Sure it’s anachronism, but Creed or Chaos makes a good point.
Augustine
Happy Birthday St Augustine
Today is St Augustine’s birthday (354 AD). In that connection I should mention the upcoming publication of Simonetta Carr’s biography of Augustine for children. Few figures in Western history are as important as Augustine. He is one of the early church fathers . . . Continue reading →
Augustine on Republication
Thanks to Brandon for publishing some very interesting and provocative (in the best sense) excerpts from an anti-Pelagian treatise by Augustine in which he accounted for the uniqueness of the Mosaic, national, covenant in a way that sounds quite like the later . . . Continue reading →
The Fall
Augustine On Grace Before and After the Fall
Chapter 29—What then? Did not Adam have the grace of God? Yes, truly, he had it largely, but of a different kind. He was placed in the midst of benefits which he had received from the goodness of his Creator; for he had . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On The Authority Of Scripture Over Bishops
You are wont, indeed, to bring up against us the letters of Cyprian, his opinion, his Council; why do ye claim the authority of Cyprian for your schism, and reject his example when it makes for the peace of the Church? But . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On Signs And Things Signified
2. All instruction is either about things or about signs; but things are learnt by means of signs. I now use the word “thing” in a strict sense, to signify that which is never employed as a sign of anything else: for . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 48: Making Some Sense Of The Republication Debate Pt 1: History
Parts of the confessional Reformed world in North America are in the midst of a controversy over whether it is biblical, confessional, and historically Reformed to teach that the Mosaic covenant was, in some sense, a republication of the covenant of works. . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On The Hermeneutics Of Love
While Augustine argues that ‘there are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained,’ it should be evident that the first step . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On Christ’s Present Reign
3. Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great King, full of grace, prolific of offspring, let her say what the prophecy uttered about her so long before by the mouth of this pious mother confesses, “My heart is . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On Justification, Salvation, And Assurance
Our predestination is not wrought in ourselves, but in secret with Him, in His foreknowledge. But we are called by the preaching of repentance. We are justified in the calling of mercy and fear of judgment. He feareth not judgment, who hath . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On The Covenant Of Nature (6)
IX. Although natural liberty agrees in essentials with the liberty of man constituted in other states, still it differs greatly in accidentals. For the liberty of glory in blessedness is not to be able to sin (non posse peccare). The liberty of . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed Followed The Ancient Fathers In Rejecting Images Of Christ
Therefore we approved the judgment of Lactantius [c.250–325], and ancient writer, who says: “Undoubtedly no religion exists where there is an image.” We also assert that the blessed bishop Epiphanius [c.315–403] did right when, finding on the doors of a church a . . . Continue reading →
Augustine’s Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations (1)
For a long time I have been thinking about and planning to do something which I, with God’s assistance, I am now undertaking because I do not think it should be postponed: with a kind of judicial severity I am reviewing my . . . Continue reading →
Augustine’s Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations (2)
Secular institutions and even extra-ecclesiastical Christian institutions have always been, in their essence, law. The civil magistrate may exercise mercy—Calvin’s first published work was a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia (On Clemency), Seneca’s defense of the virtue of mercy to Nero. When . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 129: I Am That I Am (7)—The Trinity In The New Testament
Augustine of Hippo used to say that what was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament and that is certainly true in case of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. As we have discussed so far in the . . . Continue reading →
Augustine: Infant Baptism Is The Apostolic And Universal Practice Of The Church
What the universal Church holds, not as instituted by councils but as something always held, is most correctly believed to have been handed down by apostolic authority. Since others respond for children, so that the celebration of the sacrament may be complete . . . Continue reading →
Augustine: The Rule Of Faith Is The Apostles’ Creed
1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you . . . Continue reading →
By Nature We Are Not Ill But Dead
One of the first and greatest differences between the Augustinian understanding of Paul and what became the dominant understanding of Paul. By the 7th century and for most of a millennium following, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Mark 10:29–37) became the . . . Continue reading →
Augustine Contra Biblicism
Or if anyone should think this is untrue, I am not going to quarrel about it. After all, I am clearly dealing with Christians, who rejoice over their knowing the holy Scriptures without human guidance; and if that is the case, it . . . Continue reading →