Life in the Medievals - Essay Example

Research Paper: Medieval Mysticism Table of Content Introduction 3 Definition of terms 3 Medieval 3 Mysticism 3 Medieval mysticism 4 Saint Augustine of Hippo 4 His contributions to medieval mysticism 4 His texts 5 Writings about Saint Augustine 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction: Definition of terms Medieval The term medieval which literary means “the-in-between time” describes the Middle Ages commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the early modern period in the 16th century. The rise of nation-states, the division of western Christianity in the reformation, the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance among others characterizes it. Some people use it to refer to something that is old fashioned and lack modern enlightenment. Mysticism Mysticism on the other hand comes from the Greek word μυω1. The Greeks use it to refer to “secret” religious rituals while early Christians use it to refer to “hidden” allegorical interpretation of scriptures. Christian mysticism had something to do with direct experience with the divine in form of a vision of, or sense of union with God. Meditation, prayer or ascetic discipline usually accompanies it. In general, mysticism is a direct and immediate experience of the sacred, or the knowledge derived from such an experience. The experience is immediate and overwhelming, detached from the common experience of reality and is self-validating, without need of further evidence or justification. Outside the experience itself, one is incapable of expressing or understanding its essence. It is important to note that mysticism is not the same as magic, clairvoyance, parapsychology or occultism. Mystics are people who practice or believe in mysticism. They usually see their mystical experience as part of a larger task meant to bring human transformation and not as the terminus of their efforts. Medieval mysticism In Europe, mysticism flourished especially in Germany, Italy, the Low Countries and England from mid 13th to mid 15th century. Such mysticisms of that time are the ones referred to as medieval mysticisms. However, there is variation in the dating of the edges of these periods depending on different scholars. Saint Augustine of Hippo One of the most important sources of medieval mysticism is Saint Augustine of Hippo. He was born in the city of Thagaste, Algeria, to a Catholic mother named Monica and he has contributed to the western philosophy by promoting argument by analogy. He is also the most important figure in the ancient western church that produced works of high spiritual quality. In Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a doctor of the church known for his Christian mystical sermons and the patron of the Augustinian religious order. His ideas also influenced philosophers like Immanuel Kant and Blaise Pascal, and the reformation leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Augustine is a man with great intellectuality fused with an enlightened mysticism. His contributions to medieval mysticism We can describe Augustine as Augustine the teacher, Augustine the philosopher, Augustine the theologian and Augustine the mystic. As a teacher, he taught grammar at Tagaste, rhetoric in Carthage, Rome and Milan in Italy. He then studied neo-platonic philosophy in Italy where he became a pupil of Ambrose who effected his conversion from Manichaeanism to Christianity and who baptized him later. He was later ordained as a bishop of Hippo. Though he became a Christian, he infused Christian doctrine with Neo-Platonism of Plotinus. He devoted himself to finding harmony between the philosophical questions that plagued his mind and his faith in Christianity. Stoicism, Platonism and Neo-Platonism greatly influenced his philosophical and theological reasoning. His texts Saint Augustine is mostly celebrated for his great writings such as “The confessions of Saint Augustine”, “The city of God”, “On Free Will”, “On Christian Doctrine”, “On Nature and Grace”, “The Trinity”, “The Retractions” among others. “The Confessions of saint Augustine” is a sort of penitential autobiographical meditation of Augustine on God’s grace. “The Confessions” are divided into thirteen chapters, which are reffered to as books. The first ten chapters are autobiographical, with Augustine describing both events in his life as well as his philosophical and religious wanderings during the course of his life. On reading the “Confessions”, we understand the intensity and actuality of Augustine’s spiritual experience, and the characteristically mystical formula under which he apprehended Reality. Augustine also uses his Confessions as a tract against the Manichaean system - once a faithful adherent, Augustine later rejects the Manichean beliefs as heretical. In the final three books, Augustine exegetically and hermeneutically deals with the creation of the world via narrative stories in Genesis 1. In the first chapter, he invokes God and proclaims His great power and wisdom, which has no end. He acknowledges the fact that man whose mortality is the weakness of sin desires to praise God. In chapter two, he reminds us that the God whom we invoke is in us, and we in Him for we could not if He were not in us. According to Augustine, “God wholly filleth1 all things but neither heaven nor earth containeth2 Him. His majesty is supreme and His virtues inexplicable. He is most high, most excellent, most omnipotent, most piteous and most just, most hidden and most near, most beauteous and most strong, stable, the owner of everything among others”. In chapter five, he seeks rest in God and God’s compassion for the pardoning of his secret sins while in chapter six he describes his infancy and lauds the protection and eternal providence of God. In chapter seven, he shows by example that even infancy is prone to sin. He says that an infant strives to get that which, if given, would be hurtful by crying. Infants, even though they do not speak, are also jealous and do not wish to share anything–they become pale, and cast bitter looks even on their foster-brothers. As a boy, Augustine hated learning, loved play and feared being whipped. He also neglected the injunctions of his parents. At school, they sinned in writing, reading, or reflecting upon lessons less than required of them. He also did not love God and fornicated against Him. In addition, he confesses having learnt some evil from what he learnt and points out how men desire to observe the rules of learning, neglecting the eternal rules of everlasting safety. His conversion turns on two primary chapters -chapter Seven, which describes his conversion to the Neo-platonic view of the world, including the metaphysics and the ethics that come along with this system; and chapter 8, which fully describes his conversion to Christianity. Augustine wrote “The City of God” because of the wrangling between the Romans and the Christians. Initially Rome was the “eternal city”1 because the Romans thought that it would never fall. In the year 410 AD, the Vandals captured Rome. The pagans started blaming Christians saying that the gods had abandoned Rome because many Romans had forsaken them and taken to Christianity. They criticized Christians of being unpatriotic by serving God instead of the state. They also blamed the Christian God for failing to protect Rome as He should have done since Constantine had declared Him the one true God. The first ten books refute the pagan’s charges that Christians caused the fall of Rome claiming that misfortune happens to everyone. He refutes Roman gods and also asserts that even in other times, Rome encountered misfortunes. He goes on discussing two cities- the earthly city and the heavenly city. He shows how God separated the good and the bad angels. He also asserts that God alone created man and that death is penal and originated from Adam’s sin. He explains the growth and progress of the two cities, how they differ from each other and their end as shown in the Holy Scripture. The people of Christ belong to the heavenly city and will have eternal peace and happiness while the damned belong to the earthly city, which has no happiness and peace. He concludes by talking of the last judgment as seen in the Holy Scripture. Writings about Saint Augustine Many people have studied and written about him praising him for his contributions to medieval mysticism and especially to Christian mysticism. People like Harnack, Nourisson, Storz, and others hold the opinion that no man ever united in the same soul had such stern rigor of logic with such tenderness of heart as Augustine did. It was he above all others who won the triumph of liberty against the Manichaeans, and of grace against the Pelagians. Augustine’s writings nourished exponents of Mysticism like Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard, Hugh, St. Victor, and Tauler. According to H. Reuter, this Doctor of Hippo is the founder of Roman Catholicism in the West. Loofs also affirms that he is the teacher of all the reformers and their bond of union. Adolf Harnack has frequently emphasized the unique role of the Doctor of Hippo. He has studied Augustines place in the history of the world as reformer of Christian piety and his influence as Doctor of the Church. Harnack goes so far as to say that it would seem that the miserable existence of the Roman Empire in the West was prolonged only to permit Augustines influence to be exercised on universal history." According to Bindemann, Augustine remains a star of extraordinary brilliancy in the Church. In his "History of the Church", Dr. Kurtz calls Augustine "the greatest, the most powerful of all the Fathers, him from whom proceeds all the doctrinal and ecclesiastical development of the West, and to whom each recurring crisis, each new orientation of thought brings it back". Rudolf Eucken says that on the ground of Christianity, a single philosopher has appeared and that is Augustine. The English Miter, W. Cunningham says: "The whole life of the medieval Church was framed on lines which Augustine has suggested: its religious orders claimed him as their patron; its mystics found a sympathetic tone in his teaching; its polity was to some extent the actualization of his picture of the Christian Church; it was in its various parts a carrying out of ideas which he cherished and diffused. Nor does his influence end with the decline of medievalism: we shall see presently how closely his language was akin to that of Descartes, who gave the first impulse to and defined the special character of modern philosophy." Conclusion I concur with H. Reuter who in his study of the "Confessions", says that no man since Paul is comparable to Augustine adding that even today we live by Augustine, by his thought and his spirit. Both the Renaissance and the Reformation depend upon him. Augustine’s works greatly influenced and strengthened Christianity during the medieval times and even in the present generation. He therefore remains a great medieval philosopher who influenced the medieval worldview. References 1.Knight Kevin. 2008. Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02091a.htm (accessed February 25, 2009). 2.Patricius Augustine. 1890. The City of God. http://personal2.stthomas.edu/gwschlabach/docs/city.htm (accessed February 24, 2009). 3.Patricius Augustine. 2000. The Confessions of St. Augustine. http:/www.catholicfirst.com/thefaith/catholicclassics/staugustine/confessions01.cfm 4.Scearce Carolyn. 2008. Connections between Medieval Philosophy and Modern Science. http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/medieval/reviewf.ph (accessed February 25, 2009). Read More