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97 chapter 6 Divine Predestination and Jesus Christ the more that one considers Augustine’s theories of man’s Fall and Redemption, the more difficult it becomes to understand how the various elements hold together, logically and theologically. Salvation is extended to only a tiny minority of the human race,1 while the overwhelming majority is rejected. Augustine falls back—indeed is compelled to fall back—upon the hidden and inscrutable justice of God, witnessed by Scripture.2 While Augustine on occasion anticipated later tendencies in scriptural criticism,3 there were certain texts—for example , those which taught the necessity of baptism for salvation4 —which he would not accept in any way other than literally. Universal salvation had been rejected in the Church in his own day, and Augustine, while he spoke of Origen with respect,5 supported the rejection.6 But to the text of Scripture should be added the cast of Augustine’s mind; the conversion of 396 had had its effect. Man was wholly dependent upon God 1. Cor. et grat. 10,28. PL 44,933. 2. Ench. 24,95. CSEL 46,99; grat. et lib. arb. 23,45. PL 44,910. 3. See the De Consensu Evangelistarum, where Augustine recognizes that reported conversations need not be verbatim (2,12,29); acknowledges that individual authors may differ in their order of narration (2,21,51); and remarks upon the mistaken attribution of a quotation from Zechariah to Jeremiah in Matthew 27:9 (3,7,29). CSEL 43,129; 152;304–5. 4. Pecc. mer. et rem. 1,16,21; 18,23. CSEL 60,20–21; 22–23; cf. c. duas epp. Pel. 4,4,8. CSEL 60,528–9; ep. 166,7,21. CSEL 44,575–7; ep. 193,2,3. CSEL 57,168–70. 5. Civ. 11,23. CCL 48,341–3. 6. Ibid., 21,17: “sed illum et propter hoc, et propter alia nonulla ..... non immerito reprobavit ecclesia.” CCL 48,783. 98 and, after the Fall, human initiative could only come from God immediately . It had been otherwise in Paradise,7 it would be otherwise in heaven;8 but at the present time, in the fallen world in which we live, a positive decision to act righteously required immediate divine inspiration . Human freedom was constricted by human weakness. Yet this negative outlook had inevitably to be tempered by experience . Whatever the theory, a possible convert like Firmus, or any individual who came to the church at Hippo, had to be treated as a free agent, capable of making a decision.9 Augustine cannot have forgotten his own decision in the garden at Milan,10 but even more, he was aware of the desire for God, even in the fallen human soul. Recent studies have drawn attention to the attraction of God’s beauty for the human soul, and to the instinct of desire in man which has made the sentence at the beginning of The Confessions: “Thou has made us for Thyself, and our heart knows no rest until it may repose in Thee,”11 the favorite Augustinian quotation for so many readers.12 Human beings were created by God, both to glorify Him and to enjoy Him, their Creator and the source of their well-being, who made them out of love and continues to love them in their rebellion and sin. The problem in assessing the apparently contradictory theology of Augustine—and it is a major problem, in seeking to understand this man who has so influenced the thought of the Christian West and has attracted such differing evaluations—is the contrast between his optimism as a 7. Ibid., 14,10. CCL 48,430–31; cf. lib.arb. 3,1,1–7. CSEL 74,89–91. 8. Civ. 22,30,3: “Nec ideo liberum arbitrium non habebunt, quia peccata eos delectare non poterunt. Magis quippe erit liberum a dilectatione peccandi usque ad delectationem non peccandi indeclinabilem liberatum. Nam primum liberum arbitrium, quod homini datum est, quando primum creatus est rectus, potuit non peccare, sed potuit et peccare; hoc autem novissimum eo potentius erit, quo peccare non poterit. verum hoc quoque Dei munere, non sua possibilitate naturae. Aliud est enim, esse Deum, aliud participem Dei. Deus natura peccare non potest: particeps vero Dei ab illo accipit, ut peccare non possit.” CCL 48,863. 9. See De Catechizandis Rudibus 16,24,2–4. CCL 46,148–9. 10. Conf. 8,12,29. CSEL 33,194–6. 11. Ibid., 1,1,1. CSEL 33,1. 12...

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