Keeping Custody of the Eyes: Dangers of the Gaze in Augustine’s Consideration of Visual Images

Abstract

Augustine’s concern about the influence of witnessing brutal spectacles upon the human soul is expressed when he recounts his friend Alypius’s addiction to the arena in Confessions, Book 6. He elaborates this concern in several sermons and argues that the simple act of looking at certain kinds of images can have a deleterious effect on the beholder, asserting that, like Alypius, one can become enthralled to spiritually harmful sights and take perverse pleasure in others’ mental or physical pain. He adds that such pleasure makes viewers accessories to brutality and inures them to suffering, instead of developing their compassionate nature. Here he speaks of the “lust of the eyes” as a parallel to lust of the flesh, a lust that seeks novel experiences and is not repelled by observing violence. He acknowledges that for some listeners, the reading of martyrs’ acts could be an instance of this, but insists that those who hear the story and imagine the scenes with the right attitude are inspired to be sympathetic to the victims and uplifted by their heroic witness to Christ. In this way he discusses two different kinds of viewing arising from the beholder’s essential character: the material gaze versus the spiritual witness. This essay connects this discussion of positive and negative sights to Augustine’s theory of how the eye perceives and imprints visionary experiences on the memory and in turn affects the soul in both positive and negative ways. Because humans are vulnerable, even unintentionally, to the damage caused by seeing evil or cruel spectacles, they must consciously cultivate a gaze of charity and compassion.|Keywords: Alypius, Arena, idols, imagination, gladiatorial games, lust (of the eyes), martyrs (acts of), seeing (theory of), Venatores (beast fighters), victims