Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)
ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE MINDS in Western theology is Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria), a colony in the Roman Africa Province. Augustine, whose writings have influenced both Roman Catholic and Protestant theologies (both Luther and Calvin belonged to the Augustinian tradition), cast a long and illustrious shadow on Western Christian thought.
Born in agaste, Numidia, Augustine received a fine education in philosophy and rhetoric. At the age of 17, he went to Carthage where he lived a completely worldly existence and became an addict of all sorts of sensual pleasures. His reading of Cicero’s Hortensius when he was 19 sparked in him a thirst for Truth. He turned to Scripture, thinking that he would discover Truth in all its depths on its pages. But he was disappointed with the “barbarous language” of the Bible and put off by the Old Testament portrayal of God. Still, the desire for Truth continued to burn within him.
Years later, in his famous Confessions Augustine, now a believer, wrote: “O Truth, Truth! How inwardly even then did the marrow of my soul pant after ee, when they frequently, and in a multiplicity of ways, and in numerous and huge books, sounded out y name to me, though it was but a voice!”
In his quest for Truth, Augustine became attracted to Manicheism, a sophisticated philosophical system founded by the Persian Mani. For a time Manicheism was able to provide an answer to the question that has been troubling Augustine: the problem of evil.
If God is the Creator of all things, and if He is good, then how does one account for the existence of evil? e Manicheans “solved” the problem of evil by proposing a metaphysical dualism. According to the Manicheans, there are two eternal and conflicting realities: Light and Dark, Good and Evil. Both possess such strengths and weaknesses that each is unable to vanquish the other. us, according to Manicheism, evil is an original principle that existed alongside God. It is an independent force with which God has struggled for eternity and will continue to do so. By positing evil as an independent reality, the Manicheans have effectively absolved God of any responsibility for evil’s existence.
After following the sect for nine years, Augustine began to question its philosophy. Was Mani right about the eternal struggle between Light and Dark, Good and Evil? If God is powerless in defeating Evil, how can He be said to be truly sovereign? How can a deity so weak and humiliated be worthy of our worship?
In 383, after leaving the Manichean sect, Augustine left Carthage and settled in Milan. Still seeking for the Truth, he attended the Church in Milan where the great theologian Ambrose was bishop. As he listened to the theological sermons of Ambrose, Augustine became even more convinced that the Manicheans were wrong. He developed a renewed interest in the Bible and the teachings of the Church. And although doubts and questions continued to plague him, he continued to attend the Church in Milan.
In the summer of 386, in the garden of his mother Monica’s house, Augustine, vexed by many questions, picked up a copy of Paul’s epistles when he suddenly and mysteriously heard the voice of a child asking him to read it. Recalling the incident years later, he wrote: “I was asking myself these questions, weeping all the while with the most bitter sorrow in my heart, when all at once I heard the sing-song voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain ‘Take and read, take and read.’ ”
AS AUGUSTINE FLIPPED THE PAGES of the volume it opened randomly at Romans 13. His eyes fell on the words, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (vv 13-14). Recounting his experience, he wrote: “I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.”
In 388, Augustine returned to Carthage and remained there until he was elected to serve first as a presbyter and later as the Bishop of the Church of Hippo in 395. He lived in Hippo until his death in 430 when the Vandals laid siege of his beloved city.
It is difficult to even provide a list of the achievements of this great theologian of the Church in the remaining space of this article. From his pen, the Church received one of the most profound analyses of the relationship between faith and reason, which philosophers (both Christian and secular) and theologians are still discussing today. In his writings, the 5th century theologian-bishop explored topics as diverse as aesthetics, rhetoric and psychology.
It was Augustine who gave the Church the most thoughtful treatment of the sacraments, and the most penetrating theology of grace. It was he who wrote the most extensive treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity. His magisterial City of God – still discussed by scholars today – is justifiably lauded as the first Christian political theology. And in his Confessions we have what may be described as the “first autobiography”. But above all, Augustine must be remembered as a theologian who untiringly used the gifts of intellect and erudition that God had bestowed on him to serve the Church he loved.
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity College. He worships at the Fairfield Preaching Point in Woodlands.