A eloquência nas Confissões de Agostinho

Abstract

This paper aims to address an issue inherent to the unity of Augustine's opus magnum, namely: the Confessions. The work is presented to us in a non-cohesive manner, since it involves three constituent elements: theological and philosophical theses and autobiographical narratives. Such theses are and should legitimately be addressed by Theology, Philosophy and Classical Literature. However, a question of great importance remains: is there a unity in this work? Eloquent language, as a power of expression in a given language, as a structure specific to a culture, opens up the possibility of communication and creation, that is, not only demonstrating, but also moving and generating conversion. Speech and writing, expressions of language, do not only reproduce the senses, but also create an internal disposition of the one who listens and the one who speaks, of the one who writes and the one who reads. Augustine, in his way of expressing himself through dialogue, presents the Confessions as a trialogue (with God, with the reader and with himself). Thus, the Bishop of Hippo does not simply aim to demonstrate, he wants to create, to excite an internal disposition without abandoning communication and the act of showing it. Furthermore, we raise the following research hypothesis: the unity of confessions and the choice of eloquence as a means of transmission is given, above all, by the themes addressed in the work. We chose to qualify such themes as abysmal phenomena, namely: immeasurable phenomena, sine mensura (from the latin – without measure, inability to determine greatness or measurement and impossibility of being measured). Faced with immeasurability, given the abyss that such phenomena provoke in our restless soul, they cannot be silenced. However, how can we speak of them? Augustine, diametrically, chooses to oppose the Apophantic Discourse, precisely because it contains within itself the inexpressive incapacity (limitation of language) to express the maximum potentiality of the incommensurable phenomena that transcend the limits of the declarative-significant measurement of the human verbum. Eloquence becomes the solutio to fully transmit the riches and complexities of experiences, interpretations, representations, meanings, concepts, prisms, affections and pains that transcend the intrinsic limitations of the logical-predicative human language, such as: the desire for eternity, the awareness of mortality, the presence of memory that transgresses time by making itself a confession.