A Primary Study on Christian Aesthetic Thoughts of St Augustine

Zhu Yiming

【Abstract】St Augustine was a celebrated esthetician in the Middle Ages. He proposed the Christian aesthetic thoughts in his later years. This paper discusses his theory of combining absolute beauty and God. And then it analyzes the social and historical elements of his thoughts. In addition， through analyzing his formalism and his focus on ugliness， it points out that his thoughts are new ideas which not only carry on pagan Greeks but also are closely related to Christian Theology.

【Key words】St Augustine； Christian Theology； God； harmony

St Augustine is regarded as the last aesthetician in the Greco-Roman period and the first aesthetician in the Middle Ages. And this paper discusses his later Christian aesthetic thoughts instead of his early “formalism”.

Speaking of aesthetics， the largest contribution made by St Augustine is that he is the first one who combined absolute beauty with God. In this theory， it is obvious that he inherited and created the Neoplatonism of Plotinus and the aesthetic ideology of Plato. Plotinus divided beauty into three categories： rational beauty， soul beauty and sensory perceptional beauty. Meanwhile， St Augustine also proximately sorted beauty into three classes.

St Augustine attributed the supreme beauty to God. He held that the aesthetic problem did not lie in what was beauty but where beauty originated from. There is no doubt that he thought God as the root of beauty. Therefore， in his opinion， the beauty represented by objects meant the effort they made to reflect the “harmony” of God. But， as for God， this beauty was ugly eventually. This opinion was similar to that of Plotinus. However， it changed Plotinuss idea that rational beauty should be owed to Greek gods and mind. Seen from the perspective that materials represented God， St Augustines theory， directly born out of Platos “idea”， evidently had a deeper origin. And Plato also had his own three-layer theory of beauty： idea， reality and art. In his view， it was impossible for reality to imitate theory. And it was the same with art， which could not imitate reality. For this reason， when art imitated theory， it only could get the least of that. Undoubtedly， St Augustine and Plato shared the same purpose of highlighting the veneration of god . And the problem in the theory of St Augustine was similar to that of Plato. In the History of the western Aesthetics， Zhu Guangqian argued that cognition was made up of several individual conceptions in real life. Nonetheless， St Augustine and Plato isolated and absolutized such derived result. Consequently， they overdid it and failed to realize the dialectical relationship of universality and particularity of things.

At the same time， it is still of value to further analyze what St Augustine called the “harmony” of God. And his explanation of “harmony” just showed that his inability to abandon his former “formalism” completely. He believed the beauty of an object meant the proper proportion of each part and some eye-pleasing color. Here are two noticeable points. First， the opinion of proportion and number held by St Augustine has many similarities with that of Pythagorean School. Second， St Augustine attached much attention to the concept of color.

St Augustine and Pythagorean School were extremely strict with proportion. They both belonged to formalism. But St Augustine further developed this theory and combined number with God so as to support the theory of God. In his idea， the basic element of beauty was number， which meant order. And God created our world in accordance with number. Actually， that implied people must obey the order made by God. St Augustines persistence with color also stemmed from the sages in ancient Greece. The Anecdotes of Socrates written by Xenophon indicates that color and symmetry are the two basic elements in beauty. Whats more， harmony results from the coordination of subdued colors in each part. However， St Augustine also related this to God. In City of God， Dante quoted the opinion of St Augustine and held that justice showed subdued color in the city of God. Therefore， it is obvious that St Augustine associated color with God.

As to ugliness， St Augustine considered it was relative. The object might be ugly when judged independently. But it might become beautiful when compared with others in the system. So， it belonged to one element forming beauty. And he was one of the few aestheticians who realized the significance of ugliness in aesthetics. This opinion was affected by Heraclituss theory of struggle. And it seemed to go beyond that. Additionally， the argument put forward by St Augustine was evidently based on Christian theodicy， which held that God allowed the existence of evil would not damage the divine justice of God. In this regard， St Augustine interpreted the relationship between beauty and ugliness. Besides， he defended the theory of Christianity.

It can be inferred that there are two reasons why St Augustine was regarded as the last aesthetician in the Greco-Roman period and the first aesthetician in the Middle Ages. For one， his thoughts were influenced by the sages in ancient Greece. For another， he associated his thoughts with Christian theology and formed a set of more harmonious and newer views.