Seminar in Historical Theology

Coconut Christ:

Augustine’s Christology in the Symbolism of Oceania

Submitted to Rev. Dr. J. W. Seouh

IGST MTh. Fall Semester, 2011

By James.S. Bhagwan

Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Augustine and Incarnation ............................................................................................................................ 1

Developing Local and Contextual Theologies ............................................................................................... 3

The Significance of Symbols .......................................................................................................................... 4

Augustine on Signs ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Incarnation and Coconut Christology ........................................................................................................... 6

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 10

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Introduction

Throughout this semester we have taken glimpses of Augustine’s journey towards

understanding Christ. The theological and philosophical quest and its resulting Christological

understanding were profound. Equally profound was Augustine’s narrative of this journey to

discover Christ.

In the culture of Oceania1 narrative and symbols are an integral part of the transmission

of knowledge. For the people of Fiji and Oceania, symbols and symbolic actions are more than

just artefacts and rituals; they have a deeper meaning beyond their initial traditional significance.

For this reason contextual theology is a natural method in the transmission of the gospel and the

understanding of key theological concepts. As this essay will show, the method of interpretation

and its use of signs, in particular, the conjunction between sign and reality – a signified reality is

well suited to the Fijian, and for that matter the Oceanic cultural, context.

In this essay I will discuss Augustine’s understanding of the Incarnation and then

interpret key concepts of Augustine’s Christology in the Fijian context using the traditional

symbol of the Coconut.

Augustine and Incarnation

I sought a way to obtain strength enough to enjoy you; but I did not find it until I

embraced ‘the mediator between and man, the man Christ Jesus’(1 Tim 2:5) ‘who is

above all things, God blessed forever’ (Rom 9:5). He called and said ‘I am the way the

truth and the life’ (John14:6). The food which I was too weak to accept he mingled with

flesh, in that “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), so that our infant condition might

come to suck milk from your wisdom by which you created all things. To posses my God,

the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough. I did not know what his weakness was

meant to teach.2

As he developed his incarnational theology, Augustine showed Christ through kenosis to

be participating in our mortality so that we may be made a participant in divinity. According to

1 The term “Oceania” was first used in 1831. It is used here to refer to the context and people of the region of the

world commonly known as the Pacific. This shift from Pacific to Oceania is made to indicate identity and selfhood

of people and nations in this region of the world. It also signifies that the ocean is what connects rather than

separates the island nations and their people to one another. 2 Augustine, Confessions (VIII. xviii 24), Henry Chadwick (transl.), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 128

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Mallard, that Augustine perceived the language of the Incarnation as the language of Love,

finally led him to an understanding of “the Christ of the exchange” who in humility became

human so that humanity might become divine.3

Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Words was

with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among

us. He had no power of himself to die for us: he had to take from us our mortal flesh. This

was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to

give life to mortal men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him.

Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die. In

other words, he performed the most wonderful exchange with us. Through us, he died;

through him, we shall live.4

Mallard highlights that some Augustinian scholars suggest that Augustine synthesized the

themes of the work of Christ and Christ as saviour through His role as the Head of the Church

moving towards the establishment of the Kingdom or according to Augustine – the “City of God.”

For Augustine, the Church is the continuation of the Incarnation. He viewed Christ in three ways:

as the eternal Word of God who is in and with God the Father, the pre-existent Logos; as the God

Man through the Incarnation, the Word made flesh, (the fundamental fact of human and cosmic

history, the turning point, the very crown of God's creation); and as the total Christ, (Totus

Christus), in the fullness of the Church, that is head and body.

The key to this was the Incarnation. Through grace Christians could respond to the

invitation of God Incarnate by attaching themselves to the Body of Christ, the Church. No longer

was there a need to focus on a vertical union with God, because the same was possible

horizontally – through the Church.

According to Augustine, Christ was the mediator of the Old and New Covenants. Christ

as mediator brought together the spiritual eternal world and the physical temporal world. The

mediator, Christ of the exchange, was reflected in the reality and symbolism of transfiguration.

Christ did not transform his deity in the incarnation but wore the garment of humanity. The

Christ not only demonstrated change for the human will as exemplar but as mediator also

3 William Mallard Language and Love: Introducing Augustine’s Religious Thought through the Confession Story,

(University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press , 1994), 143-165 4 Augustine, Sermo Guelferbytanus 3

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effected change or transfigured within it. Thus “Christ taught and gave, showed and rectified,”

by being both the sign and its meaning. 5

The response to the invitation of the Incarnation was for the rendered will to be gathered

in flesh and spirit. That this invitation was made in love helped Augustine reconcile also the

internal intellectual search for the truth and the external experience as Christ, the Word of Truth

Incarnate was incarnate in the Church. Christ as lover was embodied in the community of faith

which was a continuation of his Incarnation. Augustine understood that grace not only entered

from above but was also to be experienced in a visible way and thus salvation was both gift and

process.6

Developing Local and Contextual Theologies

Contextual theology has been defined as "A way of doing theology in which one takes

into account: the spirit and message of the gospel; the tradition of the Christian people; the

culture in which one is theologising; and social change in that culture.”7

First, it recognizes the signal importance of human experience as a source for reflection

on Christian faith and morals. Second, since it is rooted in concrete human experience in a

particular culture and society, it speaks primarily to that context. For that reason, it does not (and

one may add, it must not) regard itself as unchanging, above culture and universally applicable in

a normative way to all other particular contexts at all times and places. A contextual theology

that emerges out of a particular context is something that makes sense in relation to a certain

place and time and, therefore, can be definite, at best, but not definitive. It is more apt, as

Schreiter puts it, to speak not of universal, permanent and unchanging theologies, but of “local

theologies”.8

Contextual theology has also opened up the notion to theology as something wider than

mere verbal discourse. It can be the productions or interpretations of local artists: poets, novelists,

5 Michael Cameron, “The Christological Substructure of Augustine’s Figurative Exegesis” in

Pamela Bright. (ed. and transl.) Augustine and the Bible, (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1999), 75-97 6 William Mallard Language and Love), 143-165 7 Stephen Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology, (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002),1 8 Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004)

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playwrights, painters, sculptors. It can be the skilled use of proverbs. It can be the doing or

reflecting upon dance, or liturgy, or music.9 Contextual theology, then, is a way of doing

theology that takes into account, or we could say puts in a mutually critical dialogue, two

realities. The first of these is the experience of the past, recorded in Scripture and preserved and

defended in the church’s tradition. The second is the experience of the present or a particular

context, which consists of one or more of at least four elements: personal or communal

experience, “secular” or “religious” culture, social location, and social change.10

The Significance of Symbols

Discussing the symbolic nature of Theology, Haight states that symbolism is an

expression of faith and the infinite through descriptions of the finite world. So it can be said that

symbols are both finite and infinite. It is important here to note that we must never assume the

divinity of the symbol itself but what it represents. Even so, there are two types of symbols, the

first being concrete symbols which to use an example, “the finite reality of the world: is in fact

the body of God.” Symbolism is subjective because of the experience of God as transcended but

experienced separately and using the finite concept. Jesus can be used as the first order of

Christian revelation and so a symbol of Christian faith. The second type of symbol is the

conscious symbol which draws on a concrete symbol to express itself, like a metaphor. The

dialectic nature of symbols, so at the same time both is and is not what the symbol is itself, must

be maintained to avoid fundamentalism. Symbols are also historically conditioned and so must

always be taken in context with its interpretation.11

In Oceania, contextual theology can be approached by using symbols from creation.

According to Paunga, with the new consciousness concerning the phenomenon of globalization,

contextual theologies have really awakened the need to develop theologies that are liberating,

spiritual and relevant to the Pacific contexts – theologies that would protect, promote and

9Robert J. Schreiter, What Has Contextual Theology To Offer To The Church Of The 21st Century? Mission In

Context Lecture - Church Mission Society, Oxford,October 15, 2009 10 Bevans 11 Roger Haight, Dynamics of Theology, 2nd ed., (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000), 215-235

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preserve our identity and, especially, what is most noble in us.12 Hau'ofa is of the opinion that the

Pacific peoples must dig into their heritage for clues to aid them in dealing with their present

conditions. They must look into their myths and oral traditions to see how their ancestors dealt

with the Ocean, and with their neighbourhood of diverse cultures, to find clues to help in our

thinking about the present.13

Augustine on Signs

Both Haight and Paunga find parallels to their understanding of symbols in theology in

Augustine’s theory of signs. Augustine was the first to propose a relationship between the sender,

the receiver and the sign.14 According to Cameron, Augustine’s thought held a symbiotic or

parallel relationship between human language and the Word of God. He also saw language and

experience in parallel. Signs for him were indications of spiritual reality (res). Interpretation

acknowledged the likeness between the image of the sign in Scripture and the truth it represented.

However the likeness was always to be understood as an image, with divine enlightenment

providing the understanding of the truth in either literal intelligible history or prophetic salvation

history. In the Incarnational paradigm that includes Christ as mediator, the res of the dramatic

perspective does not merely point to the prophetic future fulfilment but the sign is also important

in itself – it is intrinsic to the reality that it signifies. The conjunctive sign points not only to a

signified reality but beyond to what that reality signifies. 1st Sign → 1st Reality (which is also)

/2nd Sign→2nd Reality. Thus the sign and reality, according to Augustine, become a signifying

reality.15

The use of signs or symbolism in a contextual theology of Incarnation is a logical choice

as Augustine understood:

In order that what we are thinking may reach the mind of the listener through the fleshly

ears, that which we have in mind is expressed in words and is called speech. But our

thought is not transformed into sounds; it remains entire in itself and assumes the form of 12 Mikaele Paunga. Contours of contextual theologies from Oceania (http://www.mwi-aachen.org/Images/paunga

_tcm20-13869.pdf) (Accessed, 20th November, 2011) 13 Epeli Hau'ofa, “Our sea of islands”, in: Eric Waddell / V. Naida / Epeli Hau'ofa (eds.), A New Oceania:

Rediscovering our sea of islands, (Suva: University of the South Pacific,1993), 2-16 14 Brian Stock, Augustine - The Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge and the Ethics of Interpretation,

(Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 1998), 7 15 Cameron, 75-97

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words by means of which it may reach the ears without suffering any deterioration in

itself. In the same way the Word of God was made flesh without change that He might

dwell among us.16

Perhaps as a word of warning lest we focus on the symbols themselves and fall into syncretism,

Augustine reminds us that symbols and rituals themselves can never replace what the sign points

to. The signs in themselves, although pregnant with meaning, can only bear fruit as witness to

the incarnation.

Who could be found to reconcile me to you? Was I to beg the help of the angels? What

prayer should I use? What sacred rites? Many have tried to return to you, and have not

had the strength in themselves to achieve it, so I have been told. They have attempted

these methods and have lapsed into a desire for curious vision, and have been rewarded

with illusions. For in their quest they have been lifted up by pride in their high culture,

inflating their chest rather than beating their breast. Through an affinity in heart they

attracted to themselves as associates and allies of their pride ‘the powers of the air’ (Eph

2:2) who deluded them with magical powers. They sought a mediator to purify them, and

it was not the true one. For it was ‘the devil transforming himself into an angel of light’

(2 Cor. 11:14). It was a potent enticement for proud flesh that he had no carnal body.

They were mortal and sinful men. But you, Lord, to whom in pride they sought to be

reconciled, are immortal and without sin. But a mediator between God and the human

race ought to have something in common with God and something in common with

humanity. If the Mediator were in both aspects like humanity, he would be far distant

from God. If he were in both aspects like God, he would be far distant from humanity,

and so would be no mediator. That is why the deceiving mediator, by whom through your

secret judgements pride deserved to be deluded, has one thing in common with human

beings, namely sin. He wishes to appear to have another feature in common with God:

since he is not clothed with mortal flesh, he boasts that he is immortal. But because ‘the

wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23), he in common with mankind is condemned to death.17

Incarnation and Coconut Christology

One of the key symbols in Oceania is the Coconut and the Coconut tree, not just because

it represents the idyllic, and often romanticised, image of paradise. For the people of Oceania,

the coconut symbolises life and the coconut tree is known as the tree of life. Every single part of

16 Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book I, Chapter 13 (section 14) 17 Augustine, Confessions (VII. xlii 67), 218

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the tree is important and used in daily life. The tree trunk is very strong, and it was useful as

pillars and beams for houses. The coconut leaves were used as roofing for the houses, for baskets

and for decorations. They would last for a year or so and hence would need replacement. These

were very sustainable materials. The fruits are always delicious for drinking and eating. The dry

nuts produce oil for lamps, aesthetic oil for healing, massaging and for keeping the body warm.

The husks of dry coconuts produce good and strong ropes. The rest of the tree is useful for

firewood.

A Christology using the symbol of the coconut would find parallels in Augustine’s

Incarnational Christology. The coconut falls from the tree when it is ready. This signifies the

concept of kairos or God’s time. In terms of the Incarnation, Christ came into the world at the

time appointed by God, or as Augustine wrote, “The Word Who is God before all time became

flesh at the appointed time.” 18

The coconut then rolls to the lowest point on earth. In the same way Jesus, born in

humility marks the understanding of Christ of the Exchange:

He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the

Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father... The

maker of the sun was made under the sun. He who fills the world lay in a manger, great

in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither

was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His

greatness.19

The flesh and milk or juice of the coconut is not only delicious, it is nutrious and life-

giving. In some communities in the islands of Oceania, coconut flesh and drink is used as the

elements of the Eucharist/Holy Communion. The symbolism of the “flesh and blood” of the tree

of life is not lost on Christians of Oceania. The Coconut points to not only the Body of Christ but

also His sacrifice. Augustine also reflected deeply on the Eucharist with Christ as both True

Priest offering the sacrifice, and at the same time being the holy victim offered.20

..and heard as it were your voice from on high: ‘I am the food of the fully grown; grow

and you will feed on me. And you will not change into you like the food your flesh eats

but you will be changed into me.21

18 Augustine, Sermon 187 19 Augustine, Sermon 187 20 William Mallard, Jesus Christ, (Unpublished draft) 21 Augustine, Confessions” (VII. x 16), 124

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If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a crime or vice, or enjoining an act

of prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or

vice, or to forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. “Except ye eat the

flesh of the Son of man,” says Christ, “and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”22

Unlike many other fruit, the coconut does not have a seed. For a tree to grow, the coconut

itself must “die” so that a new tree can sprout or “rise” from within it. This then symbolises the

death and resurrection of Jesus and points further to the new life or new creation out of the old.

This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should

have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and

profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us.23

Your Word, eternal truth, high than the superior parts of your creation, raises those

submissive to him to himself. In the inferior parts he built for himself a humble house of

our clay. By this he detaches from themselves those who are willing to made his subjects

and carries them across to himself, healing their swelling and nourishing their love. They

are no longer to place confidence in themselves, but rather to become weak. They see at

their feet divinity become week by his sharing in our ‘coat of skin’ (Gen. 3:21). I in their

weariness they fall prostrate before this divine weakness which rises and lifts them up.24

The final Christological symbolism of coconut can found in the bilo or the shorn half-

shell of a coconut. The bilo is more than just a drinking bowl. It is used in the serving of a

special drink, called kava. Kava refers to the methysticum plant common throughout the Pacific

Ocean cultures of Polynesia, Melanesia and some parts of Micronesia and Australia.

Traditionally the roots of the kava plant are dried and then pounded, the powder is then strained

and mixed with cold water before being drunk from the bilo. Effects of kavalactones, which are

psychoactive include mild sedation, a slight numbing of the gums and mouth, and vivid dreams.

Kava has been reported to improve cognitive performance and promote a cheerful mood. Kava is

used for medicinal, religious, political, cultural and social purposes throughout the Pacific. These

cultures have a great respect for the plant and place a high importance on it.

The original ritual of the Kava ceremony was reserved only for chiefs and priests. For the

chief it was only drunk in the ritual to mark his installation as titular head of a clan or tribe.

During ceremony, the new chief drinks the kava served in the bilo, symbolising that his old self

22 Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book III, Chapter 16 (section 24) 23 Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book III, Chapter 16 (section 24) 24 Augustine, Confessions (VII. xviii 24), 128

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has died and that the ancestor god of the tribe enters the chief and takes its place as a new self.

As part of the divination ritual, the Fijian bete (priest) became one with the ancestor gods when

he drank kava from the bilo. The Christological significance is the kenosis or self-emptying of

the Incarnation, Augustine’s Christ of the Exchange is found not only in the symbolism of the

kava ceremony but more importantly in the vessel through which the exchange takes place.

Conclusion

Augustine sought to share his journey of discovery of the Incarnate Christ with the world,

through his Confessions and other writings and sermons. They form a narrative but one that is

full of symbolism. In the same way the people of Oceania share their understanding of the world,

its creator and its redeemer through stories, song, dance and in the symbolism of what are

meaningful elements of their lives, and their rituals. Christ is not the coconut, but the tree of life

points to the life giver, and in some way perhaps is a lot closer in language and meaning to

Augustine’s Incarnational theology than perhaps has been envisaged.

10

Bibliography

Augustine. Confessions. Chadwick, H. (transl.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1992.

Augustine. On Christian Doctrine.

Augustine. Sermo Guelferbytanus

Augustine. Sermon 187.

Bevans, S. Models of Contextual Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis. 2002.

Cameron, M. “The Christological Substructure of Augustine’s Figurative Exegesis” in Bright, P.

(ed. and transl.) Augustine and the Bible. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press. 1999.

Haight, R. Dynamics of Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis. 2000.

Hau'ofa, E. “Our sea of islands”, in: Waddell, E. / Naida, V./ Hau'ofa, E. (eds.), A New Oceania:

Rediscovering our sea of islands. Suva: University of the South Pacific.1993.

Mallard, W. Jesus Christ, (Unpublished draft)

Mallard, W. Language and Love: Introducing Augustine’s Religious Thought through the

Confession Story. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. 1994.

Paunga, M. Contours of contextual theologies from Oceania. http://www.mwi-

aachen.org/Images/paunga _tcm20-13869.pdf . Accessed, 20th November, 2011.

Schreiter, R. J. Constructing Local Theologies. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. 2004.

Schreiter, R. J. What Has Contextual Theology To Offer To The Church Of The 21st Century?

Mission In Context Lecture - Church Mission Society. Oxford: October 15, 2009.

Stock, B. Augustine - The Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge and the Ethics of Interpretation.

Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press. 1998.