The senses in Augustine’s Confessions and City of God: a lasting Manichaean influence?

This study examines the senses according to Augustine, and the extent to which he was influenced by Manichaeism in his treatment of these themes. Augustine’s use of sensory language will be studied on the basis of five main stages which are discussed in his Confessions and City of God: the soul’s inherent call to return to God (conf. 1); the dysfunction of the senses and the need for healing (conf. 3 and 4); the use of the spiritual senses to achieve a vision of God (conf. 7 and 9); purification of the will and resisting sensory temptations (conf. 10); properly ordered love and friendship and the communal effort of the Church (civ. dei 19). This study will examine whether Augustine’s mystical theology and his treatment of the senses in relation to the ascent of the soul may have been influenced by Manichaeism, in either a positive (conscious or unconscious) or negative (oppositional) way.