Augustine of Hippo

Well, I promised to write this "tomorrow," and I didn't get to it. I thought I'd said I'd write this "next time," knowing that probably wouldn't be "tomorrow." However, since no one could possibly be reading this yet, I suppose it doesn't matter much.

Augustine of Hippo. One of the most famous of Catholic saints. He is both loved and vilified. Quoted by Protestants and Catholics alike, he is also charged with teaching the church that it is okay to convert by the sword (true, see http://ctlibrary.com/4360). There are plenty of web sites on Augustine, so I won't bother with references or a deep foray into his life. I just want to talk about a couple things I know about him.

Augustine is famous for his saying, "There is no salvation outside the church." This was really not a new doctrine, but was basically the belief of the whole church from the beginning. Cyprian, for example, 150 years before Augustine said, "For it is the church alone which, conjoined and united with Christ, spiritually bears sons" (Epistles 73, par. 6). Irenaeus, another 70 years earlier than Cyprian, said of the church, "For she is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers" (Against Heresies III:4:1).

We Protestants balk at such statements, but in the first few centuries after Christ, there was but one church of God. There were not competing denominations. Such statements were not a defense of papal doctrine or a testimony to apostolic succession. They were the product of a unity among those churches will held to "the faith once for all delivered to the saints." Those saints were one, bound to one another, and they treasured the truth and the life of Christ that had been delivered to them by the apostles.

But Augustine was also the founder of a very Protestant idea, that of predestination. In reaction to a heretic named Pelagius, Augustine developed a doctrine of the complete soverereignty of God, even over the choice of men to believe, that was adopted by both John Calvin and Martin Luther, who had been an Augustinian monk (see http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/luther.htm) when he was Catholic.

What I really want to tell you about, though, is Augustine's era, which was radically different than that of Cyprian (died AD 258) or Irenaeus (died c. AD 200). Augustine was baptized in 387, became a presbyter in 391 and bishop in 396, then finally died in 430. The church, however, had experienced a drastic change in the early 4th century. After the Great Persecution under Diocletian (AD 303-311), the emperor Constantine had a vision and made Christianity an official legal religion for the first time (AD 313). An AD 325, he presided over a council of just over 300 bishops in an attempt to stop a massive division in the church over Arianism, a dispute over the nature of the divinity of Christ. At this point, the church was not only tolerated, but supported. Bishops were paid by the state, opening the door for political battles for the position. Constantine and his successors began to depose and appoint bishops based on their theological positions.

This, combined with a massive influx of the unregenerate into the church, created massive chaos. Nowhere is it seen better than in two volumes of church history, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume I and Volume II. The first of those volumes contains The Church History of Eusebius and the second contains The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. Surely no two histories of the same people, written merely 50 years apart, could read more differently. Eusebius' history is a history of faith and martyrdom, a delight to any Christian to read. It was written in AD 323, just two years before the Council of Nicea, over which Constantine presided. Socrates' history, produced in AD 375, however, is one of political intrigue, violence, and court battles, well worthy of a Hollywood film (though none has been done yet).

Eusebius' history, though it contains stories of the church's battle against heresies that arose, testifies of a united church, peaceful and holy, who would take up the sword neither for themselves or Rome. Socrates' history testifies of bloody battles between Christians in the same city and bishops pitted against bishops with the backing of local authorities and even the emperor's legions. The Christians of Constantinople, meeting in two competing congregations, once fought each other "until the blood ran into the streets" over the body of a dead bishop. Another time they beat a general to death with their bare hands, because he had been sent by Constantius to depose their beloved bishop.

Councils met throughout the 50 year period that Socrates' history covers. Athanasius, a key figure in the battle over Arianism, was banished by the emperor no less than five times. Arius, too, banished at the Council of Nicea, was repeatedly recalled and restored to the emperor's favor.

This was the world that Augustine was converted into. While in Cyprian's world, perhaps 10% of the empire was Christian, in Augustine's world, some 90% were. Augustine was converted only a decade after Socrates' history was produced. Much had been lost. Where the Council of Nicea had suggested a 13-year ban from the communion table for those Christians who joined the military "like a dog returning to his own vomit" (Canon 12), most of the military in Augustine's day were Christian.

It's my experience that neither Protestants nor Catholics that I meet know these things. Everyone knows of "the church fathers," but it is rare that anyone really knows who they are. Augustine and Cyprian cannot really be lumped into the same category. It is safer to lump Cyprian and Ignatius together, who are at least both Pre-Nicene--that is, prior to the massive changes that happened around the Council of Nicea--but it is still not accurate. Ignatius, a bishop said to be appointed by the apostles over Paul's home church of Antioch, belongs to the apostolic age, not even a generation removed from the apostles. Cyprian, a century and a half later, presided as bishop in an era of much greater tradition and authority.

Their stories are fascinating, but mostly unrelated. Ignatius led the church at a time when the gnostics, with their bizarre teachings about an ignorant Demiurge who created the world and a non-material Christ who sought to redeem it, were still in the church. He battled for the purity of the church, and he was successful! His life ended in a glorious martyrdom, killed by beasts in the Roman Coliseum. His famous line, "I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ," ought not to be forgotten by any of us who seek to serve Christ today.

Cyprian's devotion and leadership, too, ought not to be forgotten. Remembered by Catholics for his strong words about the authority of the bishops as having received the keys of the kingdom from Peter, he was perhaps the first Protestant as well. His level-headed leadership, peaceful spirit, and fervent love for truth helped him check the aspirations and errors of Stephen, bishop of Rome, with whom he battled throughout his time as bishop. There is preserved for us the decisions of a council of 82 bishops that he called in North Africa to correct Stephen's caving in to heretics.

History is a wonderful thing, giving us insight into the Gospel that was handed down to us by the apostles. It was a powerful thing. The glory it produced ought to inspire us. Athenagoras, a 2nd century apologist, described the result of the Gospel in these words:

But among us you will find uneducated persons, and artisans, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth: they do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbours as themselves (A Plea for the Christians, ch. 11).

This power was lost, not just during the time of Constantine, but it was being eroded even before. It is said that those who do not know history will be condemned to repeat it. It is not just the sayings of God, but his actions as well, that teach us. Jesus said he did only what he saw his Father doing. Peter calmed the Jewish believers in Jerusalem over the introduction of Gentiles to the church by describing what God had done (Acts 11:1ff).

There is much to see in history of what God has done, and there is much to learn. What caused the church to wander from the power that caused "uneducated persons, artisans, and old women" to so gloriously display the life of Christ. Paul's preaching, he said, was in "demonstration of the Spirit and power" (1 Cor. 2:4). As we see from the quote above, not unique in second century literature, so was Athenagoras' preaching. Origen, writing in AD 225, was still able to answer the accusations of Celsus the Roman by appealing to the irreproachable lives of Christians in the Roman cities (Against Celsus III:29).

Who that names the name of Christ does not long to live as they did, in the holiness and power of God? It is not unattainable. Jesus Christ has not grown old, but the faith once for all delivered to the saints has been mostly forgotten. Let us not fear to look and to return.

This is going to sound like an altar call or something, but I would be remiss if I did not encourage you to see the only proof we can offer that the Gospel is indeed as powerful as it ever was: the people of God.