Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

ST. AUGUSTINE’S CRITIQUE OF THE ADIAPHORA 189
ful (i.e., the utile). 56 For Augustine, the honestum is sought for its
own sake, while the utile points toward something else, as a
means to an end. On the basis of this distinction, he arrives at the
following explanation of vice and virtue, respectively:
Consequently every human perversion (also called vice) consists
in the desire to use what ought to be enjoyed and to enjoy
what ought to be used. In turn, good order (also called virtue)
consists in the desire to enjoy what ought to be enjoyed and to
use what ought to be used. Now honorable things are to be
enjoyed, but useful things are to be used. 57
On the basis of the foregoing definition, Augustine would
limit our enjoyment to God alone. Everything else must be used
as a means to this final end. The one exception to this rule,
however, concerns our relationship with other people. Clearly, it
would be inappropriate to speak in terms of “using” our neighbor
as some means to an end. Accordingly, Augustine would say
that people must be “enjoyed in God.” In this way, they are loved
in the manner that people should be loved, as images and likenesses
of their Creator.
When you enjoy a man in God, you enjoy God rather than
the man. Yet, “to enjoy” is very close to saying “to use with delight.”
When that which is loved is close at hand, it is inevitable,
also, that it bring pleasure with it. If you pass beyond this pleasure
and refer it to that end where you remain forever, you are
using; it would not be correct, but an error, to say you are
enjoying it. If you cling to it and place the goal of all your joy in
it as a permanent abode, then you ought with truth and correctness
to be said to enjoy it. And this we must not do, except in
regard to the... greatest and unchangeable Good. 58
56
See CICERO, De Officiis II, 3, 9.
57
De diversis Quaestionibus LXXXIII, 30: PL xl, 19: Omnis itaque
humana perversio est, quod etiam vitium vocatur, fruendis uti velle, atque
utendis frui. Et rursus omnis ordinatio, qua virtus etiam nominatur, fruendis
frui, et utendis uti. Fruendum est autem honestis, utendum vero utilibus.
58
De Doctrina Christiana I,33(37): PL xxxiv (Pars 3), 33.