Jared Ortiz: Creation, Imitation, and Conversion in Book Eight of Augustine's Confessions

There seems to be a growing consensus that the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is fundamental for Augustine’s thought.  Scholars ranging from Marie-Anne Vannier to Carol Harrison to Tarsicius van Bavel to Luigi Pizzolato have all generally agreed that creation not only provides the natural starting point for Augustine’s theological reflection, but also “determines the way in which he subsequently expounds his entire understanding of the faith” (Harrison, 2006).  This is evident, though understudied, in the Confessions, which begins with Augustine seeking for a way to understand the distinction between the magnus Dominus and the pars creaturae, ends with an allegorical reading of the creation account of Genesis, and tells in between the story of his coming to terms with what it means to be created.  If creation occupies such a central place in Augustine’s thought, then what kind of light can it shed on the narrative of his conversion in Book Eight of the Confessions?

In this short communication, I will argue that Augustine situates his conversion narrative within the context of the Trinity’s creative act and that, in Book Eight, the creational notion of imitation is the key to understanding this.  For Augustine, the Word is the Image of the Father, the perfect Imitation, through whom all things are made in a trinitarian act of creatio, conversio, formatio.  All things, then, imitate, in varying degrees, the perfect Imitation because they bear the mark of this creative act in their ontological make up.  In Book Eight, God puts before Augustine a series of exempla to imitate—Victorinus, Anthony, the two agentes in rebus, the children of Lady Chastity—who are presented as men and women converted through and con-formed to the Incarnate Word, that is, they are presented as those who have been re-created in Christ by imitating the Imitation.  Through these re-created imitators, Augustine sees what he was created to be and is led by the Word into imitation of the Word, who effects his conversion and formation, thereby re-creating him after the pattern of his original creation.