Augustine and the Neoplatonists on the Origin of Divine Visions

In Confessions 9.10.23-25, Augustine and Monica experience God at Ostia. This experience represents a significant departure from Platonic conceptions of divine visions in two ways. First, Augustine and Monica's experience is shared. Second, both Augustine and Monica are epistemic peers. These points stand in marked contrast to how Plato and other Neoplatonists, particularly Plotinus, conceive visions of the Good. For the Platonist, such experiences are fundamentally individual cognitive achievements. They cannot be shared. Furthermore, they can only be achieved within the context of a master-pupil relationship, i.e., an epistemically asymmetrical relationship. We argue these differences in the Augustinian and Platonist accounts stem from how each conceptualizes the nature of the Good. For the Platonists, the Good is a passive object of contemplation. For Augustine, God is an active cause of divine experiences. We argue that this difference has significant implications throughout Augustine’s early epistemology and theory of divine experiences.