Wisdom of Saints: St Augustine of Hippo

Feast of Augustine, Doctor, Bishop of Hippo, Africa, 430

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Augustine, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 St Augustine of Hippo is in Western Christianity the foremost among the saints in terms of his impact on Christian doctrine and understanding. Many of his writings survive, and his impact on modern Christian theology cannot be overstated.

St Augustine was born in 354 in Numidia (modern day Algeria), then part of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis. His mother Monica was a Christian, however his father was a pagan. His mother sought to raise him as a Christian, and he received a Christian education. At the time, Baptism was often delayed until later in life, so despite some possible successes in his instruction in the Christian faith he was not baptised at that time. At the age of sixteen, seeing his successes in school, St Augustine’s father was determined to send him to Carthage for study in a career in forensics, however before he could be sent, sufficient money was needed to cover the expense and so St Augustine stayed idle in his home town for that year. It was during that year that his heart fell away from Christianity and he turned to vice. He was eventually sent to Carthage, but only continued in his exploration of the pleasures offered by pagans in that larger city. Eventually he took a mistress who bore him a son at the age of eighteen.

St Augustine had a great love of philosophy and was a seeker of truth. He turned to different philosophies and religions in an effort to seek ultimate truth. He became a Manichaean, drawn to its allegorical symbolism and promise of truth, in contrast to what he considered the vulgar and low-level, perhaps even ridiculous at times, Christian Scriptures.

He was still a student in Carthage when he converted to Manichaeism, and devoted his considerable talents to the understanding and promotion of this new philosophy. He read all their writings and contributed his own thoughts. As his intellectual talents continued to develop, he turned his career paths, returned to his home town of Tagaste and taught grammar, then returned to Carthage to teach rhetoric.

It was during this time that he began to have doubts about Manichaeism, as its teachings had failed to bear the promised fruit of understanding he sought, and he began to hold intellectual objections to various elements of its doctrines. He had spent nearly a decade devoting himself to the sect before ultimately becoming disillusioned.

At the age of 28, St Augustine was determined to leave Africa and make his fortune in Rome. He travelled, under cover of night in an effort to leave his mother behind, as she sought to follow him to his distress. In Italy, he opened his own school, but after being defrauded of tuition fees was forced to seek a position at another school, and ended up teaching in Milan, where he first came to meet Milan’s bishop, St Ambrose. In 386, St Augustine converted to Christianity, chiefly for three reasons: St Ambrose’s ability to answer his questions and his growing admiration for the Milanese bishop, and more importantly, God had touched his heart drawing him back to Christ whom he had borne with him ever since his early Christian education. He was baptised Easter 387, and devoted himself thoroughly to applying his intelectual gifts to the understanding an explication of Christianity.

He returned to Africa shortly after his baptism and was ordained a priest in 391 and consecrated Bishop of Hippo in 396. He would spend the rest of his life devoted to the shepherding of his flock and writing. While many of his works have disappeared, to this day over 100 books, 200 letters and 500 homilies survive, and the breadth of his theological work remains strongly influential, particularly in the Western church.

His first published Christian work is his Confessions, which reads as an outpouring of autobiographical penitence for his life up until its publication. The restlessness that led him on his quest for truth and the answer he found, is described therein: “for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” Even from his earliest works it was clear that St Augustine had a deep and well-articulated understanding to the relationship between God and mankind.

In his works, St Augustine also published a number of propositions that he would later revise and reject in subsequent works. It was a sign of his humility that upon reflection and further study he was more than willing to admit to theological errors and repudiate the positions he had previously advocated.

In his multi-volume work Christian Doctrine, St Augustine can be seen laying some of the foundational theology for St Bernard of Clairvaux’s famous On Loving God. In it he discusses at length the need of man to love God and neighbour. St Augustine goes on to  write on the Order of Love stating:

No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.  And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself.  Likewise we ought to love another man better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.

St Augustine was a strong advocate of Biblical literacy and after noting the Canon of Scripture, he calls on Christians to familiarize themselves with Scripture. This position would become less popular over time to the point where it became a major issue during the Reformation to once again allow Bibles to be published in vernacular such that those who were literate could read, and even those who were illiterate could at least understand when it was read to them. Interestingly, he advocates for the familiarity or memorization of Scripture for several reasons, including the fact that once someone is familiar with Scripture, they themselves can use the technique of employing clear passages to interpret more obscure passages, a common exegetical technique used by the Church Fathers in St Augustine’s day. In his own words:

For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life,—to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book.  After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages.

St Augustine’s clear articulation as God as love and Christ as our hope throughout Christian Doctrine, makes it an extremely influential theological work, and throughout Western Christianity, Augustinian theology continues to inform the works of countless Christians. For millions of Christians, St Augustine’s words succinctly characterize their continued faith: “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romance — to seek Him the greatest of all adventures, to find Him the greatest human achievement.”