Please watch: "FULL ALBUM Christian Praise Worship Songs 2013 - A Message of Hope" ➨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_VlgldVpA -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Confessions - Augustine of Hippo playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL069301B77518BF12 Augustine (354-430) Major works • City of God • On Christian Doctrine • On the Trinity (self-proclaimed most important work) • Confessions Importance • Antiquity's greatest theologian and most important church theologian until the Reformation • Father of orthodox theology • Developed theology as an academic discipline • Council of Carthage decided for Augustine's views on grace and sin and condemned Pelagianism • Saved when he heard a child say, "Tolle lege" ("take up and read") • He adopted an amillennial view when Ambrose taught him it was okay to allegorize the OT Theological/Doctrinal Views Trinity • Held to the eternal subordination of the Son • Distinctions within the Trinity are primarily relational • Viewed the Holy Spirit as the bond of love Soteriology • Augustine is first father to seriously address soteriology; discussed areas such as predestination, original sin, and free will • Man's election is based upon God's eternal decree of predestination • Faith itself is a gift of God • Avoids extremes of Manicheans and Pelagains—both grace and free will are to be affirmed • Changed views on free will--from free will to free will held captive • Free will is not lost but incapacitated and can be healed by grace • The free will of the individual before salvation is only capable of evil—only after regeneration (operative grace) is free will capable of responding positively to God with the aid of continuing grace (co-operative grace) • God's prevenient grace prepares man's will for justification • Grace is intimately connected with the sacrament of baptism (thus no salvation w/o baptism) • His view of justification underwent significant development • He says "to justify" means to "make righteous" not "declare righteous" (this became the view of the Roman Catholic Church); thus righteousness is "inherent" and not "imputed" • Justification is an event and a process • Righteousness is located within man • His view of justification is close to the Greek concept of justification • Merit is important but even this comes from God • By justification, Augustine comes close to understanding the restoration of the entire universe to its original order • The motif of the "love of God" dominates his theology of justification • Faith is adherence to the Word of God Ecclesiology • Said failed brethren should be accepted back into fellowship • Said sacraments are not invalid because of a bad administrator (contra Donatists) Eschatology • Known as the father of amillennialism Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St. Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. The work outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work. In the work St. Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and St. Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins, and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The book is thought to be divisible into chapters which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief.
