Five Things I Learned Reading Augustine

St. Augustine of Hippo.

That was the full Christian name of my now deceased cat.  I loved that cat.

It was also the name of a well-known bishop and author who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries.  He is widely-respected, having been "sainted" by the Catholic Church and also being considered a spiritual father by the Reformers and even many modern Evangelicals.  John Calvin, for instance, quotes from Augustine extensively in his Institutes, many times wresting back Augustine's authority from his Catholic opponents who claimed it for their own positions.

Like emo kids in the 2000's wearing tee-shirts adorned with the images of Bob Marley or The Ramones, we sometimes agree with famous theologians without ever really knowing what they taught.  Not wanting to be "that guy," I recently decided to read one of Augustine's works.  Instead of reading The City of God or Confessions, cuz, who has time for that, I decided to start with something much shorter, his Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love.  I wanted to start out with something that I felt would be a quick read (for the record, I just finished Calvin's Institutes, so I needed a reprieve) and still be somewhat representative of his teaching.  The Handbook ended up serving precisely that purpose.  Overall, I enjoyed it, but it was eye-opening in several ways.  Here are five things that this book taught me (or reminded me of):   

1) Our faith is ancient.  It is comforting to read a book written approximately 16 centuries ago and to recognize the faith being set forth.  Are there different ideas and terms and understandings?  Sure, but the fundamental faith held by Augustine is the same faith held by orthodox Christians around the world today.  When we hold fast to the doctrine of the Apostles, we preserve the truth about God, ourselves, and our world that was revealed by our Lord.  It should be our goal to maintain that truth unscathed.  Which leads me to my second point...

2) How quickly the truth can be corrupted!  Augustine was born in 354 A.D. and died in 430 A.D.  Much of his teaching is venerable and edifying, but even in this small work I was able to discern the seeds of errors that now constitute major Catholic teachings.  His view of the merit of works would require a much longer discussion, but his teachings on things like purgatory and offering sacraments on behalf of the deceased demonstrate how quickly the Church allowed man-made ideas to infiltrate the doctrine passed down by the Apostles.  This is not the place for a historical discussion of the development of these doctrines, but these fictions were by no means new in Augustine's day.  It is startling how these extrabiblical ideas were beginning to be well-developed and accepted only a few centuries after Christ and His Apostles left the Earth.  Augustine is an early Christian author, but he by no means represents the seminal Christian faith.  Which brings me to my third point...

3) We whitewash our heroes.  Isn't it amazing how we overlook the stuff we don't care for when discussing the giants of the faith?  From Augustine to Luther to Lewis, we often ignore some of the less appealing doctrines that they taught.  We do this when we're trying to appeal to the authority of a well-respected theologian to prove a point, particularly when we want to prove that our view is ancient.  Augustine is ancient enough that most Christians don't actually know what he taught, which means he is perfect for piecemeal quoting.  Now, I believe it is alright to take the good with the bad.  No teacher besides our Savior (and His Apostles, so far as they were led by His Spirit) ever taught perfectly, and it is good to be able to glean the wheat carefully without imbibing the chaff (this is an ability not everyone has, so some are better off limiting their exposure to "safe" theologians).  Even when we take the good with the bad, however, we must be honest and critical about our theological heroes.  We must not pretend that Augustine and Calvin viewed everything the same way, or that either Augustine or Calvin had everything right.  Which leads me to my fourth point...

4) Systematic Theology is a good thing.  We often view history anachronistically.  This is especially true of theological history.  We ask things like, "Was John Calvin amil or postmil?" without realizing that that question makes absolutely no sense.  It's easy to read Augustine, especially if you've read Calvin first, and to think that he would have fallen on one side of a debate or the other.  Did he teach baptismal regeneration or not?  Did he believe in justification by faith or justification by faith/works?  If we think in these categories, it is easy to misunderstand or misrepresent what he taught.  It will even seem like he is making contradictory statements because he can embrace two concepts that we view as in opposition to one another.  While progressive theology is often dangerous, systematic theology is good and necessary, and it is progressive in nature.  As theologians have broken down issues and made clarifications over the last 19 centuries, we have come to understand God's Word better.  John Calvin thought in different categories than Augustine did, with different terms and narrower debates defining his teaching than existed in Augustine's day, and our categories are equally different than those in Calvin's day.  It is important and edifying to read classic theological texts, but, as we do so, it is important to read them with an understanding of the theological history that intervenes between them and our own day.  Which leads me to my fifth point... 

5) I need to read more Augustine.  This short treatise offered only a sampling of the wealth of teaching Augustine left behind.  From what I can tell, and from what others have told me, Augustine was a pretty complex guy.  His writings encompassed a litany of subjects and were written over several decades, which means that his views developed as he grew in his faith and knowledge of the Word.  By reading his short handbook on the faith, I learned that reading a little bit of Augustine just isn't enough.  Looks like I'm going to have to make time to read some of those longer works...