Augustine: A Very Short Introduction by Chadwick Henry

Author:Chadwick, Henry [Chadwick, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2001-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

The rules of discipline were not casually administered. We (once only) hear of corporal punishment being administered to a young monk found chatting with the nuns at an ‘unfitting hour’. Augustine’s central message was that since we have here no continuing city, let us travel very light. Nevertheless his ideal, like his own personal practice (of which we have an eye-witness description from his contemporary biographer Possidius, who lived with him at Hippo before becoming bishop of the next town, Calama), has the stamp of deep austerity. He was continually suspicious of the senses as a hindrance to the ascent of the spirit to God, and thought the believer must be continually vigilant against all insidious laxity. Many passages of Augustine warn his readers of the fact that the corrupting and corroding effect of sinful habit begins with ‘little things’. In the Confessions (ix.18) he even instanced the way in which his mother Monica, when young, had developed a habit of sipping wine in the family cellar until she became almost addicted. Moreover, one sin may lead to another. A serious lie is told to cover a minor peccadillo. A murderer whose crime has been seen by another will have to murder the witness too if he is to escape being found out (P 57.4). Little grains of sand can weigh as much as lead (S 56.12).

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