Augustine: - “But now, can that part of the human race to whom God hath promised deliverance and a place in the eternal Kingdom be restored through the merits of their own works? Of course not! For what good works could a lost soul do except as he had been rescued from his lostness? Could he do this by the determination of his free will? Of course not! For it was in the evil use of his free will that man destroyed himself and his will at the same time. For as a man who kills himself is still alive when he kills himself, but having killed himself is then no longer alive and cannot resuscitate himself after he has destroyed his own life... Once again, lest anyone glory, if not in his own works, at least in the determination of his free will, as if some merit had originated from him and as if the freedom to do good works had been bestowed on him as a kind of reward, let him hear the same herald of grace, announcing: 'For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good will.'""

Me: *crying*

A good book. Augustine cuts to the heart of some issues, and makes some things clear. He's definitely a philosopher, and comes at theology and the Bible with a philosopher's eye.

The Enchiridion is a very short (141 pages) treatise on Faith, Hope, and Love that Augustine wrote for a friend. It is broken down into questions with a short answer (two pages at most). This is a great book if you want to have an understanding of Augustine's theology because he covers it all here without going too far into philosophical discussions, which he is very prone to do.

The most interesting parts to me were his discussion on evil arising from a corruption of good and how God works good through evil in this fallen world. It also gave me insight into the catholic understanding of almsgiving as necessary to salvation, which I disagree with, but Augustine roots in the fact that they considered forgiving someone who has sinned against you as almsgiving. He also explains the catholic understanding of purgatory, which was unconvincing, but interesting to hear where it was derived from.

It is a great companion to bible reading or if you do not have long to read and want something short and weighty to reflect on.

I've been meaning to read this little book for some time, and it found its way to me at just the right time. Augustine's thoughts in the first half of the work, which address the weariness and discouragement felt by a teaching deacon within the church at Carthage, provide both a relevant and wise frame for thinking about the teaching of spiritual things.

Not only does Augustine see clearly into the problems that teachers in the church face, but he helpfully discusses the solutions, using the love of Christ in the Incarnation as his model.

He then moves on to a wonderfully concise treatment of the Christian faith, using the story of the Bible as his narrative framework and showing his clear penchant for reading the Old Testament in light of the New.

This has been an extremely meaningful book in my life, and I look forward to revisiting it many times in the future.

Augustine is arguably the most influential theologian in Western Christianity. Within Catholicism, Augustine is, of course, Saint Augustine. His writings are a foundational part of Catholic tradition. Yet, Augustine has been highly influential in Lutheran and Reformed (or Calvinist) traditions. Augustine’s writings helped Martin Luther formulate the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion relies heavily on citations from Augustine. In its prefatory address to French King Francis, it was to Augustine (and other church fathers) that Calvin appealed to defend the Reformation against charges of novelty or departing from church tradition. In keeping with Augustine’s broad influence, The Enchiridion includes Protestant and Catholic theology and some doctrines unique to Catholicism. While the Enchiridion is primarily a handbook of theology, it also showcases Augustine’s technical ability in philosophy.

The Nature of Evil

Augustine developed the idea that evil has no existence in and of itself. Evil can only exist as a parasite in something good. “What are called vices in the soul are nothing but privations [absences of] of natural good. And when they are cured, they are not transferred elsewhere: when they cease to exist in the healthy soul, they cannot exist anywhere else.” (1) Furthermore, psychologically, evil has a deceptive nature. “When the mind attains the objects of its desire, however hurtful or empty they may be, error prevents it from perceiving their true nature.” This error produces a “foolish joy” (italics in the original) concerning evil. (2) Similarly, Simone Weil captured the sense in which evil is a delusional enjoyment in this thought, “Two conceptions of hell: the ordinary one (suffering without consolation); mine (false beatitude, mistakenly thinking oneself to be in paradise).” (3)

Creation and the Fall

Augustine emphasizes the unchangeable nature of God as the creator in contrast to creation, which is good but not “unchangeably good.” The changeability of creation became apparent in “some of the angels” who “rebelled against God, and were cast down from their heavenly abode.” (4) Likewise, humanity rebelled against God by disobeying his command for them in the Garden of Eden. Death and judgment for all humanity (present and future) resulted from humanity’s rebellion.

Salvation through Christ

Because of his virgin birth, Christ did not carry the guilt of death and judgment. Yet he was fully man and God in that he experienced the full range of human emotions and temptations, but as God, he could not sin. Through his death and resurrection, Christ made salvation possible for humanity. At the same time, death and judgment are still the ends awaiting every human being, “unless he be new born in Christ” through faith. (5) The certainty of death and judgment apart from Christ is difficult to accept, and clearly, many people disbelieve it. But as Pascal remarked, “Let us put on as bold a face as we like: that is the end awaiting the world's most illustrious life.” (6)

The Nature of Christian Righteousness

Augustine underscores broad areas of agreement between Catholic and Protestant Christianity regarding grace, faith, and good works performed after conversion. There is agreement that faith is a gift of God granted by grace and not based on good works performed before conversion. There is also unanimity on the truths that the Christian faith, without good works, is dead and that God’s forgiveness in no way excuses habitual wrongdoing or a lack of ongoing growth in grace as a Christian.

During and after the Reformation, differences emerged between Catholics and Protestants regarding the nature of Christian righteousness. In Catholicism, when a person becomes a Christian, a “righteousness” is conferred upon him that is “merited by Christ.” At the same time, a person receives “an interior sanctifying quality” existing “in the soul itself, which makes it truly just and holy in the sight of God.” (7) The interior sanctifying quality that a person receives is a Christian but also a human righteousness. Because it is a human righteousness, it can be increased. By contrast, Luther's formulation best characterizes the Protestant position: when a person becomes a Christian, the individual is “at once righteous and a sinner.” The person is “righteous in God’s sight because of Christ” and simultaneously “a sinner as measured according to his own merits.” (8) Because a person is declared to be righteous because of the righteousness of Christ, that individual has divine righteousness. Because it is divine, it is impossible to humanly increase it.

While the above discussion may seem like splitting hairs, it can have practical and dramatic implications. Before the Reformation, Luther was a zealous Catholic monk yet still found himself unable to obtain a clear conscience or to believe that he was forgiven as a Christian. Only by studying Scripture did he reach an epiphany that he was forgiven based on Christ’s righteousness and not his own.

The Nature of Baptism

In Augustine’s time and for many Christians throughout history (and today), baptism was the entry point into Christianity. As Augustine describes it, baptism “indicates our death with Christ to sin, and our resurrection with him to newness of life.” (9) On this point, there is general agreement throughout Christianity. Beyond this, however, there are divergent beliefs regarding baptism.

According to the Catholic understanding of baptism, as Augustine notes, “Infants die only to original sin; those who are older also die to all the sins which their evil lives have added to the sin which they brought with them.” (10)

Lutherans retained baptism's sacramental nature for the forgiveness of sins. However, they did so in keeping with the at-once-righteous-and-a-sinner theology that applied to Lutheran beliefs in general. For Lutherans, “baptism forgives the guilt of original sin, but the sinful nature that remains is real sin.” (11)

In the Reformed tradition, infant baptism is also sacramental but is a sign and a seal of future faith brought to fruition later in life. For adults, Reformed baptism is a sign and a seal of faith already granted.

The Anabaptists emerged during the Reformation as a challenge to Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions. They agreed with the Reformers on the issue of justification by faith. However, they believed that adults baptized as infants should be rebaptized as adults. They held this belief based on Christ’s baptism as an adult and that the baptisms recorded in the New Testament are of adults. Reformers countered these arguments with the argument that whole families were baptized in the New Testament and that it’s reasonable to conclude that infants were included.

The Reformers rejected the Anabaptists' baptismal beliefs based on Scripture and church tradition. However, the Anabaptists' beliefs were also likely dismissed for other reasons. As the Reformation advanced, national governments (and eventually whole countries) declared themselves Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed. In these Christian societies, where everyone was baptized as an infant, baptism was an important organizing function. In this societal context, the Anabaptists’ rejection of infant baptism was anarchical.

Stages of the Christian Life

When Christianity first emerged, as recorded in the New Testament, it was to people hearing the message of the Gospel for the first time. There was an eagerness and urgency to listen and also share the message of this new faith. As Christian history progressed, the problem of passing on the faith to the next generation emerged. This has taken the form of catechism or Sunday school classes in early childhood and young adulthood. The problem is that children brought to church since infancy have never known a life outside a church and its influence. In approaching Christianity and conversion at a young age, they are not making a clean break with a non-Christian life in the way that the earliest Christians did or in the way that adult converts today do.

Augustine speaks of a second stage in the Christian life when a person first becomes aware of sin and plunges headlong into it instead of avoiding it. In the third stage, a person turns to Christ in faith and “lives the life of the just by faith.” Augustine also speaks of those who “have never known the second stage.” Instead, they pass through it and receive “the divine assistance” of faith as soon as they receive knowledge of sin. This is a helpful way of resolving how those raised in a Christian home establish a lasting faith without ever living a life of sin. (12)

Storms Within and Without Will Someday Be Silenced

Rob Norris, a retired Presbyterian pastor in the Washington D.C. area, told a story in a sermon drawn from Victor Hugo’s novel Ninety-Three. At one point in the novel, men are aboard a ship during a violent thunderstorm when a cannon comes loose below deck. The cannon careens back and forth, smashing into the ship’s sides before finally being secured. Applying this story to life, Rob made the point that in our lives, it is sometimes necessary to calm the story raging inside of us in order to face the storm raging outside of us. Augustine points us to a time and place where this will no longer be necessary. In heaven, “no part of our nature shall be in discord with another; but as we shall be free from enemies without, so we shall not have ourselves for enemies within.” (13)

Notes

1. St. Augustine. The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love. Translated by J.B. Shaw. Regnery Publishing, 1961, pp. 11-12.

2. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 31.

3. Quoted from Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace.

4. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 34.

5. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 61.

6. Quoted from Pascal’s Pensées.

7. “Justification.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/0857...

8. Muller, Richard. “simul iustus et peccator” Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms. Baker Books, 2004, p. 283.

9. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 52.

10. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 53.

11. “Baptism and Original Sin.” Taken from https://wels.net/faq/baptism-and-orig....
Accessed 29 June 2024.

12. Augustine, The Enchiridion, pp. 137-138.

13. Augustine, The Enchiridion, p. 106

This is the first Augustine that I've read -- mostly because his other works are significantly larger and more dense than this one. But I enjoyed this one so much that I may try to tackle some others. Anything that I could say about Augustine has been said many times before by many other people, so I won't repeat myself. But if you're interested in reading Augustine, I'd recommend this as a good starting point.

Saint Augustine explains the principles of the apostolic faith.

An excellent and short Augustine read. He outlines faith and talks about God's sovereignty and the basics of the Christian faith. He has some great thought provoking sections like the mediation between God and man. He also writes about the giving of alms and penance.

I've an old paperback copy, A Gateway Edition, edited and with an introduction by Henry Paolucci, and including historical analysis by Adolph von Harnack. (1961) A fine introduction to Augustinian Christianity. Perhaps because the world has turned so dark, in so many corners, I thought why not pick up a book that concerns itself with notions of faith, sin, grace, and, of course, love. So much that's contrary to the sloppy and self-regarding manner in which most of us waste our ever diminishing days, I was tempted to go back to the beginning and start again. But I thought, I'd see what sunk in and what I will be able to recall at a dinner in the country with friends tomorrow. Yes, I do recommend it if your haven't read it, or haven't picked it up in some time.

In the final analysis, I wasn't taken by St. Augustine's notion of original sin, or endless death promising either salvation or damnation, but I don't suppose that one has to be in for a penny, in for a pound. Regardless of one's faith, I think the central themes are sufficiently universal to have one ask, why not stay in and think about how one squandered the last week, rather than go out and see the latest Batman movie?

Written over 1500 years ago, Augustine wrote this catechism with the intention to summarize the Christian religion to it's core. A great guide to catholic (universal) Christian doctrine that Christians still believe and confess to this day. His chapter on evil has particularly influenced my thinking. His argument for the privation theory of evil (evil has no being, and parasitic on the good) is nothing less than ingenious.

Such an excellent book in many respects. His view of evil as privation gives solid foundation for discussing the problem of evil as well as fighting sin in my own heart. The fourfold state of man's nature is insightful, and the idea of our will being as free as it ever will be once we are not able to be enslaved to sin is so helpful. This went hand in hand with his discussion of resurrected, spiritual bodies.

His explanation of original sin, and its connection to conception by the Holy Spirit and birth from the virgin Mary, has lasting value. I also enjoyed his explanation of repentance being the first and greatest giving of alms.

Now, some of the not-so-great stuff that can be twisted: His general aversion to sex (even in the bounds of marriage); his connection of baptism to the removal of original sin; his treatment of purgatorial fire; the remission of sins in relation to the church (especially in terms of penance and almsgiving).

Overall, more modern Protestant Christians should read Augustine and wrestle with his arguments (both the ones that we can "amen!" and the other ones).

I feel like it's wrong to give an Augustine book only 3 stars, but nonetheless I really didn't feel this little book was the treasue that its overall rating reflects.
The book isn't really a book, and could more aptly be described as a pamphlet; something the author himself attests. Better received as a free ebook or publication, the book is a simplistic look at certain Christian concepts. Unfortunately, the author may have gone overboard in his attempt at simplicity, as some of the subjects deserve a more reverent look (eg baptism). Still, for the little time it takes to read, it is not a waste.