|
 More
is known of Augustine than most early church figures because of
his writings ‘Confessions’ (written 397-401), and
Retractions (427) (which re-visited Confessions) and his
main theological work ‘On the Trinity’ (399-419).
Born
in the town of Tagaste, Numidia (Algeria), he had a pagan father
(Patricius), and a Christian mother (Monica) and as a young man
received training in
rhetoric at Carthage.
In his quest for wisdom, his
philosophical background drew him to the sect of Manichaeanism
for nine years (Manichaean’s were Gnostic ascetics who denied
the incarnation, and taught dualism). Manichaeanism appealed to
Augustine because earlier while at Carthage, he found sexual
temptations irresistible, later describing himself as being in
the midst of an inner moral struggle and “a whirl of vicious
love making”. He said “there is nothing so powerful in
drawing a spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman”.
Manichaean
friends introduced him to Symmachus, the Prefect of the City of
Rome, who had been asked in 384AD to enlist a professor of
rhetoric for the imperial court at Milan.
Augustine
accepted his invitation and was appointed at age thirty
as the new Professor of Rhetoric (the art of public speaking).
He had won the most visible academic
chair in the Latin world, at a time when such posts gave ready
access to political careers.
In
this appointment he was to give a public oration honouring the
emperor Valentinian II. To prepare, he attended the preaching of
Bishop Ambrose (as an observer), however Ambrose's teaching soon
dismantled many of Augustine’s archetypal patterns of
philosophy. He therefore
abandoned Manichaeism, but instead of becoming a Catholic like
Ambrose, he converted to Neo-Platonism (A pagan philosophy that
taught mystical monotheism).
Augustine discarded his
concubine of thirteen years,
the
mother of his son
Adeodatus,
for preference of a rich woman, whom he officially engaged but
separated from soon after. It was during this time he uttered
his famous prayer
“Lord, grant me chastity, but not yet.”
Eventually,
in his
conquest to gain victory over his mastering fleshly nature, he
castrated himself.
In 386
aged 32, Augustine was converted and received baptism from
Ambrose in Easter 387.
Ambrose’s influence eventually found residence in Augustine’s
heart whereupon he searched the scriptures and was awakened to
Romans 13:14 ‘Put on Christ ... and make no provision for the
flesh’. This was to change his life, - and Christendom,
forever.
This
theophany revealed Christ to Augustine as “the moral authority”.
He acknowledged it was only through the power of Christ in him
(Col 1:27), that assured his liberty and the power to maintain
godly behavior.
In
388 when his mother died whilst accompanying him to Rome, he
returned to Africa having resigned from his professorship
(citing illness), and withdrew himself with some close friends
to ‘pursue truth’. One year later in 389, his son Adeodatus also
died.
At
this time, the Church was demanding celibacy from its priests
and asceticism was growing as a favoured trend. Accordingly,
Augustine remained celibate and dedicated to his pursuit of
truth. On a visit to Hippo Regius (today: Annaba, Algeria) in
395, he was compelled by the congregation to become their
priest. In 396 at the age of 43, he became Bishop of Hippo,
where he remained until his death 32 years later. In fact, only
four of his seventy-five years were spent outside
Northern Africa.
 On
Aug 28, 410AD Alaric, the Arian Visigoth King, sacked Rome which
ended Rome's 620-year reign of peace. This sent a shock wave
through the entire empire affecting both pagan and Christian.
The pagans blamed the Christians (as usual), and the Christians
had no reply for God’s apparent lack of protection of their
‘eternal city’. Alaric, an Arian convert collected all the
churches gold and treasures (believed to have been previously
stolen from the temple in Jerusalem) and deposited it in the
Church’s of St Peter and St Paul.
Roman
refugees reaching North Africa were demanding answers from
Augustine. His answer was in his writing ‘The City of God’
which encouraged the believers not to look at Rome, but to the
real eternal city in heaven, and to lay hold upon the promise of
eternal life.
Augustine’s theological influence
 As
Bishop of Hippo, Augustines’ views regarding celibacy, salvation
and the sacraments were formalised, and received by the Church.
Some aspects his dogma were taken to unfortunate extremes during
the Dark Ages.
His
views, it appears, were influenced as a result of his
involvement with the Manichaeans, his response to
the Donatists, and his account with
Neo-Platonist philosophy.
For
example, the Donatists were an African Christian movement of the
4th and 5th centuries which opposed the
Roman Catholic Church, re-baptized Catholic converts, and
greatly esteemed its martyrs. Augustine’s views that the
Donatists were only suicide victims, motivated him to redefine
the definition of martyrdom.
Augustine
accepted the Apocrypha as inspired Scripture. His beliefs and
theology pertaining to salvation and grace was influential
during the Reformation. Other beliefs, however, whilst failing
to find any comprehensive scriptural basis, nevertheless became
foundational components of Roman Catholic dogma, which have
endured to this present day.
Augustine’s dogmas included:
1. The Grace of God was to be ministered to the
believer via the priest, through the sacraments;
that is, The priest becomes the channel for grace,
and therefore, avails or withholds forgiveness and grace via the
sacraments. For this reason, regular partaking of the Sacraments
was encouraged, not just as a remembrance of the Lord’s death,
but to receive grace.
2. Transubstantiation. The bread and wine once blessed by
the priest becomes, in a literal sense, the body and the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Election by predestination. (This was later revived by
John Calvin).
4. The use of ‘necessary force’
was to
be advocated toward the Donatists if they did not recant.
This too, was later taken to extremes in medieval times during
the Crusades and Inquisitions when it implied license for murder
and “to serve justice upon infidels”, including many genuine
believers. Augustine wrote, “Why
should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to
return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?
The Roman Catholic Church only renounced this dogma at Vatican
II in 1965, when it replaced it with “the medicine of mercy”.
5. All people were members of the Church;
the
believers, the unrepentant, the good, the bad and the ugly. This
was formulated through Augustine’s misinterpretation of Math 13:
24-30 the parable of the tares. He failed to recognize that this
passage spoke of the world and not the Church. Today the
Catholic, Anglican, and
Lutheran churches still hold faithfully to Augustine’s belief
that everyone in the community is a member of the Church
regardless of their beliefs and supposition on salvation.
6. Acceptance of infant baptism to cleanse away heritable sin.
(This doctrine was also accepted earlier by Origen and Irenaeus
but rejected by Tertullian). Augustine advocated that the
baptism of John was ordained for sins forgiven in hope,
but by the baptism of Christ, sins are forgiven in reality
(Despite John the Baptist declaring that his baptism was for the
remission of sins).
Albeit,
Augustine also contributed to the Church with scriptural
influence.
\For example,
it is largely due to Augustine's conflicts with the Pelagians,
that the West maintained the doctrine of salvation by grace.
Palagius did not believe in original sin but regarded man as
being spiritually and morally well, therefore could earn
salvation by works. The Eastern Orthodox today, still view
Augustine’s influence on this matter, as having played a role in
the East West split during the eleventh century.
Because
of his own experience and revelation of the depth of his sin and
the greatness of God’s salvation, he emphasised the grace of
God and caused it to become a major theme of theology for
many writers and theologians thereafter. Much of it remained
unchallenged in European society until the Age of Reason
(1648-1789).
Augustine
was the first to write a biblical view of history in his book
‘City of God’, and four years before his death he began to
re-read his works, confessions of Augustine. He
recognized the impact his thoughts and views were having on the
Church, and in response, wrote ‘Retractions’. This book
visited and evaluated his previous writings.
In his main theological work ‘On the Trinity’ (399-419),
Augustine brought the Western influence on the Trinitarian
doctrine to completion. Along with other letters written
concerning the
Incarnation,
(having renounced
Manichaeanism)
it had a significant influence upon Pope Leo’s representation at
the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD.
During
the last months of Augustine’s life, the Vandals had destroyed
Roman North Africa and held the fortified town of Augustines’
Hippo under siege for fourteen months. One year after his death
in 430AD, the Vandals breached the walls and found most of the
people starving or dead from hunger.
Augustine
was eventually canonized, and recognized by the Roman Catholic
Church as a “Doctor of the Church” in 1303 by Pope Bonniface
VIII. |
