship is inspired by both Neo- Platonism and Cicero. Augustine utilized these ideas as spring board and absolutely further new Christian I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that viewpoints to them. are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
From Neo-Platonism came two ideas of the goal of friendship. The first idea is that one sees in the friend an image of the Beautiful which one’s soul longs for. (Phaedrus, 250-251; Symposium, 210-212).
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
The second perspective of the goal of friendship adopted from Neo-Platonism comes from the Lysis which states that the main goal of friends is to endeavour together for ideas. This goal is regarded as extrinsic to either of them in friendship. As long as the friend is there to help me attain knowledge, he is useful.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
From these two ideologies of the goal of friendship one can define a friend as that person in whom one treasures the image of that Beauty which one is seeking or that person who strives for the same thoughts or philosophies.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
St. Augustine adopts the neo-platonic idea of friendship as helping each other seek knowledge. No matter how moral the ultimate reason/object is, it is still not the friend that is loved in essence.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Augustine’s idea of friendship was enormously influenced by Cicero. Cicero defined friendship in this way:
“Now friendship is nothing other than
the most complete agreement on all points divine and human, combined with goodwill and love” (De Amicitia, VI, 20)
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Augustine’s version of the Ciceronian idea of friendship displays a departure and advancement from his neo-platonic expressions. At least, in this later perspective, the friend is considered to be important, and not just what one can get from or through the friend.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF FRIENDSHIP Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY For St. Augustine, it is not all forms of union, camaraderie, and companionship that can be considered as true friendship. Informed by his individual real experience of friendship, Augustine believes that certain forms of friendship are either incomplete or fake.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Having discovered Christ, he became critical of certain forms of friendship. He was committed, after this conversion that true friendship has to include God and exclude evil and selfishness.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
RECIPROCAL LOVE AND COMMITMENT Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY For Augustine true friendship must include love, and this love must be mutual. Friendship is a very distinct type of love, the reciprocal love of one person for another. (Van Bavel, 1980) The spirit of friendship, therefore, in the thinking of Augustine, is a reciprocal love that is based on the sharing of the same commitment. Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY SELF-TRANSCENDENCE Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship is self-transcending in the sense that the person has to look outside himself as he engages into a friendship. The other person has lots of value that one may not know at the beginning, that is why it is important to give ample time for friendship to flourish and grow.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
ENTAILS TRUST Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY There has to be trust that the love one contributes in friendship will be reciprocated by the person to whom one exhibits that love. In the love of friendship reciprocity destroys fear and provides certainty and security (Letter 192, 1)
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
It is in this state that the persons in friendship can “become one”. Augustine actually labels his friend as his “Other Self”: “As you are my other self, what better topic of conversation could there be, than one already held with myself?” (Letter 38, 1)
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
CONCLUSION Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Augustine’s understanding of friendship is very tangible and very human. He does not over-spiritualize the concept of friendship nor does he treat it as something totally ordinary and without the help of God. He gives a very important place to friendship in life existence. Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY It is not astounding, therefore, that the spirituality of St Augustine is centred on a special form of friendship called community life. We cannot totally associate friendship with community life though, because within a community of friends, some sort of bond can be found.
Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY
Our society that is complete with strife, suspicion, rancour, unhealthy competition and different forms of wickedness is in need of love, but desperately needs more of friendship. In other words, following Augustine’s understanding of friendship, we need more of reciprocal and mutual love than a grudging love of our enemies. Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY Friendship in the Light of St. Augustine : UNITY LEADING TO COMMUNITY