Augustine of Hippo

"Augustine", "Saint Augustine", and "Augustinus" redirect here. For other uses, see Augustine
(disambiguation), Saint Augustine (disambiguation), and Augustinus (disambiguation).

Augustine of Hippo

Born
Died
Notable
work(s)

Saint Augustine
13 November 354
Thagaste, Numidia (modern-day
Souk Ahras, Algeria)
28 August 430 (aged 75)
Hippo Regius, Numidia (modernday Annaba, Algeria)
Confessions
City of God
On Christian Doctrine

Augustine of Hippo (/stn/[1][2] or /stn/;[2] Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis;[3] 13

November 354 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine or Saint Austin,[4] was an
early Christian theologian and philosopher[5] whose writings influenced the development of
Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day
Annaba, Algeria), located in Numidia (Roman province of Africa). He is viewed as one of the
most important Church Fathers in the Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era.
Among his most important works are City of God and Confessions.
According to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith."[6] In his
early years, he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of
Plotinus.[7] After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 387, Augustine developed his own

approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives.[8]

Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the
doctrine of original sin and made seminal contributions to the development of just war theory.
When the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the
Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City.[9] His thoughts
profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. The segment of the Church that adhered to the
concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople[10]
closely identified with Augustine's City of God.
In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint, a pre-eminent Doctor of the
Church, and the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of
his death. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and
a number of cities and dioceses.[11] Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be
one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and
divine grace.
In the East, many of his teachings are not accepted. The most important doctrinal controversy
surrounding his name is the filioque.[12] Other possibly unacceptable doctrines include his views
on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination.[13] Nonetheless, though considered to be
mistaken on some points, he is still considered a saint, and his feast day is celebrated on 15 June.
[14]
He carries the additional title of Blessed as opposed to Saint among the Orthodox Church, due
to his teachings controversial with the doctrine.[15]

Contents

1 Life
o 1.1 Childhood and education
o 1.2 Teaching rhetoric
o 1.3 Christian conversion and priesthood
o 1.4 Death and veneration

1.4.1 Relics

2 Thought
o 2.1 Christian anthropology
o 2.2 Astrology
o 2.3 Creation

o 2.4 Ecclesiology
o 2.5 Eschatology
o 2.6 Epistemological views
o 2.7 Just war
o 2.8 Mariology
o 2.9 Natural knowledge and biblical interpretation
o 2.10 Original sin
o 2.11 Free will
o 2.12 Sacramental theology
o 2.13 Statements on Jews
o 2.14 Views on sexuality

3 Teaching philosophy

4 Works

5 Influence

6 In popular culture

7 See also

8 References

9 Sources

10 Further reading

11 External links

Life
Childhood and education

The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica." by Niccol di Pietro 1413-15
Augustine was born in 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) in Roman
Africa.[16][17] His mother, Monica, was a devout Christian; his father Patricius was a Pagan who
converted to Christianity on his deathbed.[18] Scholars believe that Augustine's ancestors included
Berbers, Latins, and Phoenicians.[19] He considered himself to be Punic,[20] and as "an African,
writing of Africa, or at any rate, with that flat nose you see in Africans".[21]:5152 Augustine's
family name, Aurelius, suggests that his father's ancestors were freedmen of the gens Aurelia
given full Roman citizenship by the Edict of Caracalla in 212. Augustine's family had been
Roman, from a legal standpoint, for at least a century when he was born.[22] It is assumed that his
mother, Monica, was of Berber origin, on the basis of her name,[19][23] but as his family were
honestiores, an upper class of citizens known as honorable men, Augustine's first language is
likely to have been Latin.[19] At the age of 11, he was sent to school at Madaurus (now
M'Daourouch), a small Numidian city about 19 miles south of Thagaste. There he became
familiar with Latin literature, as well as pagan beliefs and practices.[24] His first insight into the
nature of sin occurred when he and a number of friends stole fruit they did not want from a
neighborhood garden. While at home in 369 and 370, he read Cicero's dialogue Hortensius (now
lost), which he described as leaving a lasting impression and sparking his interest in philosophy.
[25]

At the age of 17, through the generosity of his fellow citizen Romanianus,[25] Augustine went to
Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric. Although raised as a Christian, Augustine left the
church to follow the Manichaean religion, much to his mother's despair.[26] As a youth Augustine
lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time, associating with young men who boasted of their bisexual
exploits. They urged inexperienced boys like Augustine to seek or make up stories about sexual
experiences to gain their acceptance.[27] It was during this period that he uttered his famous
prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."[28]
At about the age of 19, Augustine began an affair with a young woman in Carthage. Possibly
because his mother wanted him to marry a person of his class, the woman remained his lover[29]
for over thirteen years and gave birth to his son Adeodatus,[30] who was viewed as extremely
intelligent by his contemporaries, whose name means "gift of God".[31] In 385, Augustine
abandoned his lover in order to prepare himself to marry an heiress.[32]

Teaching rhetoric
Augustine taught grammar at Thagaste during 373 and 374. The following year he moved to
Carthage to conduct a school of rhetoric and would remain there for the next nine years.[25]
Disturbed by unruly students in Carthage, he moved to establish a school in Rome, where he
believed the best and brightest rhetoricians practiced, in 383. However, Augustine was
disappointed with the apathetic reception; his students fled instead of paying their fees.
Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who had
been asked by the imperial court at Milan[33] to provide a rhetoric professor.

The earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome.
Augustine won the job and headed north to take his position in late 384. Thirty years old, he had
won the most visible academic position in the Latin world at a time when such posts gave ready
access to political careers. Although Augustine showed some fervor for Manichaeism, he was
never an initiate or "elect", but an "auditor", the lowest level in the sect's hierarchy.[33]
While still at Carthage a disappointing meeting with the Manichaean Bishop, Faustus of Mileve,
a key exponent of Manichaean theology, started Augustine's skepticism of Manichaeanism.[33] In
Rome, he reportedly turned away from Manichaeanism, embracing the scepticism of the New
Academy movement. Because he was well traveled within the Roman Empire, Augustine had
great rhetorical prowess and was very knowledgeable of the philosophies behind many faiths.[34]
At Milan, his mother's religiosity, Augustine's own studies in Neoplatonism, and his friend
Simplicianus all urged him towards Christianity.[25] Initially Augustine was not strongly
influenced by Christianity and its ideologies, but after coming in contact with St. Ambrose of
Milan, Augustine reevaluated himself and was forever changed.
Like Augustine, Ambrose was a master of rhetoric, but older and more experienced.[35] Saint
Augustine of Hippo was incredibly influenced by Ambrose of Milan even more than his own
mother and others he looked up to. Augustine arrived in Milan and was immediately taken under
the wing by St Ambrose. Within St. Augustines work, Confessions, Augustine states That man
of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should..[36]
Soon their relationship grew, as can be seen from Augustine's own words,"And I began to love
him, of course, not at the first as a teacher of the truth, for I had entirely despaired of finding that
in thy Churchbut as a friendly man.[36] Augustine was simply visiting Ambrose in order to
confirm or deny the legend that Ambrose was one of the greatest speakers and Rhetoricians in
the world. More interested in his speaking skills than the topic of speech, Augustine quickly

discovered that Ambrose was a spectacular orator. Eventually, Augustine says that through the
unconscious, he was lead into the faith of Christianity.[37]
Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and arranged a marriage for which he abandoned
his concubine. Although Augustine accepted this marriage, Augustine may have been deeply hurt
by ending the relationship with the concubine. There is evidence that Augustine may have
considered this former relationship to be equivalent to marriage.[38] In his Confessions, he
admitted that the experience eventually produced a decreased sensitivity to pain. He had to wait
two years until his fiance came of age, and he soon took another concubine. Augustine
eventually broke off his engagement to his eleven-year-old fiance, but never renewed his
relationship with either of his concubines.
Alypius of Thagaste steered Augustine away from marriage, saying that they could not live a life
together in the love of wisdom if he married. Augustine looked back years later on the life at
Cassiciacum, a villa outside of Milan where he gathered with his followers, and described it as
Christianae vitae otium the Christian life of leisure.[39] Augustine had been awarded a job of
professor of rhetoric in Milan at the time he was living at Cassiciacum around 383.

Christian conversion and priesthood

Angelico, Fra. "The Conversion of St. Augustine" (painting).

In the summer of 386, after having heard and been inspired and moved by the story of
Placianus's and his friends' first reading of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, Augustine
converted to Christianity. As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted by a childlike
voice he heard telling him to "take up and read" (Latin: tolle, lege), which he took as a divine
command to open the Bible and read the first thing he saw. Augustine read from Paul's Epistle to
the Romans the so-called "Transformation of Believers" section, consisting of chapters 12
through 15 wherein Paul outlines how the Gospel transforms believers, and the believers'
resulting behaviour. The specific part to which Augustine opened his Bible was Romans chapter
13, verses 13 and 14, to wit:
Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.[40]
He later wrote an account of his conversion his very transformation, as Paul described in his
Confessions (Latin: Confessiones), which has since become a classic of Christian theology.

Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son Adeodatus, on Easter Vigil in 387 in Milan. A
year later, in 388, Augustine completed his apology On the Holiness of the Catholic Church.[33]
That year, also, Adeodatus and Augustine returned to Africa,[25] Augustine's home continent.
Augustine's mother Monica died at Ostia, Italy, as they prepared to embark for Africa.[41] Upon
their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic leisure at Augustine's family's property.[42][43] Soon
after, Adeodatus, too, passed away.[44] Augustine then sold his patrimony and gave the money to
the poor. The only thing he kept was the family house, which he converted into a monastic
foundation for himself and a group of friends.[25]

The Consecration of Saint Augustine by Jaume Huguet

In 391 Augustine was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius (now Annaba), in Algeria. He became a
famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted
for combating the Manichaean religion, to which he had formerly adhered.[33]
In 395 he was made coadjutor Bishop of Hippo, and became full Bishop shortly thereafter,[45]
hence the name "Augustine of Hippo"; and he gave his property to the church of Thagaste.[46] He
remained in that position until his death in 430. He wrote his autobiographical Confessions in
397-398. His work The City of God was written to console his fellow Christians shortly after the
Visigoths had sacked Rome in 410.
Augustine worked tirelessly in trying to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity.
Though he had left his monastery, he continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence.
He left a regula for his monastery that led to his designation as the "patron saint of regular
clergy."[47]
Much of Augustine's later life was recorded by his friend Possidius, bishop of Calama (presentday Guelma, Algeria), in his Sancti Augustini Vita. Possidius admired Augustine as a man of
powerful intellect and a stirring orator who took every opportunity to defend Christianity against
its detractors. Possidius also described Augustine's personal traits in detail, drawing a portrait of

a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh,
and exercised prudence in the financial stewardship of his see.[48]

Death and veneration

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Tomb in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro Basilica, Pavia.

Bishop, Philosopher, Theologian
Honored in All Christianity
Major
San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy
shrine
28 August (Western Christianity)
Feast
15 June (Eastern Christianity)
4 November (Assyrian)
child; dove; pen; shell, pierced heart,
Attributes holding book with a small church,
bishop's staff, miter
brewers; printers; theologians
Patronage Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de
Oro, Philippines;San Agustin, Isabela;
Shortly before Augustine's death the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that had converted to Arianism,
invaded Roman Africa. The Vandals besieged Hippo in the spring of 430, when Augustine
entered his final illness. According to Possidius, one of the few miracles attributed to Augustine,
the healing of an ill man, took place during the siege.[49] According to Possidius, Augustine spent
his final days in prayer and repentance, requesting that the penitential Psalms of David be hung
on his walls so that he could read them. He directed that the library of the church in Hippo and
all the books therein should be carefully preserved. He died on 28 August 430.[50] Shortly after
his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned not long thereafter and burned
the city. They destroyed all of it but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched.
[51]

Augustine was canonized by popular acclaim, and later recognized as a Doctor of the Church in
1298 by Pope Boniface VIII.[52] His feast day is 28 August, the day on which he died. He is
considered the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, sore eyes, and a number of cities
and dioceses.[11]

Relics
According to Bede's True Martyrology, Augustine's body was later translated or moved to
Cagliari, Sardinia, by the Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by Huneric. Around 720,
his remains were translated again by Peter, bishop of Pavia and uncle of the Lombard king
Liutprand, to the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, in order to save them from frequent
coastal raids by Muslims. In January 1327, Pope John XXII issued the papal bull Veneranda
Santorum Patrum, in which he appointed the Augustinians guardians of the tomb of Augustine
(called Arca), which was remade in 1362 and elaborately carved with bas-reliefs of scenes from
Augustine's life.
In October 1695, some workmen in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia discovered a
marble box containing some human bones (including part of a skull). A dispute arose between
the Augustinian hermits (Order of Saint Augustine) and the regular canons (Canons Regular of
Saint Augustine) as to whether these were the bones of St. Augustine. The hermits did not
believe so; the canons affirmed that they were. Eventually Pope Benedict XIII (17241730)
directed the Bishop of Pavia, Monsignor Pertusati, to make a determination. The bishop declared
that, in his opinion, the bones were those of Saint Augustine.[53]
The Augustinians were expelled from Pavia in 1700, taking refuge in Milan with the relics of
Augustine, and the disassembled Arca, which were removed to the cathedral there. San Pietro
fell into disrepair, but was finally rebuilt in the 1870s, under the urging of Agostino Gaetano
Riboldi, and reconsecrated in 1896 when the relics of Augustine and the shrine were once again
reinstalled.[54][55]

Thought

Part of a series on

Augustine of Hippo
Main topics
Original sin Divine grace Invisible church Predestination
Incurvatus in se Augustinian hypothesis Just War

Augustinian theodicy
Works
The City of God Confessions On Christian Doctrine
Soliloquies Enchiridion
Influences and followers
Plotinus St. Monica Ambrose Possidius Thomas
Aquinas Bonaventure Luther Calvin Jansen
Related topics
Neoplatonism Pelagianism
Augustinians Scholasticism Jansenism Order of St.
Augustine

Christian anthropology
Augustine was one of the first Christian ancient Latin authors with a very clear vision of
theological anthropology.[56] He saw the human being as a perfect unity of two substances: soul
and body. In his late treatise On Care to Be Had for the Dead, section 5 (420 AD) he exhorted to
respect the body on the grounds that it belonged to the very nature of the human person.[57]
Augustine's favourite figure to describe body-soul unity is marriage: caro tua, coniunx tua
your body is your wife.[58][59][60] Initially, the two elements were in perfect harmony. After the fall
of humanity they are now experiencing dramatic combat between one another. They are two
categorically different things. The body is a three-dimensional object composed of the four
elements, whereas the soul has no spatial dimensions.[61] Soul is a kind of substance, participating
in reason, fit for ruling the body.[62] Augustine was not preoccupied, as Plato and Descartes were,
with going too much into details in efforts to explain the metaphysics of the soul-body union. It
sufficed for him to admit that they are metaphysically distinct: to be a human is to be a
composite of soul and body, and the soul is superior to the body. The latter statement is grounded

in his hierarchical classification of things into those that merely exist, those that exist and live,
and those that exist, live, and have intelligence or reason.[63][64]
Like other Church Fathers such as Athenagoras,[65] St. Augustine "vigorously condemned the
practice of induced abortion" as a crime, in any stage of pregnancy,[66] although he accepted the
distinction between "formed" and "unformed" fetuses mentioned in the Septuagint translation of
Exodus 21:2223, a text that, he observed, did not classify as murder the abortion of an
"unformed" fetus, since it could not be said with certainty that it had already received a soul (see,
e.g., De Origine Animae 4.4).[67]

Astrology
Augustine's contemporaries often believed astrology to be an exact and genuine science. Its
practitioners were regarded as true men of learning and called mathemathici. Astrology played a
prominent part in Manichaean doctrine, and Augustine himself was attracted by their books in
his youth, being particularly fascinated by those who claimed to foretell the future. Later, as a
bishop, he used to warn that one should avoid astrologers who combine science and horoscopes.
(Augustine's term "mathematici", meaning "astrologers", is sometimes mistranslated as
"mathematicians".) According to Augustine, they were not genuine students of Hipparchus or
Eratosthenes but "common swindlers".[68][69][70][71]

Creation
See also: Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
In City of God, Augustine rejected both the immortality of the human race proposed by pagans,
and contemporary ideas of ages (such as those of certain Greeks and Egyptians) that differed
from the Church's sacred writings.[72] In The Literal Interpretation of Genesis, Augustine took the
view that everything in the universe was created simultaneously by God, and not in seven
calendar days like a literal account of Genesis would require. He argued that the six-day structure
of creation presented in the book of Genesis represents a logical framework, rather than the
passage of time in a physical way it would bear a spiritual, rather than physical, meaning,
which is no less literal. One reason for this interpretation is the passage in Sirach 18:1, creavit
omnia simul ("He created all things at once"), which Augustine took as proof that the days of
Genesis 1 had to be taken non-literally.[73] Augustine also does not envision original sin as
causing structural changes in the universe, and even suggests that the bodies of Adam and Eve
were already created mortal before the Fall.[74] Apart from his specific views, Augustine
recognizes that the interpretation of the creation story is difficult, and remarks that we should be
willing to change our mind about it as new information comes up.[75]

Ecclesiology
See also: Ecclesiology

St. Augustine by Carlo Crivelli.

Augustine developed his doctrine of the Church principally in reaction to the Donatist sect. He
taught that there is one Church, but that within this Church there are two realities, namely, the
visible aspect (the institutional hierarchy, the Catholic sacraments, and the laity) and the invisible
(the souls of those in the Church, who are either dead, sinful members or elect predestined for
Heaven). The former is the institutional body established by Christ on earth which proclaims
salvation and administers the sacraments while the latter is the invisible body of the elect, made
up of genuine believers from all ages, and who are known only to God. The Church, which is
visible and societal, will be made up of "wheat" and "tares", that is, good and wicked people (as
per Mat. 13:30), until the end of time. This concept countered the Donatist claim that only those
in a state of grace were the "true" or "pure" church on earth, and that priests and bishops who
were not in a state of grace had no authority or ability to confect the sacraments.[76]:28 Augustine's
ecclesiology was more fully developed in City of God. There he conceives of the church as a
heavenly city or kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires
which are self-indulgent and ruled by pride. Augustine followed Cyprian in teaching that the

bishops and priests of the Church are the successors of the Apostles,[76] and that their authority in
the Church is God-given.

Eschatology
Augustine originally believed in premillennialism, namely that Christ would establish a literal
1,000-year kingdom prior to the general resurrection, but later rejected the belief, viewing it as
carnal. He was the first theologian to expound a systematic doctrine of amillennialism, although
some theologians and Christian historians believe his position was closer to that of modern
postmillennialists. The mediaeval Catholic church built its system of eschatology on Augustinian
amillennialism, where Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church.[77] At the
Reformation, theologians such as John Calvin accepted amillennialism. Augustine taught that the
eternal fate of the soul is determined at death,[78][79] and that purgatorial fires of the intermediate
state purify only those that died in communion with the Church. His teaching provided fuel for
later theology.[78]

Epistemological views
Epistemological concerns shaped Augustine's intellectual development. His early dialogues
[Contra academicos (386) and De Magistro (389)], both written shortly after his conversion to
Christianity, reflect his engagement with skeptical arguments and show the development of his
doctrine of inner illumination. The doctrine of illumination claims that God plays a part in
human perception and understanding by illuminating the mind so that human beings can
recognize intelligible realities that God presents. According to Augustine, illumination is
obtainable to all rational minds, and is different from other forms of sense perception. It is meant
to be an explanation of the conditions required for the mind to have a connection with intelligible
entities.[80] Augustine also posed the problem of other minds throughout different works, most
famously perhaps in On the Trinity (VIII.6.9), and developed what has come to be a standard
solution: the argument from analogy to other minds.[81] In contrast to Plato and other earlier
philosophers, Augustine recognized the centrality of testimony to human knowledge and argued
that what others tell us can provide knowledge even if we don't have independent reasons to
believe their testimonial reports.[82]

Just war
See also: Just War
Augustine asserted that Christians should be pacifists as a personal, philosophical stance.[83]
However, peacefulness in the face of a grave wrong that could only be stopped by violence
would be a sin. Defense of one's self or others could be a necessity, especially when authorized
by a legitimate authority. While not breaking down the conditions necessary for war to be just,
Augustine coined the phrase in his work The City of God.[84] In essence, the pursuit of peace must
include the option of fighting for its long-term preservation.[85] Such a war could not be preemptive, but defensive, to restore peace.[86] Thomas Aquinas, centuries later, used the authority of
Augustine's arguments in an attempt to define the conditions under which a war could be just.[87]
[88]

Mariology
Although Augustine did not develop an independent Mariology, his statements on Mary surpass
in number and depth those of other early writers.[89] Even before the Council of Ephesus, he
defended the ever Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, who, because of her virginity, is full of
grace.[90] Likewise, he affirmed that the Virgin Mary "conceived as virgin, gave birth as virgin
and stayed virgin forever".[91]

Natural knowledge and biblical interpretation

Augustine took the view that the Biblical text should be interpreted metaphorically, if a literal
interpretation contradicts science and our God-given reason. While each passage of Scripture has
a literal sense, this "literal sense" does not always mean that the Scriptures are mere history; at
times they are rather an extended metaphor.[92]

Original sin
See also: Original sin

Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century

Augustine taught that Original sin of Adam and Eve was either an act of foolishness (insipientia)
followed by pride and disobedience to God or that pride came first.[93] The first couple disobeyed
God, who had told them not to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17).[94]
The tree was a symbol of the order of creation.[95] Self-centeredness made Adam and Eve eat of
it, thus failing to acknowledge and respect the world as it was created by God, with its hierarchy
of beings and values.[96] They would not have fallen into pride and lack of wisdom, if Satan
hadn't sown into their senses "the root of evil" (radix Mali).[97] Their nature was wounded by
concupiscence or libido, which affected human intelligence and will, as well as affections and
desires, including sexual desire.[98] In terms of metaphysics, concupiscence is not a being but bad
quality, the privation of good or a wound.[99]

Augustine's understanding of the consequences of the original sin and of necessity of the
redeeming grace was developed in the struggle against Pelagius and his Pelagian disciples,
Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum,[76] who had been inspired by Rufinus of Syria, a disciple of
Theodore of Mopsuestia.[100] They refused to agree that libido wounded human will and mind,
insisting that the human nature was given the power to act, to speak, and to think when God
created it. Human nature cannot lose its moral capacity for doing good, but a person is free to act
or not to act in a righteous way. Pelagius gave an example of eyes: they have capacity for seeing,
but a person can make either good or bad use of it.[101] Like Jovinian, Pelagians insisted that
human affections and desires were not touched by the fall either. Immorality, e.g. fornication, is
exclusively a matter of will, i.e. a person does not use natural desires in a proper way. In
opposition to that, Augustine pointed out to the apparent disobedience of the flesh to the spirit,
and explained it as one of the results of original sin, punishment of Adam and Eve's disobedience
to God.[102]
Augustine had served as a "Hearer" for the Manichaeans for about nine years,[103] who taught that
the original sin was carnal knowledge.[104] But his struggle to understand the cause of evil in the
world started before that, at the age of nineteen.[105] By malum (evil) he understood most of all
concupiscence, which he interpreted as a vice dominating person and causing in men and women
moral disorder. A. Trap insists that Augustine's personal experience cannot be credited for his
doctrine about concupiscence. His marriage experience, though Christian marriage celebration
was missing, was exemplary, very normal and by no means specifically sad.[106] As J.
Brachtendorf showed, Augustine used Ciceronian Stoic concept of passions, to interpret Paul's
doctrine of universal sin and redemption.[107]
The view that not only human soul but also senses were influenced by the fall of Adam and Eve
was prevalent in Augustine's time among the Fathers of the Church.[108] It is clear that the reason
for Augustine's distancing from the affairs of the flesh was different from that of Plotinus, a neoPlatonist[109] who taught that only through disdain for fleshly desire could one reach the ultimate
state of mankind.[110] Augustine taught the redemption, i.e. transformation and purification, of the
body in the resurrection.[111]

St. Augustine by Peter Paul Rubens

Some authors perceive Augustine's doctrine as directed against human sexuality and attribute his
insistence on continence and devotion to God as coming from Augustine's need to reject his own
highly sensual nature as described in the Confessions. But in view of his writings it is apparently
a misunderstanding.[112] Augustine taught that human sexuality has been wounded, together with
the whole of human nature, and requires redemption of Christ. That healing is a process realized
in conjugal acts. The virtue of continence is achieved thanks to the grace of the sacrament of
Christian marriage, which becomes therefore a remedium concupiscentiae remedy of
concupiscence.[113][114] The redemption of human sexuality will be, however, fully accomplished
only in the resurrection of the body.[115]
The sin of Adam is inherited by all human beings. Already in his pre-Pelagian writings,
Augustine taught that Original Sin was transmitted by concupiscence,[116] which he regarded as
the passion of both, soul and body,[117] making humanity a massa damnata (mass of perdition,
condemned crowd) and much enfeebling, though not destroying, the freedom of the will.
Augustine's formulation of the doctrine of original sin was confirmed at numerous councils, i.e.
Carthage (418), Ephesus (431), Orange (529), Trent (1546) and by popes, i.e. Pope Innocent I
(401417) and Pope Zosimus (417418). Anselm of Canterbury established in his Cur Deus
Homo the definition that was followed by the great Schoolmen, namely that Original Sin is the
"privation of the righteousness which every man ought to possess", thus interpreting
concupiscence as something more than mere sexual lust, with which some of Augustine's
disciples had defined it[118][119] as later did Luther and Calvin, a doctrine condemned in 1567 by
Pope Pius V.[120]
Augustine taught that some people are predestined by God to salvation by an eternal, sovereign
decree which is not based on man's merit or will. The saving grace which God bestows is

irresistible and unfailingly results in conversion. God also grants those whom he saves with the
gift of perseverance so that none of those whom God has chosen may conceivably fall away.
[76]:44[121]

Free will
Included in Augustine's theodicy is the claim that God created humans and angels as rational
beings possessing free will. Free will was not intended for sin, meaning it is not equally
predisposed to both good and evil. A will defiled by sin is not considered as "free" as it once was
because it is bound by material things, which could be lost or be difficult to part with, resulting
in unhappiness. Sin impairs free will, while grace restores it. Only a will that was once free can
be subjected to sin's corruption.[122]
The Catholic Church considers Augustine's teaching to be consistent with free will.[123] He often
said that any can be saved if they wish.[123] While God knows who will and won't be saved, with
no possibility for the latter to be saved in their lives, this knowledge represents God's perfect
knowledge of how humans will freely choose their destinies.[123]

Sacramental theology
Also in reaction against the Donatists, Augustine developed a distinction between the
"regularity" and "validity" of the sacraments. Regular sacraments are performed by clergy of the
Catholic Church while sacraments performed by schismatics are considered irregular.
Nevertheless, the validity of the sacraments do not depend upon the holiness of the priests who
perform them (ex opere operato); therefore, irregular sacraments are still accepted as valid
provided they are done in the name of Christ and in the manner prescribed by the Church. On
this point Augustine departs from the earlier teaching of Cyprian, who taught that converts from
schismatic movements must be re-baptised.[76] Augustine taught that sacraments administered
outside the Catholic Church, though true sacraments, avail nothing. However, he also stated that
baptism, while it does not confer any grace when done outside the Church, does confer grace as
soon as one is received into the Catholic Church.

St. Augustine in His Study by Vittore Carpaccio, 1502

Augustine upheld the early Christian understanding of the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist, saying that Christ's statement, "This is my body" referred to the bread he carried in his
hands,[124][125] and that Christians must have faith that the bread and wine are in fact the body and
blood of Christ, despite what they see with their eyes.[126]
Against the Pelagians, Augustine strongly stressed the importance of infant baptism. About the
question whether baptism is an absolute necessity for salvation, however, Augustine appears to
have refined his beliefs during his lifetime, causing some confusion among later theologians
about his position. He said in one of his sermons that only the baptized are saved.[127] This belief
was shared by many early Christians. However, a passage from his City of God, concerning the
Apocalypse, may indicate that Augustine did believe in an exception for children born to
Christian parents.[128]

Statements on Jews
Against certain Christian movements, some of which rejected the use of Hebrew Scripture,
Augustine countered that God had chosen the Jews as a special people,[129] and he considered the
scattering of Jewish people by the Roman Empire to be a fulfillment of prophecy.[130] He rejected
homicidal attitudes, quoting part of the same prophecy, namely "Slay them not, lest they should
at last forget Thy law" (Psalm 59:11). Augustine, who believed Jewish people would be
converted to Christianity at "the end of time," argued that God had allowed them to survive their
dispersion as a warning to Christians; as such, he argued, they should be permitted to dwell in
Christian lands.[131] The sentiment sometimes attributed to Augustine that Christians should let
the Jews "survive but not thrive" (it is repeated by author James Carroll in his book
Constantine's Sword, for example)[132][133] is apocryphal and is not found in any of his writings.[134]

Views on sexuality
For Augustine, the evil of sexual immorality was not in the sexual act itself, but rather in the
emotions that typically accompany it. In On Christian Doctrine Augustine contrasts love, which
is enjoyment on account of God, and lust, which is not on account of God.[135] For Augustine,
proper love exercises a denial of selfish pleasure and the subjugation of corporeal desire to God.
He wrote that the pious virgins raped during the sack of Rome, were innocent because they did
not intend to sin.[136][137]
Augustine's view of sexual feelings as sinful affected his view of women. For example he
considered a mans erection to be sinful, though involuntary,[138] because it did not take place
under his conscious control. His solution was to place controls on women to limit their ability to
influence men.[139]
He believed that the serpent approached Eve because she was less rational and lacked selfcontrol, while Adam's choice to eat was viewed as an act of kindness so that Eve would not be
left alone.[139] Augustine believed sin entered the world because man (the spirit) did not exercise
control over woman (the flesh).[140] Augustine does, however, praise women and their role in
society and in the Church. In his Tractates on the Gospel of John, Augustine, commenting on the
Samaritan woman from John 4:142, uses the woman as a figure of the church.

According to Raming, the authority of the Decretum Gratiani, a collection of Roman Catholic
canon law which prohibits women from leading, teaching, or being a witness, rests largely on the
views of the early church fathersone of the most influential being St. Augustine, the Bishop of
Hippo.[141] The laws and traditions founded upon St. Augustine's views of sexuality and women
continue to exercise considerable influence over church doctrinal positions regarding the role of
women in the church.[142]
Teaching philosophy
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Saint Augustine in His Study by Sandro Botticelli, 1494, Uffizi Gallery

Augustine is considered an influential figure in the history of education. A work early in

Augustine's writings is De Magistro (the Teacher), which contains insights about education.
However, his ideas changed as he found better directions or better ways of expressing his ideas.
In the last years of his life Saint Augustine wrote his "Retractationes", reviewing his writings and
improving specific texts. Henry Chadwick believes an accurate translation of "retractationes"
may be "reconsiderations". Reconsiderations can be seen as an overarching theme of the way
Saint Augustine learned. Augustine's understanding of the search for
understanding/meaning/truth as a restless journey leaves room for doubt, development and
change.[143]
Gary N. McCloskey finds four "encounters of learning" in Augustine's approach to education:
Through Transforming Experiences; as a Journey in Search of Understanding/Meaning/Truth;
Learning with Others in Community; and Building the Habits (Love) of Learning. His emphasis

on the importance of community as a means of learning distinguishes his pedagogy from some
others. Augustine believed that dialogue/dialectic/discussion is the best means for learning, and
this method should serve as a model for learning encounters between teachers and students. Saint
Augustines dialogue writings model the need for lively interactive dialogue among learners.[143]
He introduced the theory of three different categories of students, and instructed teachers to adapt
their teaching styles to each student's individual learning style. The three different kinds of
students are: the student who has been well-educated by knowledgeable teachers; the student
who has had no education; and the student who has had a poor education, but believes himself to
be well-educated. If a student has been well educated in a wide variety of subjects, the teacher
must be careful not to repeat what they have already learned, but to challenge the student with
material which they do not yet know thoroughly. With the student who has had no education, the
teacher must be patient, willing to repeat things until the student understands, and sympathetic.
Perhaps the most difficult student, however, is the one with an inferior education who believes he
understands something when he does not. Augustine stressed the importance of showing this type
of student the difference between "having words and having understanding," and of helping the
student to remain humble with his acquisition of knowledge.
Augustine introduced the idea of teachers responding positively to the questions they may
receive from their students, no matter if the student interrupted his teacher. Augustine also
founded the restrained style of teaching. This teaching style ensures the students' full
understanding of a concept because the teacher does not bombard the student with too much
material; focuses on one topic at a time; helps them discover what they don't understand, rather
than moving on too quickly; anticipates questions; and helps them learn to solve difficulties and
find solutions to problems. Yet another of Augustine's major contributions to education is his
study on the styles of teaching. He claimed there are two basic styles a teacher uses when
speaking to the students. The mixed style includes complex and sometimes showy language to
help students see the beautiful artistry of the subject they are studying. The grand style is not
quite as elegant as the mixed style, but is exciting and heartfelt, with the purpose of igniting the
same passion in the students' hearts. Augustine balanced his teaching philosophy with the
traditional Bible-based practice of strict discipline.
Works
Main article: Augustine of Hippo bibliography

Saint Augustine painting by Antonio Rodrguez

Augustine was one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works, and the list of
his works consists of more than one hundred separate titles.[144] They include apologetic works
against the heresies of the Arians, Donatists, Manichaeans and Pelagians; texts on Christian
doctrine, notably De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine); exegetical works such as
commentaries on Book of Genesis, the Psalms and Paul's Letter to the Romans; many sermons
and letters; and the Retractationes, a review of his earlier works which he wrote near the end of
his life. Apart from those, Augustine is probably best known for his Confessions, which is a
personal account of his earlier life, and for De civitate Dei (The City of God, consisting of 22
books), which he wrote to restore the confidence of his fellow Christians, which was badly
shaken by the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410. His On the Trinity, in which he developed
what has become known as the 'psychological analogy' of the Trinity, is also among his
masterpieces, and arguably one of the greatest theological works of all time. He also wrote On
Free Choice Of The Will (De libero arbitrio), addressing why God gives humans free will that
can be used for evil.
Influence

Saint Augustine Disputing with the Heretics painting by Vergs Group

In both his philosophical and theological reasoning, Augustine was greatly influenced by
Stoicism, Platonism and Neo-platonism, particularly by the work of Plotinus, author of the
Enneads, probably through the mediation of Porphyry and Victorinus (as Pierre Hadot has
argued). Although he later abandoned Neoplatonism, some ideas are still visible in his early
writings.[145] His early and influential writing on the human will, a central topic in ethics, would
become a focus for later philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. He
was also influenced by the works of Virgil (known for his teaching on language), and Cicero
(known for his teaching on argument).[146]
Thomas Aquinas was influenced heavily by Augustine. On the topic of original sin, Aquinas
proposed a more optimistic view of man than that of Augustine in that his conception leaves to
the reason, will, and passions of fallen man their natural powers even after the Fall.[120]
Augustine's doctrine of efficacious grace found eloquent expression in the works of Bernard of
Clairvaux; also Reformation theologians such as Martin Luther and John Calvin would look back
to him as their inspiration.[citation needed]
Philosopher Bertrand Russell was impressed by Augustine's meditation on the nature of time in
the Confessions, comparing it favourably to Kant's version of the view that time is subjective.[147]
Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that God exists outside of time in
the "eternal present"; that time only exists within the created universe because only in space is
time discernible through motion and change. His meditations on the nature of time are closely
linked to his consideration of the human ability of memory. Frances Yates in her 1966 study The
Art of Memory argues that a brief passage of the Confessions, 10.8.12, in which Augustine writes
of walking up a flight of stairs and entering the vast fields of memory[148] clearly indicates that
the ancient Romans were aware of how to use explicit spatial and architectural metaphors as a
mnemonic technique for organizing large amounts of information.

Saint Augustine Meditates on the Trinity when the Child Jesus Appears before him
by Vergos Group

Augustine's philosophical method, especially demonstrated in his Confessions, had continuing

influence on Continental philosophy throughout the 20th century. His descriptive approach to
intentionality, memory, and language as these phenomena are experienced within consciousness
and time anticipated and inspired the insights of modern phenomenology and hermeneutics.[149]
Edmund Husserl writes: "The analysis of time-consciousness is an age-old crux of descriptive
psychology and theory of knowledge. The first thinker to be deeply sensitive to the immense
difficulties to be found here was Augustine, who laboured almost to despair over this
problem."[150] Martin Heidegger refers to Augustine's descriptive philosophy at several junctures
in his influential work Being and Time.[151] Hannah Arendt began her philosophical writing with a
dissertation on Augustine's concept of love, Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin (1929): "The young
Arendt attempted to show that the philosophical basis for vita socialis in Augustine can be
understood as residing in neighbourly love, grounded in his understanding of the common origin
of humanity."[152] Jean Bethke Elshtain in Augustine and the Limits of Politics finds likeness
between Augustine and Arendt in their concepts of evil: "Augustine did not see evil as
glamorously demonic but rather as absence of good, something which paradoxically is really
nothing. Arendt ... envisioned even the extreme evil which produced the Holocaust as merely
banal [in Eichmann in Jerusalem]."[153] Augustine's philosophical legacy continues to influence
contemporary critical theory through the contributions and inheritors of these 20th-century
figures.
According to Leo Ruickbie, Augustine's arguments against magic, differentiating it from miracle,
were crucial in the early Church's fight against paganism and became a central thesis in the later
denunciation of witches and witchcraft. According to Professor Deepak Lal, Augustine's vision
of the heavenly city has influenced the secular projects and traditions of the Enlightenment,
Marxism, Freudianism and Eco-fundamentalism.[154] Post-Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri
and Michael Hardt rely heavily on Augustine's thought, particularly The City of God, in their
book of political-philosophy "Empire."
While in his pre-Pelagian writings Augustine taught that Adam's guilt as transmitted to his
descendants much enfeebles, though does not destroy, the freedom of their will, Protestant
reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin affirmed that Original Sin completely destroyed liberty
(see total depravity).[120]
Augustine has influenced many modern-day theologians and authors such as John Piper. Hannah
Arendt, an influential 20th century political theorist, wrote her doctoral dissertation in
philosophy on St. Augustine, and continued to rely on his thought throughout her career. Ludwig
Wittgenstein extensively quotes Augustine in Philosophical Investigations for his approach to
language, both admiringly, and as a sparring partner to develop his own ideas, including an
extensive opening passage from the Confessions. In his autobiographical book Milestones, Pope
Benedict XVI, claims St. Augustine as one of the deepest influences in his thought.

In popular culture

Augustine was played by Dary Berkani in the 1972 television movie Augustine of Hippo. He was
also played by Franco Nero in the 2010 mini-series Augustine: The Decline of the Roman
Empire and the 2012 feature film Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine.[155] The
modern day name links to the Agostinelli Family.[156]
Jostein Gaarder's philosophical novel Vita Brevis is presented as a translation of a manuscript
written by Augustine's concubine after he became the Bishop of Hippo. Augustine also appears
in the novel The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brian (the pen name of Irish Author Brian O'Nolan).
He is summoned to an underwater cavern by an absurd scientist called De Selby; together they
discuss life in Heaven and the characters of other Saints. Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s novel A Canticle
for Leibowitz cites St. Augustine as possibly positing the first version of a theory of evolution.[157]
Bob Dylan recorded a song entitled "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" on his album John Wesley
Harding. Pop artist Sting pays an homage of sorts to Augustine's struggles with lust with the
song "Saint Augustine in Hell" which appears on the singer's 1993 album Ten Summoner's Tales.
Christian Rock artist Disciple named their fourth track on their 2010 release Horseshoes and
Handgrenades after Augustine, called: "The Ballad of St. Augustine". The song "St. Augustine"
appears on Girlyman's album, Supernova. American rock band Moe named and referenced
Augustine of Hippo in their song entitled, "St. Augustine."