Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
–1 Corinthians 1:20-21 (ESV)
Chapter 13: Augustine was a romantic in an intellectual’s clothing. Just look at the topic he chose for his first major treatise, The Beautiful and the Harmonious. Struck by the beauty in the world, moved by harmonies in man and nature, he applies his mind to understand why his heart feels as it does. The treatise, written c.381 when Augustine was 26 or 27, is now lost, but it doesn’t sound like we’re missing much. He wants to write a work of philosophy like his idols, but what he produced sounds more like a dorm room bull session. Earnest, overweening undergraduate philosophizing happens to the best of us.
Chapter 14: It’s kind of funny that he spends more time wondering about the dedication to his book than the book itself. He dedicated the book to a noted orator named Hierius who he did not know personally. Why, Augustine wonders, would he dedicate a book to someone who wouldn’t know him if he saw him? Roman society was about currying favor with the favored, and renown was considered a sign of blessing from the gods. So Augustine liked “the fact that he [Hierius] found favor with others”. If someone is famous, they are listened to and respected regardless of the actual quality of their ideas or character. This can even happen in the Church, where heretical celebrity preachers and televangelists amass thousands of followers while proclaiming nonsense.
Augustine seems perplexed that he would be awed by fame when he does not want it. But aren’t many of us that way? We don’t want fame, but we enjoy basking in the glow of the famous. Our society worships celebrities as gods — it helps distract from the problems of life. I think in Augustine’s case the answer is a bit simpler: he wanted respect. He didn’t care if he was “loved in the way actors are”, but he did desire that his intellect and oratory be deemed worthy. Either way, human motivations are tough to untangle. “A human being is an immense abyss,” Augustine says, “but you, Lord, keep count even of his hairs” (cf. Luke 12:7). The key point here is that, like all sin, worshipping fame or famous people clouds and disorients our minds. On the other hand, “Truth is straight ahead of us”.
Chapter 15: The answer to Augustine’s question (essentially “whence beauty?”) has, as it turns out, a very simple answer: “your artistry, almighty God”. Things (and people) are beautiful to the extent that they reflect the ultimate beauty of God Himself. Augustine couldn’t see this at the time because he was still stuck in a dualistic, Manichaean mindset. He believed that a “sexless soul” called a “Monad” was battling it out with the evil “Dyad” for the fate of the world. Here we see Augustine contradict the two central lies of Manichaeism with two simple truths: (1) “evil is no substance at all”, and (2) “our mind is not the supreme, immutable good”. One of the central tenets of Gnosticism is that evil is a real (usually physical) entity that must be overcome through intellectual advancement or some kind of higher mental state. One of the central tenets of Christianity is that God created everything good, and that evil can only be overcome by accepting what God has done on our behalf. As a Manichee, Augustine was striving to be like God (through reason), and striving to make God like him (changeable and fallible). “What could be prouder than my outlandish delusion, whereby I laid claim to be by nature what you are?”
I love the image of these false ideas creating “a din in the ears of my heart, ears which were straining to catch your melody, O gentle truth”. The most harmonious sound we can hear is the Bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29), for Christ is the bridegroom and we are the bride (Rev. 19:7). Augustine reminds us that only the humble can hear this most beautiful sound, for pride listens only to itself. As Jesus said, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23:12).
Chapter 16: Augustine reaches new heights of humblebragging here, saying how easy it was for him to understand Aristotle’s Categories while his students were universally mystified. I don’t doubt that he’s telling the truth; it’s just kind of funny how casually Augustine likes to bring up his fierce intelligence. Anyway, he sees it as all for naught: “what profit had it been to me?” The only worthy object of study, in Augustine’s mind, is God Himself, and God is beyond any categories. In fact, He is the basis for all categorization — we cannot group Him by beauty or greatness because He is the source and standard of Beauty and Greatness.
Perhaps it’s overstating to say that God is the only worthy object of study. Augustine clearly appreciated the liberal arts, “yet from this gift I offered you no sacrifice”. Studies not offered to God are fruitless, as are all pursuits not given up to Him. Furthermore: “what profit was this good gift to me when I failed to use it well?” If we are studying for our own self-aggrandizement and not to make the world a better place, what’s the point? “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
It is better to be a little child in the kingdom of God than a world-renowned scholar outside of it. Indeed, learning can be an impediment to accepting God’s kingdom because it feeds our pride. Perhaps that is why Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matt. 11:25). Great learning cannot save you anymore than great riches. Thus, Augustine ends these chapters with a poem/prayer for humility, for “when our security is in ourselves, that is but weakness”. I can think of no better way to end than by meditating on the final words of Book IV:
“Unspoilt, our good abides in you, for you are yourself our good. We need not fear to find no home again because we have fallen away from it; while we are absent our home falls not to ruins, for our home is your eternity.”
God Said write 
There were only a couple of things that really struck me in this section. First, that whole section about the dedication of his book and the idea that people are worth listening to/respecting because they are famous and their fame makes their opinions more important, regardless of whether they have done anything worthy (see the Kardashians, e.g.). When you don’t find your value in God, you cast around in a lot of meaningless places for it.
The other thing was the danger of learning for its own sake and being so proud of what you know–if you think you can figure it out without God, you put yourself in a very bad hole (Eccl 12:12–Of making many books there is no end and much study is wearisome).
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I was determined to write some pithy and witty comment concerning these chapters. And then I read your comment. There’s no improving on it. Well stated!
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