Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

ST. AUGUSTINE’S CRITIQUE OF THE ADIAPHORA 193
tique of the adiaphora clearly reflects this commitment. The causal
relationship between God and creatures provides the foundation
for purposefulness and intelligibility throughout created
reality. Morally speaking, it also establishes a basis of objective
laws for the regulation of human conduct. Accordingly,
Augustine envisions a true moral cosmos based upon a proper
ordering of the soul’s loves and relationships that is correlative
with a larger Ordo. This is not to say that Augustine’s anthropology
does not exhibit certain dualistic presuppositions of its
own. While he continually attempted to develop a theory of
human nature that did justice to our psychosomatic unity, he
would always identify the human being with the soul, and thereby,
define us in terms of a soul using a mortal and earthly body. 62
But although Augustine defined us primarily in terms of a spiritual
principle endowed with reason (and conversely, subordinated
the body to the soul as its ruler), he likewise viewed us as
occupying a crucial mid-rank position between God and lower
corporeal natures.
In a very real sense, the human person (as a composite of
soul and body, spirit and matter) is a microcosm of creation. As
such, the person requires the same harmonization of parts to
whole that is operative on a cosmic scale. From this standpoint,
the body has a value as an indispensable component of human
nature, just as corporeal reality is necessary for the completion
of creation as a whole. But by the same token, the body and its
well-being cannot be absolutized as ends in themselves. Rather,
they must be viewed in terms of the dignity of a person created
in God’s image, and in a broader sense, in relation to a hierarchy
of being in which humans constitute the very summit of God’s
creative activity.
A WORD CONCERNING SOURCES
This paper has relied upon the following translations: DIOGENES LAER-
TIUS, Lives of Eminent Philosophers. 2 Volumes, translated by R.D. Hicks. The
62
De moribus Ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum I,27
(52). Cf., De Quantitate Animae 13(22); De Trinitate I,10(22).