AUGUSTINE - METHOD

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>AUGUSTINE</FONT><BR> THE CONVERTED CONVERTER</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Method</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>PLATO REINTERPRETED</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="0906a.jpg" WIDTH="264" HEIGHT="120" ALT="AUGUSTINE CONTEMPLATES"><P> Perhaps Augustine's greatest contribution to thought was his interpretation of Platonic thought into a Christian framework. Augustine was convinced that from <A HREF="../04/04f01.html" TARGET="_top">Plato</A> to Christ was but a small step, and the teaching of the church was in effect "Platonism for the multitude". Platonism had given him the "hint" to "search for the incorporeal". The only thing he found missing was "the Logos made flesh", that is Christ. His writing provided Christianity with its first coherent system of thought, but as he lay dying during the long Vandal siege of Hippo, his last recorded words were not from the Bible but from <A HREF="../t06/t06f20.html" TARGET="_top">Plotinus</A>. (Confessions 7.20)<P> Coming to his divine revelation via <A HREF="../t03/g034.html" TARGET="_top">Neo-platonism</A>, Augustine combines the neo-Platonic impersonal ideal of the One or the Absolute and the biblical concept God as love, power, justice and forgiveness. The new vision of God expanded Christian thought beyond the biblical limits and ensured the survival of Platonic thought. He was a conduit between the pagan world of classical philosophy and the new Christian world view, "the first modern man". <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>