God, the Silent Orator, and Selfhood

Karoline Kersten

St. Augustine’s Confessions examines the nuances of reading both secular and religious texts. Augustine himself found the skill of reading crucial to both his education and to his professional life as a rhetorician, though he later explored the more profound implica­tions of the act of reading as it relates to the Bible and to spiritual­ity. First he establishes the advantages of reading figuratively over reading literally with regards to understanding texts. This closely relates to his further contemplations of understanding works on a spiritual level, and he maintains that spiritual understanding comes from silent reading. Augustine’s model of silently and figuratively reading Scripture allows God to exist as a silent orator in the soul, leading to an individual attainment of faith and the perception of the self in relation to God. Augustine even advocates the element of individual interpretation of God’s truth, an act that asserts the self. Hence, Augustine values a silent, spiritual and interpretive reading of Scripture that allows a greater understanding of the spiritual meaning of the texts, leading to the presence of God as an orator within the human soul. This model of reading leads to a more com­plete understanding of the self in relation to God, resulting from both individual interpretation and application of Scripture.

Firstly, Augustine explores the difference between reading the Bible literally and reading it figuratively. Testifying to the powers of the latter, in chapter 14 of Book 5 Augustine writes, “I began to believe that the Catholic faith . . . might fairly be maintained, espe­cially since I had heard one passage after another in the Old Testa­ment figuratively explained” (l. 108). Clearly Augustine has demon­strated that he can better grasp Scripture through a figurative read­ing. He goes on to say that “[T]hese passages had been death to me when I took them literally” (l. 108), and in doing so sets up a paral­lel between literal reading and [perhaps even spiritual] death. When he reads texts literally, the words themselves repulse him. In much the same way, Augustine has listened to Ambrose’s words with an ear attuned to style rather than content: “while I paid the closest attention to the words he used, I was quote uninterested in the sub­ject-matter and was even contemptuous of it: (l. 107). By listening and reading for style only, instead of content, Augustine cannot access the deeper religious meaning.

At the same time, Augustine acknowledges the great advan­tages of understanding the sacred meaning of the religious text, and he relates the effects on the self in the following words: “once I had heard them [passages in the Old Testament] explained in their spir­itual meaning, I began to blame myself for my despair” (l. 108). Here, when he understands the figurative and spiritual meaning, Augustine can gain insight into the truth of the faith itself, thereby moving closer to gaining the essential faith in God. Moreover, this method of reading also allows him to internalize his despair. Pre­viously, he had agreed with those who “hated and derided the law and prophets” (l. 108), implying that his own despair had pre­vented him from believing in these tenets of faith. This self-blame marks a shift in his idea of self, and it parallels the Christian view of man as fallen and sinful. He realizes how much his false beliefs about the tenets of Catholic faith, which he had obtained from liter­ally reading Scripture, have contributed to his own despair. There­fore, it logically follows that reading Scripture for its spiritual meaning results in personal enlightenment and transports the reader along the path to true faith and access to God.

Augustine further specifies the details of his model of reading when he describes Ambrose’s silent reading in chapter 3 of Book 6. Augustine observes, “when he [Ambrose] read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart explored the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still . . . we found him reading in silence, for he never read aloud” (l. 114). Silent reading allows for internali­zation of the text, and, as a personal activity, leads to personal understanding. In addition, reading in silence detaches the meaning of the words from the encumbrance of language. Instead of the reader focusing on speaking well, an action that would detract from the understanding of the text, he can focus on the words’ meanings. Therefore, the contrast between oral reading and silent reading par­allels the literal vs. figurative methods of reading, bringing to mind the axiom, “[T]he written law inflicts death, whereas the spiritual law brings life” (l. 116). Consequently, Ambrose’s spiritual reading must be silent. Reading silently constitutes the most internal, per­sonal and spiritual act, and it binds the personal individual to the words’ sacred meanings, leading to a greater connection to God. Silent reading also allows for a greater understanding of this spiri­tual law, because of the interpretation inherent in the act itself. Hence, with the greater knowledge of the meaning behind Scrip­ture’s words, the reader can gain a greater access to the truth of Scripture, to faith, and to God.

Augustine describes how silence allows for a deeper connec­tion to God and for a better understanding of himself in chapter 10 of Book 12. He establishes this silent connection to God when he yearns, “[L]et me listen to Truth, the Light of my heart, and not to the voices which I heard in the days of my darkness” (l 286). Here, speaking to God, he emphasizes the importance of silently listen­ing to Truth, or God, in an internal and emotional way. He implies that he can do this as a result of silently reading the Bible, since the text stands as God’s truth, because “at the beginning of time the Word already was; and God had the Word abiding with him, and the Word was God” (l. 144). Hence, he can listen to God when he reads Scripture. Augustine goes on to discuss this connection to God and how he is able to find himself through God. With the words “speak to me; breathe the words of truth to me” (l 287), God actually exists as a silent orator within Augustine, breathing words of truth, instead of speaking them.

This act testifies to the life-giving powers of God’s truth, and necessitates silent speech from God—an internal, personal act aris­ing from Augustine’s silent reading of Scripture. In addition, Augustine’s words “I was death to myself. But in you I live again” (l. 286), here reflect the words of the Bible, “The written law inflicts death, whereas the spiritual law brings life” (l. 116). To live literally is to live worldly, as a fallen human being, which ulti­mately leads to death. In contrast, the realm of the spiritual con­tains divinity, eternity, and everlasting life. Living for himself, Augustine lived literally and evilly as a man ruled by base instincts, therefore suffering spiritual death at his own hands. However, he experiences lie a second time in God, because by reading spiritually and obeying the “spiritual law [that] is life” (l. 116) he can both obtain spirituality and access God. This transformation seems remarkably similar to the Christian view of life after death, in which a man literally dies in the world of humanity, though his soul lives spiritually in heaven. Living spiritually through God allows Augustine to live again, thus allowing the self to exist. Therefore, God, whom Augustine gains access to within himself when reading silently for Scripture’s spiritual meaning, defines Augustine’s very existence.

Augustine continues to explore the rewards of God’s silent oration, and he affirms that those who do not have silence cannot receive God as a silent orator. In chapter 11 of Book 12, Augustine clearly demonstrates how God acts as such an orator, permitting him to gain access to faith and to Himself. When he writes “In my heart, O Lord, I have heard your voice telling me loud and clear that you are eternal and that to you alone immortality belongs” (l. 287), Augustine directly declares God a powerfully internal orator within his soul, whose silent oration leads to Augustine’s faith and explains the ways of the world according to the Christian faith. Faith constitutes the defining characteristic of Augustine’s self: he has been searching for a true faith his whole life, and once he finds faith (and thus discovers God), Augustine “live[s] again” (l. 286) and can be a complete self. In addition, in chapter 14 of Book 12, Augustine distinguishes between himself as a person who “within me I hear the loud voice of the Truth” (l. 290) and “acclaimers of
. . . the Book of Genesis” (l. 290). The latter cannot gain access to God in the same way that Augustine can, as Augustine acknowl­edges when he vows “I shall try to persuade them to be silent and to open a way to their hearts for your word” (l. 293). These acclaimers cannot hear God’s voice within themselves, because they do not engage in the essential silence. Hearing God’s silent words allows Augustine to “leave these unbelievers outside . . . while I withdraw to my secret cell and sing you hymns of love, groaning with grief that I cannot express as I journey on my pil­grimage” (l. 293). Therefore, as he listens to God, Augustine makes a pilgrimage fraught with inexpressible emotions of love and grief as he, an individual mortal self, attempts to reach God.

From his position that silent reading results in access to faith and God, Augustine delves into the realm of interpretation in chap­ter 13 of Book 12. Augustine asserts, “This then, my God, is how I interpret your Scripture when I read the words: ‘In the Beginning God made heaven and earth . . . .’ Scripture does not say on which day you made them, and I understand the reason for this to be that ‘heaven’ here means the Heaven of Heavens” (l. 287). Augustine can only achieve this individual interpretation of God’s Word through silent, figurative reading. This interpretation has faith as a foundation, but establishes an individual understanding of Scripture and an individual assertion of the self in Augustine’s interpretive initiative as he strives to understand and apply the words he reads in order to better understand his faith and God.

In chapter 18 of Book 12, Augustine continues to expound on the importance of interpretation to his model of reading. While the aforementioned “acclaimers” of the Book of Genesis narrow-mind­edly allege “this is not what the Spirit of God, who wrote these words through Moses his servant, meant us to understand by them” (l. 290) Augustine himself values individual interpretation of the text. He questions: “Provided, therefore, that each of us tries as best he can to understand in the Holy Scriptures what the writer meant by them, what harm is there if a reader believes what you, the Light of all truthful minds, show him to be the true meaning” (l. 296)? Here, he presents readers as trying to understand God’s truth and interpretation as coming from God—compromised of what God “show[s] him [the reader] to be the true meaning” (l. 296). Therefore, since each individual interprets the text he reads, individual interpretation of Scripture is divinely inspired by the inner voice of God. Many true meanings exist in the texts, and “it may not even be the meaning which the writer had in mind, and yet he too saw in them a true meaning, different though it may have been from this” (l. 296). Therefore, each individual can interpret the texts differently and glean meanings from the words that, in their entirety, are God’s truth. God’s multifaceted truth thus allows for the assertion of the individual self through the process of interpre­tation within the parameters of truth, once again permitting self­hood to arise from the reading and analysis of the Bible.

As a result of this interpretive reading of Scripture, Augustine comes to understand God better and to develop his own concep­tion of self-identity. Augustine defines himself in relation to God when he writes “Oh my God, whose high majesty is the measure of my lowliness” (l. 303). Here, the faith he has gained from the devout, silent reading of God’s word leads him to comprehend his place in the world fully and to understand his selfhood in terms of faith and God. The underlying fallen state of sinning humanity appears in Augustine’s acknowledgement that “we are all made from the same clay and man is nothing unless you remember him” (l. 303). Here, Augustine declares that man’s selfhood exists only on God’s terms, consistent with his previous view that God rekin­dles spiritual life and self-identity.

After discussing the differences between reading literally and reading figuratively, Augustine establishes a model of silent, spiri­tual interpretive reading of the Bible as a means to achieving faith and coming closer to God. Silent reading allows the individual to better understand the spiritual meaning of Scripture, thereby attain­ing faith and accessing God. As a result of this essential silence, God exists as a silent orator within the soul, revealing the truths of faith. God and faith define the very selfhood of the individual, and interpretation of Scripture allows Augustine to understand God and assert his own self-identity in relation to his faith and to God. Therefore, silently reading and interpreting Scripture constitute means by which he comes closer to these pillars of his spiritual selfhood.

References

Augustine. 1961. Confessions. Trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin. London: Penguin Books.