Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Fri, 28 Aug 1992 04:25:09 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      Augustine of Hippo (28 Aug 430)
X-To:         CHRISTIA@ASUACAD.BITNET, BSTUDY-L@UTARLVM1.BITNET,
              IVCF-L@UBVM.BITNET

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, BISHOP AND THEOLOGIAN (28 AUGUST 430)

Augustine, one of the greatest theologians of Western Christianity,
(as distinguished from the eastern, or Greek-speaking, half of the
ancient Medeterranean world), was born in 354 at Tagaste near modern
Tunis in North Africa. Mis mother, Monnica, was a Christian, and his
father for many years a pagan (although he became a Christian before
his death). Augustine was from the beginning a brilliant student,
with an eager intellectual curiousity. His mother undertook to bring
him up as a Christian, but he was attracted by the fashionable
alternatives of the day, first by neo-Platonism and then by
Manicheeism. He went to Italy, where he was eventually appointed
chief professor of rhetoric in Milan, then the capital city of the
Empire in the West. There he met the bishop Ambrose, and there he
became a Christian. He tells the story of his conversion, and of the
relevant events of his life leading up to it, in his work called THE
CONFESSIONS. The following prayer is taken from that work.

     Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold,
 Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee.
 Thou was with me when I was not with Thee.
 Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness.
 Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness.
 Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.
 For Thyself Thou hast made us,
     and restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease.
 Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new.
 Thou hast burst my bonds asunder;
     unto Thee will I offer up an offering of praise.

After his conversion, Augustine returned to Africa, where he
eventually was made bishop of the town of Hippo. He died 28 August
430, as the Vandals were besieging that town.
     Another outstanding work of his is THE CITY OF GOD. This was
written after Rome had been sacked by invaders led by Alaric the
Visigoth. Augustine considers earthly commonwealths in relation to
the Kingdom of Heaven.
     His third great work is his DE TRINITATE ("On the Trinity").
     In addition, he  wrote many letters to friends and opponents
alike. He had a vigorous correspondence with Jerome, and another
with the Donatists, a group who had split from the main body of
Christians after the persecution under Diocletian. They considered
that the Church had dealt too leneiently with some of those who had
weakened under the pressure of that persecution.  Against them,
Augustine maintained that the holiness of the Church is not derived
from the average level of virtue of its individual members, but is
derived from the Holiness of its Head, who is Christ.

PRAYER
   O Lord God, who art the light of the minds that know thee, the
   life of the souls that love thee, and the strength of the
   hearts that serve thee: Help us, following the example of thy
   servant Augustine of Hippo, so to know thee that we may truly
   love thee, and so to love thee that we may fully serve thee,
   whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our
   Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee= and the Holy Spirit,
   ond God, now and for ever.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU