It’s Augustine’s Birthday

13 November--He tells us in one of his early writings, De Beata Vita (On the Happy Life).

This is different from the famous Platonist philosopher Plotinus. Porphyry, the biographer of Plotinus, tells us this:

Plotinus, the philosopher our contemporary, seemed ashamed of being in the body.

So deeply rooted was this feeling that he could never be induced to tell of his ancestry, his parentage, or his birthplace.

Augustine isn't like that. G-d made us, dang it.

And G-d made us human, with bodies. De Beata Vita is a whole philosophical dialogue beginning at Augustine's birthday lunch on 13 November at a place called Cassiciacum, near Milan. Augustine, his students, his mother, his son, and others talk about the purpose of life. They give a Christian answer. They use some Greco-Roman philosophy for sure, but they end up talking about Jesus, quoting a hymn by Bishop Ambrose of Milan, talking about the Trinity, and saying stuff about faith, hope, and love.

Well--now you know.

I wrote about this in my dissertation, and it became Chapter 3 of my cheap Augustine book. Oddly, I don't know where to find a full English text of De Beata Vita online. Here's a sample, and here's the Amazon page for a good translation by my dissertation director.