DOI: 10.2298/theo2603185j ISSN: 0351-2274
The geometry of Grace: Measure and happiness in st. Augustine’s De beata vita
Filip JevticSt. Augustine’s De beata vita has traditionally been read as a Christian modification of Cicero’s Tusculanae Disputationes and Plotinus’s Ennead I.4. However, a close reading of the dialogue’s mathematical ontology suggests Augustine is doing more than syncretism. By defining God as the Summus Modus (Supreme Measure), Augustine seeks to solve the central problem of ancient ethics: the permanence of happiness amidst physical instability. This paper argues that Augustine addresses the Plotinian challenge not by psychological resilience, but by defining happiness as a geometric ‘circumscription’ by the Divine, a state of objective reality independent of sensory fluctuation.