Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness by J. Warren Smith

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness by J. Warren Smith Thomas Clemmons J. Warren Smith Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020 Pp. vii + 292. $99.99. We might think of magnanimity as an aristocratic quality or even a political virtue, signifying an air of detachment, nobleness, and the rejection of petty meanness. Smith lands on "generosity" or "mercy" as "primary modern synonyms" for magnanimity (2). For Smith, that our modern synonyms for magnanimity diverge so greatly from the terms surrounding "greatness" in antiquity indicates a "real cultural shift." However, Smith's concern is not a genealogy from antiquity to the present, but rather, it seems, the longstanding commonplace (à la Edward Gibbon) of the classical great-souled man in contrast to the small-souled Christian saint. The first section of the book treats magnanimity from Homer to Plutarch. In Homer, greatness is bound with the pursuit of honor (τιμή) as Achilles's response to the slight from Agamemnon shows. Aristotle qualifies Homer to bind greatness with virtue, which, Smith maintains, is internalized in an ethic of self-sufficiency. In contrast to Aristotle, Plato's "myth of Er" reveals a rejection of Homeric honor, which re-narrates magnanimity from, in Smith's words, the great to the good. Three "Roman" philosophers, Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch, present iterations of the reception of Homer's honor-centered greatness and the responses of Aristotle and Plato. Cicero preserves gloria and exalts philosophical indifference, Seneca conceives of greatness as bound with self-restraint and even clementia, and Plutarch combines moderation and the common good. [End Page 646] Ambrose is the focus of the second section of the book, which in this reviewer's judgment is the most comprehensive, impressive, and compelling in Smith's fine study. Smith expands the common observation of Ambrose's attempt to replace classical exempla with Christian ones. Ambrose's Commentary on Luke depicts the patriarchs as images of the self-restraint taught by the Law and the fulfillment given by the grace of Christ. As images of Christ, Smith avers that the patriarchs are "not only examples of what the Christian should do, but also of what the Christian can do. Their lives provide the hope of virtue" (130). Thus, the perfection of Christian love offers an alternative ideal of greatness. Smith turns to De officiis to examine Ambrose's identification of the Christian virtue of compassion or misericordia with officia perfecta, which are "the eternal good in the present" for the benefit of all (138). Seneca made the distinction between clementia, an emotionless act of moderation, and misericordia, an emotion of pity. The former reinforces society, shows greatness, and confirms justice, while the latter risks unraveling societas and dissolving justice. In contrast, for Ambrose, misericordia is a magnanimous disposition "informed by the reason implicit in the economy of salvation" (144). Ambrose, thus, wholly re-conceptualizes the meaning of Ciceronian justice and societas. As De Ioseph suggests, societas is not derived from the order of nature, but rather is founded on the compassion of Christ; hence, the common good always includes one's neighbors and their needs. The shift from greatness bound with honor to a magnanimity exemplified in misericordia might promote "humiliation" and resentment (Nietzsche's critique of Christianity). Smith responds with Ambrose's comments on the biblical king David's transcendence of resentment through his trust in God's "gracious judgment" (185). Unlike Plutarch, Ambrose perceives greatness as great-souled humility, "a Christ-like disregard for one's own honor and conversely a high concern for one's social inferiors, conferring on them a dignity greater than one's own" (187). Therefore, Ambrose reorganizes greatness in society around compassion or misericordia, while not abandoning iustitia and without engendering a culture of resentment. Unlike the impressively thorough and often original treatment of Ambrose, Smith confines himself to the first book of both Confessiones and De ciuitate Dei. Smith mentions (and this viewer looked forward to reading) Augustine's understanding of misericordia in earlier works (there are references to an earlier chapter, which this reviewer was not able to find [226]). Instead, Smith homes in on two common and prominent criticisms of magnanimity...