Latinagnitiooverlaps withrecognitio.^21 It is theologically interesting,
however, thatRecognitionsalso speaks of knowing God asagnitio Dei:
You see, then, how important is the recognition of God (agnitio Dei),
and the observance of the divine religion, which not only protects those
who believe from the assaults of the demon, but also gives them
command over those who rule over others...And at the same time,
by prayers, commit yourselves to God (commendate vos Deo). (Rec.4,
17:1–2)The recognition or acknowledgement of God means practical attach-
ment, leading to observance and commitment. Given that the recog-
nition between people is mutual, the humanagnitiois followed by
divine protection.
InRec.6, 6 knowing God is compared with loving parental recog-
nition. We love our parents because we know them. Similarly, we
should love God, but some people claim not to know God. Such
people are, however,‘hindered in the recognition of God (in agnitione
Dei), not by impossibility, but by indolence’(Rec.6, 6:3). Loving
recognition of God is possible when humans read divine signs prop-
erly, since although lifeless things are not God, the whole of the earth
is made by God to serve human needs (Rec.6, 7:1–2). In this sense the
recognition of God entails mutuality and love.
Personal, loving recognition of both family members and God are
in this way examples of classicalanagnorisis. In addition, Recognitions
uses the phrase agnitio veritatis, acknowledgement of the truth,
frequently. It is among thefirst writings to ascribe an elaborated
technical sense to the Latin phraseagnitio veritatis.^22 The phrase
appears more than ten times in this work, and while the allusion to
Paul’s letters is clear, the author develops the phrase to suit his
broader purposes of recognition. As this development deviates from
the Aristotelian background and becomes a distinctively Christian
view of recognition, we need to analyse it in some detail.
One recurring feature inRecognitionsis the criticism of philo-
sophers who have not achieved anyfinal clarity of knowledge but
remain confused. Simple and robust men have, however, gained the
‘knowledge of the truth’that is available in religion (Rec.1, 9:2
(^21) TLL, s.v. agnitio.
(^22) This and some other similar observations in this chapter are based on the digital
search of theLibrary of Latin Texts(LLT).
The Latin Traditions 49