Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall

Author:Christopher A. Hall [Hall, Christopher A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2009-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Augustine (354-430)

In Augustine we encounter a man who many consider the greatest of the fathers, a figure whose name, if not his thought, is well known to most modern Westerners. Augustine’s personal pilgrimage to faith, recorded in an intensely personal form in his Confessions, mirrors for many modern Christians their own personal struggles: How can one live a sexually sane life in a sexually insane culture? How is love different from lust? How has sin affected the human personality? If God is infinitely powerful and infinitely loving, why is the world filled with such evil and suffering? Exactly what is evil? How did evil enter God’s creation? Why am I so often unable to do the good I know to be good? Why do I consistentlyfind myself loving the wrong things? How can I learn to love the good? How has sin affected my ability to love what is right and hate what is wrong? How can one make sense of the Bible? Why are the Scriptures so difficult to understand and interpret? How can one learn to read them well?

We can best understand Augustine’s response to these and other questions by first reviewing key junctures in his own spiritual pilgrimage. His family background is similar to that of many households today. Augustine’s father Patricius was more interested in his career than in his son and took little interest in Augustine’s spiritual development. Patricius amply provided for Augustine’s education, but was blind to his son’s religious questions and concerns. Augustine mentions his father infrequently, and when he does speak of him one senses his ambivalence. Yes, his father provided well for his education, but fell short as the moral and spiritual guide Augustine so badly needed.

No one had anything but praise for my father who, despite his slender resources, was ready to provide his son with all that was needed to enable him to travel so far for the purpose of study. Many of our townsmen, far richer than my father, went to no such trouble for their children’s sake. Yetthis same father of mine took no trouble at all to see how I was growing in your sight or whether I was chaste or not. He cared only that I should have a fertile tongue, leaving my heart to bear none of your fruits, my God, though you are the only Master, true and good, of its husbandry.47

Augustine needed great help as he found himself trapped by the overwhelming lure of his senses and their appetites. He loved food, sex, friendship—indeed, love itself. Augustine increasingly perceived, though, that his search for love was wrongheaded; he loved, but he loved wrongly. His love overflowed its banks and rippled across a landscape it was never meant to traverse. Augustine’s desires raged within him; love and lust merged in an unholy union.

I cared nothing but to love and be loved. But my love went beyond the affection of one mind for another, beyond the arc of the bright beam of friendship. Bodily

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.