Saint Augustine responds
Answer... José Antonio Galindo Rodrigo
José Antonio Galindo Rodrigo (1936) an Augustinian Recollect, has been teaching the subject, Theological Anthropology according to Saint Augustine at the Faculty of Theology in Valencia, Spain. He still offers the course. His articles on the Bishop of Hippo appeared in Avgvstinus and in other publications. He authored Pedagogía de san Agustín (Madrid, Avgvustinus, 2002)…
Dear Isabel:
I think Augustine did not pose such a question, and if ever he did, he did not give it much importance.
Augustine is absolutely and totally convinced that such revelation happened (just remember his famous words, “Understand in order to believe; believe in order to understand”), and I think he gives little importance to the analysis of its possibility once revelation has been proven.
Anyway, he knows well that God is omnipotent and can do anything that does not contradict or oppose his perfection (“There are things that God cannot do not because of lack of power but because of the fullness of his perfection”). It is contradictory for a being to be at the same time everything that you mentioned (infinite, transcendent, absolute, temporal, finite and limited), but it is not contradictory for a being which has the first three attributes, to communicate its being to the being with the last three marks. And this is what is done in Christ. In the case of Christ we have a being of two natures that are communicated but not identified, they are not confused or mixed. The reality of Christ is the example of how divine being (with the first three attributes) communicates with a created being (with the last three marks).
But I insist, I do not think Augustine was preoccupied with the question, rather, his point of view starts from the joy of recognizing the fact of this great and admirable event of revelation, and in continuation he dedicates his whole life to study and admire it, and to share his discoveries of the story and the development of said event.
You find this in the book, El pensamiento de san Agustín para el hombre de hoy, Vol. II, pages 93-183. José Antonio Galindo, OAR.
Soy un músico cristiano y querría saber qué dice san Agustín sobre la música, y por qué su obra De Musica no se encuentra traducida al portugués.
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