The Theology of St. Augustine: A Rookie Anglican Guide
St. Augustine of Hippo is one of the most beloved bishops and theologians in the Western Church, and for good reason. Augustine was a man of deep conviction, with remarkable mastery of biblical, rhetorical, and logical skills, while still maintaining the heart of a pastor.
Many know Augustine’s importance within the larger Christian tradition, and the Anglican tradition in particular. They have likely heard of his two best-known books, Confessions and City of God. Fewer, however, have ventured to read his works. Attempting to read everything by the Bishop of Hippo is a herculean task, but don’t let his prolific output deter you from choosing one of the following entrances into his teaching.
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A Companion in Our Mission
There are so many areas of Augustine’s work to jump into. You might start with his most personal works. His Confessions, largely autobiographical and easily his most well-known work, exemplifies his willingness to walk in the light, admitting before God and us his own faults and his need for God’s grace. Retractions, meanwhile, shows his humility and willingness to own and correct his errors.
From a pastoral perspective, his Tractates on John and Expositions of the Psalms offer incredible examples of his deep theological thinking and his heart for his people. Meanwhile, City of God gives an enduring defense of Christianity against pagan accusations and resonates with our post-Christian context.
The Mystery at the Heart of the Christian Faith
Imagine learning that friends had taken the book you had worked on for years and distributed it before you could proofread everything or even finish it. That is exactly what happened with Augustine’s De Trinitate (On the Trinity).
Defending the One God in Three Persons
In this work, Augustine defends the Catholic doctrine of God—that is, the doctrine received according to the whole deposit of faith, as believed throughout the entire world.
Augustine explains both how Christians distinguish the Persons of the Godhead (what we call Relations of Origin: the aseity of the Father, the eternal generation of the Son from the Father, and the eternal spiration of the Spirit from the Father and the Son—see On the Trinity 15.26.45-47) and how we can still affirm one God in essence and action in creation (what we call Inseparable Operations—see On the Trinity 4.5.30 and 7.4.7-7.6.11).
These distinctions emerged from decades of disputes over how Christians speak about the central mystery of the faith. Some heretics denied distinctions between the Persons, prompting the charge that they claimed the Father himself was crucified (see, for example, Tertullian’s Against Praxeas). Others, like Arius, distinguished the Persons so sharply that they denied the divinity of the Son and the Spirit (see Athanasius’ refutation in his Four Discourses Against the Arians).
Augustine draws on this earlier work, sometimes quietly correcting misconceptions and errors of prior theologians. He gives a mature, robust defense of the doctrine we celebrate the Sunday after Pentecost. Early in On the Trinity, Augustine summarizes these tensions before walking through the biblical texts that affirm the same doctrine:
Yet it was not the same Trinity that was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified and buried under Pontius Pilate, and rose on the third day and ascended into heaven, but only the Son. Nor was it the same Trinity that descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus when he was baptized; or that, on the day of Pentecost after the Lord’s ascension, when a sound was made from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and there were divided tongues as of fire, but only the Holy Spirit. Nor was it the same Trinity that said from heaven, you are my Son, whether when he was baptized by John, or on the mountain when the three disciples were with him; or when the voice sounded, saying, and I have glorified it, and will glorify it again: but it was only the Father’s voice made to the Son; although the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as they are inseparable, so they work inseparably. This is also my faith, since this is the Catholic faith.
On the Trinity 1.2.7
Why the Trinity Still Matters
Why might this be a good starting point in Augustine’s works? Oh, sorry, was that a knock at the door? Don’t worry, it was just some Jehovah’s Witnesses walking through the neighborhood sharing that Jesus is not divine and that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force. What was I saying? Right, this is—another knock at the door? Okay, this time it was some elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who shared with the neighbors that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are actually three distinct gods who are united in will and purpose, but not in action or substance.
Here’s the point: the doctrine of the Trinity proclaims the Gospel. In the face of false Gospels and false religions, and in light of the ACNA vision to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ, we should contemplate how God has revealed himself to us so that we can participate in the revelation of the Gospel to others. St. Augustine’s On the Trinity faithfully guides us in that work.
Man’s Fall and God’s Grace
Maybe you’ve seen the portrait of St. Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne before, but have you ever noticed what his foot rests upon? Pelagius’ works sit firmly under the Bishop’s foot, with the works of Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum, supporters of Pelagianism, nearby. Pelagius gave rise to one of the greatest heresies the western Church faced. He taught that Adam’s fall into sin did not corrupt our nature, that those who sin after the fall merely follow Adam’s example, and that men could live righteous lives apart from the grace of God (see Article IX of the 39 Articles and Pelagius’ Epistle to Demetrias).
Original Sin and the Need for Grace
The Pelagian controversy raised urgent questions about the fall, free will, justification, works, and grace. Articles IX through XVI show how significant this issue became, and each article reflects Augustine’s responses to Pelagius. Augustine first responded to Pelagius—without naming him, so that Pelagius might more easily repent (see Revisions 2.60)—in The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins.
There he demonstrates that Adam’s sin leaves all people born as “children of wrath” (Eph 2:3) and in need of God’s grace (The Punishment 2.23.27). Augustine especially presses this point concerning infants, who have no actual sin yet remain subject to original sin and therefore need the washing of regeneration (The Punishment 1.17.22-1.20.26).
Augustine continued to reflect on the depth of Pelagius’ error, particularly as Pelagius refused to recant. He wrote about how God’s grace and our will interact (On Grace and Free Will) and eventually developed a belief in unconditional election while distinguishing between the gift of faith and the gift of perseverance (On the Predestination of the Saints).
Grace and Mission Today
How, then, does Augustine’s teaching on the fall and grace help our mission today? Our church plant meets at a local food hall twice a month for Pints with a Priest, where anyone can sit down and ask a question. A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with someone who identified as a Satanist/humanist. Part of our conversation involved him defending a philosophy of live and let live (laissez-faire). Recognizing that this conversation would likely be the first of many, I suggested that our actions affect one another, whether through smaller questions like what I eat for breakfast or bigger issues such as whether I obey the rules of the road—which can have deadly consequences.
He thought that sounded a little extreme, but we had not even gotten to the Gospel yet. Our actions matter, and so did Adam’s. In Augustine’s words,
Man’s nature, indeed, was created at first faultless and without any sin; but that nature of man in which every one is born from Adam, now wants the Physician, because it is not sound.
On Nature and Grace, Against Pelagius 3
Adam’s headship over humanity in the fall means that each of us enters the world in sin, inclined toward evil, and in need of God’s grace in the waters of Baptism, where God places us under the headship of the second and greater Adam, Jesus.
Christ Is Faithful When Ministers Fail
Another major controversy in Augustine’s day centered on Donatus and his schism with the catholic Church. During recent persecution, some clergy denied the faith to spare their lives. Critics labeled them traditors and questioned not only their faith, but also the validity of the Sacraments they had administered.
If the priest who baptized me denied the faith to avoid martyrdom, does that mean my baptism didn’t count?
Sacramental Assurance
Again, our own Articles reflect Augustine’s teaching on this controversy (see Article XXVI). On the one hand, Augustine affirms the validity of the Sacraments, even when an unfaithful minister administers them:
since baptism given through a contemptible man avails as much as that given through an Apostle, it is recognized as belonging neither to the one nor to the other, but to Christ.
On Baptism Against the Donatists 5.13.15
Augustine presses this point further elsewhere when he notes the evangelist’s testimony that Jesus was “baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples)” (John 4:1-2). How did Jesus baptize more than John if he himself did not administer the baptisms? Augustine replies,
He did in fact baptize, because it was he that cleansed; and he did not baptize, because it was not he that touched. The disciples supplied the ministry of the body; he afforded the aid of his majesty… Jesus, therefore, is still baptizing; and so long as we continue to be baptized, Jesus baptizes. Let a man come without fear to the minister below; for he has a Master above.
Tractates on John 15.3
In other words, baptism belongs to Christ, not to the minister, because Christ operates through his minister.
Church Unity under Christ
Although Augustine’s response to the Donatist controversy focuses strongly on sacramental assurance, his deepest concern in this controversy was the unity of the Church under the Lordship of Jesus. Again and again Augustine calls heretics to repent, spending much of his time and spilling much ink to argue for their return to the faith. His pastoral heart breaks into his homily on Psalm 22:
Whenever we approach them, and say, ‘Let us seek the truth, let us try to sort it out,’ they reply, ‘You lot keep what you have. You have your sheep, I have mine. Don’t annoy my sheep, and I won’t annoy yours.’ Well, God bless us: my sheep, his sheep-didn’t Christ buy any? That is all wrong; there should not be any which are mine, or yours, they should all belong to him who bought them, him who put his brand on them. ‘The planter is nothing, and the one who waters is nothing; only God matters, who grants the increase’ (1 Cor 3:7). Why should I have mine, and you yours? If Christ is there with you, let mine go to him, because they are not mine; if Christ is here, let yours come to us, because they are not yours.
Exposition 2 of Psalm 21
In that sentence, Augustine captures both the scandal of division and the comfort of Christ’s ownership. The sheep do not finally belong to the minister, the faction, or the party. They belong to Christ, who bought them.
A Helpful Companion
Many of Augustine’s works are available online, in print, and more recently in dual-column Latin and English. Whatever your context and calling—ordained, lay, or in religious life—St. Augustine remains a tremendously helpful companion in the communion of saints as we continue sharing the Gospel with the world.
Gerard Seghers, The Four Doctors of the Western Church: Saint Augustine of Hippo (ca. 1600–1650). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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