In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

chapter 1 The Problem few students of Augustine’s thought will be disposed to deny the harshness of the predestinarian teaching of the last twenty years of his life. From the composition of the De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione in 411–12 to that of the De Praedestinatione Sanctorum in 429, Augustine’s assertion of the helplessness of human nature to do anything good without the aid of divine grace is continually reaffirmed and intensified, and the books of the unfinished Opus Imperfectum contra Iulianum re-emphasize what had already been said two decades earlier, but with an added bitterness , inspired and sustained by Augustine’s conviction that he was upholding the doctrine of the universal Church, and that those who did not subscribe to it not only maintained wrong belief but did so out of pride, the sin by which Satan fell. The reason for this conviction on Augustine’s part is, no doubt, the interpretation which he found—or thought that he found—in many earlier Fathers, notably St. Cyprian and St. Ambrose; but it was sustained by personal emotion. Pelagius, in his De Natura, had buttressed his arguments by quotations from Augustine’s earlier writings. Augustine was desperately concerned to maintain his own orthodoxy, by showing the agreement of his teaching with the tradition of the Church. Augustine’s brutality has shocked many readers and embarrassed not a few of his admirers, if only because it seems at variance with much of his other teaching, and especially with his understanding of the action of the Atonement. For Augustine, as for the Fathers in general, the purpose of the Incarnation was the salvation of fallen humanity. Christ 17 the problem 18 is the Mediator, through whose humility we come to participate in His Divinity, not only by the remission of our sins but for the fulfillment of the destiny for which Adam was originally created. Christ raised human lowliness to the realms of the divine,1 as well as suffering the penalty for fallen man; but the action of Christ in taking away the sin of the world is the work of the whole Trinity, and not only of the Son; for the works of the Trinity, although they may be ascribed to a particular Person, are not to be assigned to that one Person alone, for the three Persons of the Trinity are inseparable.2 “As the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable, so they act inseparably. This is my faith, since it is the catholic faith.”3 Augustine’s understanding of the Atonement is far removed from that parody of Christian belief put forward by some enemies, but also expressed by some Christians, that the Father, angered by human sin, is propitiated by the death of the Son who, being innocent, is a particularly pleasing sin-offering. Rather, Christ’s death is a visible manifestation of the eternal self-offering of the Son to the Father in the bosom of the Trinity, in which the manhood of Christ participates through His assumption of human flesh,4 so that humanity may become “the temple of God of the [human] gods (Ps. 81 [82]:6; John 10:34), whom He, the uncreated God, created.”5 The redemption of fallen man, then, does not simply restore him to the unfallen condition of Adam and Eve in para1 . Ep. Gal. exp. 24,8: “Sic itaque unicus filius dei, mediator dei et hominum factus est, cum verbum dei deus apud deum et maiestatem suam usque ad humana deposuit et humilitatem humanam usque ad divina subvexit.” CSEL 84,87. 2. Enchiridion 12,38: “An et quando unus trium in aliquo opere nominatur, universa operari trinitas intellegitur.” CCL 46,71. 3. De Trinitate I,4,7: “..... pater et filius et spiritus sanctus, sicut inseparabiles sunt, ita inseparabiliter operentur. Haec mea fides est, quando haec catholica fides.” CCL 50,36. 4. Ench. 10,35: “quocirca in quantum deus est, ipse et pater unum sunt; in quantum autem homo est pater maior illo....... Ac per hoc et minor factus est et mansit aequalis, utrumque unus, sicut dictum est.” CCL 46,49. 5. Ench. 15,56: “Unde nec tota nec ulla pars eius, vult [ecclesia] se coli pro deo, nec cuiquam esse deus pertinenti ad templum dei quod aedificatur ex diis quos facit non factus deus....... Deus ergo habitat in templo suo, non solum spiritus sanctus, sed etiam pater et filius; qui etiam de corpore suo per quod factus est caput ecclesiae...

Share