The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-07

holy man-have stated What he knew
to be false.
st. Gregory Nazianzen has fortunate
ly left on record his opinion of st.
Athanasius. the champion of the d.
vinity of our Lord. In his grafton,
Contra Gentes" he said: when 1
praise Athanasius, virtue itself is my
theme; for l name every virtue as oft
en- as 1 mention him, who was pos
sessed of all virtues. He was the true
pillar of the Church. His life and con-
duct were the rule of bishops, and his
doctrine the rule of the orthodox faith
Would he have thus spoken of one
whom ne believed to be the promulga-
tor of herterodox doctrine?
Savage: Augustine has left on rec
ord the saying that he was in the dark
until he found the true doctrine con-
corning the Divine Work in a Latin
translation of some Platonic writings,
His light came from Plato, and not
from the New Testament"
There is here an unscholarly subter-
fuge and an unworthy sophism as
we'll
First, as to the subterfuge The ques-
ton the reverend gentleman had in
hand was as to the Divinity of Jesus
of Nazareth, and he would leave the
impression in the readers mind that
st. Augustine first learned of His di-
vinity from Plato, who lived over 400
years before Jesus of Nazareth was
born. The question he was dealing
with was not as to che existence of
the eternal Word, but the existence
of that Word in time in human flesh,
in Jesus of NAZARETH; and he would
leave the impression that this latter
truth was learned by Christian bish-
op from a pagan philosopher. Is this
either scholarly or honest?
Augustine, when a Christian and a
saint wrote a book-his Confessions
giving an account of his mental expert
ences when he was a young man and
before he became a Christian Up to
the time that the Platonic books came
into his hands he believed the
Manichian doctrine that there were two
other essentially evil. In the Platonic
books he found certain teachings that
ne afterwards learned to be Christian
truths. These truths were that I'm
the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God" And after quoting several more
verses from the first chapter of st.
Johns Gospel he says the truths he
found in the Platonic books were not
IL Il, - y;
they meant what st. John teaches re-
garding the eternal Word Continuing,
Augustine says-and this is the point
Rev. Savage had in hand-"But that
he (the Word) came unto his own and
his own received him not; but as
many as received him, to them he gave
power to become the sons of God, be-
lieving in his name, I did not find in
these lin those Platonic books. Again,
read here that God the Word was
born not of flesh, nor of blood, not of
the will of man, neither of the flesh.
but of God. But that this Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. | did
not read there" Continuing to state
the Christian doctrine of the Incarna-
llOii anu OiNIhiIy VI CHTlSI, AuSuSClle
repeats again and again these words:
4 did not find there" that is, in those
Platonic books. (See st. Augustine's
Confessions, Book VII, chapter 8. and
following) @
And yet the Rev. Savage would leave
the impression that St.,qAugustine, a
Christian bishop knew nothing about
the divinity of Christ until he learned
it from pagan philosopher. Just here
is found the unworthy sophisty. Is it
honest? 49,
There are several other statements in
the Rev. Savage's letter that are on a
par with those we have examined-that
is to say, equally false, ,sophistical or
of no practical value. But we believe
we have treated of those that bear
directly on the issue he raised. The
doctrine of the Trinity and of the d.