Towards the end of Augustine's first book of Doctrine, he begins to reflect on the value of material things in life. His view is that the Christian's goal in life is to love God, and love others as yourself. Because our only true enjoyment should come from eternal things, from things of the Lord, we shouldn't love or enjoy things that don't have eternal purpose.
"'Enjoy' ...in the sense of to "use with delight" For when the thing that we love is near us, it is a matter of course that it should bring delight with it. And if you pass beyond this delight, and make it a means to that which you are permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse of language to say that you enjoy it."
Is Augustine saying that all things aesthetic are useless? In Chapter 22, he says that "neither ought any one to have joy in himself...but for the sake of Him who is the true object of enjoyment." Even later he says that God doesn't enjoy us- He loves us, but he can't enjoy us for our own sake because he "uses" us. I am not exactly sure the point or the impact of what Augustine is saying.
I think I agree with the fact that our satisfaction should come from God, but there is much spiritual and emotional value to be found in things that are not utilitarian by technical standards.
I love your thought process! I'm going to write on this for my blog. In defense of God the utilitarian.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are pretty spot on, but there is one thing I want to clarify. Augustine does state that God's love of us through his use of us isn't in terms of our use of objects. Instead, Augustine states that "God, however, in His use of us, has reference to His own goodness. For it is because He is good we exist". So I think we have to tweak the our conception of "use" slightly from our use of objects to God's use of us from Augustine's view.
ReplyDelete