Providence - Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo was born in 354 in Tagaste a town that would now be in Algeria. His mother Monica was a strong Christian who prayed fervently for her son to accept Jesus. His father, Patricius, was a pagan who converted to Christianity and was baptized shortly before he died.

Augustine was not a Christian in his teen years and at the age of 17 he fell in love with a woman that he did not marry but ended up living with for 13 years. He admits in his “Confessions” that he could not control his lustful desires.

He unsuccessfully tried to fulfill his needs in several different religions and philosophies. Each time, however, he reached a point where he realized that what he was practicing was false and he would have to move on to something else. His internal struggles came to a head when one day as he sat overwhelmed in a garden. To the point of tears, he suddenly heard a child’s voice chanting in Latin “take up and read, take up and read.” Whether it was a voice from heaven or in his mind he was not sure, but Augustine took the scroll that was next to him, which was the Epistle of Romans, and read the first thing he saw. The scripture was Romans 13:13-14 which says, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

The rest is history. Augustine remains a central figure in religion and philosophy until this day, and is regarded by many theologians as the greatest Christian thinker since Paul to this day. His writings are vast and provoking, and whether you admire him or not, you cannot discount his impact on western thought and Christianity.

It can be said that it was the writings of Augustine which influenced The Reformation a 1,000 years a later. Strangely enough, it can also be said that it was the writings of Augustine that also inspired The Counter Reformation. B. B. Warfield said that The Reformation was the dispute of Augustine’s Doctrine of Grace against Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church. As brilliant as Augustine was, he is a wonderful of example of how political pressures can influence our religious thinking. (Perhaps I will talk more about that in another blog.)

By God’s providence, he saved a man that is affecting the world to this day. It is hard to imagine what the world would be like today without his work.