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Home , Augustine of Hippo, Augustinianism, Catholic theology, Contrition, Disputation, Doctrine

Augustine of : The Relevance of His Life and Thought Today Nick Needham

Nick Needham is of the Introduction traces of his . Though we Reformed Baptist of Inverness, Traditionally, four of the fathers find among them many rich and Scotland. He also serves as Lecturer of powerful , yet we find in none of the church have been given the illustri- the forces of personal character, Church at Highland Theological ous title “Doctor” (teacher)— of , heart, and , so largely developed and so harmoniously College in Dingwall, Scotland. Before , , , and working. No one surpasses him in this, he taught Systematic at Gregory the Great. All four deserve our wealth of and dialecti- the Scottish Baptist College in Glasgow. affectionate acquaintance; but the great- cal sharpness of thoughts, in depth Dr. Needham wrote his Ph.D. thesis on and fervor of religious sensibility, est of them surely be Augustine, in greatness of aims and energy of the nineteenth-century Scottish theolo- both for the sheer depth and richness action. He therefore also marks the gian Thomas Erskine of Linlathen. of his thought, and for his unparalleled culmination of the patristic age, and has been elevated by the acknowl- influence on subsequent . edgment of succeeding as the first and the church A. N. Whitehead once quipped that the 1 history of Western was simply father. a series of footnotes to . By a pardon- able , one might say that the Huber does not overstate. For we are history of Western theology is simply a dealing in Augustine with one of the series of footnotes to Augustine. The fifth truly seminal minds of history, century African father towers mightily and it is no self-depreciation on our part over the succeeding centuries like some to entertain a due sense of modesty and spiritual version of Shakespeare’s Julius . Few will ever be : Einstein; few theologians will ever be Augustine. In the post-apostolic church, Why, , he doth bestride the nar- he has been to Christian piety what row Like a Colossus, and we petty men is in the , and to Walk under his huge legs, and peep what Paul is in his letters. The writings about. of Augustine have proved a perpetual stream of outstandingly fruitful influence We are sometimes fond of saying that on Christian spirituality and we stand on the shoulders of the great down through the ages. Many of the who went before us. In the case noblest movements of church renewal of Augustine, I suspect most of us may have taken their inspiration from the feel less a dwarf on his shoulders than of Hippo, notably the Lollards, an ant on his ankle. In the words of the the Hussites, the Protestant “Old ” scholar Johann Nepomuk itself, the , and the Jansenists. Huber, Many of the most brilliant thinkers, Augustine is a unique , and of Western church in Christian history. No one of the history have been devout disciples of other fathers has left so luminous Augustine; one has but to name the 38 Venerable , , squeezed into the mold of contemporary , , non-Christian . John Wyclif, , , Third, there is Augustine’s decisive role , and B. B. Warfield. It seems, in the historical development of Chris- then, that if Western Christians are to tian doctrine. The church’s theology has understand their own heritage, they always been hammered out on the anvil cannot escape engaging with the titanic of . Where would our understand- figure of Augustine. ing of the and the incarnation There are other for acquainting be, without the purgative storms of the ourselves with the bishop of Hippo. Let ? Men like Athanasius me suggest three. First of all, there is no and the forged a personality of the ancient world, Chris- newly refined, more lucid and articulate tian or Pagan, so intimately known to us conception of the Godhead and of as Augustine. His more or less incarnate, in the context of the convul- invented , and give us the sive dispute with Arius and his ilk. This most entrancing and self-revealing por- refined theology was summed up in the trait of a in all . The father great Nicene . Augustine’s friend, of the , Francesco , the celebrated Jerome, admitted that many after his mid-life conversion to , of the utterances of the orthodox fathers carried with him a copy of Augustine’s to Arius did not quite come up to Confessions wherever he went. Countless the standard of this more coherent Nicene hosts have echoed Petrarch’s verdict. Can doctrine, wrought out in the furnace of the we this unique literary monument fourth century debate: “It must be admit- of a soul’s journey, without succumbing to ted that before Arius arose in Alexandria the charge of spiritual and cultural as a demon of the south, things were said ignoramuses? incautiously which cannot be defended Second, Augustine wrestles endlessly against a malign criticism.”2 with the most fundamental questions Augustine likewise was the principal of existence. What can the human mind theologian who wrought out a more truly know? What is ? What is ? articulate and coherent doctrine of human What is ? What is ? What is his- , its fall and , in the fifth tory? What is the soul? What is ? century setting of the Pelagian contro- What is ? What is ? What is the versy. If we owe our developed Trinitarian relationship between faith and reason? theology and to Athanasius What is ? What is human destiny? and the Cappadocians, we owe our devel- What are the limits of political oped and , our action? Where does come from? How understanding of the ’s teaching on can we reconcile evil and with the between human and a in a and almighty God? , to Augustine. He carried Augustine sets the example par excel- the Latin West with him on these matters lence of a Christian thinker determined (although not the Greek East), embedding to the whole of life in the light of in the Western Christian consciousness his faith, rather than give a little private a high, awesome, man-humbling, God- corner of it to Christ, leaving the rest to be exalting of , predestina- 39 tion, and efficacious grace in , pretensions to a perfectly rational world- which has renewed itself in every epoch view seemed hollow when compared and endured to the present. If we would to the higher and deeper philosophy grapple with these tremendous issues, of , father of —a where better to go than the first and reinvention of Plato that transformed his greatest “doctor of grace,” the bishop of teaching into a mystical religious faith Hippo? in a Supreme Being, “the One.” Plotinus introduced Augustine to a truer con- Biographical Sketch ception of God as the spiritual Let us now offer a sketch of Augus- entity, exalted far above space, time, and tine’s life, and then look in more detail , whose image was reflected in the at some of these weighty themes. Briefly, human soul. Aurelius Augustine was born in Tha- Intellectually liberating though this gaste in Roman North in 354, to a was, Neoplatonism did not challenge Pagan father, Patricius, and a Christian Augustine’s moral . This came mother, Monnica. His mother, a spiritu- through the preaching of Ambrose, ally minded lady, did her best to instill bishop of Milan, whose eloquence the Christian faith into her son, but the captivated Augustine. Here was an ortho- growing Augustine met moral shipwreck dox Christian who both made on the shoals of his burgeoning sexuality. the faith of the church seem credible, and Abandoning the of his youth, lived it out in his own life of steely, shin- he began living with a girl whom he never ing , before which even emperors married, by whom he had an illegitimate trembled (Milan was at that time the son, Adeodatus. Western imperial capital). To add to his mother’s anguish, Augus- Ambrose’s preaching soon induced tine also joined the cult-like Gnostic sect a spiritual crisis in Augustine. Let us of the Manichees. In desperation over hear him tell it in his own words. He is her wayward , Monnica turned to a in a garden in Milan, overwhelmed by Catholic bishop who was himself a con- a consciousness of his sin, especially his verted Manichee, and pled with him to bondage to sexual desire: reason with Augustine. (By “Catholic” in I flung myself down, I do not know the early church period, we mean simply how, under a fig-tree, giving free the mainstream orthodox church, distin- course to my tears. The streams of guished from dissident groups like Mon- my eyes gushed forth, an acceptable to You. And, not in these tanists and Arians.) The bishop refused. very words, yet to this effect, I spoke “Only , not arguments, will bring much to You: “But You, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord? Will You be your son to Christ,” he insisted. When a angry for ever? Oh, do not remem- weeping Monnica persisted in beseeching ber against us our former iniqui- his help, the bishop famously said, “Go. It ties!” For I felt that I was enslaved by them. I sent up these sorrowful cannot be that the son of such tears will cries: “How long, how long? Tomor- perish.” row, tomorrow? Why not now? Why The words were prophetic. Now a is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?” teacher of in , Augustine I was saying these things and began to lose his faith in . Its weeping in the most bitter contri- tion of my heart, when I heard the 40 voice of a boy or girl, I do not know changed the whole course of his life. He which, coming from a neighbouring was worshipping in the house, chanting and repeating the words, “Take up and read, take up in Hippo one Sunday, when the elderly and read!” Immediately my attitude preacher, bishop Valerius, recognized changed, and I began most earnestly him. Was this not Augustine, the recent to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game convert from , whose writings to sing words like this. I could not had already begun to make an impact on remember ever hearing it before. So, the Christians of the day? Valerius was restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it as a com- a Greek, and could not speak Latin very mand to me from to open well; he had prayed for a long time that the Scripture, and to read the first chapter my gaze fell on. For I had God would send him an assistant pastor. heard of Antony [the great desert He began preaching on this very topic; father of Egypt], that accidentally the congregation caught his meaning, coming in to church while the gos- pel was being read, he received the surrounded Augustine, and cried out that exhortation as if the were here was the very man for the ! addressed to him: “Go and sell Augustine was horrified, but could what you have, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in do nothing against the unanimous and heaven; and come, follow Me.” And enthusiastic acclamations of the people. by this oracle he was immediately Like the child’s voice in Milan, “Take up converted to You. So I quickly returned to the place and read,” it seemed that through the where Alypius [Augustine’s friend voice of the Christian people of Hippo, and companion in the search for truth] was sitting; for that is where God was once again intervening directly I had put down the volume of the in Augustine’s life. He submitted, and apostles, when I had risen from was ordained assistant bishop to Val- that spot. I grasped it, opened it, and in silence read that paragraph erius. When Valerius died five year later, on which my eyes first fell: “Not Augustine became sole bishop of Hippo’s in rioting and drunkenness, not in Catholic church, a position he filled until and debauchery, not in strife and ; but put on his own in 430. Christ, and make no provision for Augustine soon exercised an intel- the flesh, to fulfil its .” I would lectual and spiritual pre-eminence over read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, the whole African Catholic Church, by a light of was infused into of his preaching (he is commonly my heart, and all the gloom of doubt 3 vanished away. regarded as one of the great preachers of the Christian centuries), his endless That was in 386. The following year, stream of writings, his role in Augustine was baptised by Ambrose, the key controversies of the day, and his along with his 15 year-old son Adeodatus, personal influence on the other Catholic who had also been converted. (Adeodatus of Africa. By the end of Augus- died young, three years later.) Returning tine’s life, his distinguished French to Thagaste, Augustine founded a pioneer , , could say monastic . In 391, however, he this of his master without any sense of was on a visit to , the second exaggeration, greatest of Roman (after Augustine, at the time the first and ), when providence unexpectedly foremost among the bishops of the 41 Lord…. Among many other divine spirituality by the Orthodox. gifts showered on him by the Philaret of Chernigov, for example, says of Truth, he excelled particularly in the gifts of and wis- this of Augustine: dom flowing from his of God, which enabled him to slay with the The highest in him is the invincible sword of the Word not profound, sincere piety with which only the Pelagian heresy, but also all his works are filled… [especially many other previous . This the Confessions] which without doctor, resplendent with the of doubt can strike anyone to the so many and crowns which depths of his soul by the he gained for the exaltation of the of their , and warm one by the warmth of the piety which is so Church and the glory of Christ…. 5 Augustine, the greatest man in the essential on the path of . 4 Church today. Closer to home, the great nineteenth cen- The Relevance of Augustine for tury evangelical church historian Philip Today Schaff says this: How relevant, then, is Augustine for us The Confessions are the most prof- in the twenty-first century? Let me sug- itable, at least the most edifying, gest three areas in which, though dead, product of his pen; indeed, we may he yet speaks. say, the most edifying book in all the patristic literature. They were accordingly the most read even dur- Spirituality ing his lifetime, and they have been First, the African father ranks as one the most frequently published since. A more sincere and more earnest of the classic spiritual writers of all time. book was never written… Certainly Devotional literature holds few works no autobiography is superior to it in true humility, spiritual depth, comparable to Augustine’s Confessions, and universal interest. Augustine while his Soliloquies have also awakened records his own , as a and inspired many. We would have to heathen sensualist, a Manichean heretic, an anxious inquirer, a sin- place these writings in the same select cere penitent, and a grateful con- league as Bernard of Clairvaux’s On Lov- vert. He finds a response in every ing God, Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation human soul that struggles through the temptations of nature and the of Christ, ’s Pilgrim’s , labyrinth of error to the knowledge and Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the of truth and the beauty of holiness, Soul of Man. and after many sighs and tears finds rest and in the arms of a mer- 6 Testimonies to Augustine’s outstand- ciful Saviour. ing worth in this regard flood in from all quarters, even the unlikeliest. Con- None of the writings of the early sider, for example, the Eastern Ortho- have so quenched people’s dox Church, which has never given a spiritual thirst down through the centu- commanding place to Augustine as a ries as have the writings of the bishop of theologian, partly because Hippo. They offer a perennially needful rejects the Augustinian view of human corrective to two equal and opposite bondage to sin and the sovereign effi- errors faced by Christians in every age: cacy of divine grace in salvation. Despite either to gravitate to a cold theological this, Augustine’s Confessions have been orthodoxy devoid of heart, or to a sen- warmly embraced as a classic of Christian timental spirituality that sits light to 42 doctrine. Augustine is the antidote to cerning my God that you are not He. both false tendencies. In him we discover Tell me something positive about Him!” And with a loud voice they 7 heart and mind married in an intimate exclaimed: “He made us.” union where deep, thoughtful theology, rooted in Scripture and never afraid of The Meaning of History condemning error, nonetheless burns and Next, there is the longest and pro- sings with a spiritual vibrancy that makes foundest theological work Augustine most modern piety seem pale and sickly ever wrote, his City of God. Its overarching by contrast. If we do nothing else over this message remains as pertinent today as coming year in our Christian reading, we when Augustine first penned it. Schaff could scarcely do better than read Augus- again says, tine’s Confessions, either for the first time, is the masterpiece of or to rekindle our acquaintance with this the greatest among the Latin universally recognized devotional classic. Fathers, and the best known and most read of his works, except the Here is a taster: Confessions. It embodies the result of thirteen years of labour What is it that I love in loving You? and study (from AD 413-426). It is a Not physical beauty, nor the splen- vindication of Christianity against dour of time, nor the radiance of the the attacks of the heathen in view light, so pleasant to our eyes, nor the of the sacking of the city of sweet melodies of songs of all kinds, by the barbarians, at a time when nor the flagrant smell of flowers, and the old Greco-Roman ointments, and spices, nor manna was approaching its downfall, and and honey, nor limbs pleasant to the a new Christian civilization was embraces of the flesh. I do not love beginning to rise on its ruins. It is these things when I love my God. the first attempt at a philosophy of And yet I love a certain kind of light, history, under the aspect of two rival sound, fragrance, food, and embrace or —the eternal in loving my God; for He is the light, city of God and the perishing city sound, fragrance, food, and embrace 8 of the world. of my inner man. There, a light shines upon my soul which no place can contain, and a sound is heard Essentially, the treatise is a meditation which time cannot snatch away. on the meaning of history, which Augus- There breathes a fragrance which no tine interpreted as a conflict between two breeze can disperse, a food which no eating can diminish, and an embrace communities, which he called “the city which no fullness of satisfaction can of God” and “the city of the world.” Ever dissolve. This is what I love, when I love my God. And what is He? I since the fall of , Augustine argued, asked the earth; and it answered, the human race had been divided into “I am not He.” And everything on two spiritual : the unregenerate earth made the same . I asked the sea and the deeps, and the whose head was , and the regen- creeping things that lived, and they erate whose head was Christ. Human replied, “We are not your God. Seek history was the unfolding of the story higher than we.” I asked the breezy ; and the universal atmosphere of how these two “cities” interacted. The with its inhabitants answered, “I city of God, while not identical with the am not God.” I asked the , visible church (she harbored tares along- the sun, moon, and stars: “Neither,” they said, “are we the God whom side wheat), was nonetheless nurtured in you seek.” And I answered all these her bosom by the Word of God and the things which crowd about the door of my flesh, “You have told me con- ; while the city of the world 43 found its most concrete manifestation in interests of Rome and the interests of God, the , especially powerful states—the and all but inconceivable to contemplate empires of man. the Empire’s fall (despite the fall of its Arguably, the most important thing ancient capital city of Rome to Alaric the Augustine does for us today in City Visigoth in 410—the Empire‘s functional of God is to offer a piercing Christian capital by then was in Constanti- critique of the pretensions of the city nople). of man. The of original sin and Augustine dissented from this - human depravity, Augustine insisted, ization of the ; no matter are as applicable to human institutions how Christian it might profess itself, it as to human individuals. He had no was just as fallible and mutable, as caught time for Messianic posturings by any up in the flux of history and human sin, state, whether the Christianized Roman as any other kingdom. There was nothing Empire of his own day, or any successor sacrosanct about it. Its fall was perfectly in the . Whatever their rhetoric, conceivable. And when or if the Empire Augustine had little doubt that earthly crumbled, the Christian would discern kingdoms were ultimately based on the therein the righteous providence of God, realpolitik of power. The only kind of unity which ever humbles the pretentious they understood was the unity of force: and self-exalting cities of men. History join with us in happy brotherhood, or else knew only one enduring city, Augustine we shall kill you! affirmed—the city of God. And she was Indeed, the bishop of Hippo pro- not a political entity, but a spiritual entity, nounced pessimistically as he surveyed dwelling not in the swords of proud history, all the kingdoms of this world armies but in the hearts of lowly believ- were, at the end of the day, little better ers, outlasting the vanity of all earthly than vast, organized conspiracies of kingdoms. robbers. What were the most illustrious As a corollary to this critical level- earthly rulers? What was Alexander the headedness about human states, Augus- Great, that idol of Greek civilization? tine also rebuffed any romantic that What Alexander did on a grand scale by Christianity would ever bring about his supposedly glorious and con- global peace and prosperity. The quests, Augustine felt, was no different was not the means to a socio-political in from what a pirate does in a . This was not because Augus- single ship. When earthly cities and king- tine doubted the relevance of the Bible to doms fell, therefore, as they all eventually secular affairs: the Bible was a fountain did, their was just. For “all of for the whole of human life. have sinned and fallen short of the glory Unfortunately, original sin meant that the of God”—all men and all kingdoms. human mind, even in Christians, was a This was a radical assertion in Augus- fountain of never-ending folly and sinful tine’s context, because many Christians perversion. Therefore, Augustine advised, regarded the Christianized Roman we must have an ice-cold realism in our Empire of his day as tantamount to God’s expectations of what fallen and foolish kingdom on earth. They found it all but human could achieve in the world. impossible to distinguish between the Even the best and wisest Christians were 44 still corrupted by sin, and capable of much relative, absolutely to the absolute.” The that was evil and destructive. The quest soul-destroying error of utopian dreamers for an earthly was, in Augustine’s and imperialists is that they relate them- view, the pursuit of a mirage, doomed to selves absolutely to the relative: they make failure. Heaven was in heaven, and never an ultimate goal out of man’s earthly life on earth. and secular well-being. In so doing, they Yet Augustine did not recommend reveal that they love the creature more political withdrawal and on than the Creator. But true Christians, the part of Christians, as we might pos- Augustine emphasized, would never sibly have anticipated. On the contrary, confuse the relative good of the fading he declared, the values pursued by the and fleeting city of this world, with the city of man—peace and prosperity— absolute good of the eternal city of God. were good in themselves, as far as they Indeed, it was precisely by turning their went. Christians could cooperate in the backs on the city of God that unbelievers endeavor to establish those values, even had made such a bloody and ruinous idol though a faithful follower of Christ would of the earthly city: not be driven by political utopianism in They neglect the higher of the venture. Augustine therefore repu- the heavenly city, which are secure diated the that Christianity was through eternal and never- incompatible with good citizenship. The ending peace, and thus they inordi- nately covet the good things of the citizens of the heavenly city could and present life, believing them to be the should collaborate with the citizens of the only desirable things, or loving them better than those things which faith earthly city in seeking its earthly good. reckons to be better. The inevitable The values of the earthly city became false consequence is fresh misery and an increase of the wretchedness that and evil, however, when made into the 9 was already there. ultimate goal of human life, and pursued at the expense of justice. By striving for a secular heaven on Does human political life not always earth, social engineers and empire- need this Augustinian warning? We builders were more likely to turn earth would surely do well to hear Augus- into . For Augustine, Christian faith tine’s insistence that any exaltation of alone enabled people to pursue earthly the earthly city and its values to absolute goals with a humble sense of realism, and status is false and destructive. Man’s without the damning of (our ultimate destiny beyond the earthly country or is an absolute city, beyond this perishing life, in the ) or (those who oppose us transcendent God who created him; and have no value). If biblically informed, pru- this destiny will be fulfilled dent, humble Christians of Augustine’s only when the , Jesus Christ, stamp were to act as a leaven within the returns at the close of history and creates of their country and their day, we new heaven, new earth. might hopefully expect—not indeed the Augustine’s position here was well building of Jerusalem in England’s (or summed up by the nineteenth century America’s) green and pleasant land, but Danish Lutheran thinker, Søren Kierkeg- at least the sabotaging of the building of aard: “Relate yourself relatively to the Babylon. Such Christians are the state’s 45 unsung heroes, putting crucial checks on to sinners, and the perseverance of the its tendencies to idolatry and injustice. elect to the end of their earthly pilgrimage There is much more that could be said and entrance into heaven at last. In many about City of God, but perhaps enough of ways, Augustine’s on grace are an appetizer has been given to stimulate simply an extended meditation, profound readers to drink from the fountainhead. and awe-inspiring, on the “golden chain” In the words of Marcus Dodds, its nine- of Rom 8:29-30: foreknown, predestined, teenth century translator, called, justified, glorified. Prior to Augustine, we are hard pressed [T]he interest attaching to the City of God is not merely historical. It to find this developed theology of human is the earnestness and ability with nature and divine grace in the writings which [Augustine] develops his of the fathers. We discover scattered own philosophical and theological views which gradually fascinate utterances, hints, premonitions, embry- the reader, and make him see why onic : but no sustained or articulate the world has this among the exposition. There is a good reason for this. few greatest books of all time. The fundamental lines of the Augustin- As Augustine himself pointed out, prior ian theology are here laid down in to and his optimistic human- a comprehensive and interesting form. Never was thought so abstract ism masquerading as Christianity, the expressed in so popular … controversy over sin and grace had never And though there are in the City of before arisen in that precise form, as the God, as in all ancient books, things that seem to us childish and barren, specific, conscious, and systematic focus there are also the most surprising of theological reflection and . anticipations of modern specula- Referring to previous church fathers, tion. There is an earnest grappling with those problems which are Augustine said, continually re-opened because they underline man’s relation to God and What need is there to search into the spiritual world—the problems their works, who before this heresy which are not peculiar to any one arose were under no necessity of 10 century. troubling themselves to solve this difficult question; which without doubt they would have done, had The Doctrine of Grace they been obliged to answer such Finally, Augustine’s ongoing relevance things? Hence it is, that what they to today’s church may be discovered in thought of the grace of God, they have briefly and cursorily touched the fabulous theological wealth of his on in some places of their writings, anti-Pelagian treatises. If we are confes- whereas they dwelt at length on sionally Lutheran or Reformed, we find those things in which they disputed against the enemies of the church, in these writings the first clear, coherent in exhortations to every virtue by articulation of the biblical anthropology which to serve the living and true God for the purpose of attaining and soteriology so dear to our own hearts: 11 eternal life and true . the total spiritual inability of unregener- ate to respond savingly to Augustine showed a critical awareness God, the unconditional divine of of the development of doctrine. As James those who are to be saved, the manifesta- Orr argues in The Progress of , tion of this grace in the mission of Christ Every doctrine, I have urged, has its the Savior, the sovereign efficacy of the “hour”—the period when it emerges in giving faith and into individual prominence, and 46 becomes the of exhaustive In particular, we should bear in mind 12 discussion. how the Catholics of North Africa were practically as one man in their “Augustin- The “hour” of the Trinity struck in the ian” theology against Pelagius’s exaltation fourth century; the “hour” of of human . A very conservative by faith struck in the sixteenth century; body of men, those North Africans; and and, Orr maintains, the “hour” of grace they had no sense of adopting novelties struck in the fifth century, with the Pela- when they took up the sword of God’s gian controversy. It is not surprising, sovereign grace to split the skull of Pela- therefore, that we do not (for example) gian . This lends credence to Orr’s observe the same kind of systematic clar- judgment that was “in the ity in the articulation of the doctrine of the air” breathed by , at least Trinity in the ante-Nicene fathers that we in North Africa, and needed only the heat do find in the aftermath of , with of the Pelagian controversy to condense the linguistic and conceptual precision into a distilled dew of explicit doctrine. forged in the fires of controversy by Atha- In the century after Augustine’s death, nasius and the Cappadocian fathers. a noble company of theologians arose The same reasoning, both Augustine to defend and enlarge his legacy, among and Orr maintain, must be applied to the them Prosper of Aquitaine, Fulgentius of doctrine of grace before and after Pela- Ruspe, Avitus of Vienne, and Caesarius of gianism. To quote Orr again, regarding Arles. Prosper’s treatises were translated the fifth century: into English in the 1950s in the Ancient [T]hat the “hour” had come for them Christian Writers series, and make stirring [the of sin and grace]— and edifying reading. that they were “in the air”, waiting to be discussed—is seen in the Augustine’s anti-Pelagian writings are simultaneous emergence of two men among the most accessible of his theo- who represent the opposite poles of logical works. They are full of thoughtful doctrine on this subject—Augustine and Pelagius. What Athanasius and ; they burn with spiritual passion; Arius were in the Arian controversy; they touch issues of salvation that reso- what Anselm and Abelard were in the Soteriological controversy; what nate in every Christian heart; and they lay Calvin and Arminius were in the a solid biblical and theological foundation post-Reformation controversy on for “the doctrine of grace” (as Augustine the application of —that Augustine and Pelagius were in this as his co-workers called it—we today tend 13 Anthropological controversy. to make it plural, “doctrines”), which has been tried and found trustworthy in every Augustine was the foremost figure succeeding age. Next after the apostles of the early fifth century to explore as Paul and John, it is Augustine who has never before the teaching of Scripture, bequeathed to the church a truly God- especially the apostle Paul, on the extent centered vision of grace; and if we who of sin and the sovereignty of grace. But hold this vision are to be named after any Augustine was not alone, and we should post-apostolic man, we are not allow his towering stature to obscure rather than Calvinists. (Calvin once said the widespread support he received in the he would be happy to confess his faith Latin West from fellow theologians. purely in the words of Augustine.) C. H. 47 Spurgeon puts it in historical perspective to find a way of accounting for why so like this: many regenerated infants failed to up into credibly godly believers. He The man who preaches the doctrines of grace has an found it by postulating that regenerating indeed. Can we not trace our pedi- grace could be lost. In other words, what gree through a whole line of men distinguished God’s elect was not the like Newton, and Whitefield, and Owen and Bunyan, straight away on possession of regenerating grace alone, till we come to Calvin, Luther, and but persevering grace. Zwingli; and then we can go back The African father’s problem here is, from them to Savonarola, to Jerome of Prague, to Huss, and then back to however, rendered all but immaterial if Augustine, the mighty preacher of we discard his belief in infant , Christianity; and from St. Augustine to Paul is but one step. We need and affirm that the spiritual blessings of not be ashamed of our pedigree; the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s although Calvinists are now con- supper) always flow through the channel sidered to be heterodox, we are and ever must be orthodox. It is the old of saving faith. Consequently, rather than 14 doctrine. regenerate a , whose regeneration must then be reckoned lost if he finally Perhaps the only real apostatizes, baptism instead imparts between Augustine’s exposition and that strengthening grace to those who are favored by mainstream Reformed theol- already regenerate believers. An unre- ogy today lies in his understanding of generate unbeliever who receives bap- perseverance. Both Augustine and mod- tism merely gets wet (not to put too fine ern Reformed theology have a doctrine a point on it!). Arguably, then, the most of “temporary faith”—those who profess robust and consistent faith for a time, perhaps very credibly, is found among “Augustinian ,” but then fall away and are lost. Reformed whose understanding of perseverance theology has tended to emphasize the is no longer burdened by Augustine’s discernible difference between temporary moot conviction about infant baptismal and saving faith; Augustine, by contrast, regeneration. emphasized how similar they were. As a But let us not paint too critical a portrait result, Augustine was notably less con- of Augustine’s doctrine of perseverance. fident than Reformed theologians have When addressing himself in a pastoral generally been in offering assurance of context to believers troubled by lack of final salvation to the professing believer. assurance, he could sound very much like Most of the time, the bishop of Hippo a Reformed pastor of today: preferred warning people against pre- sumption: you may profess faith today, You, therefore, ought to that perseverance in obedience should but the heart is deceitful, and rather than be given you by the Father of Lights, presume on your final salvation, you from whom come down every should continually cry to God for the excellent gift and every perfect gift (James 1:17), and you should ask salvation that endures. for it in your daily . And in Augustine’s position here was com- doing this, you ought to that plicated (needlessly, in the view of main- you are not strangers to the predes- tination of His people, because it is stream Reformed thinking) by his belief He Himself who bestows even the in infant . He had power of so praying. Far be it from 48 you to despair of yourselves! For “Without me ye can do nothing,” is you are bidden to put your hope the inscription on one side of it; on in Him, not in yourselves. Indeed, the other stands written, “All things cursed is every one who has hope in are yours.” Augustine held that he man ( 17:5); and it is good who builds on a human foundation rather to trust in the Lord than to builds on sand, and founded all his trust in man, because blessed are hope on the Rock itself. And there all they that put their trust in Him also he founded his teaching; as he (Psalm 2:12). Holding this hope, distrusted man in the matter of sal- serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice vation, so he distrusted him in the before Him with trembling (Psalm form of theology. No other of the 2:11). No one can be certain of the fathers so conscientiously wrought life eternal which God who does not out his theology form the revealed has promised to the children of Word; no other of them so sternly promise before the times of excluded human additions. The (Titus 1:2) — no one, unless that life subjects of which theology treats, of his, which is a state of trial upon he declares, are such as “we could the earth, is completed. But God by no means find out unless we will make us to persevere in Him- believed them on the testimony of self to the end of that life, since we Holy Scripture.” “Where Scripture daily say to Him, ‘Lead us not into gives no certain testimony,” he says, temptation.’ “human presumption must beware When these and similar things are how it decides in favor of either said, whether to few Christians or to side.” “We must first bend our necks the multitude of the church, why do to the of Scripture,” he we fear to preach the predestination insists, “in order that we may arrive of the saints and the true grace of at knowledge and understanding God — that is, the grace which is through faith.” And this was not not given according to our merits merely his theory, but his practice. — as the Holy Scripture declares No theology was ever, it may be it? Or must it be feared that a per- more broadly asserted, more con- son should despair of his salvation, scientiously wrought out from the when his hope is shown to be placed Scriptures. Is it without error? No; in God? Should he not rather despair but its errors are on the surface, not of his salvation, if in his excess of of the . It leads to God, and pride and unhappiness, he should it came from God; and in the midst 15 place his hope in himself? of the controversies of so many ages it has shown itself an edifice whose solid core is built out of material The Christian, then, will find rich food 16 “which cannot be shaken.” for his soul in Augustine’s treatises on grace. These are found gathered together Concluding Reflections in volume 5 of Schaff’s Nicene and Post- Here, then, is Augustine, most eminent Nicene Fathers, Series One, with a valuable of the Latin fathers of the church. Like all introduction by B. B. Warfield. Augustine theologians and saints, he had his defects, deals with these matters in other places and an essay on the defects of Augustine too, e.g., in City of God and the Enchiridion would doubtless paint a somewhat differ- (a sort of mini-handbook of doctrine). ent picture than this essay. Most of those Warfield passes the following noble ver- who take the time to get acquainted with dict on Augustine’s theology of grace: the bishop of Hippo, however, come to feel Its central thought was the absolute that his faults were spots in a blazing and dependence of the individual on beautiful sun. A trophy of grace both in the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It his life and writings, may God then con- made everything that concerned salvation to be of God, and traced tinue to bless the example and the labors the source of all good to Him. of his servant to us today, as we learn 49 through Augustine to know Augustine’s in NPNF1, 5:lxxi. God and to rejoice in the same mystery of saving grace.

Endnote 1From Johann Nepomuk Huber, Die Phi- losophie der Kirchenväter (Munich, 1859), 312. Cited in Philip Schaff, “Prolegom- ena” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1 (hereafter NPNF1) (ed. Philip Schaff; 14 vols.; Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 1956), 1:9-10. 2Jerome, Apology against 2.17. 3Augustine, Confessions 8.28-9 in vol. 1 of NPNF1 (trans. J. G. Pilkington) 4Prosper, Letter to Rufinus 3 and 18. 5Quoted in , The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church (rev. ed.; Wildwood, CA: St. Xenia Skete, 1997), 80. 6Schaff, “Prolegomena,” 11-12. 7Augustine, Confessions 10.8-9. 8Philip Schaff, “Editor’s ” in NPNF1, 2:5. 9Augustine, City of God 15.4 in vol. 2 of NPNF1 (trans. Marcus Dods) 10Marcus Dods, “Translator’s Preface” in NPNF1, 2:xiii-xiv. 11Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints 27 in vol. 5 of NPNF1 (trans. Peter Holmes and Robert Ernest Wallis). 12James Orr, The Progress of Dogma: Being the Elliot Lectures, Delivered at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Penna., U.S.A., 1897 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), 243. 13Ibid., 136. 14C. H. Surgeon, from the “Sover- eign Grace and Man’s Responsibility,” 1 August 1858. 15Augustine, On the Gift of Perseverance 62 in vol. 5 of NPNF1. 16B. B. Warfield, “Introductory Essay on Augustin and the Pelagian Controversy” 50