No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Augustine as Improvisational Theologian: The Musical Nature of Augustine's Thought
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
In this article, I explore the nature of Augustine's theological thinking. My thesis is that Augustine is an “improvisational theologian,” meaning his theology begins from the place that an improvisational musician's thinking does: attunement. In order to prove this thesis, I have three sections. The first is an analysis of the type of thinking that takes place in improvisational music, showing how it is predicated upon an idea of attunement. Second, I explore the improvisational nature of Augustine's thought by seeing how attunement is also at work in his thinking. In order to do this, I show how he develops a musical worldview in De Musica and how this guides his subsequent thinking in De Doctrina Christiana and Confessions. I conclude by briefly pointing to different contemporary theological issues that this reading of Augustine can enrich.
- Type
- Original Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2015 The Dominican Council. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
References
1 Michel René Barnes shows the prevalence of this retrieval in contemporary Trinitarian theology in his “Augustine in Contemporary Trinitarian Theology,” Theological Studies 56 (1995), 237–250CrossRefGoogle Scholar. There is also the continued prevalence of books published on various aspects of Augustine's thought.
2 There are numerous examples of this in contemporary theology. In relation to his doctrine of the Trinity, see the misreadings given by LaCugna, Catherine M., God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (New York: HarperOne, 1993)Google Scholar; and Moltmann, Jürgen, The Trinity and the Kingdom, trans. Kohl, Margaret (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993)Google Scholar. See also the way that The Cambridge Companion to Augustine [eds. Stump, Eleonore and Kretzmann, Norman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar] is divided by topic in Augustine's thought, with the goal of elucidating what Augustine said on a given topic. Oftentimes the only way to give such a systematic reading is to deal with only one text or only a few texts from the same historical period. The result is a reading of Augustine that ignores the disparate and occasional nature of his writing.
3 Harrison, Carol, Rethinking Augustine's Early Theology: An Argument for Continuity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)Google Scholar.
4 Ayres, Lewis, Augustine and the Trinity (New York: Cambridge, University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 See how this is described in Berliner, Paul, Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 22–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 One thinks here of the number of “jazz standards” that a musician may learn to play which teaches the ways that jazz music works.
7 Bruce Ellis Benson, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue…, 32; 105–7; and 148.
8 See Ingird Monson, Saying Something
9 I remember listening to the jam band Phish and hearing the drummer propose a different rhythm with the rest of the band rejecting this, which lead him to have to readjust and “catch up” with the rest of the group.
10 Benson, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue, 170.
11 Ibid., 45.
12 Ibid., 142. See also Berliner, Thinking in Jazz…, 349–52.
13 Berliner, Thinking in Jazz…, 120. Lee Konitz uses a similar typology, except he talks of moving from interpretation to embellishment to improvisation. See Berliner, Thinking in Jazz…, 67–71.
14 Benson, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue…, 79.
15 Ibid., 71 and 111.
16 See Nichols, Aidan O.P., A Grammar of Consent: The Existence of God in Christian Tradition (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 19–38Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., 23.
18 Ibid., 23–4.
19 Ibid., 33–34.
20 Ibid., 34.
21 Ibid., 36.
22 Ibid., 19.
23 This argument is developed more fully in Crawford, Nathan, “Theology as Improvisation: Seeking the Unstructured Form of Theology with David Tracy,” Irish Theological Quarterly 75, no. 3 (August 2010), 300–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Crawford, Nathan, Theology as Improvisation: A Study in the Musical Nature of Theological Thinking (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Augustine, On Music, trans. Robert Catesby Taliaferro, in Writings of St. Augustine Volume 2 The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 4 (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1947)Google Scholar, I.3.4. All references to De Musica are to the book, chapter, and paragraph number in this translation. For the importance of De Musica, see Hermanowicz, Erica T., “Book Six of Augustine's De Musica and the Episcopal Embassies of 408,” Augustinian Studies 35, no. 2 (2004), 174CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the importance the text plays in later Christian theology, especially the Middle Ages, see Phillips, Nancy and Hugo, Michel, “Le De Musica de saint Augustin et l—organisation de la dure musicale du 9th au 12th sicles,” Reserches Augustiniennes 20 (1985), 117–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the importance of De Musica to the formation of Augustine, see Alexander, David C., “The Biographical Significance of Augustine's De Musica,” Studia Patristica 33 (1997), 3–10Google Scholar.
25 Ibid., I.2.3.
26 Ibid., I.5.10.
27 Ibid., I.4.8.
28 Ibid., I.12.23. In other texts, Augustine points to the perfectly harmonic nature of the number six as well: see, St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, in St. Augustine, On Genesis, The Works of Saint Augustine for the 21st Century I/13, trans. Edmund Hill, O.P. and ed. John E. Rotelle, O.S.A. (Hyde Park: New City Press, 2002), IV.2–14. Reference here is to book and paragraph number as used in this edition.
29 Ibid., I.13.28.
30 Ibid., VI.1.1. Alexander believes that De Musica VI is the first place where Augustine develops a framework for the Christian religious life: see Alexander, “The Biographical Significance of Augustine's De Musica,” 6.
31 Ibid., VI.5.9–14.
32 Ibid., VI.11.29. See also Williams, Rowan, “Good for Nothing? Augustine on Creation,” Augustinian Studies 25 (1994), 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
33 Ibid., VI.14.53.
34 Ibid., VI.15.50.
35 For a helpful summary on the setting and context of De Doctrina Christiana, see Kannengiesser, Charles, “Local Setting and Motivation of De Doctrina Christiana,” in Augustine: Presbyter Factus Sum, Collectanea Augustiniana, eds. Lienhard, Joseph T. S.J., Muller, Earl C. S.J., and Teske, Roland S.J. (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), 331–40Google Scholar. For a summary as to why Augustine wrote De Doctrina Christiana, see Kannengiesser, Charles, “The Interrupted De Doctrina Christiana,” in De Doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture, eds. Arnold, Duane W.H. and Bright, Pamela (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 3–13Google Scholar.
36 For more on the liberal arts and Augustine, see Pacioni, Virgilio O.S.A., “Liberal Arts,” trans. O—Connell, Matthew in Augustine through the Ages, ed. Fitzgerald, Allan D. O.S.A. (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 492–94Google Scholar. Also, see Fleteren, Frederick van, “St. Augustine, NeoPlatonism, and the Liberal Arts: The Background of De Doctrina Christiana,” in De Doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture, eds. Arnold, Duane W.H. and Bright, Pamela (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 14–23Google Scholar. For the connection of De Musica to De Doctrina Christiana, see Slocum, Kay Brainerd, “De Doctrina Christiana and Musical Semiotics in Medieval Culture,” in Reading and Wisdom: The De Doctrina Christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages, ed. English, Edward D. (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 143–52Google Scholar.
37 Augustine, Teaching Christianity The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/11, trans. Edmund Hill, O.P. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996), I.1. All references to De Doctrina Christiana will be to this translation and refer to the book and paragraph per this translation.
38 Ibid., IV.59.
39 See, for example, Ibid., I.39.
40 Ibid., IV.32.
41 By being in tune to God like this, we would see what it is to live Paul's admonition to “pray continually.”
42 Ibid., IV.38. See also William S. Babcock, “Caritas and Signification in De Doctrina Christiana 1–3,” in De Doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture, eds. Arnold, Duane W.H. and Bright, Pamela (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 147–48Google Scholar.
43 Ibid., I.12–13. Daley says that Augustine's theology is Christocentric: see Daley, Brian E. S.J., “Christology,” in Augustine through the Ages, ed. Fitzgerald, Allan D. O.S.A. (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 164Google Scholar.
44 Ibid., I.34.
45 Ibid., I.39–40.
46 St. Augustine, The Confessions, The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/1, trans. Maria Boulding, O.S.B. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997). All references will be to the book and paragraph number of this translation.
47 To say that God is formless is not to imply that God does not exist or that God has no form. Rather, the implication is that any attempt to think God must take into account the infinite number of forms available for doing theology and thinking God. To infer that God is formless is to make the claim that God is pluri-form with no one form dominating.
48 See Book VIII.
49 For a brief discussion of the unity between Books VII and VIII and Books IX-XIII, see Fleteren, Frederick van, “Confessions,” in in Augustine through the Ages, ed. Fitzgerald, Allan D. O.S.A., (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 230–32Google Scholar.
50 Ibid., XI.1.
51 See Augustine's allegorical exposition of the seven days of creation in XIII.13–47.
52 Ibid., XIII.48.
53 Ibid., XII.27.
54 Two quite different elucidations of what I call a “models” approach to theology are Sallie McFague, Models of God: 1987 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1987); and Dulles, Avery S.J., The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System (New York: Crossroad, 1992)Google Scholar.
55 I think this is especially true in McFague's Models of God. However, Dulles also opens this path, although in a different way, by suggesting that theology is done primarily in the model of the church since it is an ecclesial activity (see Dulles, The Craft of Theology, 8). I would counter Dulles by asking “which church” is the model for theology? Or, perhaps, which ecclesial tradition? Theology done within the model of the Quaker church will look much different than that done in the model of Roman Catholicism. Since Dulles is a Roman Catholic, his approach to theology tends to take Roman Catholic characteristics.
56 See Crawford, Nathan, “The Sapiential Structure of Augustine's De Trinitate,” Pro Ecclesia 19, no. 4 (Fall 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
57 For further argument on how one becomes attuned theologically, see Crawford, Nathan, “The One Who Attunes: Pursuing an Ontology of Attunement over an Ontology of Participation,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 45, no. 1 (Spring 2010)Google Scholar.