From the Archives: A Translation of Bishop Oldrad’s Letter to Emperor Charlemagne

Where are Augustine’s bones a-moldering? To some, that has been a very significant question. It seems that by Augustine’s time, many portions of the church had begun to attach substantial religious significance to relics—ranging from supposed physical remains of the apostles and other well-known martyrs and leaders, to remains of objects associated with notable persons, such as fragments of Christ’s cross. Thus it is not surprising that the remains of a renowned figure Augustine became precious. In the condensed letter below, which to our knowledge is translated here from Latin to English for the first time, one Peter Oldrad, archbishop of Milan, is writing to the emperor Charlemagne about the whereabouts of Augustine’s remains and how they got there. Dated 796A.D., the Latin of this letter appears in the 1588 edition of Cesare Baronio, and has been reprinted in Vol. 40 of the Acta Sanctorum, pp. 366–368. The translation was done for Christian History magazine by Father Joseph Schnaubelt, O.S.A., director of the Augustinian History Institute of Villanova University.

Among other things, note the obsequious tone that Oldrad uses toward Charlemagne, the lengthy accounts of King Luitprand’s generous gifts to the church (perhaps hints to Charlemagne?), the miraculous healings attributed to Augustine’s remains, and the sleeping metaphors used to describe the actual body of the long-dead bishop.

The Translation

The Epistle of Peter Oldrad, Archbishop of Milan, To Charlemagne.

On the transfer of the body of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, from Sardinia to Pavia.

For the Most Pious King of kings, Charles the Great, Peter Oldrad, unworthy archbishop of Milan, entreats an everlasting crown in Christ.

While your Majesty was sojourning in the city of Milan, you graciously entrusted me with the task of making an inquiry into the transfer of the body of the saintly bishop Augustine from Sardinia to Pavia and of writing a trustworthy account of it for you. This has been done, so far as human frailty has permitted. Now, with the help of God, I shall briefly relate what I found in the letters and books of the Lombard Kings, along with what I garnered from many by way of oral tradition.

Blessed Augustine, the Doctor of the Churches of Christ, rendered up his soul to God, after many splendid signs and miracles in this world and after much exhausting labor against the obstinacy of heretics and the deviousness of sinners. In the course of the year 430 since the Incarnation of Christ, he was buried with honor by the faithful in the Church of St. Stephen in the City of Hippo, his episcopal seat. Thus respectfully laid to rest at the hands of his disciples, he reposed there for almost 56 years.

Thereafter, his remains were transferred to Sardinia by the faithful Catholic bishops at the time the Vandals were laying waste to Africa by force of arms. On account of the faith of Christ, these bishops, and in particular Fulgentius, the bishop of Ruspe, together with a great multitude of the faithful, had been forced to move to that island by Trasamund, the iniquitous king of the Vandals. To forestall the desecration of such a great jewel and treasure by perverse and contemptuous men, the exiles transported the relics with them, along with those of several other saints. There, in Sardinia, Augustine was renowned for many miracles for 223 years. In this we are manifestly given to understand that those whom God holds dear he distinguishes and marks with the power of miracles as a testimony to their sanctity.

Then came Luitprand, the son of Asprand, the king of the Lombards. Succeeding his father as overlord of the Lombards some 280 years after the death of Augustine, Luirprand persevered in the way of the true faith and distinguished himself as a staunch defender of the Churches of God. Certainly, his gifts of prudence, wisdom and counsel qualified Luitprand for his great principate more than any other man. He exhibited such remarkable justice and clemency, moreover, that one would be hard put to say which was his more outstanding trait. He was a most Christian man, who loved his religion so much that nowhere in his kingdom did he permit the erection of a church without his involvement. At Pavia. for example, he donated many castles and other possessions for the construction of many beautiful churches. His palace was especially notable for the oratory he built in honor of the Holy Savior. There he established benefices for priests and clerics to fulfill the divine offices by day and night. And his gifts were lavish, so that they would be able to serve God all the more virtuously and assiduously…. In honor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, moreover, he constructed a monastery adorned with artwork in the suburbs of Pavia, to which he gave the name of Sky of Gold.

Then an enormous horde of barbarians attacked Sardinia, which they subjugated and laid waste, desecrating even the holy places with their violence. Among these was the tomb of St. Augustine. King Luitprand. that pillar of justice and lover of religion, heard this sad news from Peter, the bishop of Pavia, whom the king greatly honored and revered for his holy life. Accordingly, the king sent his leading nobles to Sardinia as legates with a great weight of gold and silver, in order to ransom the body of so great a saint and transport it as soon as possible to the city of Pavia. Intent on satisfying the command and desire of the pious king, these men sailed to Sardinia, where they ransomed the holy remains from the barbarians and placed them on their ship. By the mercy of God, and to their great joy, they made the crossing with a following wind, through a tranquil sea, in the space of one day and night, to the landfall and port of Genoa. They immediately sent heralds to inform the king of what had taken place, so that he could proceed with honor to receive the relics of such a great saint.

Filled with immense joy at the news, the king gave profound thanks to God for having granted his desire. He immediately cancelled all other business, and summoning the bishops of all his cities and the entire clergy from as far as Tortona, he set out with great humility to accept so signal a gift from God. Accompanied by a great multitude of nobles and commoners of both sexes, he hastened to repose it in a fitting place, like David of old receiving the Ark of the Covenant.

However, when the king drew near the place where the holy body lay, he laid aside the insignia of his royal estate. And bare of head and foot, he proceeded with such humility and devotion that all present marveled and praised God at the great devotion of the pious king.

Moreover, the merciful Lord deigned to work a number of miracles to honor his Holy Confessor Augustine, for many invalids who were present recovered their health. Spontaneously raising their voices in the praise and glory of God, they happily returned home. From there, bearing the body of the Blessed Confessor with hymns and praise, the progress arrived, near the border of Tortona, at a manor called Savinaria. There King Luitprand and the entire cortege of bishops and nobles spent the night in the services due so great a father …. But at dawn the next day, when the crowd surged forward to complete the journey to the city of Ticino, they could in no wise move the holy body, even though many engaged the bier. The king therefore rent his garments, and with a sorrowful countenance did fling himself to the ground, so much did he burn with desire to convey the relics to Ticino, for he had lost all hope of moving the bier.

All the bishops and nobles were astonished at this miraculous phenomenon, and were wondering inwardly what almighty God wanted to signify in regard to the relics of so glorious a Doctor. Present in the throng of bishops was Gratian, the ordinary of the Church of Novara, a man endowed with great learning and distinguished in all the disciplines, who was withal a true priest of God. He confidently approached King Luirprand to affirm that the mercy of God must be implored, not with forms and empty words, but rather with solemn promises and deeds. The king accepted this advice very willingly. And when he had made his vow, he asserted with a solemn oath and a royal decree that, if the Lord God almighty would permit him to convey the body of St. Augustine to Ticino, he would deed the aforementioned manor of Savinaria in perpetuity to God and to the Church of St. Peter, unto which he intended to bring the relics.

It ensued therefore, that having fulfilled his vow, the king approached the bier and attempted to raise the relics off the ground. He found that they were very light and that two porters could now handle the blessed body, which previously could not be budged by many. And so they completed the journey with great joy and exultation, praising the omnipotence of God….

Moreover, when the news spread of the king’s arrival with the relics of the Blessed Confessor, those who had stayed home hurried out to meet the cortege and to welcome the saint. A joyous concourse of people singing hymns and canticles escorted the holy body to its reposition in the Church of St. Peter in the Sky of Gold, with all the honor due so great a Father. That church, moreover, was placed under the jurisdiction of the Prince of the Apostles, who has always striven on behalf of the faith against the snares of the devil and the duplicity of heresy. There St. Peter is still celebrated for many signs and miracles in tribute to his sanctity and for the edification of the faithful.

After the reposition of the relics at Pavia, it became apparent that the transfer had been pleasing to God and to the blessed Father Augustine, inasmuch as there were many noteworthy recoveries from various illnesses upon the application of the sacred tokens or even from contact with the ark.

Also the gifts, which the pious King Luirprand bestowed on the Church of St. Peter, consisting of property and possessions as well as vessels of gold and silver and liturgical vestments, exceeded expectations of pious men everywhere. For the king felt he could never do enough for the holy shrine. And he was so replete with joy over the recovery of the relics that day and night he participated in the liturgy with the clerics and priests, and exercised himself in psalmody like one of the ministers.

This transfer of the body of St. Augustine took place on Feb. 28, during the pontificate of Gregory II, of happy memory. May the King of kings Christ the Lord. by his almighty power deign to keep your excellent Majesty through the course of many years. Given in the city of Milan in the year … 796.

The Relics Today

On Oct. 1, 1695, almost a thousand years after King Luitprand had the relics of St. Augustine concealed in Peter in the Sky of Gold, an ark supposedly containing them was discovered by workmen in the course of renovating the crypt. Behind some brickwork, the workmen found a marble ark some 3 ft., 3 in. long; 1 ft., 2 in. wide: and 1 ft. 4 in. high, reinforced at the corners with iron bands. On the cement that held it together appeared the name “Agostino” or “Augustino,” written in black gothic letters. However, this writing was inadvertently destroyed by one of the workmen before he realized what he had found.

The workmen carefully removed the ark from its niche, but out of reverence did not open it. Nor was it immediately opened by the clergymen in charge. When the ark was opened, in early 1696, it was found to contain a silver capsule full of whole bones, pieces of bone, and 7 Ibs., 3 oz. of bone dust—altogether commensurate, according to the examiners, with an average human skeleton. Nonetheless, said some skeptics, these were not the genuine remains of St. Augustine.

On Feb., 9. 1696, the remains were examined by anatomists. And on June 23 of that year, Lorenzo Trotti, the bishop of Ticino, made an official visit to the shrine to review the whole matter. In 1698, during February and March, witnesses were called to testify a second time, and another of examination of the relics was conducted. On May 15 yet another examination and description of the relics was made. All the while, many thousands of words were written on both sides of the issue, and continued to be for the next 30 years.

Finally, on Jan. 23, 1728, Pope Benedict XIII sent a letter to Francesco Pertusati, the bishop of Ticino, directing him to put an end to the controversy by episcopal decision. On June 25 and 26, the bishop made a visit to the shrine to review the situation, then drew up a declaration that solemnly affirmed the authenticity of the relics, promulgating the declaration on July 19. On Sept. 22, some three months later, Pope Benedict issued a bull confirming this episcopal action.

History

Augustine’s Enchiridion: A Handbook for Earthy Christian Living

Paul de Vries

A Handbook for “Earthy” Christian Living

Augustine grappled with many of the same ethical issues that concern us today. In The Enchiridion, basically his version of a “handbook of Christian living,” he tells how we can maintain a balanced outlook on the issues that affect our lives.

Can a mature saint distill the essentials of earthy Christian living into a simple handbook? Augustine certainly tried. At age 66, in the middle of writing The City of God, he wrote a manual on the Christian life called The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love. Of Augustine’s 93 major written works, this little enchiridion (Greek for “handbook”) displays his most integrated picture of down-to-earth life before God.

The impetus behind this handbook was a man named Laurentius. He had implored Augustine to write a short work on the proper worship of God, the meaning and fulfillment of the chief purpose of our lives, and the proper foundation of Christian faith. He had explicitly asked for a “handbook”: one to be carried in the hand, not left gathering dust on the shelf!

Just a year earlier, Augustine had restrained Laurentius’s brother, a Roman tribune, from being overzealous in fighting the Donatist heresy. In view of the various prevailing heresies and accompanying confusion, Laurentius wanted a brief positive description of Christian living that he could carry with him on his Christian walk.

Though small in size, The Enchiridion certainly deserves its position as a classic in Christian writing. Its basic theme stems from the cardinal Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. In 122 brief chapters, Augustine thoughtfully examines the needs of daily Christian living in the light of biblical truth and the Apostles’ Creed. The threads that bind this manual together are the central themes of Augustine’s own Christian philosophy: the hopelessness of evil, the triumph of good, the necessity of almsgiving, and the essential realism and skepticism of earthy Christian living.

The Hopelessness of Evil

Underlying this work is a consistent Christian optimism based on the sovereignty of God and an understanding of the radical dependency of evil upon the good that it perverts. Evil, writes Augustine, is finally a hopeless parasite: It does not exist in its own right, but only as a corruption of something good. He repeatedly claims that the vices of human life are “nothing but privations of natural good.” In fact, as long as something is in the process of being corrupted, we can be confident that it still has some good “of which it is being deprived.” Consequently, if corruption were complete in destroying all that is good in something, that thing and the corruption itself would disappear. So evil cannot last. In short, “nothing can be evil except something which is good,” in spite of the fact that good and evil are genuine contraries.

The paradox Augustine develops here is the venerable doctrine of Creation and Fall that so defines our lives. The creation is good, and our sovereign God continues to sustain and control it well. Actually, only because God’s creatures are good can sin corrupt and pervert them. This Augustinian claim makes sin especially reprehensible—for it is the corruption of God’s very handiwork—while it makes redemption all the more believable—for God remains sovereign. By God’s grace, we can seek what is good as the satisfaction of our real present needs, and as the restoration of our ultimate human “health.”

Understanding evil as the privation of good was one of the most important steps in Augustine’s conversion to Christ, and it remained a theme in many of his writings. A contemporary reemphasis on this doctrine could probably heighten our own awareness of the practical moral concerns of our own time. And by feeling less alienated from our needy world, we might become more actively involved in restoring what is good.

The Triumph of God

In The Enchiridion, Augustine fully embraces the logical implications of his concept of evil: he asserts that even the life and vital power of wicked angels and wicked people depend on the continuing gifts of God. Obviously, he says, God’s purpose is to bring some great good out of evil; otherwise, he would not bother to sustain evil beings. In fact, God must think it is actually “better to bring good out of evil, than not to permit any evil to exist.” After all, the end result of redemption will be greater than the original creation, for in the next life we will have a “more perfect immortality” free, finally, from the very desire for sin. So by God’s sovereign grace, he concludes, our future is even better than our pristine beginning.

In a state of anticipation—that is how Augustine says the Christian must now experience this triumph of good. He affirms that God does not save us by good works, but that good works are always present in those who believe. Referring to Ephesians 2:8–10, he insists that God is now creating us anew not merely as people, but as good people, so that good works are now necessary. After all, faith in the truth of certain biblical claims is not enough, he says, since the devils also believe and tremble. He says what the devils lack—and we relish—is the hope of God’s saving acts and the love that makes faith work.

Consequently, he says, cultivating good works in our present lives is an essential aspect of the divine triumph of good. We cannot pride ourselves in the good we do, for a good will itself is a gift of God’s grace. Human free will by itself is prone to error, he says; thus it is no surprise that mankind fell. To maintain righteousness, it is necessary for God to impart additionally “a portion of his unchangeable goodness.” After the Fall we needed all the more grace from God to free us from the bondage of sin, and with the additional grace in the future life we will no longer even desire sin.

The Need for Active Faith

Augustine wisely concludes that genuine faith requires good works now, and says this is especially accomplished in the giving of alms. Even though he affirms that salvation comes entirely through God’s grace, he still insists that the evidence of that grace, in the giving of alms, propitiates God for past sins. Of course, continuing sin is not excused by regular almsgiving; almsgiving can never purchase for us a license to sin. Instead, he says, almsgiving is a necessary part of “suitable repentance.” He points out that Jesus himself will decide who will enter the blessed kingdom on the basis of this very virtue (Matthew 25:31–36). The only special merit that Jesus will attribute to those who are eternally blessed, says Augustine, is that they abound in almsgiving—but not almsgiving in the conventional sense.

For Augustine, almsgiving is a multi-faceted virtue. For example, one way he suggests of giving alms to others is to give forgiveness. He interprets the Lord’s Prayer as suggesting that we can ask God’s forgiveness only as we forgive—Only as we “forgive from the heart a sin that has been committed against us.” We may not yet attain to loving our enemies, but when we forgive those who sin against us, we fulfill Jesus’ standard for our own forgiveness. And not only through the Lord’s Prayer does Jesus teach that we should forgive others as we would have God forgive us; he reemphasizes it in his first statement immediately after the prayer:

“If you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either” (Matthew 6:14, 15; The Jerusalem Bible).

Augustine comments that the “thunder of this warning” is so severe that it should “awaken even the dead” Christian to a life of forgiveness-giving.

Concerning almsgiving, Augustine teaches us that it also means giving alms to ourselves! We, too, are wretched and in great need of help, he suggests. Our greatest need is for the cleansing of our inward parts, which we obtain only if we give the gift of Christ to our own selves. This need is especially shown in the example of the Pharisees, he says. They certainly gave material alms on a regular basis. But their mistake was to give alms only externally. They did not give to themselves what their own inward parts needed most: Christ himself.

Augustine’s Realism

One of the greatest benefits of reading Augustine is catching the fresh realism and honesty of his highly Christian perspective. He does not pretend to be unaffected by sin; he is an earthy theologian. His writing does not smack of excessive self-confidence; he is honest about the doubts and uncertainties that infest the finite and fallible minds even of Christians.

The mercy of God, he insists, is necessary to convince us even of our need for repentance. He points out that before Peter wept bitterly, it was necessary for the Lord to turn and look upon him. Unfortunately, we are not often convinced of the seriousness of our own sins and the sins around us. Even the “great” sins, ones which would exclude someone from entering the kingdom of God, rarely arouse our concern. We tend to be blase Augustine points out, because we have been exposed to these sins for so long. Instead of the familiarity that breeds contempt, “constant familiarity lead to the toleration” of sins, “and habitual toleration leads to the practice of many of them.” Perhaps partly because of his early battles with sin, as well as because of his realistic Christian awareness of a continuing struggle with sin, Augustine is deeply alarmed about how comfortable sin can become.

Quite aware that ambiguous ethical choices often exist, and often because of human ignorance, Augustine is no perfectionist. In particular he suggests that while all lies are wrong, varying intentions make some lies worse than others. In fact, he argues that if a person lies to save another person from injury, that person could be justly commended. This deceit is still wrong, and it needs to be forgiven; Augustine never makes deceit morally right. Nevertheless, while all deceivers must seek God’s forgiveness, a well-intentioned deceiver can also be properly praised as well.

In a similar way, Augustine recognizes the challenging complexities of the problem of abortion. He states that a key question in his own time, as it is now, was “at what time the infant begins to live in the womb; whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being.”

With his typical candor, Augustine admits that he cannot assuredly say at exactly what point human life begins. He seriously questions whether any human has the power to decisively say. Nevertheless, he asserts that any one who looked at the cut-up remains of an aborted baby would have to recognize that this had been a human life. Although Augustine apparently had a firm belief that a developing fetus participates in human life, he argues equally strongly here that a conclusive proof is outside our human ability.

Augustine’s Skepticism

Such personal awareness of the limits of our knowledge—the effects of the fallibility and finitude of our understanding—permeates Augustine’s writings, including The Enchiridion. We need patience with our ignorance of our world and with the difficulties of discerning correct interpretations of Scripture, he suggests. We must admit that many issues are beyond our understanding, so that even additional study of Scripture might not resolve them. After all, ignorance is not an error in and of itself, but it is a serious mistake for a person to think “he knows what he does not know.” Thus, on many questions it is a valid intellectual exercise to guess at answers, he says, so long as we do not presume “to know what we do not know.”

To sum up Augustine’s thinking here: It is crucial that we know God. We can actively nourish that vital knowledge through the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, because of the hopelessness of evil, the triumph of good, and the worthiness of almsgiving. Consequently, we should also know our duties. However, on many issues ignorance is perfectly acceptable. More positively, the personal awareness of our own ignorance helps us put our trust where it belongs—not in ourselves, but in God only.

In our own time we seem torn between pessimistic realism and naive positive thinking. In contrast, Augustine gives us an honest picture of the hopelessness of evil, while enlightening our real struggle with sin in terms of the triumph of good.

Also, we often seem driven to define faith in terms of doctrinal knowledge, even to the neglect of good works. In contrast, Augustine humbly points out the severe limits of our knowledge, and he thunderously proclaims the necessity of disseminating alms and forgiveness—both to others and to ourselves.

Paul de Vries is an associate professor of philosophy at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL

- More from Paul de Vries

History

True-Life Confessions: The Precedent-Setting Revelations of Augustine’s Restless Heart

Herbert Jacobsen

Our hearts are restless until they find their peace in you.

Perhaps Augustine is best-known for these words from his Confessions, but they are far from being the only meaningful or intriguing words in this precedent-setting autobiography.

Though written nearly 1,600 years ago, it still remains one of the most widely read religious works in the Western world. It offers keen insights into Augustine’s life and a sharp understanding of the human heart. Western theology and culture owe a great deal to this unique autobiography.

Augustine may have intended his Confessions as a consecration of himself for his work in the church. He wrote it between 397 and 401 A.D., shortly after being named bishop of Hippo. Repeatedly he reminds himself that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

A confession, by nature, brings an indictment against oneself before God. Appropriately, Augustine’s Confessions takes the form of a prayer. Thus it is not merely a recital of his life story, nor does he melodramatically embellish the good in his life or deemphasize the evil. When we confess in prayer to God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, we are honest. And Augustine is painstakingly honest as he describes the profundities of the human heart. Sensitive readers will find, in his confession, a confession of their own.

The long prayer of St. Augustine consists of 13 books, or chapters, which may be divided into three major sections. Books 1–9 tell the story of Augustine’s life up to his conversion and just afterward. Book 10 is a philosophical discussion of time and memory. Books 11–13 turn to the early verses of Genesis to explore the nature of God and creation and what it means to be human. Throughout each section, Augustine weaves together three major themes: the restlessness of human beings; the mystery of God; and human affection.

The Restless Heart

In the most-famous quotation from the Confessions, Augustine states his grand themes:

“And man wants to praise you, man who is only a small portion of what you have created and who goes about carrying with him his own mortality, the evidence of his own sin and evidence that you resist the proud …. Yet still man, this small portion of creation, wants to praise you. You stimulate him to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

Augustine begins his own story in the context of the restlessness endemic to human experience. Although he cannot relate from memory anything about his infancy, he knows these are important years. He observes the behavior of other infants, assuming that his own experience was similar. Like the psalmist, he describes himself as “conceived in iniquity,” and in need of God’s mercy. Only custom and reason prevent adults from holding restless infants accountable for their self-centeredness, tempers, and jealousies. At the earliest ages, human beings crave what they cannot provide for themselves.

From his early educational experiences, Augustine discovers another aspect of restlessness, the false joy of receiving unearned awards. Like many students, he says he would not study unless driven to it. Reading, writing, and arithmetic he found boring. The only educational ventures he pursued with enthusiasm were those from which he could derive pleasure without having to work for it. He was swept away by vanity, lost in the darkness of his affections.

An even deeper restlessness emerges in Augustine’s 16th year. He and some friends rob pears from a pear tree; the theft lives in the bishop’s mind years later as if it had happened just the day before. For Augustine, the theft opens a window into the soul. Why did he steal? Why does anyone steal? As Augustine examines the common justifications for such an act, he realizes that they do not apply. He is not starving; he is not even hungry; and the food is not particularly tasty. He does note that, without the approval of his companions, he probably would not have done it. So why did he?

Eventually Augustine decides that his theft was a perverse imitation of God. It was not the pears he desired, but, in an arrogant spirit of truncated liberty, he tried to produce a darkened image of omnipotence.

The next decade of his life witnessed a flurry of frustrated affections, as he rehearses them in the Confessions. He sought the love of a woman, of the theater, of philosophy, and of a rational religion. It was a cauldron of at least four unholy loves, about which he tersely explains: “I was not yet in love, but I loved the idea of love.”

Augustine gives us little historical information about the first unholy love, his relationship with his concubine. We do not even know her name. We do know they had a son, Adeodatus, and that they were together for several years. We also know that Augustine did not find this love satisfactory. When it came time to marry, he sent her away, and became engaged to another woman, one more suitable for his social standing. But before he could marry, Augustine was required to demonstrate his chastity for two years. He even failed at this. “… since I was not so much a lover of marriage as a slave to lust, I found another woman for myself—not, of course, as a wife.” How does one live with oneself when intentionality is so weak?

This is a deep and persistent restlessness. Even years later, the bishop is still wrestling with his sexuality. While he is able to escape the temptation to be with a woman, he is unable to escape its influence in his mind and body. In addition, he learns that continence requires not only abstinence, but also appropriate devotion to one’s neighbor.

Augustine’s love of the theater, another in his cauldron of shameful loves, seems short-lived. At first, he loved to see the misery of others. But the inconsistency of rejoicing in others’ misfortunes, which he would detest if they were his own, eventually drove him away. The theater was a life of fantasy which threatened to usurp the enjoyment of real life.

In what he calls “the lust of the mind,” Augustine began to search for truth in reason. This led him to his third and fourth unholy loves—the fables of the Manichaeans and the skepticism of some philosophers. In all of these lusts, as Augustine recalls it, he despised the authority of the church and the teaching of Scripture.

Yet, by the grace of God, Augustine heard the gospel. He approached the truth in stages. First he learned to read the Old Testament symbolically rather than literally. Then he learned to think of evil as a privation of good rather than a substance in its own right. Finally, he learned, from Ambrose and others, the limitations of human reason. Faith and authority, he found, are necessary for true understanding.

The Mystery of God

The majestic mystery of God, the second grand theme in the Confessions, nearly gets lost in the dramatic exposition of human restlessness. But it is only against the backdrop of this mystery that the restlessness makes sense.

Augustine speaks of his restless lifestyle in terms of life and death:

“The arrogance of pride, the pleasure of lust, and the poison of curiosity are movements of a soul that is dead—not dead in the sense that it is motionless, but dead by forsaking the fountain of life and so engrossed in this transitory world and conformed to it.”

The Word of God, and God himself, is this fountain of life for Augustine. “Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live, so that the earth may bring forth the living soul. Be not conformed to the world. Restrain yourself from it. The soul’s life is in avoiding those things which are death to seek.” It is God who made us and does not forget us, even though we wander far from him. It is God who redeems us and stills the heart.

“Who is this God?” and “How do I find him?” are legitimate questions for the troubled soul. In Book 1, Augustine has already inquired, “Do I call upon God to know him or must I know him to call upon him?” “How do I call upon him?” “What is my God?”

The initial answers Augustine provides reflect a biblical understanding of God. He writes:

“O highest and best, most powerful, most all-powerful, most merciful and most just, most deeply hidden and most nearly present, most beautiful and most strong, constant yet incomprehensible, changeless yet changing all things, never new, never old, making all things new, bringing the proud to delcay and they know it not: always acting and always at rest, still gathering yet never wanting; upholding, filling and protecting, creating, nourishing, and bringing to perfection; seeking, although in need of nothing….”

Note the pairing of these attributes. Mercy and justice are linked, not in the sense that God is sometimes merciful and sometimes just, but fully both. Similarly, God is fully hidden while at the same time fully present, beautiful and strong, and so forth. God is described in paradox, mystery. And thus those beings that are made in his image might well be paradoxes to themselves as well. Against such a majesty as the divine being, it is no wonder that man is a riddle to himself. He cannot reduce his nature to any one thing, neither to the senses, nor to reason, nor even to himself. He is to some extent mystery to himself just as God is mystery to him.

Yet there is a crucial distinction: God’s being is in himself; man’s being is in God. Foolishly, man tries to be like God and find rest in himself. He cannot. But even his attempted flights from God are under God’s sovereignty. And here the mystery of God seems to compound itself.

God shows his strength in weakness; he brings salvation through the death of his Son; he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble; he allows us the foolishness of our ways.

In his confession, Augustine prays to God as “the controller and creator of all things in nature, though of sin only the controller.” Three very important insights are drawn from this claim. First, because God is good, his creation is good. The Manichaean notion of physical reality as evil must be rejected. Second, God is omnipotent and holy, so he chastens sinful mankind. Our experiences of lust do not go unnoticed in the world created by and for God. Third, God is able to use our own sinful ways to draw us to himself. “Inside me your good was working on me to make me restless until you should become clear and certain to my inward sight.”

Augustine has discovered the majesty and mystery of God as the condition for interpreting human restlessness. We will either use the restlessness to love God or to avoid God by vainly worshiping and serving something else.

The Secret Affections

The third great theme we find here is affection. As Peter Brown has put it, “The Confessions are, quite succinctly, the story of Augustine’s ‘heart,’ or of his ‘feelings’ his affectus.”

The human soul, in all its mystery, experiences restlessness because it is alienated from the ground of its being, God. Thus God, in his affection for us, calls us to abandon our wanderings, to stop pursuing other affections, to give up our hope in ourselves, and find peace in him.

What assurance do we have that abandoning hope in ourselves will give us the peace we desire? “Experience,” some would say. “Others have tried this and found peace.” Augustine could argue this way, if he chose to. His conversion experience is marvelously recorded for us—he heard a voice in a garden urging him to read the Bible and he opened to Romans 13:14, “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in concupiscence.” Immediately, he relates, his heart was filled with confidence. In a profound sense, the restlessness stopped, at least temporarily.

But it is not on this experience that Augustine grounds his assurance of salvation. In fact, he reports that his restlessness resumed after his conversion. Salvation needs grounding in God. Grounding anywhere else, even in the life of the redeemed person, is unreliable. For this reason, Augustine’s post-conversion struggles are most significant.

Augustine keeps pointing the reader to God himself. “We have this promise; no one can alter or distort it: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’” In light of the love of God, the reader is prepared to appreciate Augustine’s emphasis on human love: “Things are moved by their own weights and go into their proper places…. My weight is my love; wherever I am carried, it is my love that carries me there.”

To find rest, one must ground one’s affections in God. Augustine writes, “Blessed is the man who loves you, who loves his friend in you, and his enemy because of you. He alone loses no one dear to him, for they are all dear to him in one who is not lost.” In his early life, Augustine mourned deeply over the death of a friend. In the years immediately following his conversion, as though love itself were being tested, Augustine would grieve at the deaths of several friends, his son, and his mother. Now, however, alongside the sorrow was beatitude. Commenting on his mother’s death, he says, “I found solace in weeping for her and for myself, on her behalf and on my own. So I allowed the tears… to fall, … making them a pillow for my heart, and my heart rested on them, for only your ears could hear my lament….” Peace had come.

In his Confessions, Augustine wants to stimulate the reader’s affections toward God. Thus the book is less of an autobiography and more of a theological anthropology. Like the Apostle Paul, he can testify, “Our flesh had no rest, without us were fightings, within us were fears.” His restlessness acts somewhat as a schoolmaster, or compass, to steer him away from the love of himself and other people and objects of creation. It directs him toward faith in God, the Creator. This redirection is not a matter of intellectual sophistication for Augustine, or for anyone, but of trust and humility before God, who gives grace even to those who try to flee from him.

Herbert Jacobsen is a professor in the Bible/theology/archaeology department at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill

- More from Herbert Jacobsen

History

Augustine on Astrology

From the looks of many modern publications, the ancient “art” of astrology is still very much alive and well—there’s apparently something about the stars that still attracts human attention and superstition as much as it did the young Augustine.

But by the time he was older, his great mind had moved far from trusting in the stars, and had formulated some classic arguments against the validity of planning your life by horoscope.

In his youth, certainly, during his pre-conversion search for truth, he like many others of his age had eagerly consulted astrologers. In the Confessions he relates: “These impostors, whom they designate astrologers, I consulted without hesitation, because they used no sacrifices and invoked the aid of no spirit for their divination.” At that time, he says, he could not have been persuaded to forsake astrology.

Yet later, in both his Confessions and The City of God, he railed against the practice of astrology at great length—and with great insight. In one place, for example, he rhetorically asks: “Why, in the life of twins—in their actions, the events that befall them, their professions, arts, honors and other things pertaining to human life, as well as in their very deaths—is there often so great a difference that, as far as these things are concerned, many entire strangers are more like them than they are like each other, though separated at birth by the smallest interval of time but at conception generated by the same act and at the same moment?”

The mature Augustine had come to believe that human destiny is not shaped by lifeless stars, but by the living Lord of both stars and humanity.

History

St. Augustine: Christian History Timeline

Augustine

354 Is born at Thagaste, on Nov l3

365 Goes to school in Madaura

371 Goes to study rhetoric in Carthage

c. 371–373 His father dies, son Adeodatus is born

375 Returns to Thagaste to teach rhetoric

376 Begins teaching rhetoric in Carthage

376 “Unnamed friend” who was baptized dies

383 Sails to Rome with concubine and son

384 Becomes professor of rhetoric in Milan

386 Is converted, retreats to Cassiciacum

387 Returns to Milan, is baptized by Ambrose; at Ostia, he and Monica have “vision,” Monica dies there

388 Goes to Rome

390 Returns to Carthage, then Thagaste; his son dies

391 Is ordained priest at Hippo

392 Writes to Jerome requesting Latin translations of Bible commentaries

392 Debates in Hippo with Fortunatus the Manichee

396 He becomes bishop of Hippo

c. 400 Writes his Confessions

c. 403–412 The Donatist controversy

410 For health reasons, spends winter at villa outside Hippo

412–421 Pelagian controversy

413–426 Writes The City of God, On the Trinity, and The Enchiridion

427 Writes his Retractions

430 Dies at Hippo, Aug 28

The Church

356 St. Anthony an early ascetic born 106 years earlier, dies

357 Athanasius writes the Life of St. Anthony

373 Athanasius, who was born in 296, dies

373 Ambrose becomes bishop of Milan

379 Basil of Caesarea dies

381 The Council of Constantinpole, or the second ecumenical council, is convened

386 The Manichees at Carthage are purged

389 Gregory of Nanzianzen, a theologian, dies

396 Simeon Stylites, later to become “Father of the Pillar Saints,” is born

396 Gregory of Nyssa, a theologian and mystic, dies

397 Ambrose, born in 339, dies

398 John Chrysostom, nine years before his death, becomes Patriarch of Constantinople

c. 400 Jerome translates the Bible into the Latin Vulgate

411 The Council of Carthage mends the Donatist schism

417 Pope Innocent I condemns the Pelagian heresy

419 Jerome the great theologian, translator, and historian, born in 342, dies

431 The Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council, convenes

The Roman Empire

350 The Huns invade Europe

350 Constantius II persecutes non-Arians

360 Books begin to supercede scrolls

361–363 Constantine’s nephew, Julian the Apostate, reigns as emperor

375 Valentinian I, the last great emperor in the West, who took control in 364, dies

378 Eastern emperor Valens is defeated by the Goths, dies at Adrianople

380 Theodosius I makes Christianity the state religion

383 Rome suffers a famine

384 Symmachus appeals for the re-recognition of paganism

391 A general edict aganinst paganism is issued, and Theodosius orders all pagan temples closed

395 Theodosius, who took the throne in 379, dies; the empire is redivided, and the Huns invade the eastern empire

402 The Goths are defeated in Italy

c. 404 Emperor Honorius abolishes man against-man gladiatorial contests

410 Roman rule in Britain ends, and Rome itself is sacked by Alaric and the Goths

418 The first schism between Rome and Constantinople occurs

421 A one-year war between Rome and Persia begins

429 The Vandals invade North Africa

430 The Vandals beseige Hippo

History

Augstine’ s Account of his Conversion

From the 1961 edition of Edward B. Pusey’s translation of The Confessions of St. Augustine. By permission of Everyman’s Library and J.M. Dent & Sons, London.

This is Augustine’s account of his conversion to Christ as it occurred in the garden in Milan in the spring of 386 A.D.

But when a deep consideration had from the secret bottom of my soul drawn together and heaped up all my misery in the sight of my heart, there arose a mighty storm within me, bringing forth a mighty shower of tears. So that I might pour this forth wholly, in expression unrestrained, I rose from Alypius. Solitude was suggested to me as fitter for the business of weeping, so I retired so far that even his presence could not be a burden to me. Thus was it then with me, and he perceived something of it; for something I suppose I had spoken, wherein the tones of my voice appeared choked with weeping, and so had risen up. He then remained where we were sitting, most extremely astonished. I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig tree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And, though not actually in these words, yet to this purpose, I spoke much unto Thee, saying, “O Lord, how long? How long, Lord? Wilt Thou be angry forever? Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt that I was held by them. I sent up the sorrowful words: ‘How long, how long, tomorrow and tomorrow?” Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?

Thus was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, chanting and oft repeating, “Take up and read, take up and read.” Instantly my countenance altered, and I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words; but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: “Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.” And by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, 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, in concupiscence.” No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.

Then putting my finger between, or some other mark, I shut the volume and with a calmed countenance made it known to Alypius. And what was wrought in him, which I knew not, he thus showed me. He asked to see what I had read; I showed him. And he looked even further than I had read, and I knew not what followed. This followed: “Him that is weak in the faith, receive”; which he applied to himself, and disclosed to me. And by this admonition he was strengthened, and by a good resolution and purpose, and most corresponding to his character, wherein he did always very far differ from me for the better, without any turbulent delay he joined me. Thence we go into my mother; we tell her; she rejoiceth: we relate in order how it took place; she leaps for joy, and triumpheth, and blesseth Thee, Who are able to do above that which we ask or think. For she perceived that Thou hadst given her more for me than she was wont to beg by her pitiful and most sorrowful groanings. For Thou convertedst me unto Thyself, so that I sought neither wife nor any hope of this world, standing in that rule of faith where Thou hadst showed me unto her in a vision so many years before.

History

Augustine’s Sex-Life Change: From Profligate to Celibate

Frank A. James III

To Carthage then I came Burning burning burning burning…

The lines were written by T. S. Eliot in his apocalyptic poem, The Waste Land. Partly famous because they were written by Eliot, they are also famous because of who and what they allude to: the sexual fires that burned in the youthful Augustine. From adolescence to the age of 32, as he later detailed in the Confessions, Augustine was a frequent loser in the battle with lustful passions.

However, his struggles with sexuality actually began before his arrival at the decadent North African metropolis of Carthage. He later wrote that it was at the age of 16 that “the frenzy gripped me and I surrendered myself entirely to lust.”

Both his parents were aware that he was “floundering in the broiling sea of … fornication,” but each responded differently. His father, who seems to have also been entangled in extramarital affairs, was amused at his son’s budding sexual interests. The prospect of grand children—legitimate or otherwise—appealed to Patricius. Monica, on the other hand, was caught in a dilemma. She did not suggest marriage for quelling the sexual fires, because she feared that a hurried marriage would hinder her gifted son’s career opportunities. At the same time, she earnestly warned him about his lack of sexual restraint, saying, “above all [do] not seduce any man’s wife.”

As an 18-year-old student at Carthage, Augustine reveled in promiscuity. Sex had become an obsession for him. “From a perverted act of will,” he wrote, “desire had grown, and when desire is given satisfaction, habit is forged; and when habit passes unresisted, a compulsive urge sets in.”

After a year of promiscuity in that university city, Augustine settled down with a mistress. Although he never revealed her name, he remained with her for more than a decade. She bore him a son named Adeodatus.

The young scholar had become a professor of rhetoric in Milan when Monica, his ever-persistent mother, persuaded him to send his unnamed mistress away so that he might acquire the hand of a high-society Milanese girl. Part of the arrangement was that Augustine had to remain chaste for two years, that is, until the girl reached marriageable age. But his sexual passions prevented him from keeping his part of the bargain. Not long after sending away the mother of Adeodatus, he took another mistress. “I thought it should be too miserable,” he lamented, “unless folded in female arms.”

As he came to accept the truth of Christ, one great obstacle that deterred him from fully embracing Christianity was his sexual proclivity. Epitomizing this inner turmoil was his confused prayer, “Give me chastity… but not yet.”

To Augustine’s mind, converting to Christianity meant abandoning marriage altogether. As he records his conversion in the Confessions, he describes being torn between marriage and chaste devotion to God. He decided it could be only the latter for him.

After his conversion, he had much to say about sex and marriage. The fall of Adam, he taught, drastically affected human sexuality. In particular, human nature had fallen under the compulsive power of concupiscence, or lust, which he understood as the passionate, uncontrolled element in sexuality. Augustine believed that all sexual intercourse—even within the bounds of Christian marriage—involved concupiscence.

But Augustine did not altogether disparage matrimony. It is “honorable and permissible,” he said. But to him, celibacy was better. The purpose of sex in marriage is procreation, he said, although it was “pardonable” if married persons enjoyed conjugal union without intending procreation. He even went so far as to recommend sexual abstinence for married couples—if they mutually agreed to it.

Over the years, the bishop of Hippo’s views on sex and marriage became the bases for many of the Roman Church’s teachings on these matters. If we look closely at the writings of Augustine, we can better understand why Roman Catholics believe that the chief end of marriage is procreation, that divorce and birth control are impermissible, and that continence is the ideal for sexual self-discipline.

- More from Frank A. James III

History

St. Augustine: A Gallery of Augustine’s Influences

Monica

Augustine’s mother, Monica, has to rank as one of the most well-known matriarchs in Christendom’s history. She lived with her husband, Patricius, whom Augustine describes as a “poor free man” and a minor official in the North African town of Thagaste. Patricius was a pagan, worshiping the Punic gods of the region, but Monica was a devout Christian. However, her name is derived from that of a Punic god, Mon, so we might guess that she came from a pagan family and was a convert to Christianity. Monica bore two sons and probably several daughters. She suffered through Augustine’s growing pains, relentless in her determination to see that “the son of so many tears” would become a good Christian. She always clung to her belief—encouraged by a dream—that before she died she would see Augustine convert to Christianity. When he took his professorship in Milan, Monica joined him there and set about finding him a high-society wife. In Milan, she attended the church of Bishop Ambrose; she may have seen in Ambrose a model of what Augustine could become—a successful politician-turned-churchman. Monica was overjoyed when Augustine told her of his conversion—it was quite literally a “dream come true.” After his conversion, she seems to have managed the retreat house that Augustine set up in Cassiciacum with his close friends. On their return to North Africa, Augustine and Monica and the friends with them were waylaid in Ostia. While there, Augustine relates, he and Monica shared a “vision of eternal wisdom,” a foretaste of the life to come. Nine days later she died. Augustine and his brother buried her in Ostia; recently a fragment of her burial inscription was found there.

Alypius

Augustine’s closest and most enduring friendship was with Alypius. Son of a leading family in Thagaste, Alypius was younger than Augustine, and was a student of his in Thagaste and in Carthage. Alypius moved to Rome shortly before Augustine did, and later the two were together in Milan. Augustine credits Alypius for his decision not to marry. Alypius had an “innate love of virtue,” and admired the Manichees for their chastity. He followed Augustine into Manichacism and later to Christianity. Alypius was present in the garden of Milan at Augustine’s conversion, accompanied him on his post-conversion retreat to Cassiciacum, and was baptized by Ambrose along with Augustine and Augustine’s son. Vignettes of Alypius appear often in Augustine’s Confessions, attesting to a genuinely close friendship. A lawyer by trade, Alypius later became the bishop of Thagaste. Solemn, courteous and obstinate, he has been described as Augustine’s “alter ego.”

Adeodatus, Concubine

Two important people in Augustine’s life remain largely unknown to us: his concubine and his son. Around the time of his father’s death, Augustine took himself a concubine—a common and accepted arrangement in that day. For at least 14 years the two lived together, and parented a son they named Adeodatus. But when Monica joined Augustine in Milan, she had plans for a career-advancing marriage for her son, so she insisted that he send his concubine away. So she went back to Africa, leaving Adeodatus with Augustine and Monica. She vowed as she left “never to give herself to another man.” Augustine must have loved her; he speaks of their mutual love, and the sad separation when she was “torn from my side.” But he never reveals her name. Adeodatus remained with his father, and was baptized with him on Easter of 387. Augustine reports that his son’s talent was a source of awe to him, and once wrote Adeodatus that “you are the only man of all men that I would wish to surpass me in all things.” But such was not to be. Adeodatus died around 390, not yet 20 years old.

Ambrose

If one particular person can be said to have been instrumental in the conversion of Augustine, it would probably be Ambrose, bishop of Milan. When Augustine first came under his influence, after being appointed professor of rhetoric in Milan, Ambrose had been bishop for 11 years. Disillusioned with the Manichaean philosophy, Augustine was impressed by Ambrose’s learned, up-to-date sermons, and the eloquent and convincing manner in which he defended the Old Testament against Manichaean criticisms. According to Augustine, Ambrose welcomed him as a father would, being both kind and generous to him. After Augustine’s conversion, Ambrose baptized him. A contemporary, Basil of Caesarea, described Ambrose as “a man eminent for intellect, illustrious lineage, prominence in life, and power of speech, an object of admiration to all of his world.” However, Ambrose was perfectly capable of exerting a strong will when necessary, even when it meant going against the power of imperial Rome. In one case, Ambrose excommunicated the emperor Theodosius after he ordered what was basically a general massacre of 7,000 people in Thessalonica. The emperor eventually submitted to Ambrose’s spiritual authority, performing public penance on Christmas Day in 390. Later the emperor would assert, “I have known no bishop but Ambrose.” Conservative churchmen criticized Ambrose for starting a craze for hymns; and in truth, one of his claims to literary fame is as the founder of Latin hymnody and rhyming stanzas for congregational singing.

Valerius

Valerius was the elderly bishop of Hippo who recognized the newly converted Augustine s talent and used group pressure to coerce Augustine into becoming a priest. When he saw Augustine in the congregation one day, he began preaching about the urgent need for priests. The congregation mobbed Augustine, and ordained him by force. For the next five years, Valerius nurtured Augustine in the ministry. Augustine soon took over the preaching, and in 395 was made cobishop with Valerius. He died in 396, and Augustine succeeded him as bishop.

Possidius

Among the group of bright young men that gathered around Augustine upon his return to Africa was Possidius. Though not as brilliant as Alypius, Possidius is perhaps better known because he recorded most of what we know about Augustine. When the members of Augustine’s monastic band dispersed, becoming bishops throughout North Africa, Possidius went to Calama. In 429–430, as the Vandals pillaged their way across North Africa, Possidius fled the ruins of Calama and ran to Hippo, a fortified city, where he joined Augustine. He appears to have been a secretary of sorts during Augustine’s last days, handling correspondence and cataloguing his mentor’s works. Very possibly it was Possidius who made sure the library of Augustine was saved from the flames of the Vandals. In succeeding years, Possidius, eking out a living among the ruins of North Africa, wrote the first biography of Augustine. He wrote of his friend as “Bishop Augustine … a man predestinated … brought forward in our time … a man among those who have gained their end, who have persevered up to the day of their death.”

Jerome

Among the most distinguished of Augustine’s correspondents, Jerome was one of the 4th-century church’s greatest biblical scholars. Of the Latin fathers, he alone knew Hebrew. He finished his Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, or common version, around 400 a.d. It is still approved today as the authoritative Latin text. Jerome spent four years in Syria as a hermit. He later became secretary to Bishop Damasus of Rome. Eventually he settled in Bethlehem, and remained there in monastic retirement for the last 35 years of his life. His circle of disciples included several noble Roman ladies. He maintained a correspondence with churchmen and women throughout the Roman empire. Augustine considered Jerome one of the most learned men alive, and began corresponding with him specifically to discuss a point concerning Jerome’s translation of Galatians. Unfortunately the letter got held up in Rome, where the contents were eagerly spread about. The letter itself was nine years in reaching Jerome, who concluded that it had all along been intended for public consumption. “It is a sign of youthful arrogance,” he wrote Augustine, “to try to build up a reputation by assailing prominent figures.” They continued corresponding, Jerome alternately resentful and suspicious, and polite and affectionate. Although Augustine was disturbed by Jerome’s readiness to take offense, he was still courteous and tactful, and the correspondence continued for 25 years, until Jerome’s death in 420.

Simplicianus

When Augustine began seriously considering the claims of Christianity, he started meeting regularly with Simplicianus. This wise old philosopher was counselor to Bishop Ambrose. In fact, it is likely that Ambrose assigned his trusty Simplicianus the task of leading Augustine on the road to conversion. Simplicianus used Neo-platonism, a philosophy compatible with both paganism and Christianity, to meet Augustine halfway. Augustine later wrote that Simplicianus “seemed to me a good servant of Thine; and Thy grace shone in him.” When Ambrose died, it was Simplicianus who succeeded him as bishop.

History

One of the Best Teachers of the Church: Augustine on Teachers and Teaching

Robert T. Sandin

Augustine on Teachers and Teaching

The year after Augustine died, Pope Celestine I pronounced him “one of the best teachers of the church.” That assessment, Pope John Paul II said recently, “has been present ever since in the life of the church and in the mind and culture of the whole Western world.” Evidence that Augustine deserves such plaudits is abundantly present throughout his works, as well as through all the works he engendered by other authors. He was a teacher’s teacher; his life was permeated with education; he drastically influenced much of subsequent education structures.

His life-long vocation was that of a teacher. Before his conversion he was a teacher of rhetoric, and after it he became a teaching bishop. Comments on education appear everywhere in his writings, but are most fully set out in his work On Christian Doctrine. However, to better appreciate this work, one should also read some of his other philosophical and theological works, especially On the Teacher.

He began On Christian Doctrine in 396, around the time he became bishop of Hippo, some 10 years after his conversion. He completed it in 427, more than 30 years later. Yet the work, even though composed over such an extended period, is remarkably coherent and flowing—indicating the extraordinary discipline of Augustine’s educational thought and practice.

In it, Augustine outlines the preparations that will equip the would-be interpreter of scriptural truth to properly understand and communicate the message of the Christian church. The purpose of the work is to discuss “the kind of man he ought to be who seeks to labor in sound doctrine, which is Christian doctrine, not only for himself, but also for others.” The work defines a methodology for scriptural exposition and catechetical instruction, and establishes the curricular foundation that stood beneath virtually all theological education for centuries to come.

The treatise is in four books, but has two main divisions. The first three books deal with the discovery of the meaning of Scripture; the fourth treats the teaching of what has been discovered. For Augustine, the communication of Christian truth was based on analysis of the meaning of the written records of Scripture.

The Interpreter’s Preparation

For Martin Luther (an Augustinian monk), the principle sola scriptura led to an emphasis on the clarity of Scripture. But Augustine’ s approach focused more on the educational and spiritual preparation that enables the interpreter to deal with the obscurities of Scripture, to discover the meanings hidden within its ambiguity.

The Christian message, says Augustine, was originally set forth in a language that encouraged it to spread throughout the world. But biblical language is sometimes figurative and ambiguous, he says, and this places special demands on the learning and imagination of the reader. “Against unknown literal signs the sovereign remedy is a knowledge of languages,” he writes. And against the obscurity of artfully ambiguous or figurative language, he says, a “knowledge of things” is also required.

According to Augustine, students of Scripture must have knowledge of the natural world, of mathematics, and of music. They must have scientific educations in order to defend against superstitious or magical interpretations of scriptural narratives. A knowledge of history is particularly useful in helping them understand the biblical books, and mastery of the “science of disputation” (dialectics) is indispensable for following scriptural and theological arguments.

But no less important than these “liberal-arts” disciplines, he says, are the students’ spiritual preparations. He reports that when he approached the reading of Scripture in a spirit of rationalism, he was repelled by “mysteries” that would have been welcomed by a spirit of faith. He says that students who approach the Scriptures, no matter how complete their educational and technical preparation, should always bear in mind the apostolic warning that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Humility before the Word of God is the key to understanding the truth of Scripture, he indicates. The Bible interpreter must love not controversy, but piety.

Augustine’s respect for the Bible is well known. This is the feature of his thought that most attracted Luther. He declared both the inspiration of Scripture and its total reliability (though his concept of the canonical writings—listed in On Christian Doctrine—includes the five apocryphal books of Judith, the two books of Esdras, and two books of Maccabees). The most expert investigator of scriptural truth, Augustine maintained, must be familiar with the entire body of canonical Scripture.

The Scripture’s Meaning

However, it was the cumulative meaning of this set of writings that was of greatest interest to him. The “heart” of Scripture, its coherent and fully harmonized meaning, should be the essential concern of biblical scholarship, he says.

His method of biblical exegesis allows the interpreter considerable liberty in reading a “scriptural interpretation” into a text. The interpreter may choose to accept any meaning that is “congruous with the truth taught in other passages of the Holy Scriptures,” even if that particular meaning was not clearly intended by the one who wrote the passage. Indeed, a variety of interpretations only contributes to the richness of the meaning of a biblical passage, so long as each is an interpretation “which other no less divine witnesses approve.”

The meaning of Scripture may be inferred from its intended use, he says, which is to inspire the love of God and the enjoyment of him. Love, he says, is the “heart” of Scripture:

“Whoever thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build up the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all … Whoever finds a lesson there useful to the building of charity, even though he has not said what the author may be shown to have intended in that place, has not been deceived, nor is he lying in any way.”

Most of the first book of On Christian Doctrine is devoted to expositing love as the central Christian doctrine, and thus as the basic law of biblical interpretation. Love is also central to Augustine’s understanding of the spiritual preparation for Bible study. Also, he closely associates love as the desire for truth with faith and hope, the three virtues he places at the foundation of all knowledge.

The Intellect’s Believing

To understand scriptural truth, Augustine says, you must have faith. “You are not required to understand in order to believe, but to believe in order to understand.” He rejects both the fideism that despises reason and the rationalism that excludes faith. For Augustine there can be no separation of faith from reason, of purification of the heart from illumination of the mind, of humble adherence to truth from total surrender to the peace of Christ.

The meaning of Scripture does not become clear without the intellectual effort of interpretation, he indicates, nor does it allow for superstitious constructions that presumptuously fly in the face of reason. Only reason is capable of belief, he says; and when it becomes aware of its limitations, true reason then asks for divine help to do what it cannot do alone.

In On Christian Doctrine Augustine comments on two alternative readings (the ancient and the Vulgate) of one of his favorite passages, Isaiah 7:9: “If you will not believe you shall not understand,” and “If you will not believe you shall not continue.” Either reading, he says, contains something of value for the discerning reader. “Unless we walk by faith, we shall not be able to come to that sight that does not fail, but continues through a cleansed understanding, uniting us with truth.”

The context in which faith seeks understanding is unavoidably limited by historical conditions. For Augustine it was Platonism that provided the framework for the intellectual synthesis to which his faith aspired. The Platonists, he declared, have said some things “which are indeed true and well accommodated to our faith.” Hence they should not be feared or rejected; “rather, what they have said should be taken from them” and put to the use of Christian interpretations, in the same way the Israelites took vases and ornaments of gold and silver from the Egyptians when then fled, in order to put them to better use.

The Teacher’s Function

The teacher of Scripture, says Augustine, must be the master not only of its meaning, but also of the method of communication. The wisdom and eloquence of the biblical authors were the primary bases of their persuasiveness, he suggests. The words of the interpreter, however, must exhibit an eloquence suited to the function of interpretation—without ostentation or display. Expositors of Scripture ought not speak in a manner that presumes the same authority as Scripture itself, he says; they should not offer themselves for interpretation.

The interpreter should be primarily concerned not with the eloquence of his teaching, Augustine writes, but with the clarity of it. He should take away all ornamentation without becoming merely vulgar. Augustine cites Cicero’s dictum that “he who is eloquent should speak in such a way that he teaches, delights and moves.” Of these three, comments Augustine, “that which is given first place, i.e. the necessity of teaching, resides in the things we have to say; the other two in the manner in which we say them.”

For Augustine, instruction came before persuasion. When the essential matter has been learned, knowledge may so move the learner that the power of eloquent expression is not required to bring delight and persuasion. May the Lord deliver his church, Augustine prays, from the eloquence that prophesies falsehood, yet inspires the priests to clap their hands and the people to love their words (Jeremiah 5:30, 31). “May this madness never happen to us … Let those things which are said be said less clearly, less pleasingly, less persuasively, but let them be said nevertheless; and may the just rather than the wicked be heard.”

The Christian orator ought to speak truly of the just and the holy and the good, says the saint, and to “so act when he speaks that he may be willingly and obediently heard.” The teacher’s success in performing his function will be affected more by the piety of his prayers than by the proficiency of his oratory, says Augustine. The life of the speaker, furthermore, carries greater weight than his eloquence in determining whether or not he will be heard.

Augustine takes a strictly limited view of the role of the teacher. His thought here is dominated by Plato’s view that truth is latent within every individual, and that no teacher can be the decisive agent in its acquisition. If knowledge is to be sought, Plato suggests, the inquirer must already know what he is seeking. Similarly, Augustine argues, if linguistic signs are to convey any meaning, the recognition of that meaning must already be present in the one who interprets the signs.

We learn, Augustine suggests, not through words sounding in the ear, but through truth teaching us from within. “By means of words we learn nothing but words.” To get beyond words to their meaning we must depend on a “knowledge of realities” that we already possess.

In matters discernible by the mind, if we cannot discern these for ourselves we will listen in vain to the words of someone who can, he says. On the other hand, anyone who can interpret the meaning and judge the truth of what some speaker says is already inwardly a disciple of truth. If anyone learns anything from the words of a teacher, he must already have possessed within himself the criterion of truth that enables him to judge the truth of what the teacher says.

“Who is so foolishly curious,” asks Augustine, “as to send his son to school to learn what the teacher thinks?” When teachers have expounded, by their most eloquent words, all the scholarly disciplines they profess, the student is still left with the problem of judging, in the light of his own inward truth, the merit of what they say.

The true teacher, says the bishop, is the teacher within, not the external teacher—who is, after all, in the same position, in relation to the possession of the truth, as the pupil. The interior teacher, of course, is God, and the process of his teaching is illumination. The divine illumination, however, treats the mind not as merely passive, but as active. Augustine’s view of education is thus based on profound respect for the capacity, latent within every human mind, of apprehending the truth. Truth is always within our grasp, he says, if we only pay attention to the master within.

The Saint’s Impact

Despite the length of his discourses on education, Augustine’s educational philosophy displays a tantalizing incompleteness—stemming from his understanding of the limits of all educational discourse.

Nevertheless, Augustinianism has had a profound impact on Western thought, and it retains a remarkable vitality after 15 centuries. But it has never been a metaphysics—it is only a method. This is why, as Gilson remarks, that every introduction to the study of Augustine creates an intense consciousness of futility, for such an introduction “has done nothing more than to enable others to understand him, but to have others follow him does not rest with man.”

Albert the Great, the teacher of Thomas Aquinas, used to advise his disciples to follow Augustine in theology and Aristotle in philosophy. Aquinas, remarks Maritain, obtained the “scientific” equipment for his own intellectual synthesis from Aristotle, but received the substance of his “wisdom” from Augustine. Aquinas, says Maritain, showed greater fidelity to the wisdom of Augustine than to the logic of Aristotle. “He corrected Aristotle; he honored Augustine as a son honors his father.”

Luther was more comfortable with the Augustinian temper than with the Thomistic. The Pauline influence on Augustine and the emphasis on the doctrine of divine grace held a powerful appeal for Luther. The other side of Augustinianism—the acceptance of the classical philosophical tradition—evoked from Luther the same hostility he directed toward all scholasticism.

In Luther, theocentric religion reasserted itself. Augustinian piety seemed to him a form of self-love that essentially changed the meaning of faith. Our fellowship with God, said Luther, rests not on the purification of our love, but on the sinfulness of our hearts.

Augustine’s influence on medieval thought and education was enormous. His concept of education, combined with his personal reputation and administrative energies, produced a system of schools that was a powerful force in both church and culture for centuries. “More than a single writer,” says Armand Mauer, “St. Augustine molded the medieval mind.”

On Christian Doctrine was studied with particular care in medieval circles of education. Cassiodorus, in the 6th century, used it as the basis of his Institutes of Divine and Secular Letters. He adapted Augustine’s list of studies needed by well-prepared Bible interpreters into his classic formula of the seven liberal arts—the Trivium: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics; and the Quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy. Rabanus Maurus, in the 9th century, incorporated whole sections of On Christian Doctrine in his three-volume plan of education, De institutions clericorum. In the 12th century the work provided the inspiration for the Didascalion of Hugo of St. Victor, whose theological work as a whole has caused him to be known to history as a second Augustine. Finally, On Christian Doctrine provided the dominant themes and organizing principle of the Book of Sentences by Peter Lombard.

The curriculum of medieval education thus drew its inspiration from Augustine’s outline of the studies essential to the preparation of the teacher of biblical truth. When the great European universities were founded in the 12th century, the program of studies was essentially the same as the curriculum outlined in On Christian Doctrine.

The scope of such influence, as Battenhouse observes, was due to the breadth of Augustine’s own outlook and the extraordinary discipline that he maintained over his thought: “He saw Christianity as a whole, with a completeness beyond anything any of his predecessors had known.” His own education left him at home in all the liberal arts, and his own quest for spiritual wholeness give him a unique perspective on the dialectical and developmental aspects of Christian education. “By Christian inspiration he gradually forged from the salvaged resources of Hellenism a new philosophy, in which old problems were redefined and old concepts reshaped.”

Augustine worked, as T.S.K. Scott-Craig says, as a representative of a new religion inside an old culture. He created a way to synthesize the new religious energy with the classical tradition of learning and culture, and thus assured the continued vitality of this religious perspective for centuries.

Robert T. Sandin is provost and professor of philosophy at Mercer University, Atlanta, and author of The Search for Excellence: The Christian College in an Age of Educational Competition

- More from Robert T. Sandin

History

St. Augustine: From the Publisher

Agree or disagree, now or after reading this issue: After Jesus and Paul, Augustine of Hippo is the most influential figure in the history of Christianity…

1987 marks the 1,600th anniversary of Augustine’s conversion to Christ and baptism. The anniversary is noteworthy not only because of Augustine’s influence on Christendom, for his pivotal role in history extends well beyond the ecclesiastical; it is noteworthy because he is one of the central pillars on which our entire Western civilization is built.

Time magazine acknowledged this in its September 29 issue of 1986, when it devoted a full page to a summary of and commentary on Augustine’s life and influence. Time observed that Augustine, in each of the 16 centuries since his conversion, has continued to exert a “major intellectual, spiritual and cultural force.”

Here at Christian History we have probably had more requests from readers for an issue exclusively devoted to Augustine than for anyone else. We thought this anniversary year was a perfectly appropriate time to present one.

There is no greater expression of human beauty, nor is there any greater exaltation of human nature, than when individuals or groups are humbled under, touched by, and made aware of the reality and presence of God’s grace. And none, apart from the biblical writers and characters, did more to help us understand the supreme joy of life in God’s grace than the man from North Africa treated in these pages.

He lived at a time when the waves of barbarians surging into the Roman empire must have created public anxiety similar to that experienced today because of the threat of nuclear holocaust. The barbaric Goths sacked Rome in 410 A.D., and the Vandals were besieging the city of Hippo even as Augustine, the city’s bishop, lay on his deathbed. Smoke from Vandal-set fires was wafting through the windows of his room as he breathed his last.

During his life he also had to deal with the pagans’ repeated attacks against Christianity and the church, and with divisions within the church sparked by heretics who used methods both physically violent and intellectually challenging. His time, like ours, was one of those moments in history when the potential destruction of our culture and civilization was more than an occasional nightmare—it was perceived as an imminent threat.

Augustine did many things in response to the crises of his 5th-century world, including write The City of God. Partially as a result of his efforts, paganism in that era was defeated, though never fully exterminated, and doctrines were developed to answer heresy. The barbarians eventually became Christianized, even if only nominally, and the church grew stronger, though not necessarily better. His resolute and intelligent responses to these crises have significantly influenced numerous sojourners in the city of man to establish their citizenship in the City of God. When and how we come through our crises (some would say if ) is yet to be seen. But it wouldn’t hurt to dust off The City of God and give it another look. Were Augustine alive today, might he not still write much the same?

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The Translation

The Relics Today

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In this series

The Hopelessness of Evil

The Triumph of God

The Need for Active Faith

Augustine’s Realism

Augustine’s Skepticism

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In this series

The Restless Heart

The Mystery of God

The Secret Affections

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Augustine

The Church

The Roman Empire

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Monica

Alypius

Adeodatus, Concubine

Ambrose

Valerius

Possidius

Jerome

Simplicianus

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In this series

The Interpreter’s Preparation

The Scripture’s Meaning

The Intellect’s Believing

The Teacher’s Function

The Saint’s Impact

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