On Order

It is debatable whether the disorder gripping the world at the beginning of the third millennium is greater than that depicted in On Order, the first book of the newly converted St. Augustine in 386.

In the matter of civil disturbances Augustine mentions a riot in which his mother Monica had actually taken part not long before. She had spent days and nights singing and praying in the cathedral of Milan to prevent the Arians from taking it over. The Western Roman Empire was tottering. The British legions had elected emperor Maximus, who would be assassinated scarcely a year after the writing of On Order. Less than a century later, the Western Empire would be no more.

We all know what the twentieth century has wrought in the history of the world, but a comparison blow by blow with the fourth would not necessarily show the modern period to be of greater disorder. If Augustine was able to write such a masterpiece on order in the midst of all that, there is no reason why a serious student of philosophy should not strive to achieve order in mind and heart in the midst of all this.

In 1986, at the 1600th anniversary of Augustine's conversion (and, concomitantly, of On Order), Pope John Paul II issued his Apostolic Letter Augustinum Hipponensem, which has a single mention of On Order. The Pope reminded us that Augustine didn't just write about order, he embodied it.

On Order is Augustine's own introduction to philosophy, in a sweeping bird's-eye view of what it is to reproduce in one's inner being the double order of things (intellect) and loves (will) existing in the real universe.

The present translation puts in St. Augustine's mouth and pen expressions which he would likely use were he to speak English today. For the sake of clarity the dialogue is rendered in modern form, eliminating all the “I said,” “he said,” and putting the initials of the debaters instead. This first bilingual edition of On Order shows the Latin side-byside with the translation for easy reference.

Silvano Borruso has been living and teaching in Kenya since 1960. He has translated many works, including St. Augustine’s Confessions.