Augustine's debt to Stoicism in the Confessions

Seneca asserts in Letter 121 (14–16) that we mature by exercising self-care as we pass through successive psychosomatic “constitutions.” These are babyhood (infantia), childhood (pueritia), adolescence (adulescentia), and young adulthood (iuventus). ¹ Augustine, of course, divides the narrative of his own development into these stages in the Confessions, ² a text wherein he claims familiarity with more than a few works of Seneca (Conf. 5.6.11). This raises the question: Does Augustine use the renowned Stoic theory of “affiliation” (oikeiôsis, conciliatio), upon which Seneca’s account of maturation depends, as a motif in his own philosophical autobiography? If he does, that will update our understanding of the Confessions as a work in the history of philosophy. Traditionally, interpretations of this work have tended to see it as containing exclusively Neoplatonic or uniquely Christian thought. ³