Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
Still another heresy was beginning to poison religious thought:
Arianism, or the denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ, was invading
the church of Africa. And the writings of St. Augustine against this
movement are among his most luminous and brilliant works. He wrote three
letters and fifteen books on the Trinity--these he commenced in 400 and
completed in 416. Perhaps the clearest and plainest are the one hundred
and twenty-four treatises (so called) on the Gospel of St. John, and ten
on the First Epistle of the same Apostle. They were sermons or
catechetical instructions and homilies, delivered during the year 416 to
his flock, on the prevalent heresies but especially on the Arian. And
his response to the five questions of Honorius, a citizen of Carthage,
contains lucid expositions of some difficult portions of Scripture.
On Scripture matters, besides the works just mentioned, St. Augustine's
enlightened views are found in twelve books on the "Literal Sense of
Genesis;" in these he seems to have divined all modern objections and
theories about this work of Moses. On the seven first books of the
Bible, he has left us seven treatises. "An Explanation of the Psalms," a
correspondence with St. Jerome on the Epistle to the Galatians, four
books on the agreement of the Evangelists, two on Gospel questions, and
a book on "Things That are not Seen," should not be unknown to Biblical
students.
Nor was the Pagan attitude toward Catholic Truth forgotten. He had
passed through the phase, and knew the Pagan mind. He put down their
difficulties, reasoned away their doubts, threw light on their darkness,
led them on in truth, in "The True Religion," "Eighty-three Questions,"
"The Christian Doctrine," and an early treatise on the "Immortality of
the Soul."
But by far his greatest and most enduring works are his "Confessions"
and "The City of God." The former, at once a poem, a history, and a
treatise of philosophy, beautifully expresses the trials and efforts of
a human soul striving for truth and happiness away from God, and the
ecstatic sentiments of the same soul on the attainment of both truth and
happiness in the faith and virtues of Jesus Christ and in His Gospel.
The other, in eloquent and philosophical vein, discourses on the Church
of God on earth and in heaven; shows the hollowness of all opinions,
thoughts, and efforts contrary to the eternal order which is God; is, as
it were, an encyclopedia of all that he had written before, an
exhaustless summary of refutation against heresy and paganism, and an
analysis of the glories and benefits of Christianity. St. Augustine in
its composition occupied all the time from 413 to 426--the period of his
momentous struggle against Pelagianism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account