on grace and sin

Saint Augustine

Aurelius Augustine was born in Tagaste (modern day Algeria, Africa) on 13 November, 354 A.D. and died in 430. His parents sent him to be educated in Madaura, before he made it to Carthage, a university town. His Latin style was greatly influenced by Cicero, a philosopher, before his conversion, from whom his moral ideals were crystallized.

Not long in Carthage, He succumbed to sexual temptations that he ended up staying with a concubine, and a son was born to him. On many occasions, he was torn between the ideals that he was supposed to live up to as a learnt man and the worldly pleasure that can’t seem to get enough of him looming throughout his adolescent years. He then consorted himself to the teaching of a religious cult, Manicheism[1]. But Augustine didn’t feel to have found an answer for his own devastation in this matter.

From Carthage to Milan, at the age of 30, he took up a position as a young professor for an imperial court. His public life coupled with her mother (a devout Catholic) joining him in Milan, had him introduced to Bishop Amrose. He was slowly convinced of the truth through the sermons, and finally baptized by Amrose in 387 during the Easter service. Leading up to his conversion was an occasion where he despaired himself of any wills to overcome his major sexual weakness. Under a fig tree, as he heard the singsong of a boy, tolle lege (take it and read it), he picked up the Scripture and his eyes landed on the passage of Romans 13:13-14. He was determined to change.

In 388, Augustine came back to Tagaste because Rome had lost its glory. He stayed there for three years before his visit to the Hippo Regius, where he found himself ordained as a priest against his will, working alongside Bishop Valerius. He then assumed responsibility as soon as Valerius died in 395, a position he had held toward the end of his life.

During his Episcopal years, Augustine fought against the teachings of Manicheism, the Donatist[2], as well as the Pelagianism[3]. His work on The City of God is a masterpiece that has influenced the thought of many Christians after him.

Augustine was against the Donatist’s view of a pure church. Until the judgment day, the church must be a mixture of bad and good people in it. He also rejected the view that sacraments belong to the ministers than to Christ. In his view, the ministers are only God’s means whom He had ordained Himself to administer the sacraments. Therefore, God’s grace is independent from the means He chooses to deliver it.

Against Pelagianism, Augustine believed that Adam’s sin had enormous consequences. By himself, man is incapable of anything good, because his share in Adam’s fall has ripped off his ability to not to sin. If anything, it’s purely God’s grace that could have saved man from his sin, as only true to Augustine’s own experience. Out of the fallen race, God chooses some to receive His grace, thus, salvation is a matter between God and an individual, and nothing could come in between, even the church, which serves later as the basis for Protestant Reformation.

In The City of God, Augustine wrote that humanity either belongs to the Worldly City or the Heavenly City of God. The former is temporal, but the later is eternal, as such, the present one might be bad, but the coming one is far better, which if compared, Rome would come to nothing. It also deals with issues such as what Christians owed to God and what to Ceasar.

Bibliographies:
Shelley, Bruce L. 1995 (Updated 2nd Edition). Church History in Plain Language.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html , cited on 21.05.2006.


[1] The basic teaching of Manicheism is, if any wicked things are committed, human being is not at fault, because he is a by-product of the two natures (the good spiritual aspect and the evil physical body) within him that wage war to claim mastery over his life, like a cosmic battle between a good creator and an evil destroyer. However, a man is to abstain from all enjoyments (i.e. riches, lust, wine, etc) of life, if he is to free the good in him from the evil.

[2] The Donatist name arose from Donatus, an early bishop of Carthage (313-355), who led the protest against the Catholic practices. Along with his followers, they insisted that church leaders (pastors) ordained by certain bishops who had committed a sin of apostasy (because they handed over the Scriptures to be burned while persecuted by Diocletian) were not fit to be counted as the true churches. Also, they argued that sacraments were to be ministered by morally faultless pastors in order to be valid.

[3] The Pelagianism is a teaching of Pelagius, a British monk who came to North Africa from Rome. Pelagius denied that Adam had anything to do with the moral condition of mankind, and that death was not a consequence of Adam’s sin. By himself, a man is able not to sin. However, almost all men have committed sins, but once forgiven by having “faith alone”, man can live a life that pleases God by himself. He also insisted that God doesn’t predestinate, but only foresees who will accept or reject His grace.