Of True Religion

by Augustine of Hippo, Louis O. Mink (Introduction), J.H.S. Burleigh (Translator)

The remarkable blend of philosophy and theology in Augustine's thinking is readily apprehended in "Of True Religion," written in A.D. 390, four years after his conversion. Through his argument that Christ does not negate but fulfill him, Augustine helped make possible the orderly transition of Western civilization from paganism to Christianity without loss of any of its ancient values.

Genres: Religion, Philosophy, Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian

107 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 390

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."

Santo Agostinho

Reviews

[Avyi Hill]

sometimes I wonder why duke profs so strongly discourage masters students from publishing... and then I read this and kind of understand. Augustine had to back pedal on a lot... souls actually don't have freedom of will, and suffering and death actually legitimately cause pain - it's not just a perspective issue. Baby Augustine needed to read some more Paul and pastor for a few years.

[Ingrid · Rating 1 out of 5]

My biggest takeaway reading this book was that Augustine was a man desperate to believe in anything that would adequately explain the state of the world to him and give him grounds to berate others for their behavior. His writing here is neither especially logical nor especially moving.

[David]

Deeply philosophical and "Aristotlean" in its analysis of religion, God, our role, and right worship.
Not for the faint of heart, and certainly not a "quick" read, but certainly an accessible book for one who wishes to become more familiar with the whys and wherefores of Christian worship--even if one is a member of a Christian faith. It never hurts to become more familiar with the histories and backgrounds of the tenets of our faith and that of our most learned and devout leaders.

[Stephen Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is far from being one of Augustine's most accessible works, but it's one of his greatest, I think, and, if this makes any sense, maybe his most Augustinian. It goes by the garden path, but, by the end, it's kind of the best collation of his most central teachings.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a relatively early work of Augustine's, written after his conversion to Christianity but before his ordination to the priesthood. While his language remains influenced by his earlier Neoplatonism, he is working on his understanding of God and Christ. He strictly adheres to the Catholic Orthodox church and rejects all heresies (and there were several around in his time). He rejects the dualism of the Manichaeism that he had embraced for several years earlier and asserts the primacy of God who alone is to be worshipped. He throughout describes the human condition and illustrates what he says in the opening of his "Confessions" that our souls are restless until they find our rest in God. Throughout, he alludes to various passages of scripture. He indicates that humans have the free will to accept God and Christ or to reject Him. This little book gives a view of Augustine's theological development prior to his later life when he wrote his magna opera - his "Confessions" and "The City of God". That said, it's not the easiest read, at least not the J.H.S. Burleigh translation that I just finished. But well worth it.

[Mattia Agnelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Ma l’uomo esteriore si corrompe, o per il progresso di quello interiore o per mancanza propria. Per il progresso dell’uomo interiore esso si corrompe in modo da essere tutto cambiato in meglio ed esser restituito, al suono dell’ultima tromba, alla primitiva integrità per non più corrompersi e corrompere. Per propria mancanza viene invece gettato in bellezze più corruttibili, ossia nell’ordine delle pene.”

[:)]

the beef this dude had with Plato was insaneee

[Jordan Coy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Augustine’s earliest works. Written only a few years after his conversion, this treatise is an anti-Manicheisn polemic where Augustine repudiates his former cult and answers the objections that kept him from embracing Christianity. Much of his answers rely on Platonic influenced Christianity to combat the materialism of Manichaeism. This work is a sort of snapshot of the familiar themes such as the nature of time, the nature of evil, and man's free will that will be more fully developed in Augustine’s later works.

What exists is good and evil does not have any proper existence:

"Things are born, die, are dissolved or broken up. But so far as they do exist they have existence from the eternal God, being created by his truth. To the rational and intellectual soul is given to
enjoy the contemplation of his eternity" (page 4)

"For every idea comes from him. Who is he, then, save the one God, the one truth, the one salvation of all, the first and highest essence from which all that exists derives existence as such? For all existence as such is good. The highest essence imparts existence to all that exists. That is why it is called essence. Death imparts no actual existence to anything which has died. If it is really dead it has indubitably been reduced to nothingness. For things die only in so far as they have a decreasing part in existence." (20-21)

"Existence as such is good, and supreme existence is the chief good. From what did he make them? Out of nothing. Whatever is must have some form, and though it be but a minimal good it will be good and will be of God. The highest form is the highest good, and the lowest form is the lowest good. Every good thing is either God or derived from God. Therefore even the lowest form is of God." (31-32)

Sin being the disorder of loves and salvation involves seeing beyond the "shadows" of this life:

"They love the works of the artificer more than the artificer or his art, and are punished by falling into the error of expecting to find the artificer and his art in his works, and when they cannot do so they think that the works are both the art and the artificer. God is not offered to the corporeal senses, and transcends even the mind…This is the origin of all impiety of sinners who have been condemned for their sins. Not only do they wish to scrutinize the creation contrary to the commandment of God, and to enjoy it rather than God’s law and truth—that was the sin of the first man who misused his free will" (64)

"Seek therefore the highest agreeableness. Do not go abroad. Return within yourself. In the inward man dwells truth. If you find that you are by nature mutable, transcend yourself. But remember in doing so that you must also transcend yourself even as a reasoning soul. Make for the place where the light of reason is kindled. What does every good reasoner attain but truth? And yet truth is not reached by reasoning, but is itself the goal of all who reason." (69)

Augustine's argument for inscrutable truth that predates Descartes' argument:

"Everyone who knows that he has doubts knows with certainty something that is true, namely, that he doubts. He is certain, therefore, about a truth. Therefore everyone who doubts whether there be such a thing as the truth has at least a truth to set a limit to his doubt; and nothing can be true except truth be in it. Accordingly, no one ought to have doubts about the existence of the truth, even if doubts arise for him from every possible quarter." (70)

The nature of Time:

"In eternity there is neither past nor future. What is past has ceased to be, and what is future has not yet begun to be. Eternity is ever the same. It never “was” in the sense that it is not now, and it never “will be” in the sense that it is not yet. Wherefore, eternity alone could have said to the human mind “I am what I am.” And of eternity alone could it be truly said: “He who is hath sent me” (Ex. 3:14)." (93)

4/5 A summation of Augustine's enduring ideas found within his early works

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

As indicated by the appended description, this was Augustine's last work prior to baptism and, so, the last which justifies his conversion in terms of Neo-Platonism. As such and like all of his earliest extant writing, I find it easiest to appreciate. What I don't appreciate is how he became the kind of rationalizing, bible-centered Christian he ended up as--rather than, say, a more philosophically inclined one like Origen had been.

His 'Confessions' offer clues. Augustine was raised as a Christian by his quite influential, but unschooled, mother. He broke with her simple faith in adolescence, but felt guilty about it. The faith he substituted, Manichaeism, was, if anything, even more extreme about matters of moral purity than Christianity was. It was also more philosophical, more "modern", more ecumenical than biblical Christianity. In this, his attraction to moral perfectionism and to intellectualism, we see a tension which suggests that his ultimate conversion represented a compromise formation. On the one hand, Christianity emphasized ethics and promised salvation. Yet it did so on easier terms than afforded by the teachings of Mani. On the other hand, his education and his association with more educated Christians like Ambrose eventually served to make Christianity intellectually acceptable.

What I'm suggesting is that Augustine's conversion was not entirely the intellectual process he makes it out to be. There was more of a irrational, personal psychological dimension to it. This understanding allows me, of course, to explain away Augustine's exhortations.