Love and Do What You Want: Augustine’s Pneumatological Love Ethics

What do I love when I long for achievement? That is the Augustinian question.

Augustine taught that we are most fundamentally shaped not as much by what we believe, or think, or even do, but by what we love.

As Augustine says, “such is the strength of love, that the mind draws in with itself those things which it has long thought of with love, and has grown into them by the close adherence.”

Don’t worry, be happy. As modern people we have chosen Montaigne over Augustine. We traded pious self-cultivation for undemanding self-esteem. But is love of self really enough to be happy? You know the answer to that, dear reader. And so did Augustine.

Augustine is our contemporary. He has directly and indirectly shaped the way we understand our pursuits, the call to authenticity.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola said that sin is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness. Until we are convinced of this, we will seek to control our own lives.