Journal #5 

Augustine on Marriage and Women

There's a lot going on with Augustus All The Time, so I thought it would be easier to leave the questions of Marriage and Family as is and answer them in Q&A style. Let's pretend I'm on a panel for Experts on Augustine (I don't know how I got here, I must have snuck in). Alas! I am the only woman on the panel. My lovely fans are now asking me questions about marriage and Augustine's view on women because they don't expect the male experts to give honest answers!

Q: How would you characterize Augustine's view on marriage (54, 106-109)?

• A: When he was younger, it seemed that he wanted to take a wife. As he got older, he realized that it wasn't in line with his religious pursuits. His friend at the time, Alypius, had encouraged Augustine not to. Augustine said that he "pushed aside the words of good advice like the hand loosing the bond" (107). And that his insistence on marriage was of "the serpent's persuasions", in reference to the Devil or sin speaking in his ear (as the serpent did with Eve in getting her to commit Sin). 

Q: What are his attitudes toward sexuality and desire? Of celibacy? (feel free to consider examples from earlier books)

• A: This man did a full 180. He went from wanting to have sex to basically despising it! He learned that "The consequence of a distorted will is passion" (140). It wasn't an easy choice, though. Day to day, he worked to move himself closer to God and what he believed the proper disciple (I am not religious, so pardon me if that's not the correct word) should do. In Book 8, there is a lot of talk about how he struggled with giving up the desire for desire.

Q: How do these ideas differ from those of his parents? From Alypius?

• A: Alypius had been intimate with someone before and had turned that life away. Augustine wanted to be intimate for a very long time, but when he found his religion, he let that go. Alypius was shocked that Augustine was "stuck fast in the glue of pleasure" (107). It just goes to complete the idea that pleasure was something people were naturally drawn to. The glue of pleasure as a phrase makes it seem magnetic. When someone resists the temptation or goes against the grain, they can feel all the better for not having done it. They've broken the norm. 

Q: What makes his mother an important figure in his life? How does he describe her?

• A: Oh, mothers in Roman times. There is a clear distinction between the role that his mother takes and the role that we tend to associate with motherhood. His mom doesn't seem very submissive or demure, but rather she "was entrusted with responsibility for her master's daughters" and "vehement with a holy severity in administering correction" (167). She kind of seems like a hardened woman. It seems like Augustine, in this section, is almost in awe of her based on his word choice. 

Q: What conclusions can we draw about his attitudes towards women and their place in this society? Why does he spend so much time describing his mother's death? Why is this the end of his story?

• His mother died on page 166 in 17. 

• I feel as though one reason he goes on about his mother's death is because of what she did for Augustine. Not only in a motherly, child-rearing sense but also that she gave birth to him. He thanks God for creating her. This is a wordy sentence, so bear with me, but Augustine writes, "I shall not pass over whenever my soul may bring to birth concerning your servant, who brought me to birth both in her body so that I was born into the light of time, and in her heart so that I was born into the light of eternity."