Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. In Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fountainheads of Reformation teaching on salvation and grace. In Orthodox Churches he is considered a saint by some while others are of the opinion that he is a heretic, primarily for his statements concerning what became known as the filioque clause.
Born in Africa as the eldest son of Saint Monica, he was educated in Rome and baptized in Milan. Augustine drifted through several philosophical systems before converting to Christianity at the age of thirty-one. Returning to his homeland soon after his conversion, he was ordained a presbyter in 391, taking the position as bishop of Hippo in 396, a position which he held until his death.
St. Augustine stands as a powerful advocate for orthodoxy and of the episcopacy as the sole means for the dispensing of saving grace. In the light of later scholarship, Augustine can be seen to serve as a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds. A review of his life and work, however, shows him as an active mind engaging the practical concerns of the churches he served.
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A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints
THE FIRST BOOK.
ADDRESSED TO PROSPER AND HILARY.
(AD. 428 OR 429.)
Wherein the truth of predestination and grace is defended against the semi-Pelagians, '€' those people to wit, who by no means withdraw altogether from the Pelagian heresy, in that they contend that the beginning of salvation and of faith is of ourselves; so that in virtue, a ...read
Article
Exposition on Psalm 1
Blessed is the man that hath not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly" (ver. 1). This is to be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Man. "Blessed is the man that hath not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly," as "the man of earth did," who consented to his wife deceived by the serpent, to the transgressing the commandment of God. "N ...read
Exposition On Psalm 52
The title of the Psalm hath: "At the end, understanding of David, when there came Doeg the Edomite arid told Saul, David hath come into the house of Abimelech:" whereas we read that he had come into the house of Achimelech. And it may chance that we do not unreasonably suppose, that because of the similarity of a name and the difference of one syll ...read
Book
Faith, Hope, and Love, 1 - The Occasion and Purpose of this Manual
CHAPTER I. The Occasion and Purpose of this "Manual"
1. I cannot say, my dearest son Laurence, how much your learning pleases me, and how much I desire that you should be wise-though not one of those of whom it is said: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputant of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this wor ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 2 - The Creed and the Lord's Prayer as Guides
CHAPTER II. The Creed and the Lord's Prayer as Guides to the Interpretation of the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love
7. Let us begin, for example, with the Symbol [11] and the Lord's Prayer. What is shorter to hear or to read? What is more easily memorized? Since through sin the human race stood grievously burdened by great misery and ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 3 - God the Creator of All; and the Goodness of All Creation
CHAPTER III. God the Creator of All; and the Goodness of All Creation
9. Wherefore, when it is asked what we ought to believe in matters of religion, the answer is not to be sought in the exploration of the nature of things [rerum natura], after the manner of those whom the Greeks called "physicists." [20] Nor should we be dismayed if Christians ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 4 - The Problem of Evil
CHAPTER IV. The Problem of Evil
12. All of nature, therefore, is good, since the Creator of all nature is supremely good. But nature is not supremely and immutably good as is the Creator of it. Thus the good in created things can be diminished and augmented. For good to be diminished is evil; still, however much it is diminished, something must ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 5 - The Kinds and Degrees of Error
CHAPTER V. The Kinds and Degrees of Error
16. This being the case, when that verse of Maro's gives us pleasure,
"Happy is he who can understand the causes of things," [28]
it still does not follow that our felicity depends upon our knowing the causes of the great physical processes in the world, which are hidden in the secret maze of natur ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 6 - The Problem of Lying
CHAPTER VI. The Problem of Lying
18. Here a most difficult and complex issue arises which I once dealt with in a large book, in response to the urgent question whether it is ever the duty of a righteous man to lie. [34] Some go so far as to contend that in cases concerning the worship of God or even the nature of God, it is sometimes a good and ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 7 - Disputed Questions about the Limits of Knowledge and Certainty
CHAPTER VII. Disputed Questions about the Limits of Knowledge and Certainty in Various Matters
20. I do not rightly know whether errors of this sort should be called sins-when one thinks well of a wicked man, not knowing what his character really is, or when, instead of our physical perception, similar perceptions occur which we experience in th ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 8 - The Plight of Man After the Fall
CHAPTER VIII. The Plight of Man After the Fall
23. With this much said, within the necessary brevity of this kind of treatise, as to what we need to know about the causes of good and evil-enough to lead us in the way toward the Kingdom, where there will be life without death, truth without error, happiness without anxiety-we ought not to doubt i ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 9 - The Replacement of the Fallen Angels By Elect Men
CHAPTER IX. The Replacement of the Fallen Angels By Elect Men (28-30); The Necessity of Grace (30-32)
28. While some of the angels deserted God in impious pride and were cast into the lowest darkness from the brightness of their heavenly home, the remaining number of the angels persevered in eternal bliss and holiness with God. For these faithfu ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 10 - Jesus Christ the Mediator
CHAPTER X. Jesus Christ the Mediator
33. Thus it was that the human race was bound in a just doom and all men were children of wrath. Of this wrath it is written: "For all our days are wasted; we are ruined in thy wrath; our years seem like a spider's web." [64] Likewise Job spoke of this wrath: "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trou ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 11 - The Incarnation as Example of God's Grace
CHAPTER XI. The Incarnation as Prime Example of the Action of God's Grace
36. In this the grace of God is supremely manifest, commended in grand and visible fashion; for what had the human nature in the man Christ merited, that it, and no other, should be assumed into the unity of the Person of the only Son of God? What good will, what zealous s ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 12 - The Role of the Holy Spirit
CHAPTER XII. The Role of the Holy Spirit
38. Are we, then, to say that the Holy Spirit is the Father of Christ's human nature, so that as God the Father generated the Word, so the Holy Spirit generated the human nature, and that from both natures Christ came to be one, Son of God the Father as the Word, Son of the Holy Spirit as man? Do we suppo ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 13 - Baptism and Original Sin
CHAPTER XIII. Baptism and Original Sin
41. Since he was begotten and conceived in no pleasure of carnal appetite-and therefore bore no trace of original sin-he was, by the grace of God (operating in a marvelous and an ineffable manner), joined and united in a personal unity with the only-begotten Word of the Father, a Son not by grace but by nat ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 14 - he Mysteries of Christ's Mediatorial Work and Justification
CHAPTER XIV. The Mysteries of Christ's Mediatorial Work (48-49) and Justification (50-55)
48. That one sin, however, committed in a setting of such great happiness, was itself so great that by it, in one man, the whole human race was originally and, so to say, radically condemned. It cannot be pardoned and washed away except through "the one med ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 15 - The Holy Spirit and the Church
CHAPTER XV. The Holy Spirit (56) and the Church (57-60)
56. Now, when we have spoken of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God our Lord, in the brevity befitting our confession of faith, we go on to affirm that we believe also in the Holy Spirit, as completing the Trinity which is God; and after that we call to mind our faith "in holy Church." By thi ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 16 - Problems About Heavenly and Earthly Divisions of the Church
CHAPTER XVI. Problems About Heavenly and Earthly Divisions of the Church
60. It is more important to be able to discern and tell when Satan transforms himself as an angel of light, lest by this deception he should seduce us into harmful acts. For, when he deceives the corporeal senses, and does not thereby turn the mind from that true and right ...read
Faith, Hope, and Love, 17 - Forgiveness of Sins in the Church
CHAPTER XVII. Forgiveness of Sins in the Church
64. The angels are in concord with us even now, when our sins are forgiven. Therefore, in the order of the Creed, after the reference to "holy Church" is placed the reference to "forgiveness of sins." For it is by this that the part of the Church on earth stands; it is by this that "what was lost a ...read
