Augustine's Insights of Happiness and Their Implications

Introduction

Happiness is one of the most significant themes that Augustine deals with in many

works during his lifetime such as the Happy Life, On the True Religion, Against the

Academics, the Confessions and The City of God. Since it is too broad for this essay to

include various aspects of happiness that Augustine extensively deals with during his lifetime,

it first provides an analysis of Augustine's insights of happiness as mainly presented in the

City of God. It then sketches the dangers in the modern understanding of happiness. It finally

draws some implications from Augustine's insights of happiness that are applicable to the life

of the Christians today.

Augustine's Insights of Happiness

God as Supreme Good

Augustine's understanding of happiness had a strong root in the ancient philosophy.

Based on the classical argument of universal desire for happiness, Augustine insistently

claims that all people desire the happy life.1 The City of God shows that the attainment of

happiness is not only the purpose of philosophizing but also the ultimate end of every human

choice and activity.2 Augustine, in line with his philosophical predecessors, also holds that to

attain the happy life is to possess the supreme good, the Summum Bonum. The supreme good

is understood as the ultimate end of the seeking, and therefore is the ultimate object of our

desire. 3 Augustine, with his Christian understanding, regards this supreme good as God

1
Saint Augustine, City of God, Trans by Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin Books, 1972), 10.1.
2
Bonnie Kent, "Augustine's Ethics", In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, Edited by Eleonore Stump
and Norman Kretzmann (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 205-207.
3
While agreeing happiness as possession of the supreme good, the nature of the supreme good was a matter of
dispute among different schools of philosophy in Augustine's world. In fact, reading the works of Marcus Varro,
Augustine indicates that what really distinguished schools of philosophy from each other was their
understanding of the supreme good. Augustine, City of God 19.4

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himself, the unchanging and eternal Being.4 In fact, Augustine firmly states that "happy is he

who has God".5 Accordingly, his concept of happiness, while including many elements of

ancient Hellenistic eudemonism, contains several aspects of Christianity. Particularly, two

distinctly Christian aspects in Augustine's views of happiness can be seen, that is, the notion

of happiness as a gift of God and the eschatology of happiness.6

Happiness as a Gift of God

Throughout the City of God, Augustine insists that true happiness is a gift of God.

Particularly, during the time of the fall of Roman Empire, one of the most common gods

worshipped by the pagans was Felicity, the goddess of happiness since happiness is that

which all people desire for. Augustine points out that Felicity, the pagan goddess, is nothing

else but a gift of God.7 Worshipping her neither helped the pagans improve their moral life

nor brought them true happiness. Only the one true God, who has implanted a natural desire

for happiness in all human beings, is the author and the giver of true happiness.8 This desire

is something inherent in human beings. By implanting in man the desire for happiness,

human beings are in turn naturally oriented to seek God and enjoy in him. Human journey of

searching for God is in fact a restless search for the truth and happiness, a restless pursuit of

objects of desire which "ends in the rest, leisure, and the unsurpassable peace of God". 9

In his mature work the City of God, Augustine also argues that the attainment of

happiness through one's own effort not only undermines the significance of God's grace but

also leads one to pride and complacency. He argues against his philosophical predecessors
4
Augustine, City of God, 12.1.
5
Augustine, City of God, 8.8.
6
Augustine refuses the philosophical view of the ancient classics that happiness can be achieved in this earthly
through only human efforts of practicing virtues or using the primary gifts of nature or of both. Augustine, City
of God, 19.4 .
7
Augustine, City of God, 4.23; pref 5.
8
Augustine, City of God, 10.29
9
John Bussanich, Happiness, Eudaimonism, In Augustine through the Ages. An Encyclopedia, Edited by
Allan Fitzgerald (Michigan / Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 414. See also:
Augustine, City of God, 20.26; 22.20.

2
who proudly claimed that they can attain happiness through their own power. 10 Since the

attainment of happiness is in human control, the happy life according to the ancient

philosophers is essentially described as a life "characterized by completeness and self-

sufficiency ..., and especially by freedom from all trouble and anxiety". 11 For them,

particularly the Stoics, this kind of happy life can be attained through a rationally virtuous life.

The Stoics even identifies the virtue of the mind with the highest good, the ultimate end.12

While Augustine holds the virtue is essential for attaining happiness, he argues that it is

insufficient. Augustine finds "woefully inadequate classical moral psychological in which

virtues consists in the rational mastery of the passions".13 Virtue, thus, is redefined as the love

of God and regarded as the "means for attaining happiness whose reality is the vision,

possession, and enjoyment of God".14 As a means, it is also a gift of God, by which we love

God and love our neighbours as ourselves.

The Eschatology of Happiness

Augustine argues that this present life where everything is subject to change cannot be

the object of our desire for true happiness. Only the enjoyment of "what is not subject to

change and which is good in itself can make man happy".15 This enjoyment is only sought in

God only in the life of the blessed after resurrection. Accordingly, perfect and eternal

happiness cannot be found in this mortal life. As a happy man who has God, he also has

immortality since God is an immortal and eternal Being. Only through immortality can one

10
Augustine, City of God, 19.4.
11
Kent, "Augustine's Ethics", 208.
12
Christian Tornau, "Happy in This Life. Augustine on the Principle that Virtue is Self-Sufficient for
Happiness", In The Quest for the Good Life: Ancient Philosophers on Happiness, Edited by yvind
Rabbs, Eyjlfur Kjalar Emilsson, Hallvard Fossheim, and Miira Tuominen (Oxford: University Press, 2015 ) ,
267.
13
Bussanich, Happiness, Eudaimonism, 414. In Augustine's the Confessions Book VIII, there seems always a
conflict within human being between desire and mind, between the will and the intellect.
14
Bussanich, Happiness, Eudaimonism, 414. See also: Augustine, City of God, 8.8.
15
Czar Emmanuel V. Alvarez, "Man's Quest for Happiness. Eudainomism", In Course Unite Booklet (Course at
Catholic Institute of Sydney, 2016), 15.

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possess true happiness forever without fear and loss. In this regard, Augustine rejects the

materialist view of both the Epicureans and the Stoics. For the Epicureans, the soul is mortal

and there is no such thing as the life after death. It follows that there is no such eternal reward

to which human beings look forward or eternal punishment which they fear. Life has no other

purpose than of enjoying one's pleasure.16 Augustine also rejects the Stoic ideal of having

true happiness in this earthly life through a rationally virtuous life. For Augustine, that human

beings are not merely the rational souls as the Plato holds; but composites of bodies and

soul.17 Thus, regardless of how virtuous one might be, one cannot be happy when he/she still

suffers from physical infirmities. As Kent rightly indicates, Augustine therefore argues that

"the only life deservedly called happy is one where one body cannot suffer or die and obeys

the mind without resistance". 18 This life is obviously the afterlife in God.

Although nobody can attain true happiness in the present life, Augustine asserts that

anyone who accepts the present life with firm hope of the afterlife "may without absurdity be

called happy even now, though rather by future hope in present reality." 19 Looking at the

human condition caused by original sin with full of egoism, pride and lust for glory, and

competition,20 Augustine sees that what can guarantee true and permanent happiness is the

hope of the afterlife. Without that hope, the present reality, for him, "to be sure, is a false

happiness, in fact, an utter misery". 21 This hope, thus, is never in vain. Rather, as a

theological virtue, it is in hope that we can attain salvation. As Augustine insists, " as we do

16
He first denies Epicurean hedonic understanding of happiness, focusing on the maximization of pleasure and
the avoidance of the pain in this physical world.
17
Augustine, City of God, 12.3
18
Kent, "Augustine's Ethics", 209.
19
Augustine, City of God, 19.20
20
Kent, "Augustine's Ethics", 218.
21
Augustine, City of God, 19.20

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not possess a present salvation, but await salvation in the future, so we do not enjoy a present

happiness, but look forward to happiness in the future,...with steadfast endurance".22

Even though hope is a necessary condition to get to the eternal happiness, it is not only

thing we do to possess perfect and permanent happiness. It is also not a passively waiting for

the grace of God. In bestowing human beings with desire for happiness, God also endows

man with the faculties that he needs to seek and desire, that is, intellect and will. 23 Freewill is

good in itself and necessary for living rightly and happily, but it is also liable to sin.

Therefore, all are called to be "dependent on God's assistance when we begin to form the will

to adopt a way of life that radically changes our habits but that- as we know- eventually make

us happy".24 Moreover, under Platonic influence, Augustine argues that through intellect, we

also can have a happy life through being wise since to attain happiness is to possess wisdom.

To be wise is to participate in the life God, that is, to imitate, know and love him.25 The God

that we participate in is but Jesus Christ, the only Son of God who made flesh in human form,

who is both teacher and redeemer, without whom no human beings could ever succeed in

attaining happiness.26

Dangers in Modern View of Happiness

Modern understanding of happiness seems to be governed by various philosophies such

as consumerism, individualism, and hedonism. Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation

Evangelii Gaudium Chapter 2, points outs the danger of this trend of understanding as

follows: "the great danger in today's world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the

desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of

22
Augustine, City of God, 19.20
23
Augustine, City of God, 5.11.
24
Tornau, "Happy in This Life. Augustine on the Principle that Virtue is Self-Sufficient for Happiness", 280.
25
Augustine, City of God, 8.5.
26
Kent, "Augustine's Ethics", 210

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frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience." 27 This danger has a strong impact not only on

the world but the believers as well. Modern happiness, as the Pope implies, is obviously a

kind of complacent and yet covetous happiness, which essentially focuses on "the self-

sufficiency which considers the self as the object and as an end in itself" and therefore

disconnects one person from another. 28

Moreover, modern happiness is strongly hedonistic. If the ancient philosophers regard

the virtue of the mind as an essential quality of attaining happiness, modern people focus

more on the emotional quality of happiness. For modern people, happiness seems to be

restricted to a kind of ephemeral subjective feeling. Desire for happiness is often through

pleasure, possession, power, and worldly success. Happiness is mainly measured by the good

feelings that one has. However, these moments of good feelings are not stable and lasting for

long. They come soon, but they also finish soon and last very briefly. Indeed, in identifying

the current concept of happiness as mainly "a psychological attitude centred on the

maximization of pleasure", Joseph Lam points out that this happiness "depends on the human

moods and emotions which are time and again unstable and even deceptive".29 A happiness

that based on an unstable and deceptive emotions often leads to discontent and unhappiness.

That is why, as we can see, many people in our today's world fall into depression and misery,

even though they are rich and worldly successful.

Implications from Augustine's Insights

From Augustine's understanding of happiness, it can be seen that the dangers in modern

understanding of happiness are in fact what Augustine already dealt with more than 1500

years ago. Augustine's insights, therefore, are obviously much relevant to the Christians today.

27
Evangelii Gaudium, Chapter 2.
28
Cong Quy Joseph Lam, "Mercy, Happiness and Human Growth in the Teaching of Pope Francis", 2-4. Note:
This article is accepted to be published in "The Australian Catholic Record" in the next number, Volume 93, N.
3. The page number is quoted as the article is provided.
29
Joseph Lam, "Mercy, Happiness and Human Growth in the Teaching of Pope Francis", 2.

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His understanding of happiness as the supreme good, a gift of God and the sign of

immortality is a powerful testimony for the necessity of God's grace in the assurance of true

happiness in a secularized and hedonistic society today. Augustine clearly indicates that the

source of human happiness is from God himself and only by adhering to him who is eternal,

can we have eternal happiness. God granted us not only desire for happiness but also will and

intellect to seek it. Indeed, many Christians today seek to exclude God out of their lives, their

search for happiness. They tie their objects of desire down not to God, but to the fleeting

worldly pleasures. Obviously, good feelings are not sufficient to be called true happiness

since they easily come and easily go. For Christians today, what is essential for attaining true

happiness is to adhere to God. This obviously involves in our exercise of the will and the

intellect to choose the good and to live as Christ lives.

Moreover, Augustine's view of the virtue as a God-given means for attaining happiness

provides an insight about the dangers of pride and complacency on one's journey of searching

for happiness. The most dangerous thing is that pride and complacency lead man to a sort of

individualism which focuses on one's self. Thus, what is worth to me is more important than

what is to us. As a gift of God, Augustine strongly reminds us that search for happiness does

not lead humans to find complacence in one's self. Happiness, thus, is not just an individual

matter; rather, it contains in itself a social character. Indeed, virtue as a love of God obviously

calls Christians today to seek happiness through loving others as well. Seeking genuine

happiness for one's self is never meant to hinder one from loving God and others.

Finally, Augustine's appeal to the eschatological character of happiness also gives an

insight about the importance of hope in attaining true happiness. Obviously, Augustine's

message of hope not only clearly indicates the miserable reality of human conditions but

also brings the hope of a perfect happiness to all Christians, particularly those who are living

in all sorts of difficulties of life. This hope is actualized through our dependence on the grace

7
of God, Jesus Christ. Indeed, life is not only full of pleasure but also full of suffering.

Augustine's account of hope does not imply a vain hope; but a hope that is a dynamic force

moving people through suffering. Thus, happiness is not just to pursue pleasure and avoid

pain, but to grow through suffering.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a great difference between Augustine's views of happiness and

the modern understanding of happiness. Although Augustine lived more than 1500 years ago,

his insightful thoughts of happiness are still very much applicable to Christians today.

Particularly, his great emphasis on the role of God in his understanding of happiness shows

that our dependence on God's love and grace is always important in our journey of searching

for true happiness. Moreover, true and eternal happiness is only sought through God's gift in

the afterlife.

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 Bibliography

Alvarez, Czar Emmanuel V. "Man's Quest for Happiness. Eudainomism". In Course Unite
Booklet. Course at Catholic Institute of Sydney, 2016.

Augustine, Saint. City of God. Trans by Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin Books, 1972.

Bussanich, John. Happiness, Eudaimonism. In Augustine through the Ages. An

Encyclopedia. Edited by Allan Fitzgerald. Michigan / Cambridge: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.

Joseph Lam, Cong Quy. "Mercy, Happiness and Human Growth in the Teaching of Pope
Francis".

Kent, Bonnie. "Augustine's Ethics". In The Cambridge Companion to Augustine. Edited by

Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001.

Tornau, Christian. "Happy in This Life. Augustine on the Principle that Virtue is Self-
Sufficient for Happiness". In The Quest for the Good Life: Ancient Philosophers on
Happiness. Edited by yvind Rabbs, Eyjlfur Kjalar Emilsson, Hallvard Fossheim,
and Miira Tuominen. Oxford: University Press, 2015.