DuranCesar/Augustine Class/Reading Journal Week 6 “Augustine anti Manichean”

DuranCesar/Augustine Class/Reading Journal Week 6 “Augustine anti Manichean”

I have chosen the theme of the freedom of the will as one of the most important points of the Augustine’s theology against the Manichees, because this point is one of the most important elements of the Arminian, Wesleyan, and Calvinist theology; obviously, each one with its own perspective and meaning.

The freedom of the will is important in the Augustine’s theology against Manichees because they believed that each person carries inside him or hers a battle between the good and bad, or light and darkness (p. 202). “Manichees saw the task of redemption as a slow, painstaking recovery of the tiny tidbits of divine lights trapped in matter” (p.203), so matter and flesh are bad, sin, evil, something opposed to God. The creation of man and this world was a result of an emanation of God that was captured by the kingdom of the darkness. So the material and the man are evil for the way they were created. This means that man is evil in himself.

Augustine teaches that God is not the cause of the first kind of evil; each person is the author of the evil because they do the things opposed to God voluntarily (p.221). Here is where the Augustine meaning of the freedom of will is important against the Manichaeism, because for Manicheans the man is evil in his own creation, and for Augustine “Evils consists in the will’s turning away from the changeless good that God is and in its turning to goods that are changeable. Since this turning from one thing to another is not done from necessity, but freely” (p. 222).  Augustine also says: “If this movement, namely, the turning away of the will from the Lord, is unquestionably sinful, we cannot say that God is the cause of the sin” (p. 222).

Augustine wrote a lot about this topic of freedom of the will on his books 2 and 3. For Augustine the man is good, the creation of God is good, the body of the human is good, and also the freedom of the will is good. Augustine affirms, “Our wills, not our bodies, are the real (though still mysterious) origin of evil” (p. 222). For that reason Augustine emphasize all the time the human freedom and responsibility, and the need of the grace of God. 

DuranCesar/Augustine Class/Reading Journal Week 4 “Augustine as Preacher”

DuranCesar/Augustine Class/Reading Journal Week 4 “Augustine as Preacher”

As Harmless mentioned in the introduction words of this section about Preaching God incarnate, Augustine in this sermon 188 at Christmas day, he uses the beginning of gospel of John (one of his most used in his sermons) and talks about Jesus as the divine Word, emphasizing Jesus as Son of God. On the other side, he talks about Jesus as the Word made flesh, and emphasize his incarnation through the Virgin Mary.

I chose these two quotations because show us these two emphasis of Augustine’s sermon. The first one was about Jesus as Son of God. “Equal to and co-eternal with the father, the One in whom all things, visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, were established, God and Word of God, Life and Light of Humanity” (p. 128). Here, Augustine shows an identical theologically perspective to our times: Jesus as Son of God and has existed with God since the eternity.

The second quotation is about Jesus incarnated, the Word made flesh. “It’s for this reason that we celebrate this day on which He deigned to be born of a virgin, a begetting which He himself caused people to narrate the story of” (p.129). Here Augustine is talking about Jesus incarnated and born trough a virgin; also it is the reason because we celebrate Christmas Day and we share that story to everyone around us.

I liked the position given by Augustine about the Virgin Mary, because he talked about the evangelical perspective we have in our days: Mary only was an instrument in the hands of God and after the birth of Jesus Christ, she was given to her spouse so that she is no longer virgin (p. 130). Augustine finished his sermon comparing this truth of the Virgin Mary with the Church, whom is not virgin any more because have found his husband in Jesus Christ.

This points of the Christology of Augustine connects Augustine to our times and theology. Since those times of Augustine, the theology has suffered many changes, additions, aberrations and mutations. Today is not easy to find a healthy theology in the churches around our neighborhoods. But Augustine gives us a healthy perspective about Jesus Christ: Truth Son of God and truth Son of Man.

When we have this perspective about Jesus, we consider his divinity and all the miracles He did because Jesus was showing the kingdom of God. And when we see the humanity of Jesus Christ, it’s important to consider his suffers as human, and his holiness because he lived without sins before God. Nor we can forget His incarnation through the Virgin Mary, and that is the reason because we celebrate Christmas Day.

Jesus Christ is the center of the church; He is the foundation of the church and its cornerstone. If we have a healthy perspective about Jesus, we could live as church enjoying the divinity of Jesus Christ and His salvation, because He is the Son of God. Also, we could live as church celebrating the love of God, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

Augustine meanings: Knowledge and truth.

Historical Theology: Augustine Saxton

Week Two Writing Prompt:

Epistemology. Select two quotations where Augustine addresses the topics of knowledge and/or truth.

I was attracted to these two Augustine quotations because in both Augustine relate the knowledge and truth with God. Although Augustine is fighting with the concept of knowledge in an era when the Greek philosophy talked about only is possible to know the material and visible things. Augustine had an open mind to lead with the philosophy and the theology, and that helped him to create a new perspective about God and the knowledge related with God.

1.-  20.43 Plotinus, Platonism, and the authority of Christ. “No one doubts that we are driven towards knowledge by a twofold force: the force of authority and the force of reason. I am therefore, resolved never ever to deviate from the authority of Christ, for I find none more powerful. But as to what the most subtle reasoning can pursue- for I am so stirred up that yearn impatiently to apprehend what the truth is, not only by believing but also by understanding- I am confident at the moment that what I will find among the Platonists will not be opposed to our sacred mysteries”. (p.53, Harmless)

2.- 7.14 The art of Soliloquy. “Since, on the one hand, truth cannot be better pursued than by question-and-answer and since, on the other hand, hardly anyone can be found who is not ashamed to be defeated in argument, with the result that it almost always happens that a subject for discussion which is well begun is driven out of mind by the unruly noise of self-opinion, accompanied also by wounded feelings which are usually concealed but at times evident- for these reasons, it was my pleasure to seek the truth with God’s help in peace and propriety by questioning and answering myself”. (p. 57, Harmless)

What does he mean by these concepts?

1. Augustine had been influenced for the Greek philosophy because had read any Platonist books, but he showed strong Christian roots. Augustine thought we could get knowledge trough 2 different ways, forms or perspectives: the first one is trough the force of authority. Here, he is talking about the authority of Christ and he said that authority “I find none more powerful”. The second is trough the force of reason. That is for those want to know the truth, not only as a believing or creed, but also as understanding. Also, Augustine believed that he could get that knowledge in the Platonists and it was not opposed to their religious knowledge.     

2. In few words, Augustine believed that he could find the truth trough the method question-and-answer. The problem with this method is when someone starts to argue with someone else, one of them results defeated for his own arguments. To avoid problems or be defeated, he said that he prefer use this method of question-and-answer “to seek the truth with God’s help in peace and propriety by questioning and answering myself”. So, He didn’t fight with other using this method, he preferred to talk to himself and get his own answers.

Is knowledge possible?

This question was one of the most important questions of the skeptical Platonists before Augustine appearance and he was attracted to it. According these two quotations the knowledge is possible in the Augustine’s perspectives. Although, he could be looking for the knowledge since different perspectives, he could go trough the reason or religion, or trough the platonic method of question-and-answer, he will get the knowledge necessary to live in peace and have a good relationship with God. I believe myself Augustine found a way to relate the philosophy of those years and the religious environment of the church of that time, as something good and positive for the spiritual developing of himself, people of the fourth century and the people of twenty first century.

If so what appears to make it possible for Augustine?

I think Augustine used the Platonic method of question-and-answer to get the knowledge about the theology he developed in those years. This method help you to develop a thinking activity, so Augustine used a creative psychological processing to get knowledge and answer the problems and situations around him in those times. He was a peaceful man but was open to other resources, and instead he didn’t know Greek, he tried the Greek philosophical thought and the religion to get the knowledge still in his own language, the Latin. 

How does knowledge and/or truth relate to being according to Augustine?

Augustine tried to get knowledge since different ways or perspectives, according the circumstances around him, he used the religion, the philosophy his own understanding trying to get that knowledge that could give him the peace he needed and the truth according the times he had to lived. For Augustine knowledge and truth were related because the knowledge was the road to arrive the goal of his life, the truth.