Kind of like his somewhat low view of women huh? I hear he wasn't too kind to the female sex at times.
At times yes, he could be unpalatably sexist by contemporary standards.
Although, it must be said: so were Aristotle and most other classical thinkers pardon a few shining exceptions to the contrary. I mean, Aristotle was infamous for having opined that: "
the female is an incomplete male or as it were, a deformity". There is nothing quite
that bad in Augustine but he still takes a low view of the female sex sometimes.
To be fair to him, Augustine was very contradictory about this. He tended to blend rather progressive views for his era with the most shameless male chauvinism. It's odd, really, to read it.
As an example, consider Book XIII, Chapter 32 of his
Confessions. He declares, firstly, that "
man and woman are equal in mind and intelligence". Elsewhere in his "
Literal Commentary on Genesis", III, 22 he expands upon this idea thus:
"Still the woman too, who is female in the body, she too is being renewed in the spirit of her mind, where there is neither male nor female, to the recognition of God according to the image of him who created her (Rom 12:2, Eph 4:23, Col 3:10, Gal 3:28). Women, after all, are not excluded from this grace of renewal and the refashioning of God's image, although their bodily sex symbolizes something else...In the same way too, in the original creation of the human race, because the woman too was human, she obviously had a mind and a rational one at that, in respect of which she too was made to the image of God."
As you will no doubt be aware already from your extensive knowledge of Hellenistic philosophy, this was on the liberal end of the spectrum at the time.
Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC), perhaps the greatest intellectual and orator of ancient Rome, had stated that:
M. Tullius Cicero, For Lucius Murena, section 27
"Our ancestors made it a rule that women, because of their inferior intellects, should have guardians to take care of them” (Pro Murena 12.27).
This was the common position among many Greek and Roman men.
Genevieve Lloyd in her book
The Man of Reason: Male and Female in Western Philosophy notes:
'Earlier synthesis of Genesis with Greek Philosophical concepts had, following Philo, tended to associate women's inferior origins and subordination with her lesser rationality. Augustine strongly opposed such interpretations, seeing them as inconsistent with the Christian commitment to spiritual equality...'
Unfortunately, Augustine follows this relatively enlightened notion with a demeaning statement about women, justifying their inferior social status to men:
Sermon on the Mount, Book I, § 34. “It is very difficult to overcome temptation; and yet even habit itself, if one does not prove untrue to himself, and does not shrink back in dread from the Christian warfare, he will get the better of under His (i.e. Christ's) leadership and assistance; and thus, in accordance with primitive peace and order, both the man is subject to Christ, and the woman is subject to the man.”
He also, on the other hand, absolutely idolized his mother St. Monica as the supreme exemplar of holiness and saintliness. Here is how he described her funeral:
“I closed her eyes; and there flowed a great sadness into my heart, and it was passing into tears, when my eyes at the same time, by the violent control of my mind, sucked back the fountain dry, and woe was me in such a struggle! […]
For we did not consider it fitting to celebrate that funeral with tearful plaints and groanings; for on such wise are they who die unhappy, or are altogether dead, wont to be mourned. But she neither died unhappy, nor did she altogether die. For of this were we assured by the witness of her good conversation, her faith unfeigned, (cf. 1 Timothy 1:5) and other sufficient grounds. […]
What, then, was that which did grievously pain me within, but the newly-made wound, from having that most sweet and dear habit of living together suddenly broken off? […]As, then, I was left destitute of so great comfort in her, my soul was stricken, and that life torn apart as it were, which, of hers and mine together, had been made but one.”
Likewise, he genuinely loved the mistress he had in his youth - even though he'd cheated on her and ultimately been compelled by circumstance to let her go. Augustine himself talks about the woman "
being torn from my side, and my heart being crushed and wounded, so that it drew blood" (
Confessions VI 15). He praises her for vowing to know no other man — they had been faithful to each other throughout their liaison, IV 2 — while he himself showed no such self-control, but took another concubine.
But he had
serious hang-ups about his sex life and it is believed that he was at times sort of "
extemporizing" his own guilt about having led a lustful earlier life onto the women he'd slept with, associating the female gender with seduction and temptation to sinfulness in the process.
As a young man, Augustine had this famous phrase from
The Confessions which he'd prayed to God, that went: "
Lord, make me chaste (sexually pure) – but not yet!" I think that says it all really.
It's a common trait in male misogyny throughout history. Rather than just face facts that their a horny bloke with obsessive erotic desires that they need to accept and deal with, these guys effectively
blamed the women for enticing them in the first place with their 'dangerous' feminine wiles.
The whole idea of the
femme fatale arises from this perverse logic i.e.:
it's not my fault that I want to have sex with you or oogle at your voluptuous breasts, oh no! It is your fault for being so damn sexy, you wily female devil! Tempting me like you did poor Adam with the forbidden fruit! Cover up - you whore! Or ideas to that effect
As one scholar explained:
“This Augustine who had made love to women and perhaps to men, who could not control his own sexual problems, who was constantly torn between lust and frustration, who could in all sincerity pray: ‘Give me chastity . . . . , but not yet!’ (Confessions 8,7), who only became devout after he had ravished whores to his heart's content, when his weakness for women, as so often happens to older men in later life, turned into the opposite . . . , this Augustine created the classic patristic doctrine on sin, a morality in which especially sexual desire was condemned. Augustine has influenced Christian morality decisively, as well as the sexual frustrations of millions of Europeans unto our own day.” (K. Deschner, De Kerk en haar Kruis, Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1974, pp. 326-327).
