Augustine of Hippo

Augustine is acknowledged as having been one of the most important influences on the development of the western Christianity.[1] The theological system he developed dominated the mediaeval church until the thirteenth century and its influence is still felt today.[2] A large number of his writings have survived and we know a great deal about his life from his Confessions and Revisions; from a contemporary biography,[3] and from his letters, (over 200 of which have survived).[4] His most famous work, Confessions (written about 397), was not intended simply as an autobiography as such. Rather, it is a long prayer of penitence and thanksgiving for the grace of God evidenced during the first 33 years of his life.[5] Numerous modern biographies have been written[6] and so I will sketch only a brief outline of his life.

Aurelius Augustinus was born in the town of Thagaste in North Africa, the son of Patricius and Monica. His father was a pagan until near the time of his death,[7] but his mother was a devoted follower of Catholic Christianity. The young Augustine was eager to learn and fascinated with the problem of the origin of evil.[8] When he attempted to find a solution in Scriptures he was disappointed by the coarse and rustic style of his Latin Old Testament compared to the elegance of the Greek classics.[9] So at the age of 19 he joined the sect of the Manichees as a 'hearer'[10] The Manichees were followers of Mani (born 14th April AD 216),[11] a man who formulated what was effectively an amalgam on Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity. He claimed to have been inspired by the same spirit that inspired Zarathustra, Buddha Guatama and Jesus - the Holy Spirit.[12] Mani's teaching would, of course, supersede that of those who preceded him.[13] The Manichees used the Bible to support many of their teachings, claiming that the New Testament had been corrupted by the Judaisers.[14] It centred around a dualism of good and evil and drew extensively on the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. John Burnaby explains: The Manichaean system…

accounted for the creation of the world as a product of a conflict between light and dark substances and for the soul of man as an element of the light entangled in the dark. Manchaeaism claimed to be the true Christianity, preaching Christ as the redeemer who enables the imprisoned particles of light to escape and return to their own region.[15]

Augustine records some of the stranger teachings of the sect ...

I was gradually led to believe such nonsense as that a fig wept when it was plucked, and that the tree which bore it shed tears of mother's milk. But if some sanctified member of the sect were to eat the fig - someone else, of course, would have committed the sin of plucking it - he would digest it and breathe it out again in the form of angels or even particles of God, retching them up as he groaned in prayer. These particles of the true and supreme God we supposed to be imprisoned in the fruit and could only be released by means of the stomach and teeth of one of the elect. I was foolish enough to believe that we should show more kindness to the fruits of the earth than to mankind, for whose use they were intended. If a starving man, not a Manichee, were to beg for a mouthful, they thought it a crime worthy of mortal punishment to give him one.[16]

For a time Augustine found an explanation of the origin of evil in the Manichaean idea that evil has a physical form "...a shapeless, hideous mass, which might be solid, in which case the Manichees called it earth, or fine and rarefied into air."[17] Ultimately this explanation did not satisfy him.

Having left Africa for Rome Augustine became increasingly dissatisfied with the teachings of the Manichees and turned instead to Neo-platonism. In Rome he was able to use his Manichee contacts to obtain a post in Milan,[18] were he became a catechumen of the church. This act did not indicate any commitment to Christianity, as his Confessions make clear. It was simply the respectable thing to do. However, attending the church there brought him under the ministry of the bishop, Ambrose.[19] Ambrose's allegorical and Platonising[20] interpretation of the Scriptures in the tradition of Origen[21] made a great impression on Augustine,[22] who had been unimpressed by the literal interpretation practised by his mother as we have seen.[23] It is important to note that the Neoplatonists of Milan were in a minority in their spiritualised view of Scripture. The majority of the Church held to the more literal view.[24]

After a long struggle he was converted - the story of which is well known[25] - and baptised by Ambrose in 387. Following the death of his mother Augustine returned to Thagaste. There he might have ended his days in monastic retirement had not the church in the city of Hippo Regius pressed him to help them against the Manichees and Donatists who were opposing them there. This task Augustine, a former Manichee, was well equipped to undertake, and received ordination as bishop of Hippo in 396. Augustine never learned to read Greek and disliked Greek literature[26] and so was restricted in his biblical studies to working with a Latin translation.

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