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| The brightest redemption through the darkest death. The greatest light through the blackest darkness. Albrecht Dürer, The Great Calvary. |
In Confessions 10.23.33, Augustine says that all men seek after happiness. Nevertheless, not all men seek true happiness, but only what they perceive to be true happiness. In fact, "a happy life is joy in the truth." But God is Truth, and "this is a joying in Thee, Who art the Truth, O God my light, health of my countenance, my God."
For Augustine, these considerations prompt a question: "why doth 'truth generate hatred,' and the man of Thine, preaching the truth, become an enemy to them?" (10.23.34). The entire passage needs to be quoted entirely in order to provide its entire content and context. Moreover, I think it is so beautiful and insightful that it deserves to be quoted at length.
I think this passage of Augustine can also be read in this way. All men love the idea of having the truth, of believing the truth, and of knowing the truth: "I ask any one, had he rather joy in truth, or in falsehood? They will as little hesitate to say 'in the truth,' as to say 'that they desire to be happy' ... I have met with many that would deceive; who would be deceived, no one. Where then did they know this happy life, save where they know the truth also? For they love it also, since they would not be deceived" (10.23.33). However, the truth of God rebukes man in his sinful state, and rightly so, because man needs to know and acknowledge his misery before properly understanding his need for the gospel. When this happens, natural man hates the truth, even though he loves the general idea of knowing the truth and the potential benefits of this knowledge. And this hatred always appears in the case of natural, unregenerate men whose fallen spiritual state cannot but manifest itself into hatred for the Truth. Therefore, even though all men love the idea of truth, fallen men hate the Truth, which will always appear to them in a different if not opposite way than they expected.
My previous statement seems further expounded by another Augustinian passage that, again, I will quote at length. Here, Augustine talks about divine Wisdom curing mankind's spiritual wounds, "some of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes" (On Christian Doctrine, 1.14.13), "opposites" which he elsewhere says "might be called in Latin ‘oppositions,’ or, to speak more accurately, ‘contrapositions’" (The City of God, 11.18), thus creating "an exquisite poem set off with antitheses" (Ivi).
For Augustine, these considerations prompt a question: "why doth 'truth generate hatred,' and the man of Thine, preaching the truth, become an enemy to them?" (10.23.34). The entire passage needs to be quoted entirely in order to provide its entire content and context. Moreover, I think it is so beautiful and insightful that it deserves to be quoted at length.
Two things have to be kept in mind while reading this passage: 1) mankind is fallen into sin, and 2) the truth Augustine is referring to is God. Augustine is giving us an explanation of how the fall of mankind into sin has affected men to the point of corrupting not only their ethical nature but also damaging their epistemological power to the point of willful self-deception. The African tells us that men, because of their fallenness, prefer convincing themselves that what they believe is be the truth even when that is shown not to be the case, revealing that "because they would not be deceived, would not be convinced that they are so." This leads them to "hate the truth for that thing's sake which they loved instead of the truth." When it comes to the true Truth, that is God, "they love truth when she enlightens, they hate her when she reproves." This is because, for Augustine, the good news of the gospel of God also contains a "bad news," that is, that man is sinful and in desperate need of the Saviour (for example, see On the Grace of Christ and Original Sin, 1.8.9, 1.9.10). When the Truth reveals herself, she always necessarily reveals man for what he is, that is, fallen and sinful. Thus, fallen men love the potential benefits they can have from the Truth, but they hate her when the Truth tells them what they are and what they need, or "they love her when she discovers herself unto them, and hate her when she discovers them.""But why doth 'truth generate hatred,' and the man of Thine, preaching the truth, become an enemy to them? whereas a happy life is loved, which is nothing else but joying in the truth; unless that truth is in that kind loved, that they who love anything else would gladly have that which they love to be the truth: and because they would not be deceived, would not be convinced that they are so? Therefore do they hate the truth for that thing's sake which they loved instead of the truth. They love truth when she enlightens, they hate her when she reproves. For since they would not be deceived, and would deceive, they love her when she discovers herself unto them, and hate her when she discovers them. Whence she shall so repay them, that they who would not be made manifest by her, she both against their will makes manifest, and herself becometh not manifest unto them. Thus, thus, yea thus doth the mind of man, thus blind and sick, foul and ill-favoured, wish to be hidden, but that aught should be hidden from it, it wills not. But the contrary is requited it, that itself should not be hidden from the Truth; but the Truth is hid from it. Yet even thus miserable, it had rather joy in truths than in falsehoods. Happy then will it be, when, no distraction interposing, it shall joy in that only Truth, by Whom all things are true." ~ Augustine, Confessions, 10.23.34. Emphasis added.
I think this passage of Augustine can also be read in this way. All men love the idea of having the truth, of believing the truth, and of knowing the truth: "I ask any one, had he rather joy in truth, or in falsehood? They will as little hesitate to say 'in the truth,' as to say 'that they desire to be happy' ... I have met with many that would deceive; who would be deceived, no one. Where then did they know this happy life, save where they know the truth also? For they love it also, since they would not be deceived" (10.23.33). However, the truth of God rebukes man in his sinful state, and rightly so, because man needs to know and acknowledge his misery before properly understanding his need for the gospel. When this happens, natural man hates the truth, even though he loves the general idea of knowing the truth and the potential benefits of this knowledge. And this hatred always appears in the case of natural, unregenerate men whose fallen spiritual state cannot but manifest itself into hatred for the Truth. Therefore, even though all men love the idea of truth, fallen men hate the Truth, which will always appear to them in a different if not opposite way than they expected.
My previous statement seems further expounded by another Augustinian passage that, again, I will quote at length. Here, Augustine talks about divine Wisdom curing mankind's spiritual wounds, "some of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes" (On Christian Doctrine, 1.14.13), "opposites" which he elsewhere says "might be called in Latin ‘oppositions,’ or, to speak more accurately, ‘contrapositions’" (The City of God, 11.18), thus creating "an exquisite poem set off with antitheses" (Ivi).
"As the use of remedies is the way to health, so this remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. And just as surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way, but carefully, that there may be a certain degree of neatness in the binding, in addition to its mere usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom, was by His assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he who ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies likes, as a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound, and does not fit the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like; in the same way the Wisdom of God in healing man has applied Himself to his cure, being Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing, then, that man fell through pride, He restored him through humility. We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former was called wisdom, but was in reality the folly of those who despised God, so the latter is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who overcome the devil. We used our immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so well as to restore us to life. The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as it were, bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied: He was born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who can follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the necessity of carrying out a set undertaking, will find many other points of instruction in considering the remedies, whether opposites or likes, employed in the medicine of Christianity." ~ On Christian Doctrine, 1.14.13.There are several passages where Luther adopts a very similar idea and language to those of Augustine. Especially (but not exclusively) in his early career, Luther often used what is usually called the sub contra specie principle (under opposite appearances). Truth always reveals itself in the opposite way that man expects. Therefore, man always wants and expects the opposite of what God has actually revealed.
"It is characteristic of us that we love truth and righteousness. Hence, we cling to truth when it has an attractive appearance, but we despise it when it appears to be unattractive–as it always does, as we can see in Christ who 'had no form or comeliness' (Isa. 53:2). So it is the case for every truth that goes counter to our thinking." ~ Luther, Lectures on Romans, 96.Elsewhere in the same work, Luther provides some more comments on how Christ perfectly exemplifies this sub contra specie principle. Moreover and very interestingly, he mentions Augustine himself and how God salvifically worked in his life in a similar way.
"In this way he [God] acted in his proper work [see also Luther's distinction between opera aliena and opera propria, alien work and proper work], in that which is the foremost of his works and the pattern of all of them, i.e., in Christ. When he wanted to glorify him, he made him die, he caused him to be confounded and to descend into hell, contrary in the utmost to what all his disciples fervently wished and hoped in their devoutest thoughts. So he dealt with Blessed Augustine, when he let him fall deeper and deeper into error despite the prayer of his mother, so that he might grant it to her beyond her asking. And so he deals with all saints.” ~ Luther, Lectures on Romans, 242. Emphasis added.
As in Augustine, these upside down expectations are caused by man's sinfulness.
"We must always be ready to surrender our point of view so that we do not stumble on this rock of offense (cf. Rom, 9:32; Isa. 8:14), i.e., the truth which in humility stands over against us and is contrary to what we think it ought to be. We are so presumptuous as to believe that only what we think is the truth, and we want to hear and see as truth only what we agree with and approve. But this cannot be." ~ Luther, Lectures on Romans, 103.Of course, these considerations have implications on how Luther sees salvation. The Reformer takes 1 Cor 1:20–31 as a paradigm ( for example, in thesis 19). God, to oppose the expectation of the Gentiles, purposely determined to show his wisdom in the foolishness (mind the opposite terms) of a crucified Messiah. God decreed to show his power through the weakness of the scandal of a crucified Saviour, in opposition to the expectation of a mighty, earthly saviour. Not that the message of Christ crucified is scandal and foolishness in itself, but in the perception of fallen man. Fallen mankind desire power and glory, even though he is undeserving, while the incarnate Word forsook power and glory in order to become weak and humble.
“For our good is hidden and that so deeply that it is hidden under its opposite. Thus our life is hidden under death, self-love under self-hatred, glory under shame, salvation under perdition, the kingdom under banishment, heaven under hell, wisdom under foolishness, righteousness under sin, strength under weakness. And generally any yes we say to any good under a no, in order that our faith may be anchored in God.” ~ Luther, Lectures on Romans, 264.I have argued elsewhere that a very good case can be made to show that Luther is relying on Augustine for the formulation of his sub contra specie principle. Even in the case these parallels do not prove a direct influence of Augustine on Luther on this point, in my opinion, they show at the very least an indirect influence. After all, the principle here discussed powerfully appears in Luther's Heidelberg Disputation (for example, theses 3-4), theses that Luther claims to have deduced "from St. Paul ... and also from St. Augustine, his most trustworthy interpreter" (Preface). Furthermore, it is clear from Luther's own early works that he has in mind a substantial Augustinian framework while writing.
Second picture: Augustine, by Sandro Botticelli.
Third picture: Luther, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
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