Da Modelagem Demiúrgica à Criação Divina: Semelhanças e distinções da influência platônica na obra Santo Agostinho

Abstract

This work deals with the similarities and distinctions between the Platonic theory of the fabrication of the Universe and the Augustinian theory of divine creation. Our purpose is to demonstrate that, despite the strong influence of the Platonic thought for the philosophical making of St. Augustine, as far as his conceptions of the origin of the world or the sense of Being are concerned, there are irreconcilable distinctions, since both thinkers are disposed in contexts distinct in the philosophical tradition. While Plato (428-347 BC), a Greek philosopher, is far from the idea of the ex nihilo conception of creation, while St. Augustine (354-430 AD) developed his work at a time of the rise of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In this case, the text defends the thesis that Saint Augustine distances himself from Plato because he believes that the world was created without needing a preexisting substratum, whereas Plato argues that the materials for the making of the latter were already disposed from eternity. Thus, the study concludes that the world, as Plato affirmed, is eternal, since it was composed of eternal matters, while the idea of creation of the world, defended by St. Augustine, assumes that it came to exist from nothing and through a different from its creator. For this, in the first part, we reconstruct in general ideas the Neoplatonic thought of Plotinus. It is through Neoplatonism that Augustine has contact with the ideas of Plato himself. He is, therefore, the point of connection between Plato and the bishop of Hyogo. In the sequence, we enter into the conceptions of divinity, time and creation / fabrication of Saint Augustine and Plato, tracing the main points and comparing them.