Augustine on Cultural Change

May 10, 2008

For the last couple of years in my Intro to Religious Studies course I have had the class read Augustine's On Christian Teaching. It is not as well known as the Confessions or City of God, but it manages to nicely define a Christian frame for interpreting and understanding scripture. It turns out that scripture should be interpreted as supporting love of God and neighbor and abhorring lust and sin. Any biblical material that apparently goes against that rule must be interpreted as figurative or allegorical in nature. Such a rule in no time will lead to a contradiction with the obvious historical import of a passage.. and that is what I think is important to see: interpretive frames govern what we get out of a biblical passage.

Another issue that Augustine highlights is cultural change. He addresses this issue in an attempt to justify the actions of the Old Testament patriarchs in committing actions that would later be considered sins. Case in point: polygamy. In defending the patriarchs Augustine outlines a theory of cultural difference. We should not judge another culture by our own standards:

We must therefore pay careful attention to the conduct appropriate to different places, times, and persons, in case we make rash imputations of wickedness. [78]

The patriarchs could carry on polygamous relationships but were not sinning (as we would be today if we tried the same) since they were following their own culture's practices.. and expressing love of God through those practices.

This leads Augustine into radical territory:

Whatever accords with the social practices of those with whom we have to live this present life—whether this manner of life is imposed by necessity or undertaken in the course of duty—should be related by good and serious men to the aims of self-interest and kindness, either literally, as we ourselves should do, or also figuratively, as is allowed to the prophets. When those who are unfamiliar with different social practices come up against such actions in their reading, they think them wicked unless restrained by some explicit authority. They are incapable of realizing that their own sort of behaviour patterns, whether in matters of marriage, or diet, or dress, or any other aspect of human life and culture, would seem wicked to other races or ages. [79]

That extended passage can almost be left to stand without comment. It allows for the notion that external ethical standards will be different at different times and places. And although Augustine would have disapproved of gay marriage, it is easy to see how his ideas here could be used against him as an argument in favor of this practice.

What I find fascinating in this passage is the unspoken static view of culture. Each person takes his or her place in life with a group of people who follow X system of social practices. Christianity (defined as love for God and neighbor) is capable of being expressed in every such cultural system (this is made even more explicit in the sentences after my already long quotation). But what first jumps into my mind is what to do about cultural change. What if someone is born into a group of people who are in a transition from x system to y system. What side should this Christian fall on? Should he or she stay with the old ethics or transition to the new one?

That is an obvious question to us because we understand culture as constantly changing, either progressing or declining. Those two dominant metaphors for cultural change in fact might even be said to underlie our entire political system! But Augustine sees culture (which he also casts as "race") as being largely static. A person should fit in to a cultural pattern. And while it is true that cultures separated in time or space are quite different, every culture remains its own unique system. I am curious how this works out elsewhere in Augustine.. and I will keep my eye out for a similar instance.