Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo ('The knowledgeable one') (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) is a saint and the pre-eminent Doctor of the Church according to Roman Catholicism, and is considered by Reformed Theologians to be (together with the Apostle Paul) the theological fountainhead of the Reformation teaching on salvation, grace and election. Much of this can be found in his famous Treatise on Predestination and his Anti-Pelagian Writings which teach salvation by grace alone. These as well as the resulting Council of Orange are topics frequently avoided by Roman Catholics in discussions with Protestants on grace. Calvin and Luther could both be said to be Christians in the historic Augustinian tradition and both quote him extensively in their writings. Calvin defends the Augustinian view of grace in his Bondage and Liberation of the Will, quoting Augustine liberally. Augustine was the eldest son of Saint Monica, an African by birth, a Roman by education, a Milanese by baptism, still inspire many Christians all over the world who follow the path of faith. Perhaps the most influential theologian ever.
Life
Saint Augustine was born in 354 in Tagaste, a provincial Roman city in North Africa. He was raised and educated in Carthage. His mother Monica (Saint Monica) was a devout Christian and his father Patricius a pagan. As a youth Augustine followed the unpopular Manichaean religion, much to the horror of his mother. In Carthage, he developed a relationship with a young woman who would be his concubine for over a decade and produce a son. His education and early career was in philosophy and rhetoric, the art of persuasion and public speaking. He taught in Tagaste and Carthage, but soon aspired to compete with the best, in Rome. However, Augustine grew disappointed with the Roman schools, which he found apathetic. Manichean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who had been asked to provide a professor of rhetoric for the imperial court at Milan.
The young provincial won the job and headed north to take up his position in late 384. At age thirty, Augustine had won the most visible academic chair in the Latin world, at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers. However, he felt the tensions of life at an imperial court, lamenting one day as he rode in his carriage to deliver a grand speech before the emperor, that a drunken beggar he passed on the street had a less careworn existence than he.
Although Monica pressed the claims of Christianity, it is the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Ambrose was a master of rhetoric like Augustine himself, but older and more experienced. Prompted by Ambrose's sermons, Augustine moved away from Manichaeism, but instead of becoming Catholic like Ambrose, he converted to pagan Neoplatonism. Augustine's mother followed him to Milan and he allowed her to arrange a society marriage, for which he abandoned his concubine (however he had to wait two years until his fiancée came of age - and promptly took up in the meantime with another woman).
In the summer of 386, in a garden, Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis and decided to convert to Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage (much to the horror of his mother), and devote himself full time to religion, celibacy and the priesthood. Ambrose baptized Augustine on Easter day in 387, and soon thereafter in 388 he returned to Africa. On his way back to Africa his mother died, as did his son soon after, leaving him relatively alone.
Upon his return to north Africa he created a monastic foundation at Tagaste for himself and a group of friends. In 391 he was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius, (now Annaba, in Algeria). He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combating the Manichaean heresy.
In 396 he was made coadjutor bishop of Hippo (assistant with the right of succession on the death of the current bishop), and remained as bishop in Hippo until his death in 430. He left his monastery, but continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. He left a Rule (Latin, Regula) for his monastery that has led him to be designated the "patron saint of Regular Clergy," that is, parish clergy who live by a monastic rule.
Augustine died on August 28, 430, during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. He is said to have encouraged its citizens to resist the attacks, primarily on the grounds that the Vandals adhered to Arianism, which was heretical according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, of which Augustine was a bishop.
For more biographical infomation click here >> Bio
Influence as a Theologian and Thinker
It is largely due to Augustine's arguments against the Pelagians, who did not believe in original sin, that Western Christianity has maintained the doctrine of original sin.
The Council of Orange was the historical result of this controversy and is one of the most important councils of the early Church and was often pointed to by the Reformers as evidence that Rome had abandoned the theology of its own Councils, Fathers and Church Doctors. The content of the Council itself grew out of the public dispute between Augustine and Pelagius. This theological dispute had to do with the extent to which the natural man is responsible for his or her own regeneration unto salvation, and the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the saving grace of Christ. The Council of Orange condemned the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that fallen creatures, although sinful, are morally competent enough to contribute a little toward their salvation by taking hold of the offer of the grace of God through an act of their unregenerate natural will. Orange upheld Augustine's view that the will and affections are evil by corruption of nature and become good only by a correction of grace. It was hugely consequential in Reformation Theology and its apprehension of the doctrine's of grace.
R.C. Sproul explained that "Augustine did not deny that fallen man still has a will and that the will is capable of making choices. He argued that fallen man still has a free will (liberium arbitrium) but has lost his moral liberty (libertas). The state of original sin leaves us in the wretched condition of being unable to refrain from sinning. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain chained by our evil impulses. He argued that the freedom that remains in the will always leads to sin. Thus in the flesh we are free only to sin, a hollow freedom indeed. It is freedom without liberty, a real moral bondage. True liberty can only come from without, from the work of God on the soul. Therefore we are not only partly dependent upon grace for our conversion but totally dependent upon grace." The very fact that all Christians recognize the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in conviction of sin, illumination, turning our heart of stone to a heart of flesh, regeneration and conversion, should be enough to convince everyone that, apart from the Spirit we always use our will and affections in rebellion against God. The natural man, apart form the Spirit, will simply never come to Christ. Preaching is the seed cast forth to the soil of men's hearts. but must be accompanied by the germination of the Spirit (so to speak) for any effectual conversion to taker place. The soil of men's hearts is hardened by nature and requires a supernatual plowing up of the fallow ground by God if the heart would be receptive to the seed of the gospel. In other words, the fallen will. left to itself, is spiritually impotent to understand and have affection for the beauty and excellence of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, making use of the Word of God, alone can open our eyes to the truth of the gospel.
From this Augustine developed his now famous fourfold view of man: These four states, which are derived from the Scripture, correspond to the four states of man in relation to sin enumerated by Augustine of Hippo: (a) able to sin, able not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare); (b) not able not to sin (non posse non peccare); (c) able not to sin (posse non peccare); and (d) unable to sin (non posse peccare). The first state corresponds to the state of man in innocency, before the Fall; the second the state of the natural man after the Fall; the third the state of the regenerate man; and the fourth the glorified man.
[the] human will does not by liberty obtain grace, but by grace obtains liberty. Secondly, that by means of the same grace, the heart being impressed with a feeling of delight, is trained to persevere, and strengthened with invincible fortitude. Thirdly, that while grace governs the will, it never falls; but when grace abandons it, it falls forthwith. Fourthly, that by the free mercy of God, the will is turned to good, and when turned, perseveres. Fifthly, that the direction of the will to good, and its constancy after being so directed, depend entirely on the will of God, and not on any human merit. Thus the will, (free will, if you choose to call it so,) which is left to man, is, as he in another place (Ep. 46) describes it, a will which can neither be turned to God, nor continue in God, unless by grace; a will which, whatever its ability may be, derives all that ability from grace. (Calvin on Augustine)
Augustine's writings helped formulate the theory of the just war. He also advocated the use of force against the Donatists, asking "Why ... should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?" (The Correction of the Donatists, 22–24)
Augustine's work The City of God heavily influenced works of Wincenty Kadlubek and Stanislaw of Skarbimierz on the relation between ruler and his subjects that led to the creation of Nobles' Democracy and "De optimo senatore" by Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki.
St. Thomas Aquinas took much from Augustine's theology while creating his own unique synthesis of Greek and Christian thought. Two later theologians who claimed special influence from Augustine were John Calvin and Cornelius Jansen. Calvinism developed as a part of Reformation theology, while Jansenism was a movement inside the Catholic Church; some Jansenists went into schism and formed their own church.
Augustine was canonized by popular recognition and recognized as a Doctor of the Church in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII. His feast day is August 28, the day on which he is thought to have died. He is considered the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses.
Eastern Orthodox theologians consider that Augustine's theology of original sin is a key source of division between East and West.
Books
On Christian Doctrine
Confessions
The City of God
Anti-Pelagian Writings
On the Trinity
Enchiridion
Essays on Augustine
Augustine and Pelagius by R.C. Sproul
The Pelagian Captivity of the Church by R.C. Sproul
Augustine's Framing of the Predestination Debate by Gregory Johnson
The Athanasian Creed / Augustine and the Pelagian Controversy by Charles Biggs
Augustine and Pelagius / The Council of Ephesus (431) By Charles R. Biggs
Semi-Pelagianism and the Council (Synod) of Orange (529) By Charles R. Biggs
Augustine of Hippo Part 1: From Pagan, to Cultist, to Skeptic, to Christian Sage
By Kenneth Richard Samples
Augustine of Hippo Part 2: Rightly Dividing the Truth By Kenneth Richard Samples
Human Nature in Its Fourfold State Thoughts on Augustine's View on the Will
Augustine & Jerome by Michael S. Horton
Works by Augustine
Augustine (354-430)
Bio
On the Predestination of the Saints (De Praedestinatione Sanctorum)
On Grace and Free Will (De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio)
Ante-Nicene Fathers Augustine
Volume I. Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Volume II. The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Volume III. On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Volume IV. The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Volume V. Anti-Pelagian Writings
Volume VI. Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Volume VII. Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Volume VIII. Expositions on the Psalms
On Faith and the Creed (De Fide et Symbolo)
On Rebuke and Grace (De Correptione et Gratia)
Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and Baptism of Infants
New Testament Sermons
1John Homilies
The Psalms
On Christian Doctrine
On the Trinity
Handbook (Enchiridion) on Faith, Hope, and Love Site 2
Letters
Of Holy Virginity
More...
