Augustine’s Confessions, part 2
Augustine is one of the most influential Christian teachers ever
Augustine wrote Confessions to glorify God, and demonstrate that God is sovereign through writing about God’s providence over his life
The Confessions are a divided into books. There are 13 books in all, but we will only discuss the first 9.
Augustine was raised by a Christian mother in North Africa mid-300’s A.D., but did not grow up as a Christian
Augustine began a search for Truth at age 19, and became part of the Manichean cult
Augustine became a professor of rhetoric in his 20’s.
At age 28 Augustine left the Manicheans
Augustine moved from Carthage to Rome, and then to Milan.
While in Milan Augustine becomes a catechumen to sit under the preaching of Ambrose – one of the most famous Christians of his time
Monica followed Augustine to Milan
Augustine then informed her that he was no longer Manichean, but was a catechumen of the catholic church
Augustine uses this book to go into some diverse teachings on the nature of God. More in depth than we need to go into for an introduction to the Confessions.
One of Augustine’s friends was Alypius. Alypius arrived in Rome just before Augustine did, and in chapter 8 a story is told about Alypius’ obsession for gladiatorial games:
“There (Rome) he had been seized by an incredible obsession for gladiatorial spectacles and to an unbelievable degree. He held such spectacles in aversion and detestation; but some of his friends…on their way back from a dinner happened to meet him in the street and, despite his energetic refusal and resistance, used friendly violence (peer pressure) to take him into the amphitheatre during the days of the cruel and murderous games. He said: ‘If you drag my body to that place and sit me down there, do not imagine you can turn my mind and my eyes to those spectacles. I shall be as one not there, and so I shall overcome both you and the games.’…
(Q: What was he saying? A: That he could overcome the peer pressure)
When they arrived and had found seats where they could, the entire place seethed with the most monstrous delight in the cruelty. He kept his eyes shut and forbade his mind to think about such fearful evils.
Would that he had blocked his ears as well!
(Picture the scene: Here is this group of friends, sitting in a crowd of tens of thousands, watching a contest of gladiators, and this one guy has his hands over his eyes like he’s watching Friday the 13th, and Jason has just started his hacking spree.)
A man fell in combat. A great roar from the entire crowd struck him with such vehemence that he was overcome by curiosity. Supposing himself strong enough to despise whatever he saw and to conquer it, he opened his eyes. He was struck in the soul by a wound graver than the gladiator in his body, whose fall had caused the roar. The shouting entered by his ears and forced open his eyes…As soon as he saw the blood, he at once drank in savagery and did not turn away. His eyes were riveted. He imbibed madness. Without any awareness of what was happened to him, he found delight in the murderous contest and was inebriated by bloodthirsty pleasure.”
(Q: Did Alypius overcome the peer pressure? Or did the peer pressure overcome him?)
Augustine objected to Christians attending gladiatorial games because of the bloodlust that these games caused the viewers. Christians before Augustine had also warned others about attending these games. In fact, early Christians avoided most forms of entertainment in the Roman Empire. What should that tell us, if anything? Where do we draw the line in modern day America when it comes to entertainment vs. bloodlust?
1 John 2:15
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
This book contains an extended discussion of the nature of evil, and how to explain the “existence” or “nonexistence” of evil in this world created by a loving God. Again, there is some great reading in this book, but we will skip this one for our introduction.
While attending the church at Milan, Augustine heard a couple of testimonies that expedited the process of melting his heart.
Revelation 12:10, 11:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation,
and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have
come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them
before our God day and night.
"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the
word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with
death.”
Q: What is the importance of testimonies in this passage?
Q: Why are testimonies important in our faith today?
1) Victorinus
Augustine gives us a very brief description of the fame of Victorinus. He was a pagan in Rome who was a teacher of many “noble” senators, learned in the philosophers, and distinguished enough to have a statue in the Roman Forum. He apparently read the Christian writings on his own, and confided in a friend that he had become a Christian through these writings. His friend challenged him to attend Church, but Victorinus refused. However, through his readings of the gospels, Victorinus was finally convicted of his need to make public profession, and he became a catechumen.
The early church required that all new Christians make a public profession of faith. However, the presbyters did allow some to make this profession privately to themselves. Victorinus refused that option, and chose to make his profession to the entire congregation. The crowd at first quietly whispered to themselves that Victorinus was present, and then upon confirmation burst into exaltation. “He pronounced the true faith with an excellent boldness, and all desired to take him to their very heart – indeed, by their love and joy they did take him to their heart. And they received him with loving and joyful hands.”
2) St. Anthony
Anthony was already well known among the Christian Church worldwide. By the time of Augustine’s conversion, Anthony had only been dead for about 25 years.
Here is a brief overview of Anthony’s story: He was a Christian who had some measure of material success. One day he walked into a church service during a reading of the gospels. The passage being read instructed the listeners to go and sell all that they owned and give it to the poor, and they would have treasure in heaven, and to follow Christ. Anthony desired more than anything to imitate Christ and his apostles, so he sold everything and went into the desert to fight the temptations and live the Christian life. He lived in an abandoned fort, eating only bread with oil and drinking water. There he would pray throughout the day, fighting Satan and the demons and purifying his body from temptation. He is honored as the first Christian monk.
After hearing these testimonies, Augustine became angry with himself that others were taking heaven by storm, and yet he wasn’t. He went into an adjacent garden where he could be alone and think about what he had just heard.
Augustine had a mighty struggle within him. Here is a sample of this struggle:
“While I was deliberating whether I would serve the Lord my God now, as I had long purposed to do, it was I who willed and it was also I who was unwilling. In either case, it was I. I neither willed with my whole will nor was I wholly unwilling. And so I was at war with myself and torn apart by myself. And this strife was against my will; yet it did not show the presence of another mind, but the punishment of my own. Thus it was no more I who did it, but the sin that dwelt in me--the punishment of a sin freely committed by Adam, and I was a son of Adam.” – Book VIII, Chapter X
Romans 7:14-25:
14 For we know that the Law is
spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I
am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I
hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do,
I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin
which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is
not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I
practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want,
I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present
in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the
inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my
body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law
of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free
from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but
on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Q: How does Augustine’s struggle mirror Paul’s writings on the Law of the Two Natures?
While in this garden, Augustine sat under a fig tree, weeping over his struggle to convert. (See picture on cover of book).
He heard a voice of a young person chanting over and over again, “Pick it up, read it; pick it up; read it.” He believed this chant to be a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage he came upon. The first passage he came upon was Romans 13:13,14
Romans 13:13,14:
13 Let us behave properly as in
the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and
sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Augustine said that after he read these verses that “there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”
Because of time constraints, we will conclude with this conversion account. In Chapter 9 we learn about Augustine’s love of the Psalms, his baptism, his mother’s death, and his last conversation with her. I fully recommend that everyone read the Confessions for themselves, and come upon the treasure that lies within.