Augustine and life as a trial

 

Isn't life on earth a trial? (Job: 7:1)

Trial as an aspect of life as a journey

In an earlier article, I tried to describe how Augustine sees life as a journey. There are many aspects to this journey. But I would like to deal with one of them in more detail, and that is the journey as a trial. The beginning of the journey is, of course, the fact that one has been thrown into life without any initiative and has to search for meaning and purpose. For Augustine, that goal is clear. The journey must go to the homeland from which one departed. It is a return to that lost unity of complete being in God. But not every traveler has that goal in mind.

The perspective as Augustine sees it is not immediately obvious either. While most travelers are happy to have found a place somewhere on this globe where they can settle down and find peace, for Augustine the purpose of the journey is, to use an image of the poet Achterberg, beyond the last city. That journey will be an arduous journey full of obstacles and temptations, testing the traveler. Augustine compares himself to Ulysses, who did not let the charming song of the Sirens and the sweet forgetfulness of the Lotus-eaters stop him from continuing his journey.

 Enjoying and using

Hence his exhortation to uphold morality, i.e. that the traveler must always remain aware of his final goal and not lose himself in any subordinate goal. In this context, it is also possible to understand his ethical principle of using the world  and not enjoying it as a final goal. Such a view is at odds with the common view that we should enjoy here and now as much as possible. In this case, enjoyment becomes an goal in itself and the ultimate meaning of life, regardless of the nature of what one enjoys.

Enjoyment has its limits

However, enjoying the world as a final goal has its limits. Thus, everything one would like to enjoy is subject to transience. Nothing remains what it was. The one who has placed all his hope in what is perishable also binds himself to impermanence. And what to do with that ineradicable unrest that always arises once one possesses what one wanted to enjoy? Human desire proves difficult to satisfy, because it essentially strives for a transitory fulfillment. That is the philosophy of Augustine. I don't think she's ready to age yet.

The philosophy of enjoyment presupposes that the traveller can control his life and determine his path to the last. But what is the case when the enjoyment comes to an end because of accidents that are beyond his control and that inevitably happen to him? Is his journey still meaningful and does he have the courage to continue?

 What is the meaning of  trials in life?

While reading the tenth book of Augustine's Confessions, I came across a chapter that posed questions for me. In it he asks the question twice: Isn't life on earth a constant trial? With this he quotes the book of Job, in which he calls Yahweh to account for all the disasters that befall him and asks about the meaning of something he feels is unreasonable and unjust. This question becomes a rhetorical question in the context in which Augustine speaks. This means that the burden of the arguments he puts forward makes it difficult for the reader to do otherwise than answer the question in the affirmative: Yes, life is one big trial.

I reproduce his reasoning here:

 Is not our life on earth a period of trial?

 For who would wish for hardship and difficulty?

Your command is to endure these troubles, not to love them. No one loves what he endures, even though he loves that he can endure it. For though he may rejoice in his power of endurance, he would prefer that there would be nothing for him to endure.

When I am in trouble I long for good fortune, and when I have good fortune, I fear to lose it. Is there any middle state between prosperity and adversity, in which human life is not a trial?

Miserable is the prosperity of this world, not once, but twice, because of the fear of misfortune and the fragility of happiness.

Miserable is the adversity of this world, not once or twice, but thrice, because of the desire for prosperity, the heaviness of adversity, and the fear that one will not endure.

Is not man's life on earth one long uninterrupted trial?

(Confessions, Book X, Chapter 39)

 You have to conclude that Augustine paints life here in the darkest colors. For better or for worse, it appears to be tainted by worry and sorrow, an observation that is difficult to accept and with which we do not get along well in this day and age. But in a broader perspective, there is not much to argue against. Augustine describes earthly life in contrast to the full life he expects as a traveller and whose light he briefly has experienced from afar. In the perspective of the perfect happiness he expects, all earthly happiness becomes relative and colored by transience. That's why he begins this chapter like this:

 When I am finally united with You with all my being, there will be no more misery and pain for me anywhere. And my life will be completely filled with You.

 Of course, in addition to misery and setbacks, there is a lot of beauty and good to experience in life. The quoted excerpt does not rule that out at all. It also does not exclude the enjoyment of the good and the beautiful. But here is an overall picture of human existence. It is an existence that fundamentally suffers from a lack that cannot be compensated for in this life, no matter how much every human being strives for it.

What does the concept of trial mean?

Therefore, I want to find out what Augustine means by trial ( in Latin: temptatio) as the ultimate qualification of life. He borrows the term from the Bible, namely the book of Job 7: 1. That book is written in Hebrew. Curiously, the term does not simply mean trial, but is an equivalent of the existence of slavery or the existence of a day laborer. In the Greek translation from the Hebrew, on which Augustine's Latin translation is also based, that term is translated by trial, temptatio In my opinion, this is a happy interpretation of the more unambiguous slave existence. The term trial refers to two aspects. It is used for a severe torment that one undergoes, but also for the fact that one is tested by it.

 I would like to continue on this last aspect, because this aspect of the test could give some meaning to a journey that otherwise turns out to be meaningless in many respects, if only because of the randomness and disproportionality of what can happen to the traveler. For Augustine, in view of the above text, it is clear that the misery and problems of life are part of God's system. They turn out to be an inevitable factor in life, from which the traveller cannot escape. Hence God's command to endure them. In this fragment, however, man does not appear to be a masochist, who loves misery and problems. God, on the other hand, is not a sadist, who would love to hurt people. Rather, he encourages them to persevere on the journey so that they can achieve their goal.

The order of things

In his dialogue On Order,  Augustine tries to find out the function of evil in the world. By this he means, on the one hand, all the calamities that we have to expect from our dependence on nature. But also the evil and pain that people inflict on each other and on themselves: It is obvious to hold God as creator responsible for all those disasters that befall people and on that basis to doubt his credibility. But that turns out to be too quick a conclusion for Augustine. He argues that man, because of his limited view, cannot oversee the whole of the order of creation. He compares it to someone who considers a small part of a large mosaic and judges on the basis of that one observation that the artist has produced an unsound work, as a result of which he himself is no longer credible. To refute this, he compares creation to a painting in which the artist had to use dark tones as well as light ones.

 Evil is an essential part of the journey

With the latter, Augustine establishes that evil is an essential and indispensable part of this earthly system. The good in this world cannot exist without evil. This makes it plausible that evil must have a function and a meaning. Because let's assume the opposite. What is the meaning of the journey, if the traveler would only meet the good and go his way on a completely paved path without any obstacle? Suppose that everything on that road could be fully foreseen and controlled. What is the point of such a journey without any challenge and without any risk and adventure? The traveller must come to the conclusion that his journey is hardly worthwhile and that there is therefore no point in undertaking it.

 In the quoted text, there are two sides to the traveler's attitude to the trials he encounters. It goes without saying that he does not seek misery and trials, but once they have come his way, he is pleased that he has been able to face them. It seems to be human nature that he wants to move forward despite the obstacles he faces. Or shouldn't you rather say that he can get ahead thanks to the misery and problems he manages to overcome?

 Trials help the traveler move forward

What is the positive impact that trials can have on life? In Augustine's philosophy, they can bring man to the growing awareness of the limitation and transience of all his earthly goals. This can lead him to understand that he should not pledge his whole heart to it. It can evoke in him the memory of the imperishable goal of which his heart speaks, the realization that he is on his way to the homeland, where his origin lies.

The confrontation with misery and problems does not necessarily have to lead to bitterness or disbelief. It can wake people up with the question whether they have not attached themselves too much to things that have no lasting value and that it is better to attach themselves to more permanent ones. It will be able to make them realize that problems are an essential part of the journey and that the confrontation with them can enrich them inwardly despite all the damages.

The journey is a process of growth

When you see life as a process of growth, it turns out that this growth is largely promoted by overcoming problems. From this perspective, it is understandable that the traveler must be tested again and again if he wants to move forward. Apparently, such a thing is ingrained in existence. Therefore, the attempt to keep children free from all obstacles from an early age usually does not lead to their happiness, on the contrary.

 Of course, this does not mean that trials should be sought just to prove that one can handle them. But you can't avoid them. They come your way naturally and unwillingly. Augustine's formulation is clear on this:

Your task is to endure them, not to love them. No man loves what he has to endure, even though he loves that he can endure it. And though he is glad to be able to endure it, he would rather he had nothing to endure.

This joy that one can endure trials lies not so much in their merits, but more in the fact that the traveler repents and realizes what life is all about. That is to say, he progresses on the path in which he must become what he is, someone who is increasingly imbued with the destiny of which Augustine speaks:

When I am finally united with You with all my being, there will be no more misery and pain for me anywhere. And my life will be completely filled with You.