Emotions
often move us deeply and we regularly attempt to manage them by using reason to
gain peace of mind. This experience causes us to easily assume that there is a
dominant relationship in our soul where reason is superior to emotion. The
superiority of reason and inferiority of emotion is often connected with gender
where masculinity is rational and emotion is feminine such that women lack
sufficient reason. This creates the myth that women are more emotional and less
rational than men. Augustine, who criticized Stoicism, also emphasized an
ordered status of mind dominated by reason. He also linked our inner state of
mind with the notion of gender. However, his nuanced theory of this internal relationship
does not advocate a simple domination by reason or the masculine part of the mind
toward emotion or the feminine part of the mind. This paper will focus on the
idea of “marriage in oneself” that was influenced by Augustine’s interpretation
of Pauline texts and clarify Augustine’s rhetoric of how emotions play a role in
proper Christian faith.
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