From Ellen T.
Charry, God and the Art of Happiness
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010)
“Although the differences among them are
significant, all the various ancient philosophical pathways with which
Christianity competed affirmed that life ought to be lived purposefully. One
should strive for the highest good that life offers: eudaemonia (variously translated as “well-being,” “flourishing,” or
”happiness”). The schools disagreed about the content of what a flourishing
life looks like and about how to achieve it, but they agreed that a principled
life is best. A casual or haphazard life is not likely to be a successful or
enjoyable as a well-crafted one. Ancient philosophies of happiness are
teleological: life reaches towards an achievable goal…In contract to happiness
as sustained external pleasure, the ancients agreed that happiness is enjoying
oneself in living morally and productively, and it is an external judgment on
how one is faring at life. It is a judgment on how one orders one’s life as a
whole, and it is the enjoyment of that life’s positive results. Both the
enjoyment and the judgment are inspired by a pattern that identifies a life
that is going well enough to be called a fine life – we might even say, a
beautiful life. Overall, well-being comes from using oneself consistently,
intentionally, and effectively, and hence it is a moral undertaking.
Flourishing reflects the moral quality of one’s ultimate purpose or organizing
principle.”
“Here is a taste of what Augustine plundered
from these sources. He agreed with the Epicureans that a flourishing life must
be a judgment about the whole of a life, both psychological and physical.
Obversely, he thought that complete well-being is never assured: against the
Epicurean denial of divine providence and judgment he asserted a strongly
eschatological teaching that happiness is not completely realizable given the
vicissitudes of life. He agreed with the Stoics that a happy life is a
consistently virtuous one, but he disapproved of their disdain for the emotions
and, like the Epicureans, disagreed that material well-being is not valuable as
a good in its own right, even if it is not the highest good. From Plotinus he
took the idea that happiness is a form of self-realization: realizing that our
true identity lies in God and our likeness to God. Of course, Augustine meant
the God of Israel, not of Plato. Again, he disagreed with Plotinus that care of
the body is irrelevant to that realization, though he did not spell out how
physical and spiritual well-being hold together.”
A fuller summary of Augustine's debt to the classical heritage is on pages 22-24.
