Pride of life

Augustine describes “pride of life” in part as follows: “The temptation is to wish to be feared or loved by people for no reason other than the joy derived from such power, which is no joy at all. It is a wretched life, and vanity is repulsive . . . . When we try to amass such approval [from men], we are caught off our guard. We cease to find our joy in your truth and place it in the deceitfulness of men. It becomes our pleasure to be loved and feared not for your sake, but instead of you. By this method, the Enemy makes people resemble himself, united with him not in loving concord but in sharing a common punishment.”

In this brief passage, Augustine proposes not only a theologically-grounded psychology but an entire sociology.

There is an important psychological insight here: We seek approval for the mere sake of pleasure derived from the flattery of others. But Augustine is talking not merely about the joy that we get from the approval by others. There is also a theological dimension to this: When we seek approval of men, we find pleasure in being approved not because of our connection with God, but in place of our connection with God. We seek approval by severing ourselves from Him. The pride of life involves trying to establish our identity, reputation, standing in ourselves . It is self-justification.

He goes on to talk about the impulse to mimesis and the impulse to community among those who separate themselves from God and seek approval from men. Satan entices people in this way to imitate him – “the Enemy makes people resemble himself,” the supreme self-justifier (who is at the same time, and for the same reason, the Accuser). And through this resemblance Satan founds a pseudo-community of the proud, united to him by participation. This is no true community, because it is not united by love and uniting of hearts (con-cord), but through sharing a common punishment. But the proud in separation from God do have a sense of commonality.