Aurelius Augustine,
Augustine of Hippo, born A.D. 354, Tagaste; died August 28, 430, Hippo
Regius (modern Bône, now Annaba, Algeria) is a Saint and Doctor
of the Church according to Roman Catholicism. In the Eastern Orthodox
he is also a Saint, the Blessed Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo. Life
Saint Augustine was raised in Roman north Africa, educated in Carthage
and employed
as a professor of rhetoric in Milan by 383. He followed the Manichaean
religion in his student days, and was converted to Christianity by the
preaching and example of Ambrose of Milan. He was baptized at Easter in
387, and returned to north Africa and created an monastic foundation at
Tagaste for himself and a group of friends. In 391 he was ordained a priest
in Hippo. He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons
are believed to be authentic), and noted for combatting the Manichaean
heresy. 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)
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 in 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 Arian Christianity, which Augustine
regarded as heretical.
Writings
- On Christian Doctrine, 397-426
- Confessions, 397-398
- City of God, begun c. 413, finished 426.
- On the Trinity, 400-416.
- Enchiridion
Letters
- On the Catechising of the Uninstructed
- On Faith and the Creed
- Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen
- On the Profit of Believing
- On the Creed: A Sermon to Catechumens
- On Continence
- On the Good of Marriage
- On Holy Virginity
- On the Good of Widowhood
- On Lying
- To Consentius: Against Lying
- On the Work of Monks
- On Patience
- On Care to be Had For the Dead
- On the Morals of the Catholic Church
- On the Morals of the Manichaeans
- On Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans
- Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichaean
- Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental
- Reply to Faustus the Manichaean
- Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans
- On Baptism, Against the Donatists
- Answer to Letters of Petilian, Bishop of Cirta
- The Correction of the Donatists
- Merits and Remission of Sin, and Infant Baptism
- On the Spirit and the Letter
- On Nature and Grace
- On Man's Perfection in Righteousness
- On the Proceedings of Pelagius
- On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin
- On Marriage and Concupiscence
- On the Soul and its Origin
- Against Two Letters of the Pelagians
- On Grace and Free Will
- On Rebuke and Grace
- The Predestination of the Saints/Gift of Perseverance
- Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount
- The Harmony of the Gospels
- Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament
- Tractates on the Gospel of John
- Homilies on the First Epistle of John
- Soliloquies
- The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms
Augustine was a prolific author in several genres
- theological treatises, sermons, scripture commentaries, and autobiography.
His Confessions is usually accorded the position of the first autobiography;
Augustine moves from his conception to his current (at about the age of
fifty) relationship with God, and ends with a long excursus on the book
of Genesis in which he demonstrates how to interpret scripture. The psychological
awareness and self-revelation of the work still impresses readers.
At the end of his life (426-428?) Augustine revisited his previous works
in chronological order and suggested what he would have said differently
in a work titled the Retractions, which gives us a remarkable picture
of the development of a writer and his final thoughts.
Augustine and the Jews
Augustine wrote in Book 18, Chapter 46, of The City of God, "The
Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him
to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and
utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled
over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there
is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures
a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ."
Augustine deemed this scattering important because he believed that it
was a fulfillment of certain prophecies, thus proving that Jesus was the
Messiah. This is because Augustine believed that the Jews who were dispersed
were the enemies of the Christian Church. He also quotes part of the same
prophecy that says "Slay them not, lest they should at last forget
Thy law". Some people have used Augustine's words to attack Jews,
while others have used them to attack Christians. See Christianity and
anti-Semitism.
Influence as a theologian and thinker
Augustine remains a central figure, both within Christianity and in the
history of Western thought. Himself much influenced by Platonism and neo-Platonism,
particularly by Plotinus, Augustine was important to the "baptism"
of Greek thought and its entrance into the Christian, and subsequently
the European intellectual tradition. Also important was his early and
influential writing on the human will, a central topic in ethics, and
one which became a focus for later philosophers such as Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche. It is largely due to Augustine's influence that Western Christianity
subscribes to the doctrine of original sin, and the Roman Catholic Church
holds that baptisms and ordinations done outside of the Roman Catholic
Church can be valid (the Roman Catholic Church recognizes ordinations
done in Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, but not in Protestant
churches, and recognizes baptisms done in nearly all Christian churches).
Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that God
exists outside of time in the "eternal present"; time existing
only within the created universe.
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