"Matter" and "Form" in St. Augustine's Creation Thought: with Reference to Plato's "Hypodoche" and Aristotle's "Hyle"

In Book 12 of Confessions, St. Augustine elucidated his ideas of hylomorphism by interpreting the "Heaven" of "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" as "heaven of heavens", and the "earth" as the unformed matter. Taking Confessions and The Literal Meaning of Genesis as the main text, Plato's "hypodoche" and Aristotle's hylomorphism as reference, this paper analyzes St. Augustine's complex and even inconsistent interpretation of his core metaphysical concepts such as "matter" "form" "heaven" and "earth", arguing that St. Augustine's hylomorphism on the one hand was influenced by Plato and Aristotle, and on the other hand, was more subject to the necessity of conforming to the Bible. In fact, St. Augustine held a very clear Christian theological position. At least on this particular issue, some previous researches have unfairly exaggerated the influence of ancient Greek philosophy on St. Augustine. St. Augustine made a breakthrough on the ancient philosophy by contributing new themes to Western metaphysics while transforming ancient philosophy with Christian doctrine. For today's readers, this research may help us understand the development of Western metaphysical thoughts more completely.