The Life and Work of Augustine354430

1
Lecture VII
The Life and Work of Augustine(354-430) ????
2
Influence in History???????

• One of the most outstanding church fathers from
  the late 4th century into the early 5th century,
  the transition period from classic period of
  Roman Empire to medieval period. ??????
• In the west, Augustines writings influenced the
  Church and the western civilization down without
  rival to Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century,
  which is about 800 years. ??????????????????
• Augustines doctrine of grace greatly influenced
  the Reformers in 16th century, like Luther and
  Calvin. In one aspect, the Reformation in 16th
  century could be viewed as the rediscovery of
  Augustinianism. ????????????
• Augustines influence lies in his own example as
  well as in his teachings and writings. ????????

3
His Family

• 354 AD, born in Thagaste (Algeria) in Northern
  Africa near the city of Carthage.
• His Parents
• His father Patrick, a pagan until shortly before
  his death in 370. Augustine was not baptized in
  his infancy.
• His mother Monica, a devout believer and strongly
  influenced Augustin.
• Humanly speaking, his eventual conversion
  probably could be credited to her prayers as much
  as other human influences.

4
Early Life in Carthage????

• Rhetoric Study, ??
• 368, start his study to Carthage on his own
• Always the top student in his class
• His Personal Life, ???
• Indulged in flesh and stay with the same
  concubine for 15 years.
• She gave birth to a child, Adeodatus but he
  didnt eventually marry her.
• Philosophy and Scripture ?????
• His hero is Cicero, a politician, a great orator
  in the late Roman Republic, and a philosopher in
  Stoic.
• His love of Ciceros reiteration attracted him to
  study philosophy.
• Scriptures seem trivial and superstitious to him
  particularly the Old Testament
• The scripture became something he almost
  despised. He was still attracted to the person of
  Christ but he couldnt accept Scriptures.

5
Augustine and Manichaeism ????????

• Manichaeism???
• A dualistic religion out of the 3rd century
  Persia, founded by the Syriac speaking Babylonian
  Mani (216-276AD).
• Believed two ultimate things, the darkness and
  light, or evil and good, which are always in
  conflict.
• Regarding to the problem of evil, the answer from
  Manichaeism is there are two gods, god of light
  and god of darkness contending with each other
  until eternity.
• Being a Manichee for 10 years, ????
• After he settled down as a teacher of rhetoric in
  Carthage, he gave up the Christianity formally in
  his early 20s and became a Manichee.
• This religion allowed him to put the Scripture
  aside and still adhere to the person of Christ
  who was respected in Manichaeism.
• He never become one of them so called elect but
  one of the followers because he didnt hold the
  celibate life.
• His doubts on Manichaeism, ??
• The contradiction between the astrology and the
  teaching of Mani on this aspect.
• He longed to the visit of the great Manichee
  teacher, Faustus, to answer his questions and
  doubts.
• When Faustus appeared he found him with great
  disappointment and began to collapse his
  confidence on Manichaeism religion.

6
Augustine in Milan

• 383, Augustine moved to Milan where he met
  Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. Ambroses
  allegorical preaching helped Augustine to
  overcome his despise on OT scriptures.???????
• 386, Augustine was attracted to Neo-Platonism
  which made a bridge for Augustine from his
  Manichee period to Christianity. ??????
• Neo-Platonism stressed God is spirit and God
  creates only good and evil at best understood
  simply as the absence of good. In another word,
  not two equal entities existing and the soul must
  be purged off that which is evil.
• All of these elements of Neo-Platonism helped to
  move Augustine into a rather brief period or less
  that prepared him for Christianity.

7
Augustines Conversion ??????

• 386, Summer, Augustine and his friend Alypius was
  in a garden in the vicinity of Milan.
  ????(Confession, Book 8, chapter 12 ).
• Alypius then joined him in faith and they told
  his mother ,who had followed him from North
  Africa to Milan. Monicas heart was full of joy
  because of her sons conversion. ??
• 387, on Easter eve Augustine and his son were
  baptized by Ambrose. ??
• 387 fall, Augustines mother Monica died at
  Ostia. Twelve months later, Augustine returned to
  Africa. ????
• He sought to devout his life to a kind of
  monastic life for the sake of study as he moved
  there. ????

8
Bishop of Hippo????

• 391, Augustine is ordained as a Priest in Hippo.
  ?????
• 395, the Old Greek bishop of Hippo Valerius, had
  Augustine consecrated as coadjutor bishop to
  prevent any other church from carrying him
  off.?????
• 397, the Confessions was read by other people.???
• Facing the controversies in his day, ????
• Against Manichaeism
• Against Donatist, the doctrine of church
• Against Pelagianism, the doctrine of grace
• 410, the sack of Rome ????
• The blame from pagan people on Christianity
• Augustines work the City of God
• 430, Vandals invaded into North Africa.????
• Augustine was dying when the Vandals were
  besieging Hippo
• During his last 10 days of his life, he had the
  penitential Psalms (51, 25) written on the
  ceiling over his bed for his meditation.

9
Summary??

• The gracious providence of God working through
  the life of this man and particularly ironic that
  Christianity in North Africa itself disappeared
  after having such notable leaders as Tertullian,
  Cyprian and Augustine. ?????
• During the century following Muhammads death,
  the Muslims conquered much of northern Africa and
  parts of Europe. The Church in north Africa never
  really is recovered. ???????
• Augustines influence and the influence of the
  Church in North Africa lives on. Rome fell, but
  the kingdom of Christ will spread. ???????

10
Augustine and the Donatists ?????????

• Schism after Nicene period ???????
• Severe persecution under Cinstans and toleration
  under Julian.
• Fanatic Donatists who were called Circumcellions
• Two rival communities in the city of Hippo,
  Donatist and Catholic.
• The effort of Augustine to reconcile the
  Donatists ?????
• Inspired several councils at Carthage to unify
  the stand of Catholics to confront.
• Instructions and persuasions through dialogue and
  wrritings
• The debate between two parties at Carthage in
  June, 411, attended by 286 Catholic bishops and
  279 Donatist.
• The essence of this conflict ?????
• The Church Discipline, on the issue of holiness
  of Church
• The validity of the sacraments rests on the
  minister or Christ, who set them up.
• The end of this conflict ?????
• 415, the edict issued against Donatists
• 428, the invasion of Vandals end the conflict
  temporarily
• 7th century, both the Catholics and Donatists
  sank under the Muslim conquest.

11
Pelagian Heresy ?????

• Significance of Pelagian Controversy ???
• The connection between Christology and
  Soteriology.
• It turns upon the antithesis of sin and grace,
  embraces the whole cycle of doctrine respecting
  on the ethical and religious relation of man to
  God.
• Divine monergism and human monergism
• Extended through the whole history of church, the
  Reformation, the synergistic controversy in
  Lutheran church, the Arminian in Reformed, and
  the Jansenistic in the Roman Catholic.
• Pelagius???
• Pelagious was a British monk and went to Rome
  around 380AD.
• Pelagius was deeply troubled by the immorality in
  Rome, and took great offence at Give what thou
  commandest, and command what thou wilt.
  (Augustine)
• He converted the advocate Caelestius in Rome to
  his monastic life and views. Caelestius developed
  a more consistent system of Pelagius teaching,
  Pelaginism.
• 411 after the sack of Rome, both of them fled to
  Carthage where he continued his work and briefly
  encountered Augustine in person.
• 414, Pelagius went to Palestine until to his
  death.

Pelagius 354-420AD
12
Pelagian Controversy?????

• The Beginning of Conflict ??
• 411, Caelestius applied for presbyters orders in
  Carthage but met opposition because of his novel
  opinion.
• 412, Caelestius teaching was summarized by
  Paulinus of Milan and condemned at a council at
  Carthage. He went to Ephesus and was there
  ordained presbyter.
• Augustine began to write several treatise to
  refute Pelagian doctrines as early as 412 and
  415.
• Main Points of Pelaginism ???????
• Adam was created mortal and would have died even
  if he had not sinned.
• The sin of Adam injured himself alone, not the
  whole human race.
• Newborn children are in the same state in which
  Adam was before his fall.
• The whole human race did not die by the sin and
  death of Adam, and it will not rise because of
  the resurrection of Christ.
• The law, as well as the gospel, offers entrance
  to the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Even before the coming of Christ, there were men
  wholly without sin.
• Controversy in Palestine ????
• 414, Pelagius was accused by Jerome and Orosius
• 415, Pelagius was declared innocent at councils
  at Jerusalem and Lydda.

13
The Ecclesiastical Response to Pelagianism???????
????

• Position of the Roman Church ???????
• 416, two African synods (Carthage, Mileve)
  condemned the Pelagianism and communicated the
  sentence to Innocent in Rome.
• African Bishops also sent Innocent a letter on
  this issue and Pelagius also sent a letter with a
  confession of faith.
• Innocent expressed his full agreement with
  African bishops but refrained from giving
  judgment respecting on the decision of African
  synod.
• 417, Zosimus, the successor of Inocent, favored
  the argument of Pelagius and issued to African
  bishops a letter to rebuke them.
• 418, the general African council at Carthage
  attended by 200 bishops protested against the
  decision of Zosimus, formally confirmed the
  Augustinian view and condemned Pelagigianism in 8
  cannons.
• At the same time, the Africans succeeded in
  procuring from Emperor Honorius edicts against
  the Pelagians.
• 418, Zosimus issued a letter to all bishops in
  east and west, pronouncing the anathema upon
  Pelaginism and declaring his concurrence with the
  decisions of the African council.
• 429, Caelestius, Julian and other leaders of
  Pelagians were hospitably received by Nestorius
  in Constantinople.
• 431, Formal Condemnation of Pelagianism at 3rd
  ecumenical council in Ephesus. ???????
• 6/17/1546, the Roman Council of Trent condemned
  Pelagius in five chapters. ????
• Pelagianism was condemned universally by the
  Protestants. ???

14
Comparison, Augustinianism and Pelagianism(1)
????????????

• Augustinianism
• Original Sin By the sin of Adam, in whom all men
  together sinned, sin and all the other positive
  punishments of Adam's sin came into the world. By
  it human nature has been both physically and
  morally corrupted. Every man brings into the
  world with him a nature already so corrupt, that
  it can do nothing but sin. The propagation of
  this quality of his nature is by concupiscence.??
• Free Will By Adam's transgression the freedom of
  the human will has been entirely lost. In his
  present corrupt state man can will and do only
  evil.????

• Pelagianism
• Original Sin By his transgression, Adam injured
  only himself, not his posterity. In respect to
  his moral nature, every man is born in precisely
  the same condition in which Adam was created.
  There is therefore no original sin.??
• Free Will Mans will is free. Every man has the
  power to will and to do good as well as the
  opposite. Hence it depends upon himself whether
  he be good or evil.????

15
Comparison, Augustinianism and Pelagianism (2)
????????????

• Augustinianism
• Grace It is absolutely necessary to Christian
  virtue, not merely auxiliary but indispensable to
  its existence. It is unmerited and irresistible
  in effect.??
• Predestination and Redemption From eternity,
  God made a free and unconditional decree to save
  a few from the mass that was corrupted and
  subjected to damnation. To those whom he
  predestinated to this salvation, he gives the
  requisite means for the purpose. But on the rest,
  who do not belong to this small number of the
  elect, the merited ruin falls. Christ came into
  the world and died for the elect only. ?????

• Pelagianism
• Grace Although by free will, man has the
  capacity of willing and doing good without Gods
  special aid, yet for the easier performance of
  it, God revealed the law, the instruction and
  example of Christ aid him and even the
  supernatural operations of grace are imparted to
  him. Grace, in the most limited sense is given to
  those only who deserve it by the faithful
  employment of their own powers. But man can
  resist it.??
• Predestination and Redemption Gods decree of
  election and reprobation is founded on
  prescience. Those of whom God foresaw that they
  would keep his commands, he predestinated to
  salvation the others to damnation. Christs
  redemption is general. But those only need his
  atoning death who have actually sinned. All,
  however, by his instruction and example, may be
  led to higher perfection and virtue. ?????

16
The Semi-Pelagianism??????

• Semi-Pelagianism, formed in the southern France
  in the 5th century ????
• Divine grace and human will jointly accomplish
  the work of conversion and sanctification, and
  the ordinary man must take the first step.
• It rejects the Pelagian doctrine of the moral
  soundness of man, but rejects also the
  Augustinian doctrine of the entire corruption and
  bondage of the natural man, and substitutes the
  idea of a diseased or crippled state of the
  voluntary power.
• It disowns the Pelagian conception of grace as a
  mere external auxiliary but also the Augustinian
  conception of sovereignty grace, and affirms the
  necessity and the internal operation of the grace
  with and through the human agency, a general
  atonement through Christ, and a predestination to
  salvation conditioned by the foreknowledge of
  faith.
• 529, the 2nd Council of Orange (Aurausio, France)
  upheld Augustines view of grace and condemned
  semi-Pelagianism unequivocally. ???
• Later Development ????
• Orthodox Church,
• Roman Church, Pope Gregory I
• Protestant, Reformation