Great Leaders of the Church: Augustine and His Passion for God

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
~Psalm 16:11

Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.
~Augustine, The Confessions

While commonly known as Augustine of Hippo today, the saint was born Aurelius Augustine in Tagste, North Africa in 354 (Bindemann, 105). Like many, his life consisted of a quest for pleasure. He sought this pleasure satiated in things below (Augustine, 20). Such a quest for pleasure in the wrong direction led him to father a child out of wedlock at a young age (Bindemann, 105). The saint himself attested that lust was something he delighted in, mistaking the sin for love (Augustine, 20). He would not find his true pleasure until several years later.

Seeing the skill of the young man, Augustine’s father heavily encouraged him to study rhetoric in school. This resulted in the saint spending four years in a school in Madura and later at Carthage (Piper, 46). While at Carthage, Augustine continued to fulfill his passions of lust and worldliness. He even sought delight in his success at his studies of rhetoric for the praise of his own glory (Augustine, 33). It was here that he began his affair and his illegitimate son was born (Piper, 47). Also, never being fully satisfied with the pleasures of lust, he began to seek out pleasure in a new direction. A providential direction which would ultimately lead him to find the One who fully satisfies.

Upon reading a poem by the philosopher, Cicero, God awakened in Augustine a desire for wisdom and knowledge (Augustine, 34). However, this quest led him to the Gnostic group known as the Manicheans. This was yet unable to quench his thirst for knowledge, provoking him to leave the group nine years later (Bindemann, 106). He soon shared the view of the academic skeptics that true knowledge could not be understood and took up the mantle of teacher of rhetoric in Milan, Italy (Bindemann, 106). While here, Augustine began to read Plotinus’ writings and was exposed to the thought of Neo-Platonism. Also, he encountered the biblical teachings of Ambrose (Piper, 49). God used such teachings to change Augustine’s mind towards Scripture. His conversion came while lamenting over his sins in a garden and hearing the words take and read (Bindemann, 108). Viewing the mysterious saying as a sign, Augustine opened up his Bible and began reading Romans 13:13-14 (Wright, 207). Through this piercing passage of Scripture, God drew Augustine to Him and after a restless life of attempting to find something to satisfy his passions, the sinner’s heart finally found his rest in Him (Augustine, 1).

The new life Augustine gained in Christ convinced him that he should retreat from the world with all of its temptations and become a monk. He desired to start a monastery back home but circumstances led him to move it to the city of Carthage. It was here that God revealed to Augustine His intentions for his life and work (Piper, 54). Serving as a perfect illustration of Proverbs 16:9, Augustine went to Hippo in hopes of finding a friend who would join him in the establishing of the monastery but in turn became a priest. Upon attending a church where the current bishop, Valerius, was serving, the congregation appointed him as such (Bindemann, 109-110). There Augustine served, ministering to the people through preaching and teaching God’s Word and later becoming co-bishop with Valerius and then full bishop upon his death (Bindemann, 110). Also, in his role as a spiritual shepherd, Augustine defended the faith from the challenges of the Manicheans he formally held ties with, the Donatists and their false assumption that the character of the priest determines the holiness of the sacraments, and Pelagious who denied original sin, believing that man was capable of living a holy life without the necessary inner workings of God’s grace (Piper, 42). He continued his devotion to teaching the Word and doctrine unto his death in 430 (Wright, 207).

Augustine’s lasting legacy cannot be debated. He left an impact felt in the church for ongoing centuries. His writings number greater than 93 (Bindemann, 111) and numerous clergy received training from him (Piper, 55). God also used him to influence the minds of the Reformers in their own battle for the proper understanding of God’s grace against the works-rightousness mentality of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther was a monk in his order and Calvin quoted from Augustine increasingly more in every update of his Institutes (Piper, 25).

For me personally, Augustine’s lasting impact has to be his all-consuming passion and desire for God. One does not find Augustine in The Confessions but God as the saint relates everything in his life to God and His perspective. He reveals his sin in light of God’s holiness and views the steps to his conversion as having been directed by God with the change itself a result of God. He spent his life searching for something to satisfy him and was not fulfilled until that day which God worked in his heart. Then the one who once sought his own glory had as his only purpose to be God’s glory alone. He encourages us to similarly find our sole delight in God and demonstrates how such a delight will not leave us wanting.

-Augustine, Aurelius. The Confessions of Saint Augustine. New York: Washington Square Press, Inc., 1960.
-Bindemann, Dr. C. “Aurelius Augustine.” Lives of the Leaders of Our Church Universal: From the Days of the Successors of the Apostles to the Present Time. Eds. Dr. Ferdinand Piper and Henry Mitchell Maccracken. Philadelphia, PA: Lutheran Publication House, 1879.
-Piper, John. The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000.
-Wright, David F. “Augustine of Hippo.” Introduction to the History of Christianity. Ed. Tim Dowley. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002.

Lee
Soli Deo Gloria!!!