Key Insights About the Relations Between Memory, Self, and God in Augustine’s Confessions Book 10

Resumo

How can Augustine claim to remember God if God is outside of time? Augustine makes an implicit argument in Confessions 10.25.36, what I call Argument A, and its conclusion provides an answer to this question. The human mind can be divided into two parts: Mindphysical and Mindnonphysical. Since Augustine thinks that the “I” (ego) is responsible for human remembering, these two parts of the mind also have corresponding memorative powers, the Iphysically-remember and the Inon-physically-remember powers; the latter is responsible for remembering God. For clues to the exact content of Augustine’s remembrance of God, I turn to book 7 where he describes the internal sight of God above the eye of his mind (oculo animae meae) as the seeing of truth, immutable light, and eternity. I then reformulate Argument A into Argument A’, which concludes that God is a content of non-physical memory in the Mindnon-physical and answers the question motivating this study.

Keywords: Augustine, memory, self, God, Confessions.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/civitas/13a2