Class note for this week

Today's topic is on Augustine of Hippo.

He is the Father of Western Civilization. He was also an African, but one of the greatest heroes of our world. Athanasius and Augustine are considered the two most influential men ever to live.

"In the absence of true justice, what is the government of sovereignty but organized robbery."
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
"Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it."
"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement."
"Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop."
"Our hearts have been made for you, O God, and they shall never rest until they rest in you."
"The Lord’s cross was the devil’s mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord."

Augustine suffered greatly for standing up strongly for his beliefs. God brings great champions with great faith to stand against the war. Augustine was born after the heresies and persecutions.

In 354 AD, he was born to Patricus (a Berber) and Monica (a Nubian) and was raised within a Roman culture. His mother catechized him, but didn't have him baptized. He was encouraged by his father to engage in the fleshly desires. He was an exceptionally bright scholar. He specialized in oratory and rhetoric. Eventually, he was sent to Carthage to study. At this time, Carthage did not have its university, but rather an academy. There, Augustine toyed with several things. One of them was the popular ideas of the Roman pop culture. The others were Neo-Platonism and Manicheanism.

What the key thing that these beliefs taught was that "you can do whatever you want with no moral consequences in the physical world as long as you're wise in your choices. If you base your actions off of logic, you will be alright." Ideas matter, but actions don't. This is so false.

Manicheanism:
Your mind and actions are separate. This belief downplayed the physical. In the physical world, you do whatever you want without getting the consequences. Manicheanism is very similar to Neo-Platonism. Good cannot overcome evil and evil cannot overcome good. Augustine became very devoted to these two ideas. As a result he became extremely depressed, depraved, and dissipated.

He set his sights for fame and wealth. He groomed himself to be a politician and a lawyer.

Just before 34 AD, he moved to Rome where he had patrons who supported him while he studied rhetoric at the academy there. But he felt restless with no relief. While he was there, he was getting more and more well known.

He soon slipped into the mindset of skepticism; universal skepticism for everything. If he was a true skeptic, then he would be skeptical of skepticism. You can never get away from believing something.

He then moved north to Milan. He saw this as an advancement in life. There he met Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. He was a pioneer in the pastoral practice. One of his achievements was that he brought congregational singing back into services. It had died out during the persecutions because Christians didn't want to be detected while singing.

Manicheanism is close to Gnosticism. It has a dualistic belief. They believed that material is evil. Their "God" worked through spirits and hierarchies who eventually created the evil physical world. All matter is evil. The world was created evil by an evil spirit. But nevertheless, we are divine, we have a spark of divinity within our souls. It was begun by Mani. They believed furthermore that there are two separate and distinct worlds; one is light and the other is dark. There are two different rulers of these worlds and they are opposed to each other. However, they are equal and one cannot win over the other. Your soul or spirit is the spark of perfection. One of the things about Manicheanism is the secret knowledge. The more you learn about Gnosticism, the more secret knowledge you gain. Secret knowledge is something to be wanted and achieved. The spiritual and physical worlds have mixed and the warfare now is about trying to pull these two worlds apart like they should be. Marcionism is also close to Manicheanism. One of the keys of Manicheanism is that the soul is entombed within the sinful body. It wants to get out and be free. They believed that in the spiritual bus, there are the people at the front of the bus who will gain entrance into the spiritual realm first, while the people at the back of the bus might have a chance at reincarnation to come back and be something greater at the front of the bus. They didn't believe in eating any of the flesh or marriage. If you make more babies, it is simply more souls entombed within a sinful body.

Augustine found the teachings of Ambrose stronger and more solid than anything he had ever heard or learned before. He soon formed a group or community of "seekers" who followed Ambrose around while he was supposed to be studying.

Ambrose thought he was very behind in the times. He didn't want to be a pastor and didn't have any students or disciples. But he did allow people to come and watch him as he read, granted that they were quiet. He was a person who didn't read aloud, which was considered a curious thing as everyone read aloud back then. Augustine was struck by his intense studying. In 387, he was baptized by Ambrose, and then returned to Tagaste. He gave all his money away to charities and then established a community of learning that was based upon Proverbs.

He began to teach the new generation how to be a culture changer. This must be a new culture of disciplined people who know how to think. Every generation must be trained and taught differently. Children must be like meat: marinated, dipped, coated, and soaked in Christianity.

He began an Arx Axiom Academy in the North. Fame followed him there. He was hungry for the Word, and breathed Scripture. While he was there, he began to write substantial works. Through this he focused on defending the faith, also called apologetics.

In the culture that they lived in, you could be forced into the pulpit. You would have to do it, if that's what the people wanted and you would have to do it for the rest of your life. Calvin, at one point in his life, was threatened unless he came and taught at Geneva. And so, Augustine hid in fear of being forced into the pulpit. In 391, he was constrained to be a preaching pastor. Soon after, he defeated Manicheanism. In 396, he was forcefully made to be the presbyter or bishop at Hippo. Augustine was loved by a few, but hated by many for his beliefs. He fought against Pelagianism, Arianism, Dontanism, Novationism, and Neo-Platonism. A few of his works included Confessions, Enchiridion, and City of God. The works and beliefs that he fought against were all attacking the deity of God. The City of God was a hugely influencial book addressing many different important topics that Christians needed to be award of. They needed to know the Biblical standing on these different ideas.

History is not linear or circular; it is a mixture of the two. History is going somewhere, but it does repeat itself therefore we must always be learning from history and applying it to the future. People still make the same mistakes and/or do the same correct things again. We must look backwards in order to look forwards.

In Greek culture, everything is very circular and in Christianity everything is consequential.

Augustine laid the groundwork for the idea of delayed gratification. We must prepare the world for our children and grandchildren.

Greco-Roman - the idea of absolute chaos was turned upside down and put on its head. It said that everything that ever existed was chaos. There is a God who is in control who gives you meaning for life and for every action you ever do. Chaos is seen to turn into order. Order will be born again if we just get back to chaos. In reality, nothing comes out of chaos, but chaos itself.

Augustine believed that history is progressive. It is always going forwards and progressing. The Romans were always looking behind and Augustine came along and forced them to look to the future while still connecting it from behind.

There was vast differences that needed to be emphasized between the good and evil, light and dark, right and wrong.

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. There is a standard outside of ourselves by which we must look at our art and culture. We have a purpose and destiny. There is no such thing as fate; there is a God. He is there and is not silent; anything that happens is God's own will. If you don't have that idea, you will see that every man "does what is right in his own eyes". There are no random consequences. Everything happens with God's will backing it up. We all have a destiny that is preordained by God. How are you going to live out your destiny?

Matter matters.

The culture that we have now is attempting to get rid of the basis of the West. We don't know our roots or where we came from.

An unbiblical belief of matter is 1) matter doesn't matter in the least or 2) matter becomes your god. There are many shades of paganism, but at the end of the day, there is only one form of paganism. They come around and kiss each other, as Pastor says. (Libby, you know what I'd say here)

Augustine's storms in life were what shaped him to be the person he was. He was formed by how well he withstood the storms. We are to be the lighthouses in the world darkness.

"Why was the West different? There are great resources scattered all over the world. Europe is not richer because Europe has better gold mines. Africa has better gold mines. Oil wells are in Asia. What made Western Civilization flourish with art, music, literature, ideas, technology, mathematics, science, and medicine? Why is the infant mortality rate low and the literacy rate high? Because ideas have practical, tangible, cultural consequences. Augustine just wanted to sit in his little community and write. Instead God called him to the midst of the maelstrom. Storms shaped his thinking. Storms thundered across the ages and change the world, changed us, gave what we have. The question is: will we keep it?"

We won't be having class for the next two Wednesdays as Pastor is going on vacations. Enjoy!