Astral Codex Ten

Augustine

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Augustine

Article

Augustine is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 06, 2021 and August 11, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “the Christian writers Augustine”; “Beginning in the 370s, the wealthy began entering the Christian faith in a significant way. Augustine, Ambrose, and other Christians”; “Brown tells the story of St. Augustine. He was born into a curiales family”. It most often appears alongside Africa, Catholic Church, Greece.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: May 06, 2021
  • Last seen: August 11, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Through The Eye Of A Needle
May 06, 2021 · Original source
Patronage. Things that united the empire were taxes, the emperor, imperial service, vast absentee landlords, letters of patronage, dress codes and styles of living (for example, living in villas). Letters of patronage especially, united the wealthy across the empire. For any man of means, advancing in the world was a matter of patronage. Brown tells the story of St. Augustine. He was born into a curiales family, but only made it into the world of senatorial elites thanks to the patronage of richer men. At every step of his career, Augustine would impress a wealthier and more powerful man, who would then sponsor Augustine and introduce him into more and more elite and privileged circles. It’s through patronage that talented curiales could enter into positions of real power. It provided the imperial system with fresh talent and dynamism.
The core of the 530 page book uses the writings of the pagan Symmachus and the Christian writers Ambrose, Jerome, Pelagius, Augustine, Paulinus of Nola, John Cassian, Pinianus, Melania the Younger, and Salvian of Marseilles. I found these pieces of the book a little dry and overly theological. Their works are the primary sources from the era, so I understand why they were the focus of the book. If I was knowledgeable on Catholic theology and ancient heresies then it may have been more interesting. I don’t know much more than Sunday school level theology – I haven’t even read Augustine’s The City of God.
Civic Love. This civic love practice had started to fray by the 4th century. It had become more impressive to be beloved by the emperor than by your city, so civic love was practiced less than before. However, Christianity completely destroyed the civic love system. Christians were expected to give to ‘the poor’. Citizenship did not matter. More and more giving was channeled through the Christian church. Beginning in the 370s, the wealthy began entering the Christian faith in a significant way. Augustine, Ambrose, and other Christians saw a battles between “love of the city” and “love of the poor”. They saw a miserable and pathetic poor that desperately need aid. As Christianity triumphed, the concept of society changed. The honeycomb of civic organizations became a universal vision of rich and pathetic poor.
Your Book Review: The Weirdest People in the World
August 11, 2023 · Original source
As far as I know, this deliberate project of blank-slate rational institutional design, also known as political philosophy, is unique to Western thought, but I'm happy for an expert on Confucius or Ibn Khaldun to correct me. In any case, it seems relevant, because shortly after the fall of Rome in 410 AD, Saint Augustine wrote the most famous work of Christian political philosophy, the City of God, and this is one of the first places where the ban on cousin marriage is discussed:
[The Church’s view on marriage] was accepted, because people recognised it as godly on grounds which had been stated by St Augustine a millennium before. These were that the law of charity obliged Christians to seek in marriage an alliance with those to whom the natural ties of consanguinity did not bind them, so that the bonds of relationship and affection might be extended through the community of Christians…. The form in which the doctrine was normally now held was that marriage alliance was the pre-eminent method of bringing peace and reconciliation to the feuds of families and parties, the wars of princes, and the lawsuits of peasants.
So, Augustine does understand that marriages within the family “bind social life” less effectively than marriages across families, and that banning cousin marriage helps that. And he has a normative reason why the Church should care: it’s good for men “to live together in honourable concord”.