APOSTLE OF GRACE - A LOOK AT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Triunfo de San Augustin by Claudio Coello

 In a Facebook group I once was in, someone asked who your favorite theologian. Someone replied, "If it's not Augustine, your vote doesn't count." In the cartoon collection Submitting To Be More Vile: The Illustrated Adventures of John and Charles Wesley, Charlie Baber referred to Augustine as the rock star of church history. If you noticed, the painting above by Claudio Coello is more extravagant and not just a portrait like the others. Much less of an overstatement is Bryan Litfin's title "Apostle of Grace."

You may say that a short blog like this definitely won't do justice to Augustine. I agree. The reality is that the chapter in Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction just touches the tip of the iceberg. The primary emphasis was Augustine's testimony from his book Confessions (including an introduction to Ambrose, the bishop whose preaching God used to draw Augustine to Himself), and then a brief mention of dealing with the Pelagians and Donatists. Litfin gives a list for each of the twelve church fathers titled "Good books to dig deeper", and for Augustine he has a translation of Confessions and some biographies and overviews of his thought, but fails to include translations of his other classic City of God.

I heard someone comment that Augustine was the one who started the Roman Catholic Church. To be honest, I'm not equipped to debate that issue, and have no reason to refute it. However, you can also call him a Father or Forefather of the Reformation: Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, and Calvinism reflects an Augustinian theology.

You can see grace being an issue in Augustine's conflicts with both Pelagianism and Donatistism. The former denies we were born in sin and claim we can live choose to live a righteous life, thus rendering grace unnecessary. Donatists, while orthodox doctrinally, refused to forgive church leaders who "lapsed" (i.e. burning incense to Caesar to avoid persecution) and considered only Baptism by Donatists to be valid. Is this reflective of God's grace? Nope!

I did smile. Litfin believes every Christian should read Augustine's Confessions; no other book by the Church Fathers he mentioned got the same endorsement. Maybe reading it might make me more of an Augustine fan - I'm neutral on him. I have areas of disagreement with him. But I cannot deny the influence he's been on others.