“Ex Pluribus Unum Facere” (conf. 4.13). Augustine on the Image of God and Belonging in the Church

What is the image of God in the thought of Augustine? Approaches to this question remain fragmented. Accordingly, the present dissertation aims at offering a comprehensive analysis of Augustine's thought on the image of God from the vantage point of the problem of belonging in the Church. That is, how do "many" become "one" (conf. 6.13) without destroying individuality, while safeguarding concord? The unprecedented identification of the Church with the image of God (en. Ps. 66.4) is at the core of Augustine's response to the question of belonging in the community of the Church, whereby the triad of images - humanity, Christ and Church - seamlessly unite to form the Whole Christ. There, alterity is inherent to a wholesome identity, which resists the totalization of difference. The research question we address is this: What does it mean to belong in the community of the Church as an image of God? Augustine articulates the problem of belonging in terms of defining the truth of humanity in contraposition to alterity (Chapter I and Chapter II). Subsequently, Augustine makes a forceful attempt to integrate alterity within identity in order to account for how belonging is brought about (Chapter III and Chapter IV). Eventually, Augustine situates alterity at the core of the structure of belonging (Chapter 5) and he delineates the notion of unbounded belonging accordingly (Chapter VI). Finally, Augustine provides a dynamic account of belonging as sacramental unity across alterity (Chapter VII). What emerges is an unprecedented model of belonging in the Church, according to which human suffering produces community when joined to the sufferings of Christ's body, the Church (Chapter VIII). The community of the Church, the image of God, therefore constitutes boundless belonging, whereby within the interplay alterity and identity, many become one (ex pluribus unum facere [conf. 6.13]).

Publication year:2021

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