This week is the week of blogs about school and school related things. I can’t help. School has just started and I’m up to my cap and gown in academic mud. But, it’s a blast. I was made for this. Just ask my students. It’ll be on their exam.

Anyway, I’m teaching three history related courses this semester: church history (0-1500), Christian classics, and introduction to philosophy. How, you ask, are they all history related? Well, church history is obvious. Christian classics is a class that focuses on, you guessed it, classic literature. We’ll be reading a bunch of old dead guys. Finally, in philosophy we’ll be considering the development of philosophical systems and their worldview implications starting with the ancient Greeks.

What’s turning out to be fascinating is that each of those three classes has more in common that simply an historical bent. Every one of them will in one way or another deal with Augustine. What’s even more fascinating is how few of my students are remotely familiar with him. Bear in mind, that many of these folks have grown up in church and many of them are better read than I was at that age. However, the mere mention of the name of Augustine elicits yawns and blank stares. “Saint who?”

What a shame. Augustine is huge. Augustine is inescapable. Augustine is unavoidable. He touches virtually every area and era of Christian life from his day to ours. Consider just a few of these quotes about Augustine:

“He was a great sinner who became a great saint.” — R. S. Coffin-Pine

“After Jesus and Paul, Augustine of Hippo is the most influential figure in the history of Christianity.” — Christian History magazine

“[Augustine] entered both the Church and the world as a revolutionary force, and not merely created an epoch in the history of the Church, but … determined the course of its history in the West up to the present day (1890s).” — B. B. Warfield

Both Catholics and Protestants claim Augustine. His thought was the cause and the answer to the Reformation. While we might not agree with everything he ever said or did, we cannot avoid him and our spiritual debt to him. He was God’s chosen vessel and he ought not be forgotten. As the writers of Hebrews reminded the early church: Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith (Heb 13:7).

This entry is filed under History.

Responses are currently closed. You can trackback from your own site.