Spirituality

Interiority

Augustine considers that since man was created in the image of God and with an immediate tendency toward Him, man’s honour consists in being the more like God (The Trinity 12,11,16). Yet it is clear that not everyone is aware of all this, thus we speak of alienation, which can be the result of lack of awareness of the revealed truth that God created humanity in his image (cf. Genesis 1,26-27), or of the fact that man is capable of God and thus can reach God. In order to overcome this second form of alienation Augustine proposes the way of interiority, that is the turning away from the physical to the spiritual world, from the outer world to the inner self (cf. Confessions 10,6,8-7,11), thus Augustine invites those who are interested in advancing in spiritual life: Do not go out, but return within yourself for God dwells in the inner self. (cf. On True Religion 39,72) Consequently for Augustine spirituality implies entering into the depths of oneself, (Confessions 7,10,16) were one comes to terms with his soul, which “is created in the image and likeness of God.” (The Trinity 14,4,6)

Augustine affirms that it was the Neo-Platonic books, which incited him to return to himself. But interiority as understood by him is more than a personal philosophical quest:

Warned by the Neo-Platonic writings that I must return to myself, I entered under your guidance the innermost places of my being; but only because you had become my helper was I able to do so. I entered, then, and with the vision of my spirit, such as it was, I saw the unchangeable light far above my spiritual ken, transcending my mind: not this common light which every carnal eye can see, nor any light of the same order but greater, as though this common light were shining much more powerfully, far more brightly, and so extensively as to fill the universe. The light I saw was not this common light at all, but something different, utterly different, from all these things. Nor was it higher than my mind in the sense that oil floats on water or the sky is above earth; it was exalted because this very light made me, and I was below it because by it I was made. Anyone who knows truth knows it, and whoever knows it knows eternity. Love knows it. O eternal Truth, true Love, and beloved Eternity, you are my God, and for you I sigh day and night. (Confessions 7,10,16)

Augustine entered the innermost places of his being under God’s guidance. Moreover interiority goes beyond the passage from the external to the internal universe, for as Augustine says, on entering into oneself there one finds the light, which is not this common light at all, but something different, utterly different, for this light is God himself. Thus the quest for interiority, which is a human effort under the assistance of God, leads to the contemplation of God himself. Interiority, as understood by Augustine, is an exercise of knowing oneself and God, where self-knowledge is the crucial first step toward knowledge of God. (The Soliloquies 1,9,16)

Augustine’s spirituality adopts a philosophical method, that of interiority, as the means by which man can reach God.