Care for Cultural Narratives
Augustine’s awareness of the prevailing cultural narratives (origins and destination stories) illustrates a certain intellectual hospitality. It was his pastoral duty to understand the stories of his community. It was his gift to the Church to evaluate how those stories—especially the story of Rome—aligned with the Christian story in places but fundamentally differed in others. Augustine’s analysis has stood the test of time, not because of ongoing intrigue about Roman history, but rather as a case study par-excellence in cultural exegesis.
Commitment to the Bible
Though well-informed on the authorities of the day and the dominant cultural narratives, Augustine’s commitment to the biblical story remained unshakable and utterly integral to his thought. He could not conceive of the world and everything therein apart from the story of God in Christ. This was not because Augustine believed he had bullet-proof answers to every difficult theological, philosophical, or cultural question. But because the Christian story accounts for questions better than any other, grounded not in theory or ideology, but on the authority of the risen Christ, ‘in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ With the Bible in one hand and the Nicene Creed in the other, Augustine pressed ahead in ‘faith seeking understanding’ about God, about being human, and about our human responsibility in God’s world.
Confidence in Providence
“Why God?” is not an accusatory question in City of God, but rather a practice in faith seeking understanding. For example, why did God allow Rome to dominate? Augustine’s reflections begin with the faithful assumption that God is right and just to allow such events and thus pursues the question with a Christian confidence in God’s providence over all things, including history. Augustine suggested that because Rome celebrated qualities like glory and honor, God used Rome to advance his own purpose. Though Rome was misguided in their appropriation of virtue, God used the notion to instill qualities such as prudence, courage, fortitude, and temperance as personal and societal goods. Ultimately, Augustine saw the rise of Rome as creating the cultural conditions most conducive to the spread of Christianity.
Consideration of Culture Broadly
Modern evangelicals in the west often reduce cultural reflection to moral do’s and don’ts mixed with a certain separatism, or at least incongruence, between the Christian life and life in the world. This is an oversimplification that needs nuance, admittedly, but the broad strokes are accurate. Augustine’s approach was quite different. He was acutely attentive to the cultural products and phenomena around him. The arts, political activity, education, literature, poetry, the nature of communities and individuals—Augustine considered it all, tracing the surface-level actions back to the appetites to understand not just the “what” of cultural movements, but also the “why” and “unto what end.”
Contemporary Relevance
We may describe our current cultural moment as a “follow your heart” culture—a bumper-sticker label for “expressive individualism” or Charles Taylor’s “age of authenticity” category. Augustine’s context was not drastically different. Since Socrates, there was general agreement around the notion that everyone pursues happiness (beatitudo) even if defined differently. Augustine seized upon this common ground to alert his readers to their shared desire for happiness, but ultimately reframed it with Christ as the beginning, end, and way of true happiness. When ordered rightly then, the expression, “follow your heart” is right and good. But, if ordered according to anything other than Christ, it will never transcend the city of man.
Couched in a Heart-First Anthropology
Augustine is well-known for clarifying that people are “feelers” first, meaning that we lead with our hearts not our heads. The phrase I found myself repeating most throughout the year was, “Follow the loves!” Just as white-collar crime investigators often say, “Follow the money,” to find the criminal, Augustine would say “Follow the loves” to understand why cultural foliage emerges as it does.
As communities made up of individual “lovers” (not romantic lovers, but people in general) collectively order their loves around cultural products such as artistic expressions, sports, work, productivity, freedom and equality (however defined), family, glory, valor, etcetera, it can be difficult to gain the distance necessary to trace cultural movements and trends. Like fish, we are hardly aware of the very water we swim in. One way to gain perspective is to, “Follow the loves.”
By asking the questions, “What does the culture love and celebrate?” “Why?” and, “Unto what end?” Augustine masterfully considers these questions. Then, with even greater skill he offers the pilgrimage to the City of God as the superior journey that promises true happiness unto eternity, grounded and directed by the person of Christ.
More could and should be said about Augustine’s cultural insights and theological development, especially on topics such as angels and demons, the nature of evil, war, last things and more. But perhaps this will serve as an appetizer for Augustine’s hearty five-course meal in City of God. As ever with Augustine, tolle lege!
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