Augustine's Invention of the Inner Self: The Legacy of a Christian Platonist by Phillip Cary

by Phillip Cary

In this book, Phillip Cary argues that Augustine invented the concept of the self as a private inner space-a space into which one can enter and in which one can find God. Although it has often been suggested that Augustine in some way inaugurated the Western tradition of inwardness, this is the first study to pinpoint what was new about Augustine's philosophy of inwardness and situate it within a narrative of his intellectual development and his relationship to the Platonist tradition.Augustine invents the inner self, Cary argues, in order to solve a particular conceptual problem. Augustine is attracted to the Neoplatonist inward turn, which located God within the soul, yet remains loyal to the orthodox Catholic teaching that the soul is not divine. He combines the two emphases by urging us to turn "in then up"--to enter the inner world of the self before gazing at the divine Light above the human mind.Cary situates Augustine's idea of the self historically in both the Platonist and the Christian traditions. The concept of private inner self, he shows, is a development within the history of the Platonist concept of intelligibility or intellectual vision, which establishes a kind of kinship between the human intellect and the divine things it sees. Though not the only Platonist in the Christian tradition, Augustine stands out for his devotion to this concept of intelligibility and his willingness to apply it even to God. This leads him to downplay the doctrine that God is incomprehensible, as he is convinced that it is natural for the mind's eye, when cleansed of sin, to see and understand God.In describing Augustine's invention of the inner self, Cary's fascinating book sheds new light on Augustine's life and thought, and shows how Augustine's position developed into the more orthodox Augustine we know from his later writings.

Genres: Religion, History, Philosophy, Theology

Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Ben Smitthimedhin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I disagree with Tim Keller on a lot of things, I still remember listening to one of his lectures delivered at Wheaton on the false concept of a fixed identity and having an existential crisis right after. Now I know it's trendy to deconstruct this and that or whatever, but you have to understand that I've always been interested in finding out what the hell is wrong with me as a person (hint: the fall). And yeah, enneagrams are cool and I've shed a few tears after discovering some of the insecurities that I haven't dealt with, but I also tend to agree with Fr. Martin Laird that these self-discovery tools build themselves on the (false?) assumption of a fixed self.

So I was curious as to where this idea came from and went looking and found Cary's detailed analysis of Augustine's concept of the "soul" in Western culture as an empty space where one can introspect one's self to death. He traces the Platonic tradition of the soul, a concept which has existed even before Plato began writing but became ever more complex in its development through Neoplatonism and up to Augustine's own time.

Cary argues that Augustine borrows heavily from Plotinus, who claims that the substance of the soul and God are one. But Augustine couldn't just accept it like a good Neoplatonist because Christian orthodoxy didn't allow it. According to Nicaea, you don't find God in the soul; you find God as manifest in Christ. So Augustine has had to invent a new idea of the "inner self" that isn't God: yes, the soul is fallen and it's not technically God but THROUGH it, (maybe?) you can come to find that it exists in this awkward position as something that's both bodily and divine? And boom: The Confessions was born.

Cary's position is an interesting one as he is an Augustine scholar, but he is also such a big critic of Augustine (siding more with the Lutheran tradition as an Episcopalian). Cary seems to draw a strong binary between internal/external, that relying on Jesus means relying on something outside of the self - contra Augustine. Though his analysis is great, I wish he would've dealt with the issue of the Holy Spirit who resides within us and whether that changes the dynamic of his question.

[Mike Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gets so deep in his research of Plato, Aristotle and Socrates that he forgets his thesis, and ignores the Inner Self, that he claims Augustine invented. However, this is a good look at Platonic thought from the Christian perspective, even if it maybe adds a few dimensions that were not in Plato's original literature, such as the notion that the Forms are ethereal, removed from our fractal, fallen actuality, existing perhaps in Heaven, with Jehovah/Yahweh/Elohim/Gott who is, in His Divine Supremacy, both a Form and an actuality.

Give a bullsh***er enough material, and he/she make something interesting, I says, however, but I do note the depth of research/scholarship of the author clearly makes the B.S. descriptor miss the mark.

This is one of those books in which you read it and as you go along, you make a little list of other books to read after it, based on the author's references.

[Patricia Pryor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely detailed exploration of the subject. Phillip Cary is a top notch professor and author.