Key Arguments

• He admits he could not conceive of any substance that was not spatially extended: "I retained so much vanity as to be unable to think any substance possible other than that which the eyes normally perceive."
• Though he had already rejected the idea that God has a human shape and rejoiced to find the same in Catholic faith, he still could only think of God as a kind of material extension: "Although you were not in the shape of the human body, I nevertheless felt forced to imagine something physical occupying space diffused either in the world or even through infinite space outside the world."
• He identifies the root of his error in the assumption that whatever is not spatially extended is simply nothing: "I thought simply non-existent anything not extended in space or diffused or concentrated or expanding, which does not possess, or is incapable of possessing, such qualities."
• He notes that his own imaging power, which produces these spatial images, itself is not in space, but he failed to reflect on that: "I did not see that the mental power by which I formed these images does not occupy any space, though it could not form them unless it were some great thing."
• He describes his picture of God as a vast, all‑pervading material presence, analogous to sunlight permeating the air and filling all things: "I conceived even you, life of my life, as a large being, permeating infinite space on every side, penetrating the entire mass of the world, and outside this extending in all directions for immense distances without end" and "Just as the sunlight meets no obstacle in the body of the air … so I thought that you permeate not only the body of heaven and air and sea but even earth."
• He shows the absurd consequence of this view: on such a hypothesis, large bodies would contain more of God and small bodies less, so God would be divisible into parts, which he rejects: "on that hypo-thesis a larger part of the earth would possess more of you and a smaller part less … so, piece by piece, you would be making different parts of yourself present to parts of the world, much of you in large parts, little of you in small parts. And that is not the case."
• He concludes that this entire material conception persisted because his "heart had become gross" and his "eyes are accustomed to such images," acknowledging it as an error that awaited God's illumination: "So my heart had become gross (Matt. 13: 15), and I had no clear vision even of my own self" and "But you had not yet ‘lightened my darkness’ (Ps. 17: 29)."

Source Quotes

I was becoming a grown man. But the older I became, the more shameful it was that I retained so much vanity as to be unable to think any substance possible other than that which the eyes normally perceive. From the time that I began to learn something of your wisdom, I did not conceive of you, God, in the shape of the human body.

But the older I became, the more shameful it was that I retained so much vanity as to be unable to think any substance possible other than that which the eyes normally perceive. From the time that I began to learn something of your wisdom, I did not conceive of you, God, in the shape of the human body. I always shunned this, and was glad when I found the same concept in the faith of our spiritual mother, your Catholic Church.

They attacked my power of vision and clouded it. Although you were not in the shape of the human body, I nevertheless felt forced to imagine something physical occupying space diffused either in the world or even through infinite space outside the world.2 Admittedly I thought of this as incorruptible and inviolable and unchangeable, which I set above what is corruptible, violable, and changeable. But I thought that anything from which space was abstracted was non-existent, indeed absolutely nothing, not even a vacuum, as when a body is removed from a place, and the space remains evacuated of anything physical, whether earthly, watery, airy or heavenly, but is an empty space—like a mathematical concept of space without content.

13: 15), and I had no clear vision even of my own self. I thought simply non-existent anything not extended in space or diffused or concentrated or expanding, which does not possess, or is incapable of possessing, such qualities. My eyes are accustomed to such images.

My heart accepted the same structure. I did not see that the mental power by which I formed these images does not occupy any space, though it could not form them unless it were some great thing.3 I conceived even you, life of my life, as a large being, permeating infinite space on every side, penetrating the entire mass of the world, and outside this extending in all directions for immense distances without end; so earth had you, heaven had you, everything had you, and in relation to you all was finite; but you not so. Just as the sunlight meets no obstacle in the body of the air (this air which is above the earth) to stop it from passing through and penetrating it without breaking it up or splitting it, but fills it entirely: so I thought that you permeate not only the body of heaven and air and sea but even earth, and that in everything, both the greatest and the smallest things, this physical frame is open to receive your presence, so that by a secret breath of life you govern all things which you created, both inwardly and outwardly.

Key Concepts

• I retained so much vanity as to be unable to think any substance possible other than that which the eyes normally perceive.
• From the time that I began to learn something of your wisdom, I did not conceive of you, God, in the shape of the human body.
• Although you were not in the shape of the human body, I nevertheless felt forced to imagine something physical occupying space diffused either in the world or even through infinite space outside the world.
• I thought simply non-existent anything not extended in space or diffused or concentrated or expanding, which does not possess, or is incapable of possessing, such qualities.
• I did not see that the mental power by which I formed these images does not occupy any space, though it could not form them unless it were some great thing.
• I conceived even you, life of my life, as a large being, permeating infinite space on every side, penetrating the entire mass of the world, and outside this extending in all directions for immense distances without end;

Context

Book VII, section i (1–2): Augustine recounts his lingering materialist metaphysics as an adult, his inability to conceive non‑spatial substance, and his mistaken image of God as an immense extended presence filling and surrounding the world, which he now judges false.