On the Profit of Believing

by Augustine of Hippo, Philip Schaff (Editor), Charles Lewis Cornish (Translation)

Augustine, the man with upturned eye, with pen in the left hand, and a burning heart in the right (as he is usually represented), is a philosophical and theological genius of the first order, towering like a pyramid above his age, and looking down commandingly upon succeeding centuries. He had a mind uncommonly fertile and deep, bold and soaring; and with it, what is better, a heart full of Christian love and humility. He stands of right by the side of the greatest philosophers of antiquity and of modern times. We meet him alike on the broad highways and the narrow footpaths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful depths of speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him or after him have trod. As a theologian he is facile princeps, at least surpassed by no church father, schoolman, or reformer. With royal munificence he scattered ideas in passing, which have set in mighty motion other lands and later times. He combined the creative power of Tertullian with the churchly spirit of Cyprian, the speculative intellect of the Greek church with the practical tact of the Latin. He was a Christian philosopher and a philosophical theologian to the full.

Genres: Theology, Faith

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 391

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

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Reviews

[Jack Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, early work by Augustine that is largely a polemic against the Manichees, which was a large focus of his early work. It was addressed to a friend that had followed him into the heretical sect and whom he wished to now lead to Christianity.

Augustine focuses on two issues: the reliability of the Old Testament and, the titular issue, the neccesity and value of belief. The Manichees followed Marcion and rejected the OT while claiming to follow the NT. They believed the OT to portray a totally different God not in keeping with the morality of the NT and they also saw many of the stories as fanciful. Augustine endeavours to show that the OT need not always be taken literally, that there are different ways Scripture can be understood, such as allegorically, as St Ambrose had shown him. Although Augustine lists a fourfold way of interpreting Scripture (historically, etiologically, analogically and allegorically), Henri de Lubac shows (see Medieval Exegesis v1 p123-132) that this is not the origin of the well known fourfold sense of literal, allegorical, moral and anagogical. Augustine's four senses is more of a division of the literal into three plus the allegorical.

The Manichees had also rejected Catholic Christianity for being based on faith. They considered themselves to be rationalists who did not denigrate themselves with mere belief. Augustine in the second half of the work shows why this is ridiculous and that belief is actually good and even neccesary. We require belief before we can move onto proven knowledge. We must take things at face value before we can even attempt to test them so that they might become knowledge, to attempt to claim otherwise is absurd. Belief therefore is neccesary and it leads us to the truth. Are there not things we cannot knowingly verify? How do we KNOW who our father is but that we believe our mother? How can we know any historical events eg the legal cases of Cicero which Augustine was very familiar with? Of course we can only believe in the events of the NT since we did not personally experience them.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about Augustine’s anger for the Manichaeans treatment and dismissal of the Catholic Church for logic and reason. Augustine does make some good points however, I found his own arguments to be circular as to why the Catholic Church the mediator/ extension of God should be believed and respected. However, I did appreciate his idea of giving the benefit of the doubt when we encounter another perspective or knowledge (in his case specifically religion) that is to not knock the author or perspectives immediately but to ask questions that further learning and understanding.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult read on the significance (and causes of/for) belief in the Catholic Christian Faith

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little hard to read, but the essential points are fantastic. Augustine refutes the wicked idea that we don't need to believe anything upon authority, but should only base our knowledge upon pure reason. He shows the ridiculousness and impiety of this opinion, and the becoming wholesomeness of use of intelligent faith. Believing is not credulity. It is believing that which we do not perfectly know upon trustworthy authority. Without faith we cannot even begin to come to a knowledge of the truth; God, knowing this, condescended to teach us by furnishing us with many sound evidences to trust His Word. It is eminently wise to humble ourselves, recognize our need for instruction, and apply our minds to intelligent learning. Excellent wisdom.

“It is indeed wretched to be deceived by authority, but surely more wretched not to be moved.” – Augustine