Inner and Beyond: Augustine's Cosmic Teleology

Author: Wu Gongqing (School of Philosophy, Chinese Min University)

Summary: In his interpretation of Genesis, Augustine gradually developed a Christian teleology of the universe. Influenced by Plato's Timeo and Neoplatonism, Augustine argued that the order of the universe was rooted in God's appropriation of materials. "Shape-giving" does not mean that Augustine's cosmology is merely "exogenous": on the one hand, Augustine's understanding of the material is not completely passive, but has the active potential towards form; on the other hand, Augustine's exposition of the "seed theory" shows that the universe has a rational inner order. At the same time, his cosmic teleology has never been able to escape the danger of exogenism. This is manifested in the fact that, no matter how active the material is, it has the impulse to resist the external form (evil); all things, though "seed-like," have the power to preserve and sustain this form remains in God Himself. The intrinsic and extrinsic nature of Augustine's cosmic teleology derive from the intrinsic and transcendent nature of God. The tension of immanence and transcendence, which haunts not only Augustine but also lurks in the depths of Christian thought, has become a problem that plagues both medieval and modern philosophy.

Augustine annotated Genesis five times in his lifetime, and his primary concern was not the "divine plan of redemption" in it, but the creationist question of "the existence and structure of creation." (cf. Augustine, 2002, p. 20) To illustrate this question, Augustine drew inspiration from the Greek tradition: through Plato's Timeo, he learned of the pattern by which the Supreme God created the universe with Nuss and became initially familiar with the basic framework of the theory of formgiving; through Plotino, Augustine learned more systematically about Aristotle's theory of form and combined it with The Christian cosmology. (See Wu Fei, 2018, pp. 45-47) At the same time, Augustine had to reject Plotino's "Emanation." For once it is acknowledged that all things are overflowing from being the One, the distinction between God and creation is difficult to discern. Creation as Augustine understood it must be God's creation "out of nothing." (1) For this reason, his Christian cosmological system must be developed on the basis of "making something out of nothing."

On the question of the creation of the universe, Augustine also followed the position of the Timeus, emphasizing God's empowerment of the material world. But he did not want to believe in the eternal existence of matter, as Plato did, but argued that it was created by God. The material created by God is given by God and has a rational or causa formale, and the universe thus has a purpose. But in this way, Augustine's cosmic teleology slides toward a certain "extrinsicism," i.e., "the teleological structure of creation is external, imposed on passive matter according to the divine will of an authority." The nature of the material does not intrinsically tend to a particular purpose, and therefore has no intrinsic value, but merely allows the forms contained in the divine mind to impose order on it." (Oliver, 2016, p. 382) Is this really the case? Is Augustine's teleology of the universe really devoid of anything intrinsic but merely external? To answer these questions, we must start layer by layer from the basis of Augustine's teleological theory of the universe, the "theory of shapes."

1. Create, summon, turn and give shape

Influenced by Neoplatonist formism, Augustine divided God's creation into two steps: the first, in which God first created the prima materia from nothingness, and in the second, God gave shape to matter to produce things. Augustine believed that "the change from form to form is made by means of something that has no form but is not absolutely nothing" (Confessiones, 12.6.6), which is the raw material. It has no form, but unlike nothingness, it is "some kind of nihil aliquid" or "est non est" (non-existent existence). It is "capable of accepting visible and ordered forms (species caperet istas visibiles et compositas)" (ibid.) and is the basis for carrying forms. According to M.A. Vannier, the Latin root of "formatio" is "forma", which roughly corresponds to the Greek philosophy and is basically equivalent to the meaning of "species" and "ratio". (cf. Vannier, pp. 14-15) The so-called "giving" is the process by which God adds unchanging forms (ideas) to the original material to make things come into being.

Forming is not taken for granted, and it is achieved overnight, and there are many complex links to go through from creation to form. According to Augustine's understanding, the first sentence of Genesis, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" indicates that God first created spiritual and material matter. (cf. Confessiones, 13.2.3) But until the action of "God said' 'Let there be light,' there is light," when "the earth is empty and chaotic, and the abyss is dark," the material remains in a formless amorphous state. From creation to form, what happens in between? Augustine's careful analysis of scripture revealed that the phrase "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" was different from "God said'Let there be light,' and there was light," which explicitly used the phrase "to have... There is a sentence pattern of ", but the previous text does not. This suggests that when God created the primordial material, he was aware of the informality of the latter's tendency toward nothingness and therefore did not praise it. God knows that these primordial substances cannot become perfect unless they turn to the eternal and unchanging God and imitate the Word. Thus, God then says, "Let there be light," with the aim of "recalling the imperfections of creation back into Himself so that creation is no longer formless, but formal." (Genesis ad litteram, 1.4.9) Augustine points out that although God's calling appears only in this verse, this action is rather accompanied by creation from the beginning, and that the illumination of the "Spirit of God is at work on the water" before illumination is proof that God is constantly calling creatures to turn. The whole creative process can be described as four connected links of "creation-summoning-turning-forming" (creatio-vocatio-conversio-formatio).

If creation and summoning are synchronized and turned to be accompanied by form, then creation and form are divided into two distinct time periods, as if the creation of the original material comes first, and the things given by God come later. However, Augustine firmly rejected this understanding. In his view, the relationship between creation and form is like sound to song:

We don't first make an unorganized, unformed sound and then modulate it to become a song... Sound as the material of the song (materia) precedes the formed song (forma cantandi), not that the sound has the ability to compose songs, so it precedes the song, because the sound is not the producer of the song, the sound obeys the organ that occurs, and the song is made by the soul of the singer. This does not refer to the chronological sequence, because the sound is simultaneous with the song. Nor does it refer to the order of merit and inferiority, because the sound is not superior to the song, the song is not only the sound, but also the beautified sound. This is the prior est origine, because it is not the song that becomes a sound after receiving the form, but the sound that receives the form and becomes a song. (Confessiones，12.29.40)

Augustine made it clear that sound preceded the song in advance. But this "before" does not mean that the sound is the producer of the song, or that the sound precedes the song in time, nor does it mean that the sound is superior to the song. (2) Rather, sound precedes song only in origin, because sound is the material that makes up music, and music cannot be formed without sound. The same is true of the relationship of the primordial material to the shaped thing: "God did not first create the formless mass and then give it to various natures, as if it were a later idea; no, He created the shaped material [formatam quippe creavit materiam]". (Genesis ad litteram, 1.15.29) Creation and assignment are perfectly synchronized, with no time intervals. The Bible places the creation of the original material in the front and the form in the back, just for the convenience of narration, regardless of time. ③

The synchronization of creation and form does not in any way mean that the distinction between the two is dispensable. Augustine's insistence that God first create material and then give shape to it is to highlight the fundamental significance of form to creation. We see that in the metaphor of sound and song, Augustine not only believes that "sound is not superior to song", but also emphasizes that "song is not only sound, but also glorified sound", implying that the shaped thing (song) has priority over the original material (sound). Next, Augustine adds, "It is the lowest (pendatur extremior) in value, because it is clear that things in form are superior to things without forms." (Confessiones, 12.29.40) There is no form, the primordial substance is only "some kind of nothing" or "non-existent existence"; only god gives shape to the primordial substance through the Word, which can get out of the state of near-nothingness and enter the light from darkness. Just as "the voice is not the maker of the song", but "the song is made of the soul of the singer"; in the same way, in creation, God is the "soul of the singer", giving shape to the material in the way of "making the song". God's incarnation is the key to creation.

But in this way, Augustine's "theory of shape" is indeed prone to a kind of extrinsicism, as if form is not inherent in the material itself, but is imposed on it by an external other (God). Correspondingly, Augustine's cosmic teleological arguments cannot escape exogenism. However, the crux of the matter is: is the material really only passively accepting the form, and is the form really external to the material? To answer these questions, we first need to clarify the connotation of matter in Augustine's philosophy.

(This article is supported by the 2020 "Special Fund for the Construction of World-Class Universities (Disciplines) and Characteristic Development guidance of Central Universities and Universities" by Chinese Min University.) ）

Source: Philosophical Studies, No. 202011