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Augustine’s Preaching and the Healing of Desire: An Integrated Ethics
I’m an Augustine nerd, and my third book on Augustine’s theology of desire has been released. (Ricochet members: Check for a cheaper price here!) I recently posted on the idea of the totus Christus–the Whole Christ–that guides Augustine’s interpretation of the Psalms; on the overlapping identities implied by this theology; on what sort of desires he thinks are the right sort of desires; and on how we can actually get those desires! Now, for the last entry in this series, we need a short intro to the integration of different priorities in Augustine’s ethics.
Here are some abbreviated remarks from my book’s conclusion.
We have to understand that Augustine’s account of a centered self is not merely a list of priorities—God first, souls second, and everything else can get in line behind them! We need a greater appreciation for the integrative, wholistic nature of his account.
. . .
It is not that everything else is valueless in itself, a mere means to an end; it is more that the worth of the greater goods, and especially that of the greatest Good, shine their value through all creation. The goodness of G-d is the source of the goodness of everything else, and we might even say that it contains it. It’s not that mountains, trees, stars, plants, and animals are worthless in themselves so much as that we were never supposed to think of them merely as things in themselves in the first place. What they are is good things made by G-d for us and for him; and they find their own fulfillment in that use. Nothing (rather, no created thing) is an atomic substance subsisting in itself; all depends on G-d.
And Augustine’s ethics is about reintegrating all of the disparate goods that, through disordered love, have come into separation and competition. . . . Under the Augustinian approach, we have a clear rule for right living: Love G-d and neighbor. If our priorities are in competition, we know to sacrifice lesser goods for these higher ones. However, the pinnacle of Augustine’s ethics does not end with the ascent to heaven. It ascends and then, following Jesus, descends to earth for the reordering of our earthly lives under the light of heaven, restoring peace between goods that might otherwise seem to be in competition.
We could, accurately enough, understand this as a simple case of Love G-d Most! and Love People More Than Anything Except G-d!
But there’s also integration. All good things are supposed to be integrated in this way of thinking. The loves of G-d, of people, and of everything else are supposed to all be mixed up. We love other things properly when we love them as part of our love of G-d and neighbor.
Tea is a good example, and here’s one way some integration happens. 1 Timothy 4 in the New Testament tells us that “everything created by G-d is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of G-d and prayer” (ESV). The Word of G-d in question is Genesis 1, where G-d creates plants and sees that they are good.
Somewhere around 2011, I learned that there is a strain of Buddhism that made a spiritual discipline of tea-drinking.
Well, that’s awesome.
But I didn’t know what was the Christian version of this. So I wrote a prayer and resolved to pray it at least once a day with my tea. I’m not sure I can remember the exact original wording, and I probably pray different versions even now. But this is one standard way it goes:
Lord, you are good, and you created all things, and you created all things good. Thank you for inventing tea. Thank you for letting me enjoy your very good creation.
That prayer makes me happier. It helps me think about G-d and remember higher goods. It also helps me enjoy tea even more than I used to.
Published in General
I am starting to see economics in the context of the Christian theological theory of desire.
Economics becomes a sub-discipline of the theory of individual desire, will, and purposeful action. It considers only a mental system intended to realistically describe the real world where the all the desires of individuals within the universe of discourse are collectively inconsistent. An incoherent system.
In economics, the normal desire, which is the desire of the created to do the will of his creator, is not taken into account.
Augustine considers a coherent system of the individual desires of the created. Where all wills are directed to the satisfaction of natural desires, the desire to do the will of one’s creator.
It would be great to sort out Augustine, desire, and economics. I can’t. At least not anytime soon. All I can do is observe that he didn’t know economics well, and that economics is one place where the unsatisfiability of human worldly desire does something good: It fights poverty!
Wayne Grudem noticed this in the book he did on economics.
There’s probably a lot theologically to sort out, actually. We were created good, but not complete. To be the image of G-d is to have a responsibility to cultivate and develop creation in G-d’s name, as G-d’s representatives on earth. Since that is our job, and is what we are made for, I would imagine some amount of unsatisfied desire would always be in place. There ought to be some incoherence in the system; we should always be wanting something more.
Like Captain Kirk said, one thing we do want is a challenge. That desire cannot be satisfied without some other, lesser desire being unsatisfied.
Anyway:
Note: this collective incoherence of the desires of individuals has the common name “scarcity”.
We hear it put this way sometimes, “economics is the study of scarcity.”
The bible acknowledges economics…”he knows that you have need of these things, the birds never worry about them”…but sets it as an inferior study to the highest study: how to “Love one another”. The only path to loving God is loving his other God-like creatures.
Your little tea prayer sounds great. Can I copy it? It makes Paul’s exhortation to pray without ceasing come to mind.
But what am I to think of his created things that aren’t as nice as tea and coffee and malted beverages? Such as half of the animals in Australia can kill you in five seconds just by looking at you. Or poison ivy. My inclination is to think that these are things, like thorns, that arose from Adam’s disobedience and thus we can see them as good because they remind us of our rebellion?
Did Augustine address this?
BTW- I enjoy your posts.
I’m sure he did, but I don’t know if he addressed it directly or only generally. (There is still much Augustine I haven’t read!) He definitely says all these problems come because of sin.
Thank you.
Yes!