Augustine, Part Two

One who has no love believes in vain, even though what he believes may be the truth.

A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, edited by James R. Payton, Jr

The second post on Augustine; at least one more will be required.

NB: Augustine is viewed with some suspicion in Eastern Orthodoxy, although he is sainted in all traditions which recognize saints. For example, he has a greater confidence than many in the ability of human reason to penetrate the mysteries of the Christian faith. Further, the imputation of original sin and the denial of the freedom of the human will after our parents’ fall have been rejected with Orthodoxy.

I will note (*) comments that Payton has noted as falling outside of the bounds of Eastern Orthodox thought.

I offered this same note last week, in the first part of this review of Augustine. In considering it, this idea of a greater confidence in the ability of human reason to penetrate the mysteries of the Christian faith is what I have been struggling with in my review of the Council of Chalcedon (and other topics that have divided the Church). Why do we divide over the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity, or of how God became man, or just how, precisely God and man exist in one being?

In this over-reliance on man’s reason to penetrate such mysteries, the Eastern Orthodox Church stands in error as much as does Augustine and much of the rest of the Church.

God

God does not fill place or space by any mass of body and thus exist in one place while being absent in another, or at least have some part here ad another elsewhere. Through the greatness of His being He is everywhere present, not divided in to parts but everywhere complete.

The goodness of the Creator does not indeed cease to administer even to the bad angels life and vitality, without which they would cease to exist.

I recall coming across this idea that it is only by God’s active participation that the universe and all in it continues to exist; without His active participation it, or any creatures in it, would cease to exist.

Further, this is consistent with the notion that even physics is coming around to: the idea that creation began in a mind, as opposed to some unexplainable big bang or whatever.

God’s Kingdom

Just as light that is present is absent to the blind or to those who shut their eyes, so the Kingdom of God, though it never departs from the earth, yet is absent to those who know nothing about it.

Scripture

Who agrees with divine Scripture except the one who religiously reads or hears it, according to the highest authority, such that what he learns there does not make him hate it because it thwarts his sinning? Rather, it makes him love what corrects him and makes him rejoice that his diseases receive attention until they are cured; and if he finds anything obscure or what appears to him absurd, he does not forthwith start a contest if contradicting it, but prays for further knowledge and bears in mind the reverence and good disposition of soul that is to be shown to so commanding an authority.

Faith seeks understanding.

Man

For humanity true wisdom consists in piety.

But can these members of the human race to whom God promised deliverance and a place in the eternal kingdom be saved by the merits of their works? That is out of the question.

Sin

When by free will sin was committed, sin became the conqueror, free will was lost; “by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.” [2 Peter 2:19] This is certainly the mind of the Apostle Peter. And since this is true, what sort of liberty, I ask you, can the bondslave possess except the liberty to sin? *

Payton notes on this point a disagreement from the Eastern Orthodox. I will quote him precisely; “Orthodox Christianity denies this Augustinian affirmation. Following common patristic teaching, Orthodox affirm that the human will is not in bondage but remains free, even after our first parent’s fall, to turn toward God and respond positively to what He enjoins.”

First, I think what is meant by free will means different things to different people – including different things to different Christians. Even in this objection by Payton, it appears that we respond to God – in other words, the opening hand is played by God, not man.

Yet, I return to: everyone reading this blog is here right now, however one wants to explain why you are here. We know something of Scripture, of faith, of our sin (however that sin entered into us). We know the saving grace of Christ on the cross.

So, what is the debate about amongst us?

It is not lawful to be angry with one’s brother or to say “Raca” or to say “You fool”, much less is it lawful to retain in mind anything that may turn anger into hatred.

As, therefore, one comes to sin in three steps – suggestion, pleasure consent – so there are three varieties of sin itself: in the heart, in the act, in the habit.

Wrongdoing can be better punished in a spirit of love than be left unpunished; the one who punishes does not wish the one punished to be unhappy by the punishment but happy through the correction he receives.

This can only happen if the one who punishes comes forward with the right spirit; not one of revenge or retribution, but of love and concern.

There can be ostentation, not only amid the splendor and pomp of material things, but also in the drab of sackcloth itself; and the latter is all the more dangerous, since it sometimes masquerades in the guise of service to God.

There are examples of such false piety in the Pharisees of Jesus’s time.

Every sin harms the one who commits it more than the one against whom it is committed.

I don’t know that this is always true, but I know many examples in my life where it is likely true.

Outside the Church there is no remission of sin.

I guess it depends what one means by the word “Church.” In Augustine’s time there was unity among all Christians, and anyone outside of that unity was outside of the Church. That unity began to divide in the fourth council (even in the third), and divided further in 1054 and after 1517.

In other words, it was easy to state what Augustine stated at the time he stated it. “Church” meant one thing: the visible and invisible Church were the same. I don’t believe this is true today.

Grace

…the entire work is to be credited to God, who both readies the will to accept assistance, and assist the will once it has been made ready.

Prayer

What need is there for prayer at all if God already knows what we need? None, except that the very effort we make in praying calms the heart, makes it clean, and renders it more capable of receiving the divine gifts which are poured upon us in a spiritual manner.

Of course, prayer is for more than telling God our needs. With that said, Augustine is making the point: prayer is for our benefit, satisfying our needs.

Indeed, what would He not give His children asking Him, when He has already given them this great thing in advance, that they should be His children!

Humility

We must be scrupulously careful to see to it that when the situation makes it incumbent on us to chide or rebuke someone, we first reflect whether the fault is one that we have never had or one from which we are now free. And if we have never had it, let us reflect that we are only human and might have had it. But if we have had it and no longer have it, let it be impressed upon the memory that here is a weakness we share, so that not hatred but pity will go out in advance of our chiding or braiding.

We are fallen; we have a log in our eye; by the measure we judge, we will be judged. The Scriptural teaching in accord with Augustine’s counsel are numerous.

Other

No Christian ought to possess a slave as he might a horse or money.

Many of the earliest Christians understood this.

Biographies / Sources

Augustine (354 – 430) is the most profound of all Latin Church Fathers. His influence in Western Christianity is more significant than that of any other theologian.