BBAS 64 said:
Good Day, BT
On what writings and basis do you come to this conculsion? one can surely can see that he viewed some of the "big" verses out side of the view of the current Roman Church.
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Peace to u,
Bill
(I will just mention that though Augustine is considered the Father of Roman Catholicism he is also considered a Church Father of Protestantism. And the "current Roman Church" does not define who laid down the "historic Roman Church"es doctrines...)
Ack! I'm a little angry right now because of this idiotic editor. I just lost several pages of typing in this reply.
Though Augustine is important to Protestantism he is consistently referred to as the "father of Roman Catholicism". I normally don't provide reference for what I write in the Bap. forum (yet I have when required), and I don't have the time (to be honest) to type out all kinds of reference material but I will provide you with one (of probably at least ten that I could dig up). And NO I'm not typing the whole thing out for you. Call me a liar if you want..
NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS (First Series)
Volume (1)
Augustin
- Prolegomena
- Confessions
- Letters
PROLEGOMENA {FROM SCHAFF'S CHURCH HISTORY, REVISED EDITION, New York 1884. Vol. III 988-1028. Revised and enlarged with additions to literature till 1886)
CHAPTER V. -
The Influence of St. Augustin upon Posterity, and his Relation to Catholicism and Protestantism
In conclusion we must add some observations respecting the influence of Augustin on the Church and the world since his time, and his position with reference to the great antagonism of Catholicism and Protestantism. All the church fathers are, indeed, the common inheritance of both parties; but no other of them has produced so permanent effects on both, and no other stands in so high regard with both, as Augustin. Upon the Greek Church alone has he exercised little or no influence; for this Church stopped with the undeveloped synergistic anthropology of the previous age, and rejects most decidedly, as a Latin heresy, the doctrine of the
double procession of the Holy Spirit (the
Filioque) for which Augustin is chiefly responsible. [1]
... (two paragraphs)
Augustin is also the principal creator of the
Latin-Catholic system as distinct from the Greek Catholicism on the one hand, and from evangelical Protestantism on the other. He ruled the entire theology of the middle age, and became the father of scholasticism in virtue of his dialectic mind, and the father of mysticism in virtue of his devout heart, with being responsible for the excesses of either system.
...
Even now, since the Catholic Church has become a Roman Church, he enjoys greater consideration in it than Ambrose, Hilary, Jerome, or Gregory the Great. All this cannot possibly be explained without an interior affinity. [2. this reference is to Nourrisson, the able expounder of the philosophy of Augustin. But is unfortunately in french. The 'gist of it is that Augustin is great.. there is a reference to the Apostle Paul and a comparison between the two with Augustine as "' fonder l'unite catholique'"]
...
It was, indeed, a full and unconditional surrender of his mind and heart to God, but it was at the same time a submission of his private judgment to the authority of the church which led him to the faith of the gospel. [3. This footnote is in Latin but is well written]
...
He was the first to give a clear and fixed definition of the sacrament, as a visible sign of invisible grace....but knows nothing of the number seven; this was a much later enactment. In the doctrine of baptism he is entirely Catholic, though in logical contradiction with his dogma of predestination; he maintained the necessity of baptism for salvation ... derived from it the horrible dogma of the eternal damnation of all unbaptized infants, though he reduced their condition to a mere absence of bliss, without actual suffering
....
** it goes on ***
[1] This is a long footnote.. so go to your local Theological seminary and sign the book out
[3] We recall his famous anti-Manichaean dictum: "
Ego evangelio non crederem, nisi me catholicae ecclesiae commoveret auctoritas." The Protestant would reverse this maxim, and ground his faith in the church on his faith in Christ and in the gospel. So with the well-known maxim of Irenaeus:
"Ubi ecclesia, ibi Spiritus Dei, et ubi Spiritus Dei, ibi ecclesia." According to the spirit of Protestantism it would be said conversely: "Where the Spirit of God is, there is the church and where the church is, there is the Spirit of God."
