Wednesday, May 19, 2004
shortly after reading the spong song, i was forced to think of him somewhat analogically with the young manichaean augustine (except that spong's case is one of a 'bishop' holding in contempt everyone who is not an academic and 'educated' according to his standards). not surprisingly, augustine, upon deeper reflection, despaired of the pseudo-smarts of the manichees. i quote, again, from chadwick's 'augustine' (p.14):
'During a full ten years, in teaching posts first at Carthage and then at Rome, Augustine remained associated with the Manichees. A combative critic of Catholic orthodoxy and conscious of his own intellectual superiority to memebers of the Church, whose bishops he held in contempt for their lack of education and critical inquiry, he converted many friends to share his Manichee beliefs....Mounting doubts came to beset him. Was Mani right when he asserted that the supremely good Light-power was weak and impotent in conflict with the Dark? How could one properly worship a deity so powerless and humiliated?...Growing disillusion with the sect reached a climax when he put his doubts before a teacher held in high regard by the Manichees, Faustus. He found the man's eloquence greater than his capacity for thought.'
'During a full ten years, in teaching posts first at Carthage and then at Rome, Augustine remained associated with the Manichees. A combative critic of Catholic orthodoxy and conscious of his own intellectual superiority to memebers of the Church, whose bishops he held in contempt for their lack of education and critical inquiry, he converted many friends to share his Manichee beliefs....Mounting doubts came to beset him. Was Mani right when he asserted that the supremely good Light-power was weak and impotent in conflict with the Dark? How could one properly worship a deity so powerless and humiliated?...Growing disillusion with the sect reached a climax when he put his doubts before a teacher held in high regard by the Manichees, Faustus. He found the man's eloquence greater than his capacity for thought.'
