Six Things You Probably Did Not Know About Augustine

Guest post by my colleague Dr. Scott Harrower

Augustine is best known for expressing our deep longing for God: “You hast made us for yourself, and our hearts are until they come to rest in you” (Conf. 1.1.1). Beyond this prayer, Augustine had been one of the most loving and influential people in our Christian family tree. Here are six things you might find interesting and helpful for getting to know him better.

1. Augustine navigated a complex cultural heritage and context

Fitting in can be hard. One of Augustine’s life-long problems was that he didn’t know where he belonged, and neither did others. Where do North-African, Christian-pagan, backwater geniuses belong within a massive Roman Empire? Augustine’s mixed cultural background and context made life hard for him throughout his life –even when he was a famed Bishop. No one could decide whose side he was on. He was born into a mixed family in terms of its cultural background, religious practises and beliefs about what made for a good life. Here are some examples of the complexity he had to handle: his mother was a North African and his father was likely from the Italian regions. In addition, Augustine’s mother Monica was a deeply pious North African Christian; she inherited the stories about heroes of the faith including Perpetua, Felicity, Cyprian, and Lucius. His father, Patricius, was invested in Roman civil religion and Roman culture. Augustine's parents had different aspirations for him, his father hoped he would become influential within the Roman imperial networks where as his mother hoped he would become a vibrant Christian. In order to explain this complexity to contemporary audiences, Justo Gonzalez has used the analogy of a “mestizo” in order to describe Augustine: a hybrid person who does not fit neatly into any of their contexts. If you would like to follow this up further, you might like to read The Mestizo Augustine: A Theologian Between Two Cultures.

2. Augustine’s conversion was partly due to his mother’s teaching and persistence.

Monica longer for her son to be become a Christian. Happily, for her, she was a key person in Augustine’s conversion. She raised him as a Christian, which included teaching him to pray and to read the Scriptures. Practically speaking, her teaching on the Bible meant that even when he fell in love with pagan philosophy, he had the nagging intuition that if Christ was not part of what was on offer, then it could not be the whole truth. Augustine tells us this in the context of a prayer of thanksgiving to God:

I was roused by his words, kindled and ablaze, and the one thing that checked me in my great passion was the fact that the name of Christ was not there—for in accordance with your mercy, Lord, in early childhood my heart had devoutly imbibed that name of my Savior, your Son, along with my mother’s milk, and kept it deep within; and anything which lacked this name, however cultured and polished and truthful, could never take me over completely.[1]

In addition to Monica’s childhood influences on Augustine, she continually prayer for her adult son, made sure she travelled with him when she could, and made sure he met Ambrose of Milan –the bishop who would be Augustine’s role model of a thinking and thankful Christian.

3. Augustine was a Theologian of Happiness

Augustine’s conversion moved him out of drudgery and into a happy life. Happiness with God was at the core of Augustine’s immediate post-conversion theology. For him, the happy life involved joy in companionship with God himself, a joy that was experienced at in deepest intellectual and moral selves (Conf. 10.22.32). Such a joy needs to be shared with others, which is why Augustine developed his reflections on happiness with his mother, son and friends in the period between his conversion and baptism.

4. The Sermon on the Mount was Augustine’s key to a Genuine Life with God and others.

For Augustine, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was the best kind of life we can embrace (“Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount” 1.1.1). To his mind, it was obvious that we will all benefit from becoming humble, meek, purehearted and so forth –just as Jesus promised. Augustine trusted that over time, God’s grace would enable us to embrace Jesus’ teaching as the core teaching in our lives. Changes in character take time, and as his sermons and records of his ministries show, Augustine was very patient with these slow developments in the lives and families of those he served.

5. Augustine shaped the North African Church via a live-in mentoring program

Augustine’s impact on the North African church resulted from his live-in mentoring program in addition to his sermons, administrative work and pastoral care. After returning to Africa in light of becoming a Christian, he set up a commune dedicated to living the authentic apostolic lifestyle described in Acts 2:42-47. His friend Possidius wrote about his time:

Soon after his ordination as presbyter, Augustine founded a monastery within the Church, and began to live there among the servants of God according to the rule and custom established by the holy Apostles. The principal regulation of that society specified that no one should own anything, but that all things should be held in common and distributed according to personal need.
(Possidius, Life of St. Augustine, Chap. 5, p.78).

Ten future North African bishops would emerge from this time of a shared apostolic life with Augustine. 

6. Only People committed to Love can understand the Trinity

For Augustine, there is nothing more theologically dangerous and time-consuming than trying to understand the life of God the Trinty (De Trin. I.3.5). However, we should not be disheartened nor abandon this quest of worship and theology. How to move forward then? The best way to understand the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to be loving. Why? Because for Augustine, Love is the street, the avenue, on which we can walk as we come to know God; the God of trinitarian love can only be known as we walk with him in love (De Trin. I.3.5). The Way of Christian knowing is along “Charity Street.”

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[1] Conf. 3.4.8, Augustine, Confessions, Volume I: Books 1-8, 103.