HAS AUGUSTINE COMMITTED A SIN AGAINST LOVE?

CONFFESSIONS V. S. VITA BREVIS

Abstract

The form of the found manuscript in Jostein Gaarder’s short novel Vita Brevis establishes the dialogue with Augustine, therefore he sets the topic: Augustine’s relationship with the mysterious, unnamed woman of the Confessions, who is Augustine’s perennial mistress and the mother of his child. Thus, the author questions Augustine’s basic life orientation. With the introduction of Floria Aemilia, Gaarder is able to comment the Confessions immediately, slightly adding to the corpus brought by Augustine himself. Floria’s text is being disputed by the spirit of the Augustine’s book itself, breaking its Confessions from the inside, reconstructing the data from the Confessions in its manuscript. He is also adding the new data, which are casting the new light onto the person Augustine of Hippo. Confrontation of these two texts enables the review of the motivation and the system of values, as well as the understanding of the Absolute of their authors. Floria is incited to use the ephemeral, being lead by the pagan CARPE DIEM, whereas Augustine is incited to overcome the ephemeral, trying to go beyond the eternity. By interpreting the experience from the psychological sphere, even though it does not belong to that sphere, Floria accuses Augustine and theologians for the betrayal of the essential value of the world created by God, thus her letter, as we discover in the first line, is the over compensation of the loss which marked her personal life and in the same time forced her to feel as the scapegoat.