Augustine's Influence

"Our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee." ~ St. Augustine

Our philosophy club has been listening to a series of lectures called The Great Ideas of Philosophy by Professor Daniel N. Robinson. A little over a year ago we discussed a lecture titled "Augustine and the Light Within." Augustine's influence on the development of Western Christianity was significant.

One of the most influential writers of the first millennium A.D., his significance comes from taking an intellectual approach to the sacred texts which had become the canon of Christian faith, the Old & New Testaments. He was fluent in the ideas of Greek philosophy and brought together this foundation of Greek thought and spiritual insight to produce two significant written works, his Confessions and The City of God.

His first encounter with the Bible did not, however, impress him. It was a bad translation, and failed to convey the literary beauty and ideas contained in this profound book. The writings of Cicero, on the other hand, startled and captivated him with the fluid wonder contained in both the writing and ideas. It would be another ten years before he discovered the power of the Bible.

After leaving North Africa Augustine was offered a professorship in Milan where he came under the influence of Neoplatonism as well as the preaching of St. Ambrose. Inwardly he was in a great turmoil, which he relates in his vivid and introspective Confessions. Robinson refers to him as a bon vivant, a rascal and debauch. Until he met his Savior and embraced the faith he had earlier rejected.

After Rome was pillaged by the Visigoths in 410 he returned to North Africa where he spent fourteen years on the twenty-two books which comprise The City of God. This latter work contrasted two cities, God's city where the saints abide in joyful submission to God's will, and the earthly city where worldly selfishness reigns.

Augustine's primary positive influence was to show that being a Christian and an intellectual was not a contradiction. The predominant attitude up till Augustine's time was that you only need to know the Bible and that's all. Every other book is irrelevant. God's Word is all that matters.

St. Augustine recognized that truth is truth wherever it is found and there was much good in the works of Greek thinkers like Aristotle and those who followed up on those foundations. This was not an easy position to adopt and he wrestled with it until he saw what he believed was God's perspective on the matter. He used the example of Moses and the Israelites taking the gold from Egyptians when the left Egypt after Passover. "Gold is gold wherever it comes from," Augustine said, and in the realm of ideas the same holds true.

Likewise, how can Christians challenge ideas like Epicureanism, Stoicism and Hedonism if they have never read or tried to understand what the writers who proposed these views meant by them?

For what it's worth Augustine was, like ourselves, a man of imperfect understanding and some of what he wrote had negative consequences later. Like many writers, context can have an impact on the message. Augustine wrote during the period of Rome's decline and fall. In one section of his epic The City of God he thus argued in favor of using force to preserve the truth against the dark hordes. Unfortunately, a thousand years later these passages were used to justify the Spanish Inquisition.

Nevertheless, he is recognized as an important writer and thinker in the history of ideas, and in cultural history as reflected in Bob Dylan's tribute which can be heard on his John Wesley Harding album.

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine,

Alive as you or me,

Tearing through these quarters

In the utmost misery,

With a blanket underneath his arm

And a coat of solid gold,

Searching for the very souls

Whom already have been sold.

"Arise, arise," he cried so loud,

In a voice without restraint,

"Come out, ye gifted kings and queens

And hear my sad complaint.

No martyr is among ye now

Whom you can call your own,

So go on your way accordingly

But know you're not alone."

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine,

Alive with fiery breath,

And I dreamed I was amongst the ones

That put him out to death.

Oh, I awoke in anger,

So alone and terrified,

I put my fingers against the glass

And bowed my head and cried.