Augustinism

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Under Augustinism is reception of Christian theologians and church father Augustine of Hippo understood (354-430). The term is used to describe the history of Augustine's influence, especially in the history of the West .

Features and meaning

Wilhelm Geerlings highlighted two general aspects as the main characteristics of Augustinism: 1. The dualistic division of reality . 2. An epistemological principle derived from this dualism of transcending the sensual to an invisible world . Specifically, Augustine's considerations about the state of God ( De civitate Dei ), about the Trinity ( De Trinitate ), predestination , original sin and grace have determined the further discussions on the great topics of theology up to the present day. In this sense Augustinism is “ a basic structure of Western theology ”.

The extent to which Augustinism could have transported Gnostic ideas into Western history is largely unexplored . Augustine, who was a follower of Manichaeism for several years before he became an opponent of this religion and turned to Christianity, understood world history as a tremendous conflict between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of evil . The philosopher Ernst Cassirer noted in this context that " the continuing influence that the Manichaean teaching exercised on Augustine, even after the break with Manichaeism, does not receive sufficient attention ". With this view he explicitly referred to a series of lectures by Richard Reitzenstein from the years 1922 and 1923. In his book Political Gnosis, however, the Gnosis researcher Sonnenschmidt did not commit himself to a direct connection between ancient gnosis and political gnosis in modern times . Rather, he pointed out this aspect as a research perspective and asked himself, also with explicit and exemplary reference to Augustine: “ The arc that is spanned in the investigation from the late antique Gnosis to the modern Gnosis opens up new research perspectives, which are summarized under the general point of view whether there is a developmental line or developmental ›logic‹ of Gnosis, at least in the West . "

A significant and momentous issue which Augustine in his opposition to the Pelagian turned his time was the question of the free will of man. According to Augustine, who appealed to Paul in this regard , sin is not a free act. All human good will depends on God ; a thought that later moved Luther too . Ferdinand Baur pointed out that " the Augustinian doctrine of original sin even goes beyond the Manichaean concept of sin and freedom ". According to Baur, Augustine asserted exactly the same freedom for the original state of Adam as Pelagius for man as a whole. So he started from the freedom of man, only to drop it again immediately. The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk pointed out that the Augustine phenomenon became “ fateful in terms of the history of ideas and mentality ”, “ because through him the most moving thought of the ancient world, Plato's interpretation of love as homesickness for the pre-existent intuated good , a momentous, darkening new interpretation, yes was subjected to a reversal ”. And he added: “ Augustine opened the floodgates through which primary masochistic energies have been flowing into European thought ever since ; he made the human incurable the main motive of his interpretation of reality - with a radicalism that almost elevated him to the rank of force majeure .

To the history of the impact

Shortly after the death of Augustine, the reception of his writings began to be "frayed", which meant that his ways of thinking were only partially conveyed to the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages . Thus, only the early writings of Augustine were included in the epistemological discussion and in the question of the ontological proof of God . Medieval thinkers were also interested in the political aspects of Augustine's writings. The main focus of "political Augustinism" was directed to his work on the state of God ( De civitate Dei ).

Especially for the Franciscanism a "strong Augustinism" has always been characteristic. For the late Middle Ages, the philosopher and theologian Bonaventure (1221–1274) should be mentioned in this regard . Augustine was also received by Gerard Groote (1340–1384), who was also interested in Bernhard von Clairvaux , was a pupil of Jan van Ruysbroek and later founded his own brotherhood . The most important writing of this brotherhood, which found considerable circulation, was the imitation of Christ .

In terms of the history of ideas , Augustinism can also be traced back to the time of the Renaissance and Reformation . So above all in the doctrine of grace and justification as well as in the conception of two “ kingdoms ” of the church reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546). The Council of Trent , whose resolutions were formulated in opposition to the reform efforts of the early modern period , however, showed a different Augustine with regard to the doctrine of grace, church and sacraments .

The new discoveries during the Renaissance led to uncertainty. Contrary to the Christian view held by Augustine, the discoveries had shown that there are a multitude of earthly worlds and the possibility of a discussion about the polygenetic origin of mankind could not be ruled out. Even the most stubborn defenders of the medieval worldview, especially the Jesuits , tried to reconcile the new facts with old principles by using the philosophical term experience “ to explain how and why Augustine could err ”. The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) also made a corresponding attempt to reinterpret Augustine. Leibniz was of the opinion that the ancient view of the “tinyness” of the universe prevented Augustine from giving an adequate explanation for evil .

The Jansenism of the 17th and 18th centuries dealt primarily with the "dark" ways of thinking of Augustine and dealt with his doctrine of grace.

Likewise, ideas from Augustine can be found in the work of the political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), for whom the question of human freedom in the political, civic community was the focus of his considerations. The philosopher Susan Neiman wrote:

“Like Augustine, Rousseau saw God's greatest gift in human freedom; like Augustine, he tirelessly described how much we abuse them. Unlike Augustine, Rousseau thinks that the Fall and the possible redemption from it can be explained quite naturally . Of course, here means: scientific as opposed to theological . Rousseau places history in place of theology, and in place of grace, pedagogical psychology . "

The reception of Augustine's ways of thinking can also be demonstrated in the philosophy of the 20th century, for example in Max Scheler (1874–1928) and Martin Heidegger (1889–1976).

Hannah Arendt (1905–1975) laid in her 1929 dissertation Der Liebesbegriff in Augustin for the first time - following a thesis in the Confessions - the basis for her view of the outstanding importance of birth (later birth, natality) compared to a philosophy of death. In her works she often quotes a passage from Augustine's De civitate Dei :

"Initium ut esset, creatus est homo, ante quem nullus fuit." "Man was created so that there could be a beginning."

In political theology at the turn of the century, Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930) was of outstanding importance. In his Augustin , published in 1922, Harnack postulated his demand for a “ new Augustinism ” in which “ the reverence for God as the source of all high goods permeates the knowledge and attitudes of the people, establishes true freedom and a covenant of justice and of Creates peace ”. Harnack's gaze was directed towards a renewal of culture in the sense of an idealistic intellectual deepening, without being directed against the achievements of modernity . He argued massively against Oswald Spengler's book The Downfall of the West , which was popular at the time, with his Augustinus reception. Harnack received great praise for his writing Augustin from the poet Gerhart Hauptmann (1862–1946).

In his book God's First Love, first published in 1968, the cultural historian Friedrich Heer stated that fear of the sexes was a characteristic of Augustinism. Heer used the terms "Augustinism" and "Manichaeism" as a double epithet and made a reference to modern anti-Semitism . He wrote that at the time of his writing, “ church campaigns against sexualization, against the sex wave through town and country ” were going on. And he added: “ They are based on Augustinian and Manichaean foundations. Latent Manichaeism is the cancerous disease of Christianity. Anti-Semitism likes to settle in metastases of this cancer . "

literature

  • Gustav Friedrich Wiggers : Attempt at a pragmatic representation of Augustinism and Pelagianism according to their historical development . Hamburg 1833. Google Books
  • Odilo Rottmanner : Augustinism . A study of the history of dogma . Published by the publishing house of JJ Lentner'schen Buchhandlung, 1892.
  • Ernst Bernheim : Medieval views of time in their influence on politics and historiography . Tübingen 1918. (Reprint, Tübingen 1964, DNB .)
  • Ricarda Winterswyl: Contributions to political Augustinism and Neo-Platonism in the medieval. Doctrine of law, with particular consideration of the host . Diss., Munich 1958.
  • Georg Denzler : The forbidden pleasure . 2000 years of Christian sexual morality, Munich 1988. (New edition, Weyarn 1997, ISBN 3-932131-04-5 .)
  • Karl Löwith : World history and salvation events . The theological presuppositions of the philosophy of history. Stuttgart 1953. (New edition, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-476-02010-X .)
  • Dietrich Ritschl: The burden of the Augustinian heritage . In: Parrhesia . Karl Barth on his 80th birthday. Zurich 1966, pp. 470-490.
  • Susanne Hausammann: Old Church . Vol. 3: God's trinity - human freedom. Trinity doctrine, beginnings of monasticism, Augustine and Augustinism. On the history and theology of 4./5. Century. Neukirchen-Vluyn 2003, ISBN 3-7887-1922-2 .
  • Traugott Koch / Stephan von Twardowski: The emergence of Lutheran piety . The reception of pseud-Augustinian prayer texts in the revision of early Lutheran authors ( Andreas Musculus , Martin Moller , Philipp Kegel , Philipp Nicolai ). Waltrop 2004, ISBN 3-89991-021-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Wilhelm Geerlings: Augustinism . In: Volker Drehsen / Hermann Häring u. a. (Ed.): Dictionary of Christianity . 1500 keywords from AZ. Munich 2001, p. 111, ISBN 3-572-01248-1 .
  2. ↑ a b Henning Reventlow: Epochs of biblical interpretation . From late antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. Munich 1994, pp. 87 f., ISBN 3-406-34986-2 .
  3. ↑ Rüdiger Safranski : The Evil or The Drama of Freedom . Munich / Vienna 1997, p. 50; Stuart Holroyd: Gnosticism . Translated from the English by Martin Engelbrecht. Braunschweig 1995, p. 73 ff.
  4. ↑ Eric Voegelin : The political religions . Edited by Peter J. Opitz. Munich 1993, p. 35.
  5. ↑ Ernst Cassirer : Individual and Cosmos in the Philosophy of the Renaissance . The Platonic Renaissance in England and the Cambridge School. Hamburg 2002, p. 295, ISBN 3-7873-1414-8 . (Source: Richard Reitzenstein: Augustin as an ancient and as a medieval person. In: Lectures of the Warburg Library . Ed. By Fritz Saxel. Vol. 2: Lectures 1922–1923. Leipzig / Berlin 1924, pp. 28–65.)
  6. ↑ Reinhard W. Sonnenschmidt: Political Gnosis . Belief in alienation and illusion of immortality in religion and political philosophy of late antiquity, Munich 2001, p. 261, ISBN 3-7705-3626-6 .
  7. ↑ a b Volker Henning Drecoll: The emergence of Augustine's doctrine of grace . Tübingen 1999, p. 2, ISBN 3-16-147046-X . (Source: Ferdinand Christian Baur: The Manichaean religious system . New version based on the edition of 1831, Göttingen 1928, DNB .)
  8. ^ A b Peter Sloterdijk: preliminary remarks . In: Kurt Flasch: Augustinus . Munich 2000, p. 8 f., ISBN 3-423-30692-0 .
  9. ↑ a b Henning Reventlow: Epochs of biblical interpretation . From late antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. Munich 1994, p. 213 f.
  10. ^ Ruggiero Romano / Alberto Tenenti : The foundation of the modern world . Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation. Fischer World History Volume 12. Frankfurt a. M. 1994, p. 108.
  11. ^ A b Ruggiero Romano / Alberto Tenenti: The foundation of the modern world . Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation. Fischer World History Volume 12. Frankfurt a. M. 1994, p. 201.
  12. ↑ Susan Neiman : Thinking Evil . Another story of philosophy. Frankfurt a. M. 2004, p. 56, ISBN 3-518-58389-1 .
  13. ^ Hiltrud Naßmacher: Political Science . Munich / Vienna / Oldenbourg 1994, p. 308 f., ISBN 3-486-22393-3 .
  14. ↑ Susan Neiman : Thinking Evil . Another story of philosophy. Frankfurt a. M. 2004, p. 80.
  15. ↑ Ludger Lütkehaus (ed.) Foreword. In: Hannah Arendt: Augustin's concept of love. Attempt at a philosophical interpretation. Berlin Vienna 2003 pp. 7–15.
  16. ↑ From Book 12, quoted from: Ludger Lütkehaus (ed.) Preface. In: Hannah Arendt: Augustin's concept of love. Attempt at a philosophical interpretation. Berlin Vienna 2003 p. 8.
  17. ^ A b Christian Nottmeier: Adolf von Harnack and German Politics 1890–1930 . A biographical study of the relationship between Protestantism, science and politics. Tübingen 2004, p. 487, ISBN 3-16-148154-2 .
  18. ↑ Friedrich Heer: God's first love . The Jews in the field of tension of history. Frankfurt a. M. / Berlin 1986, p. 520 f.