Day 1 – SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Self-knowledge is the key to spiritual life in Augustine. This is not a mere experience of the self, a narcissistic introspection, and it is the very opposite of the self as bundle of experiences. No, for Augustine the revelation of God in Christ, recorded in the Holy Scripture and understood in the Spirit ruled Councils of the Church, restores to humans their proper knowledge of the structure of the self. The human self is without any intermediary a mirror of the Divine Trinity. The human self directly and immediately reflects what God truly is. The life of God, his essence flowing in an eternal circle from the Father to the Son and from them to the Spirit, is best reflected in the human mind. Augustine’s affirmation of the human self when it is face to face with God and his embrace of self-knowledge as the best way to the knowledge of God and nature has a direct result.