Catholic Thought discussion
City of God, St. Augustine
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Book IX
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There are no good demons. Only Christ can provide us with perpetual happiness.St. Augustine examines the opinions of Romans regarding the gods. Some believe there are both good and bad gods as there are those who believe that all gods are good. Are there any good demons who can act as mediators between men and the higher gods? Apuleius attributes reason to them but not virtue.
St. Augustine considers the teaching of the Stoic Epictetus and concludes that there is difference between him and other philosophers regarding mental perturbations, which invade the mind. Both schools agree that both the mind and reason of wise men are not subject to them. St. Augustine disagrees with the Stoics however in their condemnation of compassion. Cicero praised Caesar for saying “Among your virtues none is more admirable and agreeable than compassion.” If this is a vice to the Stoics, it is virtue to Cicero. Sadness or anger are occasions to exercise virtue to a Christian by relieving those suffering or in danger.
When we consider the demons, however Apuleius saw “their hearts are tossed with passions as the sea by stormy wind.” They are “subject to fear, anger, lust, and all similar affections.” How can they guide men into “purity of life?” They are more likely to deceive and seduce men to what they desire.
I am conjecturing that the reason that pagans saw a need for intermediaries between gods and men is because they did not believe gods could see or hear the desires of men on earth or even had interest in men. There arose the dispute whether those that inhabited the airy regions between men and gods could be relied on to act as intermediaries. There is much debate and disagreement over the nature of these demons. The poets often malign gods as demons or make them friends. Can men depend on demons to obtain the friendship of gods towards the supplicants?
St. Augustine considers the nature of demons and concludes that men are “less wretched than demons” because the demons who are both body and soul are immortal and their bodies are subject to eternal suffering.
(There are other less interesting deliberations in this long Book IX taking the reader through some hypercriticism over the issue of the demons of the air that is worthy of “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas.)
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Manny wrote: "I'm not exactly sure where Augustine is coming from with this chapter. I never heard of demons in my understanding of the Greco-Roman pagan mythology. But I'm not expert. But everything Augustine l..."This was unfamiliar to me as well Manny. I just finished “Lives of Ancient Philosophers" by Fénelon in which he writes on page 172-173:
“Plato in fact established, in his ‘Epinomis,’ three ranks or classes of gods; superior, inferior, and intermediate. According to him, the superior gods dwell in the heavens, and are so far elevated above the human race, both by the excellence of their nature, and by the place they inhabit, that mankind can only have intercourse with them through the intervention of the intermediate gods, whose habitations are in the air, and whom he styles demons. These demons act as ministers between the superior gods and the human race; conveying the commands of the gods to man, and the prayers and offerings of man to the gods.”
Fenelon was a French Roman Catholic theologian. Fenelon does not mention St. Augustine’s severe criticism of Plato’s “intermediate gods” or demons as if he was unfamiliar with “City of God.”
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It is challenging to keep things together to experience fuller benefits of reading this serious classic in jumps over the course of a calendar year. We still we have not yet read the first half. There is natural braking point after Book X and the rest of this work. St. Augustine writes at the conclusion of Book X what he tried to do in the first ten books. He says he was “refuting the objections of the ungodly who prefer their own gods to the Founder of the holy city, about which we undertook to speak . . . the first five (books) were directed against those who think we should worship the gods for the sake of the blessings of this life, and the second five against those who think we should worship them for the sake of the life which is to be after death.”
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Subchapters
- Apuleius on the Demons and the Passions
- Philosophic Views of the Passions
-Scripture on the Passions
-The Demons’ Mind, the Highest Part of the Soul, Is Subject to the Passions
-All Demons are Subject to the Passions
-The Demons: Immortal Body, Vice-Ridden Soul
-In What Sense are the Demons Intermediate Between Gods and Man?
-Good Demons: a Logical Impossibility
-Evil Mediators and the Good Mediator
-God, the Gods, the Demons and the Issue of Contamination by Human Contact
-Good Angels are not Good Demons
-The Pride of the Demons, the Humility of Christ, and the Good Angels
-Good Angels and the Gods
-Conclusion: Neither Angels nor Demons are Mediators to Be Worshipped for the Sake of Eternal Life
Augustine in this Book describes the nature of demons as conceptualized by pagans, and shows they are not the equivalent of angels. He shows that neither angels nor demons are mediators to God, and that neither angels nor demons should be worshipped in any way.