AUGUSTINE

(354 to 430 AD)

Augustine was born 354 in Thegaste in the Roman provice of Africa (modern-day North Africa). He had a pagan Father--but a Christian mother (Monica). He was very interested in philosophy (especially Cicero) as a youth--but also trained in Christianity. Nonetheless, he felt scandalized by the "unphilosophical" character of the Old Testament. Eventually he became Manichean in philosophy--only later to abandon Manicheanism as being an inadequate philosophy. At age 30 (384) he became a professor of rhetoric at Milan, and delved into Neo-Platonist philosophy. This he found made more sense. Evil, for instance, was not a separate "being" (as the Manichees professed), but rather the relative absence or lack of the Good--or something potentially Good which has been misused (such as an appetite which becomes gluttonous). At about this time, Augustine began attending the sermons of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Ambrose explained the Old Testament as allegory--helping answer some of the conflicts Augustine once had with the Old Testament. But he resisted Christianity because he thought that a "Good" Christian was expected to be celebate (he had a mistress and a boy by her)--but otherwise became increasingly attracted by Christian thought.

In August of 386 he had a conversion experience in the garden where he lived: a childlike voice calling him to "take up and read."  He took up an read Romans 13:13-14, which called for the abandonment of the urges of the flesh. He and a few companions formed up a study circle--to learn more of the Christian faith. But in 388 he returned to Africa--and attempted to lay low for fear of being detected--and being forced into becoming a cleric! But in 391--in a visit to Hippo--he was found out and forced into office as presbyter or priest.  Then in 396, when the bishop of Hippo died, Augustine took the position--retaining this position until his death in 430.

He eventually got embroiled in the Donatist controvery brewing since the early 300s over the question of the validity of the offices (and powers) of those priests and bishops who, under the threat of persecution of anti-Christian Roman emperors, had once temporarily denied their faith but subsequently had been reinstated by the bishop of Rome after the persecution had passed. The Roman church had urged forgiveness on the part of the African purists (the Donatists)--but the Donatists would have none of it. Many of their members had been martyred under the persecution and they were in no mood to tolerate the "compromisers." The Donatists claimed that the priests of the Roman party had lost all legitimacy and their priestly powers (especially in administering the sacraments) were void. Eventually the issue degenerated into a political struggle between Rome and the local purists in Africa who at that time dominated North African Christianity. Augustine argued on behalf of Rome against the Donatists and was influential in turning North African Christianity in alliegence to Rome and to Catholic or "universal" Christianity--and not local (schismatic) Christianity. Augustine's point was that the powers of the priest (the truth of the word they preached and the sacraments they administered) depended not upon the purity of the individuals holding the office but in the power of the office itself and the accompanying sacramental powers--which had God (or more specifically: Christ) as its guarantor, not man.

About the time Augustine managed to swing African Christianity to Rome, another major controversy was breaking hard within Christianity: the Pelagian controversy. Pelagius was a popular Christian teacher in Rome (around 400), who stressed moral rigorousness as a necessary part of salvation. When the Visigoths invaded Rome in 410, Pelagius and his followers fled to Africa--though Pelagius himself soon moved on to Palestine; but many followers remained in Africa troubling the Christian waters there. Pelagius--or his disciple Coelestius, anyway--denied the doctrine of original sin and the necessity of Christ's atoning sacrifice for salvation. Salvation, they said, occurred through following the example of Jesus in living by the Law. Augustine strongly countered"Pelagianism" by stressing the divine initiative in salvation (by grace alone--because He first loved us). In short: there is nothing we can do on our own behalf for our salvation. Only by grace alone are we saved [a doctrine brought back to prominence by the Protestant Reformers]. But Augustine added that only through baptism are people--even babies--saved from eternal damnation [a doctrine downplayed by the Protestants--but stressed by the Catholics]. As Pelagius moved on to Palestine, Augustine sent word to Palestine to be on the lookout for Pelagius' heresy; but Pelagius denied that he held the same views of his disciple Coelestius. But Pelagian followers stirred up so much trouble within Christiandom that eventually a doctrine called "Pelagianism" was condemned as heresy by the Bishop of Rome in 418 and by a general council at Ephesus in 431(the year after Augustine's death). Nonetheless Pelagianism--or "Semi-Pelagianism" (through John Cassian)--continued to be very influential within Christiandom. [Semi-Pelagianism: God extends by His grace salvation to those who are well-disposed or of good will toward Him; thus people possess through free will the potential to choose salvation but only God's grace, in response to this good will, can actually confer such salvation. But this still leaves man--not God--as the initiator of the act of salvation. This debate continues to this day.]

The Visible and Invisible Church In the early 400s Augustine began to develop a rather clear idea of the difference between the visible and the invisible church: the visible church included all professed Christians--some of which were Christian in name only. The "invisible" church was made up of only the true believers. And here, only God alone, who searches human hearts, knows who makes up this church. [This idea was quite novel at the time--but came to be widely accepted after Augustine. John Calvin, in the mid-1500s, pushed this concept strongly in his own doctrine of the church.] Human Sin/Divine Providence In his own theology, Augustine strongly contrasted God's goodness (in creation) with human rebelliousness, his habitual slavery to his passions. Unlike the neo-Platonists, Augustine saw sin in humans, not in the world of physical matter. He had a strong sense of the total sovereignty/providence of a loving and gracious God. To Augustine, true freedom for man consists in the acceptance of God's grace--given to those whom God has called or elected to salvation (foreknown through God's eternal mind). But like the neo-Platonists, Augustine understood that it is God who enlightens our souls--the portion of our being that is immortal and close to God (distinct from the body). We have no true knowledge apart from God's enlightenment or revelation. Thus, the highest act of a Christian is to lovingly desire God, to rest one's soul in Him. In God all things are to be found in truth and fulness. To focus ones desires on the world is to sell one's life short: exchanging the eternal for the temporary (amply demonstrated in his time in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 410).

Augustine's major works or writings: Against Pelagius Free Choice of the Will Confessions Against the Manichees/Against the Donatists On Christian Doctrine Enchiridion (Faith, Hope and Love) The Trinity (399-419) City of God (413-427) The Predestination of the Saints The Gift of Perseverance