Having read many classical pagan and Christian authors, many of whom I admire for their eloquence, erudition, courage and wisdom, I have great difficulty understanding why pagans were hostile towards Christianity, because I don’t see anything in their writings that suggests an enmity of ideals. This must be what it feels like to have two good friends who don’t get along. Perhaps a common problem in our time.
So it is interesting to me personally to try to reconstruct the theology of those noble pagans, whose writings have become extinct, from Augustine’s engagement with them, in order to understand what they believed and why.
Religion For the State
According to his contemporary Cicero, Varro was a man “unquestionably the acutest of all men, and, without any doubt, the most learned”. Like Cicero, Varro believes that religion, even if it is false, has its place in the state, as it serves important purposes. Augustine criticizes this utilitarian approach to religion, which, ironically, anticipates one of the main arguments of atheists against Christianity:
Men in princely office, not indeed being just, but like demons, have persuaded the people in the name of religion to receive as true those things which they themselves knew to be false; in this way, as it were, binding them up more firmly in civil society, so that they might in like manner possess them as subjects.
IV.32
Varro divides theology into three categories, the mythical (fabulous), the natural (physical), and the civil.[1] He writes first concerning human things, and then divine things: “As the painter is before the painted tablet, the mason before the edifice, so states are before those things which are instituted by states.”
I think Augustine is right in reading between the lines and stating that Varro puts religion, and therefore the gods, at the service of men, that is the state, so that the gods should be believed and worshipped regardless of their verity, as long as the people can derive some benefits from such religious practices. Naturally, the elites and the populace have different ideas about what would benefit the states.
For an example of the alleged benefits of religion to the state, Varro maintains it is useful for states that brave men believe, though falsely, that they are descended from the gods; for that thus the human spirit, cherishing the belief of its divine descent, will both more boldly venture into great enterprises, and will carry them out more energetically, and will therefore by its very confidence secure more abundant success (III.4).
The Benefit of Theology
Varro diligently recounts the gods who ought to be worshipped by the Romans, and tells what pertains to each of them, believing he is bestowing a great benefit on his fellow citizens. Augustine quotes and apparently agrees with him on the benefit of theology, provided that the object of such study is the true God.
Just as it is of no advantage to know the name and appearance of any man who is a physician, and not know that he is a physician, so it is of no advantage to know well that Æsculapius is a god, if you are not aware that he can bestow the gift of health, and consequently do not know why you ought to supplicate him.
No one is able, not only to live well, but even to live at all, if he does not know who is a smith, who a baker, who a weaver, from whom he can seek any utensil, whom he may take for a helper, whom for a leader, whom for a teacher; that in this way it can be doubtful to no one, that thus the knowledge of the gods is useful, if one can know what force, and faculty, or power any god may have in any thing. For from this we may be able to know what god we ought to call to, and invoke for any cause;
IV.22
In his account of the gods, Varro starts from the moment of a man’s conception, commencing the series of those gods who take charge of man with Janus, carries it on to the death of the man decrepit with age, and terminates it with the goddess Nænia, who is sung at the funerals of the aged. After that, he gives an account of the other gods, whose province is not man himself, but man’s belongings, as food, clothing, and all that is necessary for this life; and, in the case of all these, he explains what is the special office of each, and for what each ought to be supplicated.
The fact that Varro assigns the offices of the gods according to the needs of human life supports Augustine’s criticism that the religion of the learned pagans are institutions of men.
Notes:
^1. Similarly, in our time, theology can be divided into three categories: popular, academic and political. The popular and political have much in common, but are different from the academic. The divide seems to be widening to such an extent that dialogues have become very rare and difficult, if not impossible.