Augustine

Augustine, one of the greatest theologians given to the church since the apostle Paul, was born in a little town in North Africa, in 354 A.D. Monica, his mother, was a devout Christian, and she endeavored to teach her faith to her son. She delayed his baptism, however, probably due to the popular belief that baptism washed away one’s sins, but only those committed previous to the ceremony. His father, on the other hand, was not a Christian. Augustine’s father was a typical Roman citizen, who enjoyed the pleasures that civilization offered, and enjoyed introducing them to his son. While still a teen-ager, Augustine started living with his girl friend, fathering her child, but scorning the legal ceremony of marriage. Ironically, he named this illegitimate son “Adeodatus”, which is Latin for “given to God.”

Augustine’s mixed background was reflected in the tension in his heart between a longing to be free from the burden of his sin and a longing to continue enjoying its pleasures. After studying rhetoric and philosophy in Carthage, he was certain that his mother’s religion could not satisfy him, so he began searching for some other way. His search led him first to a Persian cult we call Manichaeism. This group claimed to appeal to human reason and to have the pure truth, so it attracted Augustine through his intellectual curiosity. In this group he was able to tickle his intellect with “spiritual” truth while continuing to live as he pleased. He started a school of rhetoric in Carthage, and taught his students that Cicero was more sensible, civilized and useful than the Bible. For nine years he studied and zealously worked with the Manichaeans, hoping to find some rest for the turmoil in his heart. But, when he met Bishop Faustus, who was supposed to be the greatest of all the Manichaeans, his faith in the cult was shattered. Faustus was unwilling and unable to answer a simple question posed by Augustine, and thereby revealed his true nature as merely a religious propagandizer.

Disillusioned, Augustine went to Rome. His mother pleaded with him not to go to that “wicked city”, but he was not dissuaded. In Rome, he came down with a terrible fever that almost killed him. This reminder of his helplessness led him to renew his search for peace: this time he turned to Greek philosophy. He taught for a while in Rome, and then was appointed as professor of rhetoric in Milan. In all these events we can see, and he himself later saw, God’s sovereignty at work preparing the way for his discovery of real and permanent peace in Christ.

It was in Milan that Augustine came under the godly influence of Ambrose. Somehow Augustine was drawn to the bishop, and loved to hear him preach. Gradually, Augustine began to recognize his responsibility before God for his sinful life, but he despaired of ever being able to live the Christian life. Eventually all of the intellectual barriers to faith dissolved, leaving only the moral problem. In July of 386, at about the age of 31, Augustine finally came to grips with this issue. The Holy Spirit brought him under such conviction that he felt as though he were wrestling with another man. He flung himself to the ground and wept, “O Lord, why not make an end to my vileness this very hour!” Just then he heard a child saying, “Take and read.” He found a New Testament and began to read where it fell open, at Romans 13:13,14: “...not in rioting and drunkeness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” He joyously received Christ, and ran first to tell his friend Alypius, and then his mother, Monica. She had joined him in Milan a short while before. Her prayers throughout his life had been answered! Ambrose instructed Augustine in the faith, and almost a year later he and his son Adeodatus were baptized. Both Monica and Adeodatus died soon after the baptism.

Augustine returned to Africa in 388. He sold most of his property and gave the money to the poor. He and some friends lived in the one house he kept. They spent most of their time in study and prayer. In 396 he was elected by the congregation of the church at Hippo to be their senior bishop. He served in this position till his death in 430.

Augustine wrote many books after his conversion. The two most famous are his Confessions and the City of God. He contributed much to the doctrinal development of the church, especially emphasizing the sovereignty of God, salvation by faith rather than good works, original sin, and predestination. The highest and brightest points in later church history occur when men rediscovered his thought. Men such as Calvin and Luther were greatly affected by Augustine. Nevertheless, he also had some severe blind spots. He permitted or even encouraged the persecution of the Donatists, a separatist group of real Christians, because of his belief that there was no salvation outside the Catholic church. His ideas on baptism paved the way for the sacerdotalism and sacramentalism which characterize that body even to this day.