Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Play out the game, act well your part, and if the gods have blundered, we will not." Augustine never read this quote, but if he had, he would not have agreed with most of it. The idea expressed in the quote indicates that Emerson and Augustine held widely different views of God and of man.
Emerson implied that man is able to avoid blundering, which Augustine would call sinning, by his ability to "act well" in this world, without God's help. Emerson viewed life as a game which man can successfully play without mistakes.
Emerson showed disdain for all gods in this quote by implying that the gods can and do blunder at times. He implied that man can do better than the gods do.
Emerson's quote tells the reader that there are many gods. He used the lower case "g" in the word "gods" and also used the plural form of the word "god". This implies either that he was not referring to the Christian God or else that he considered the Christian God to be just one of many gods. Another possibility is that Emerson could have been using this term to refer generically to whatever fates determine the course of one's life, rather than to actual gods.
Augustine certainly would not agree that human lives are influenced by whimsical fates. He believed that God is in firm control of our world. In The City of God, book V, chapter 9, he wrote that God's "power extends itself irresistibly through all things" and confessed God's "will, supreme power, and prescience."
Augustine believed that God has a plan for our world that all creation adheres to, no matter how random life's occurrences may seem. In book XXII, chapter 2 of The City of God, he wrote concerning the eternal will of God, "So great is His wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to His purpose still tend towards those just and good ends and issues which He Himself has foreknown."
Augustine would also have attributed some of the unpredictability of events on Earth to Satanic influence. He would have in particular attributed events leading to much of the evil on Earth to Satan.
Augustine believed that the Devil stirs up persecutions against the Church. In Book XVIII, chapter 51 of The City of God, Augustine wrote that Satan "stirs up his own vessels against the City of God that sojourns in this world."
He also said in Book XIX, chapter 13 of The City of God that God does not "punish the good which He had created, but the evil which the Devil had committed." He believed that Satan was behind evil events, not God or some random process.
Augustine thought that Satan was the cause of the evil actions of men and nations, as shown by his statement in Book XX, chapter 7 of The City of God. Satan "seduces nations and draws them with himself to eternal punishment." Quite clearly, Augustine felt that Satan was an agent of cause behind much of the blunders occurring on Earth.
If Emerson meant gods other than the Christian God in his quote, Augustine would have agreed with Emerson that such gods "blunder", or at least that they are powerless to help man avoid blunders. Referring to the false gods of Rome in Book VI, chapter 12 and in Book II, chapter 22 of The City of God, Augustine pointed out that these gods were "unable" to give "happiness" and that they did "err." He further stated that they gave no guidelines for right living and that they did not protect Rome from invasion by the Gauls.
In contrast, Augustine further pointed out that only the one true Christian God gives true happiness - "eternal life, that is, an endlessly happy life." He wrote that this one true God doesn't "err" and that "The precepts of the true God are recommended, His miracles narrated, His gifts praised" and "His benefits implored." Thus, Augustine would have strongly disagreed with including the one true God among the "gods" referred to by Emerson.
Augustine didn't believe that the one true God blunders or that He could blunder. Rather, he felt that God is perfect, all-powerful and all loving. Augustine wrote in Book V, chapter 11 of The City of God that God is "supreme and true, with His Word and Holy Spirit (which three are one), one God omnipotent, creator and maker of every soul and of every body … God can never be believed to have left the kingdom of men, their denominations and servitudes, outside the laws of his providence." Augustine would have been horrified by the idea that man must persevere in our world, despite a blundering God. He would think quite the opposite - that man blunders despite a perfect God.
In Augustine's worldview, life is not a game which man can successfully play without mistakes, nor can man do better than God. God is perfect, but man is not. "Man's own will was the originator of its evil," wrote Augustine in Book XIII, chapter 15 of The City of God.
Thus Augustine would have said that it was man who first deserted God. In Book XIV, chapter 2 of The City of God, Augustine said that apart from Christ, man lives in the flesh. He quoted Paul, who lists the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, which include adultery, strife, seditions, murders and drunkenness. Man is not perfect and this is because he has separated himself from God.
Augustine certainly believed, as revealed in Book XXII, chapter 22 of The City of God, that without God's help, man couldn't avoid sinning, no matter how well he might choose to try to act. Man needs God to avoid the earthly consequences of his sin. "From this hell upon earth there is no escape, save triumph through the grace of the Savior Christ, our God and Lord."
Man also needs God to weather the consequences of sin, even the best of men. In the same chapter, Augustine wrote, "… grace does aid good men in the midst of present calamities, so that they are enabled to endure them with a constancy proportioned to their faith."
In summary, Augustine was certain that there is only one true God and that this one God is perfect. He considered Man to be imperfect and not God's equal. To Augustine, the only way to success for Man is through God's help and grace. Augustine saw the world in the context of God's benevolent control and Satan's evil mischief. To Augustine, the events of the world are far from random events.
Emerson, on the other hand, was a Transcendentalist who did not believe in one true, perfect god. To Emerson, the events on Earth are quite random. Emerson saw Man as basically good and the world as evolving toward perfection. This can be seen in this Emerson quote, "It is not a great matter how long men refuse to believe in the advent of peace; war is on its last legs; and a universal peace is as sure as is the prevalence of civilization over barbarism, of liberal government over feudal forms. The question for us is only How Soon."
On New Year's Eve, 2001, Rev. Stan Jones with his wife and three children drove his car down a country road near Cumberland, Indiana. The day was calm. Seemingly out of nowhere fell a large Oak tree, falling squarely on the Jones car, instantly killing all but the youngest Jones daughter, who escaped with only minor injuries. In the words of Hancock County Sheriff Nick Gulling, "Another second and they would have been past it, it's unbelievable."
Emerson would have seen this tragedy as a whimsical occurrence, a blunder of nature. He would say that despite the terrible loss of life, man would continue on, persevering to the eventual perfection of society.
Augustine would not have seen this event as meaningless or random. He would have seen it as part of God's plan, no matter how senseless it seems, because, again, "God can never be believed to have left the kingdom of men, their denominations and servitudes, outside the laws of his providence."
Augustine would probably have seen the survival of the daughter as a miracle from God. He would have seen God as the main source of solace for the grieving friends of the Joneses, for, again, "… grace does aid good men in the midst of present calamities, so that they are enabled to endure them with a constancy proportioned to their faith."
Perhaps Augustine might rephrase Emerson's quote (Play out the game, act well your part, and if the gods have blundered, we will not.) as follows, given his differences from Emerson. "Live out your life under the grace of the one true God, for you will blunder, but God is perfect."
Ian Wetherbee/Jan. 20, 2001