Do you like Saint Augustine

[Saint Augustine]

Saint Augustine was a Roman Catholic monk of the 3rd century. Protestants and Catholics alike use his writings to support their beliefs. What do you think about Saint Augustine and his teachings?

 

[McBell]

"It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing to hear a Christian,presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on topics non-Christians know from reason and experience.

"If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him trying to support his foolish opinion from the Bible, how are they going to believe the Bible on the important matters of faith when they think the Bible is full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?

"Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on us all when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of the Bible.

For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."

 

[athanasius]

Saint Augustine was a Roman Catholic monk of the 3rd century. Protestants and Catholics alike use his writings to support their beliefs. What do you think about Saint Augustine and his teachings?

Actually he was a 4th and 5th century saint, Bishop of Hippo, and convert from paganism. He was one of the greatest minds in the early Church. I especially love his work on the sacraments and the authority of the Catholic Church. His "confessions" are powerful and will move you. And he is a great patron saint to turn to for interession when dealing with sexual sins. After all he learend to over come them himself with the grace of God and the prayers of St. Monica his Mother.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Saint Augustine was a Roman Catholic monk of the 3rd century. Protestants and Catholics alike use his writings to support their beliefs. What do you think about Saint Augustine and his teachings?

I've read that Saint Augustine is considered to be the greatest Christian teacher between the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther. I believe many of the Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin embraced many of the important views of Saint Augustine. I find it to be very interesting that Roman Catholics and Reformed Christians embrace Saint Augustine in their beliefs. I also read that Saint Augustine was gifted in defending the church against hersey. Here's a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

 

[athanasius]

I've read that Saint Augustine is considered the greatest Christian teacher between the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther. I believe many of the reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin embraced many of the important views of Saint Augustine. I find it to be very interesting that Roman Catholics and Reformed Christians embrace Saint Augustine in their beliefs.

Why would you find that funny? Augustine was a Roman Catholic Bishop and Saint who did alot for the Catholic Church. I find it funny that many protestants like him. But I am proud that they do like him.

 

[Napoleon]

What do you think about Saint Augustine and his teachings?

I believe him to have been a truly wise man especially in matters of moral reasoning.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Actually he was a 4th and 5th century saint, Bishop of Hippo, and convert from paganism. He was one of the greatest minds in the early Church. I especially love his work on the sacraments and the authority of the Catholic Church. His "confessions" are powerful and will move you. And he is a great patron saint to turn to for interession when dealing with sexual sins. After all he learend to over come them himself with the grace of God and the prayers of St. Monica his Mother.

That's exactly what I mean. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and hardcore protestant secs like Calvinist love Saint Augustine. Maybe the writings can unite the division of Christedom? Let's talk about Augustine's view of original sin.

 

[athanasius]

That's exactly what I mean. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and hardcore protestant secs like Calvinist love Saint Augustine. Maybe the writings can unite the division of Christedom? Let's talk about Augustine's view of original sin.

Well Augustine is a good place to start to look for re-unification. But I understand that the Greek Orthodox(Not to be confused with Eastern Greek Catholics) do not like him or his view of original sin very much. So maybe onlyt he prots and Caths could look to him.

 

[sojourner]

That's exactly what I mean. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and hardcore protestant secs like Calvinist love Saint Augustine. Maybe the writings can unite the division of Christedom? Let's talk about Augustine's view of original sin.

Sin? Wrath? Angry God? What is this fascination with the dark aspects of the Xian religion? St. Augustine was about far, far more than "original sin," which most Protestant groups don't espouse, anyway. In what way does discussing this doctrine help to unite all Christians?

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Sin? Wrath? Angry God? What is this fascination with the dark aspects of the Xian religion? St. Augustine was about far, far more than "original sin," which most Protestant groups don't espouse, anyway. In what way does discussing this doctrine help to unite all Christians?

Why does it appear that you dislike the old teachers of Christianity like Saint Augustine and Jonathan Edwards? Do you have a new form of Christianity?

 

[sojourner]

Why does it appear that you dislike the old teachers of Christianity like Saint Augustine and Jonathan Edwards? Do you have a new form of Christianity?

Augustine is inarguably an "old teacher of Xy." Edwards? Not even sure he could be considered a "teacher of Xy," except in the most colloquial sense.

Did I say that I disliked Augustine? I said that there was much more to his theology than the doctrine of original sin.

 

[cardero]

Do you like Saint Augustine
He's never done anything against me.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

When St. Augustine was sent to establish the church of Rome in Kent England in 595.
He found that the Celtic church was already established in the more distant parts of the country, where it had been spreading for some 400 years.
In due course the native Celtic (Coptic) church was crushed and Joined with Rome.

It would have been more interesting for us had the Celtic Church been able to with stand against Rome as it might have had better luck against the heathen invaders who caused so much trouble after the Roman legions left these shores, when we descended into the dark ages.

 

[athanasius]

When St. Augustine was sent to establish the church of Rome in Kent England in 595.
He found that the Celtic church was already established in the more distant parts of the country, where it had been spreading for some 400 years.
In due course the native Celtic (Coptic) church was crushed and Joined with Rome.

It would have been more interesting for us had the Celtic Church been able to with stand against Rome as it might have had better luck against the heathen invaders who caused so much trouble after the Roman legions left these shores, when we descended into the dark ages.

Your talking about the wrong St Augustine. You are thinking of this Augustine: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02081a.htm

I hope that helps!


We are talking about this more popular and more influential Augustine:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm

 

[Aqualung]

Saint Augustine was a Roman Catholic monk of the 3rd century. Protestants and Catholics alike use his writings to support their beliefs. What do you think about Saint Augustine and his teachings?

I thought he was a very influential writer, but I found him boring.

 

[Quagmire]

"Do you like Saint Augustine?"

Not as much as I like St. Paulie Girl.

 

[Booko]

Liked "Confessions." Could never quite see the Biblical justification for original sin.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Liked "Confessions." Could never quite see the Biblical justification for original sin.

How about the book of Romans, chapter 5?

 

[James the Persian]

Well, I hold to the usual position of those in the eastern half of the Church - that he is a saint for his great piety but that he is in no way a Church Father for his writings are full of heretical doctrines that were immediately condemned upon their being translated into Greek so the east could read them. He asked for but never received correction if he erred (had the easterners known what he was writing he would have done, mind) and so is not a heretic even though many of his ideas are heretical (and some clearly hangovers from his Manichaean past).

He may be considered one of the greatest thinkers in the Church in the west but he most certainly has never been considered such in the east. In fact it is our view that it is the works of Bl. Augustine that are most responsible for providing the underpinnings of those theological (as opposed to the politics) errors that caused and perpetuate the Great Schism. If you really want to find the greatest thinkers in Church history you'd be better of looking at the likes of St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, St. John of Damascus and the Cappadocians, all of whom are saints in the Roman Catholic Church also. I'd certainly add St. Gregory Palamas to the list also but he's decidedly eastern and post-Schism. St. John Cassian's writings in opposition to Bl. Augustine's excesses are also far more important than those of Augustine himself, for they clearly expound the view of grace held by the Church from the beginning rather than the distortion of it promulgated by Augustine.

Augustine's position in the western Church seems solely down to the language he wrote in. Knowledge of Greek was fading in the west and by far the majority of Church Fathers wrote in that language, but Augustine wrote in Latin. His writings certrainly can't hold a candle to those of the Fathers I mentioned above.

James

 

[James the Persian]

Well Augustine is a good place to start to look for re-unification. But I understand that the Greek Orthodox(Not to be confused with Eastern Greek Catholics) do not like him or his view of original sin very much.

It's all Orthodox, not just the Greeks. We do not see him as a Church Father, so his writings cannot serve to reunite us. In fact we'd say that it's his writings that did much to divide us in the first place. He is a saint, though. Blessed for us is another title for a saint not a differenet rank like for you and you'll find him on Orthodox calendars as Blessed Augustine of Hippo.

Do you actually know any Uniates, though? I only ask because you appear to assume that they heartily approve of Bl. Augustine's writings as though they were Latins. I know quite large numbers of them, both in Romania and in Britain and the next one I meet who agrees with Bl. Augustine's writings on irresistible grace or original sin will be the first. They really do not share your faith even if they do bow to your Pope. Not for nothing do they often describe themselves as Orthodox in communion with Rome - they even venerate people like St. Gregory Palamas as a saint when it was the Palamite Councils that anathematised Latin scholasticism!

So maybe onlyt he prots and Caths could look to him.

Certainly so. And the problem is that any such union, based on the unwitting heresy of Bl. Augustine's writings, would inevitably remain permanently cut off rom the east.

James