St. Augustine's Theology of Grace - Assignment Example

ST. AUGUSTINE’S THEOLOGY OF GRACE By examining the history of the global religious beliefs at large, it appears crystal clear that the exceptional intellect, deep philosophy, continuous struggle, unabated sacrifices and hard efforts made by the founders of the faiths and their committed companions, loyal followers and devoted predecessors maintain great contributions in the development, popularity and success of their faith, without which the growth of that religious set of belief was not possible at all. The same is the case with the world’s most popular religion Christianity and its saints, who rendered valuable services for the cause of their faith; the name of St. Augustine is also one among those personalities, who not only preached the religion in its initial stage, at the moment when Christianity was in its budding, but also introduced, interpreted and elaborated the core concepts related to the Christian faith. His well-reputed work, under the title “The Confessions”, reveals the very facts about his conversion from paganism to Manichaean and further to Christianity subsequently, which he declares to be happened by the grace of God. Similarly, his “the City of God” throws light on the notions the original sin, theology of grace, free will and others that serves as the guiding light for the intellectual development of the future generations to come. One of the most notable theories presented by St. Augustine includes the theology of Grace, which has been laid on the foundations of the basic teachings of the Christian faith and the Holy Bible. “During the fourth and fifth centuries, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo emerged as staunch defenders of the Catholic faith, providing strong, and often vehement, support for ecclesiastical policies.” (Stanley, 2001: Quoted in http://www.binghamton.edu) The concept grace actually seeks its roots in the prospective of original sin, which provides the evidence that all humans beings are sinners by birth and even the newly born babies are also included in the category of sinners. Though humans do not deserve to be pardoned, comforted and blessed by the Heavens, yet unabated love for the Lord, following the noble teachings of Christ and kindness towards the fellow beings may lead man towards eternal happiness i.e. salvation. “The corridor to personal salvation lies through a future of personal self-abnegation in the love of God and of neighbour. Paradoxically (that word again), to save ones soul means abandoning all morbid preoccupation with self by immersion in self-effacing love. "He who would save his soul must lose it."” (Matthew 10.39: quoted in ccat.sas.upenn.edu) Augustinian doctrine lays stress upon the existence of original sin and its strong connection with salvation by the grace and mercies of the Lord. The original sin, according to St. Augustine, has been transmitted to all human beings through their first parents Adam and Eve, who were seduced by the serpent. Satan, in the form of a serpent had tempted Adam and Eve to taste the fruit of forbidden tree while their dwelling in the Eden Garden. The original sin caused the fall of man from the heaven to the earthly world, which is an inferior place in comparison with the heaven, the first abode of the humans. Since the original sin has been transmitted to the generations of Adam and Eve, no human being is free from the natural tendency of committing sins, which is actually the outcome of the original sin committed by the first humans. The concept of grace is synonymous with pardon, forgiveness and deliverance bestowed upon man by Almighty God. Since humans are always inclined towards deviations and perversions, there appear no probabilities of regaining their lost paradise on the basis their deeds. Human disobedience pushed him far from the Lord, and it is God’s grace that showers His bounties upon him even his misdemeanour. Committing of sin through words, conduct and actions, has created many problems for humans. There is no immediate regulatory authority to mend their ways in a systematic way. These misdemeanours create distances between humans and drag them far away from one another. It not only separated humans from each other, but also the original sin has separated man from his Creator. “The human race is separated, temporarily but drastically, from the consoling source of being and goodness. Alone in a world from which they have tried to banish God, men act as irresponsible children suddenly lacking clear guidance and immediate punishment.” (Donnell, 2001) Though humans do not deserve the love of God, yet it is God’s grace that overcomes His wrath and man obtains salvation subsequently. St. Augustine terms conscience an important phenomenon, which serves as the only regulatory authority to warn and alert the humans regarding their wrong doings, which is the voice of God in humans, and a sign of His grace to protect them from sins. But humans have very low capacity to obey the conscience and consequently give way to their natural propensities of committing sins as well as the disobedience of their Lord. Hence, the original sin has separated man from his Lord, Almighty God. “Man’s nature, Augustine states, “indeed was created at first faultless and without any sin; but that nature of man in which every one is born from Adam, now wants the physician, because it is not sound. All good qualities, no doubt, which it still possesses in its make, life, senses, intellect, it has of the most High God, its Creator and Maker. But the flaw, which darkens and weakens all those natural goods, so that it has need of illumination and healing, it has not contracted from its blameless Creator—but from that original sin, which it committed by free will.” (City of God; III) Hence, God has bestowed free will upon man, which he can apply to perform either good or evil, which is the actual sin other than the original sin committed by Adam and Eve. The individuals, containing polluted souls, deserve pains, inflictions and sufferings from their Lord because of their sins and misdeeds. But Almighty God is the most benevolent, the kindest, the most merciful and the just one towards human beings. Hence, it is mere the grace of the Lord, through which man seeks salvation, from the sins he has innate tendency to indulge into. Augustine vehemently refutes the idea that since God has created humans weak, feeble and sinful, having natural propensity of doing wrong, so man should not be blamed of any malpractices and disobediences. On the contrary, he maintains that human sufferings are the outcome of their own sins, because their first parents actually disobeyed the commands of their Lord. It is therefore their sins portray an exact picture of self-infliction imposed by Adam on him and on his coming progeny. But there is significant difference between the nature and consequences of original sin and actual sin. Original sin is committed by the first humans in the Eden Garden, which shows man’s inclinations towards disobedience of the Lord, and every new baby is born containing the burden of the actual sin. It is therefore the immature infants also sustain the after effects of the original sin. On the contrary, actual sin is the disobedience and transgression humans commit intentionally or unintentionally as sane and prudent individuals. Hence, the sinfulness of the individual infant is not itself the same thing as original sin, but only the evidence of the sinful propensities that original sin generates. “Original sin”, O’Donnell (2001:3) asserts, “brings with it all the penalties discussed by Augustine in his City of God, and even when the responsibility for original sin is taken away, the purely temporal damage (that is, the harm done to the species in the material world) remains. Actual sin, on the other hand, does much less harm by its secondary, temporal ill effects (sometimes none at all, at least to the naked eye), while carrying with it a higher degree of responsibility and potentially eternal damage for the soul of the sinner.” Original sin, according to him, is adequate to contradict the individual eternal blessedness, but only actual sin can win true damnation. The process of baptism, according to St. Augustine, purifies the soul of the new born from the effects of the original sin. Baptism is in fact the expression of salvation that shows God’s grace and mercy towards the carriers of original sin i.e. progeny of Adam. Baptism clears human spirit from the load of the innate sin, and his life starts like a clean slate on which nothing has been written. All carnal desires, Augustine maintains, that entice man’s lust, are because of the tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree by Adam; it is baptism, which clears his conscience, though does not ensure his deliverance from falling into sins throughout his life. It is therefore the baptism removes all eternal penalties man brings as soon as he enters the world from his mother’s womb as the descendant of Adam and Eve. “An unknown commentator” Chadvick views, had explained St. Paul’s words in Rom V, 12 to mean that ‘in Adam all sinned as in a lump’ and had remarked that this transmission of sin to Adam’s posterity might presuppose that human souls are derived from the parents, like human bodies.” (1975: 227) Such doctrines were deeply disturbing to Pelagius, who thought that Adam’s sin had not corrupted the whole human generations. On the contrary, Augustine is of the opinion that Adam’s sin though has corrupted all the generations, and reveal their inclinations towards carnal desires and lustfulness, yet God’s grace vanishes away all sinfulness from humans provided they adopt the noble teachings of Holy Christ and seek salvation through his person. Augustine’s concept of salvation by the grace of God can be viewed even in his autobiography where he submits in the seventh chapter of the Confessions: “Here me, God. Alas for man’s sin. So say man and You pity him; for You made him, but You did not make sin in him. Who can recall to me the sin I did in my infancy? For in Thy sight, no one is clean of sin, not even the infant, whose life is but one day upon earth.” (2001:7) The Augustinian theology appeared as the reaction to the Pelagian writings, and amends the errors of Pelagianism, regarding Pelagius’s theory of grace. Pelagius is of the opinion that original sin does not spoil human nature i.e. newly born children do not contain the sinfulness in its real sense. Similarly, man has, according to the Pelagianism, free will to control and regulate himself while choosing good or evil during the performance of his everyday activities. On the contrary, Augustine takes protection from the influence of original sin as well as from the actual sins to be committed by the grace of God. Free will, Augustine notes, itself is ascribable to God’s grace. The concept of Augustine’s feelings and notion is the outcome of his personal experience where he declares his own conversion as the result of God’s special favours upon him. He was extremely afraid of his misdeeds and sins, and thought that his Lord would never forgive his malpractices at all. During his utter state of dejection and repentance, he suddenly heard the voice of an unseen child, from the neighbourhood at Milan, who was singing in these words: “Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.” It was actually the turning point of his life-span, which changed his life style altogether. At first he regarded the innocent voice as a usual song sung by a child; but by involving into deep contemplation and reading between the very lines, he successfully got the point that it is the commands from Heavens, which encouraged him to pick up the Bible and strive to understand the commands it instructs and the message it coveys to man. Hence, the innocent voice in the form of a child’s song completed the conversion and devotion of St. Augustine towards the divine wisdom, knowledge and the supreme light that was far enough to show him the right path—the path of piousness and chastity, the path to the eternal peace and glory, and the path to submitting to the Divine commands and orders. As soon as he heard the voice, he got up and moved to the place where he had left the Holy Scriptures. He opened the Bible, according to the instructions given to him in the form of the child’s voice and started reading the text: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Volume VIII: Chapter XII) Thus Augustine sought salvation from sinful life. “The roots of Augustinian doctrine”, Warfield (1905) quotes, “were planted deeply in his own experience, and in the teachings of Scripture, especially of that apostle whom he delights to call "the great preacher of grace," and to follow whom, in his measure, was his greatest desire. The grace of God in Jesus Christ, conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit and evidenced by the love that He sheds abroad in our hearts, is the centre around which this whole side of His system revolves, and the germ out of which it grows.” Hence, it reveals the very fact that the Lord of Heavens and the earth does not let the true seeker of heavenly light; the same was the case with St. Augustine, whom the Lord of the Empyrean not only blessed with unconditional pardons, but also bestowed upon him respect, honour and triumph not only in this world of mortal life, but also his devotion and love for his God would lead him blessings in the world Hereinafter. During Augustine’s stay at Rome, Augustine had to observe closely the activities, beliefs and myth of the Romans. Augustine makes a comparative analysis of the pre-Christian pagan teachings and the Christian theological philosophy in order to elaborate the term grace. He states that the mercies and bounties offered by the true God are far higher and loftier ones in comparison with those of Greek and Roman gods, which used to get annoyed on trivial mistakes and little disobedience committed by the individuals against the will of their gods. These gods, Augustine observes, caused immediate punishment and inflicted urgent penalties and inflictions upon the wrong doers. The pious persons had to present gifts and offer sacrifices in order to appease their gods. Greek, Roman and English literatures contain such themes and stories in abundance. Taking the example of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, it appears evident that gods got annoyed and inflicted troubles upon the city as soon as Oedipus was elected as the emperor of Thebe after killing his own father and marrying his real mother without having any knowledge of his relationship with his parents. But the Christian God is very kind, sympathetic and compassionate in comparison with the Greek and Roman gods, and does not announce any punishment even on greater sins. Human sins, he observes are greater in intensity, but the pardon and grace of the true Lord tender wide range of forgiveness to pure hearts. Augustine admits the very reality that both original sin and the actual sins, committed by humans, on the basis of the power of free will delegated to him by the Lord, drag human in such a low capacity that they are unable to seek the blessings of God in the form of pardon and forgiveness. “Being ignorant”, Augustine writes “of how this image of yours could subsist, I ought to have knocked at the door and asked in what sense the doctrine was to be believed.” (2001: 103-104) But the Lord is always beneficent to the human beings and not only protects humans from calamities, but also listens to their prayers and calls in the loftiest way, which attributes the highest degree of kindness and grace of the Creator. Hence, grace is the metaphysical blessings bestowed upon the humans having willingness to acknowledge and submit to the ways of the Lord. Baptism removes the consequences of original sin, and love of Christ removes the actual sin committed by the sinful humans throughout their life. “Practically speaking”, O’Donnell witnesses, “baptism was the sacrament that formed the church itself. Catechumens, outsiders contemplating entrance, continued to be only fringe members of the community; it was still the custom to exclude them from the communion service of the liturgy. Baptism, on the other hand, rendered the individual eligible for full sacramental participation in the Eucharist and was a necessary prerequisite for any ecclesiastical office.” (2001:5) Augustine views that original sin was the product of Adam’s sin of tasting the fruit of forbidden tree, while salvation is the outcome of great sacrifice made by the Holy Jesus Christ at the Cross. Renowned English poet John Milton has also defined the same Biblical theme in his famous epic “Paradise Lost” that it was the father of humanity to commit the sin, which brought tumult and infliction in human life. Consequently Holy Jesus Christ offered his services and God sent him for presenting sacrifice of his life for the salvation of the humanity. Hence, grace could be achieved by having true love for the Holy Christ and his message. “The apostle wanted to commend the grace that has come to all nations through Jesus Christ, lest the Jews should boast of themselves at the expense of other peoples on account of their having the Law. First he says that sin and death came on the human race through one man [Adam], and that righteousness and eternal life came also through one [Christ]. Then he adds that "the law entered, that sin might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, so that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 5.20-21) ...” (O’Donnell, 2001) It is therefore belief in God and love for Christ is an essential element for the attainment of eternal salvation. This is the concept of Trinity, where God is one in three and three in one. Chadwick views it a bit different from other Abrahamic faiths, i.e. Judaism and Islam, which have belief in monotheism and do not consider Holy Christ as the Son of God. It is therefore, according to the Augustinian doctrine, the non-believers would not be able to obtain salvation. “Faith, for Augustinian theologians, is the work of grace in the willing believer. Understanding, Augustinian theologians consistently maintained, is the reward of faith. When it accepts revelation, faith seeks understanding. The sense of reason and its proper function, on the other hand, varies considerably among the theologians of this tradition.” (Quoted in demo.lutherproductions.com) The Catholics wholeheartedly imitate the Augustine doctrine regarding the existence of original sin, where salvation can be achieved only by the grace of God. The future scholars do agree with the Augustinian doctrine of grace by asserting that he was justified in saying that man requires the grace of God every moment throughout his life. “Augustine”, Cassian agreed, “was right in teaching that at every point man needs divine grace. The human heart is like a flint which God strikes; but when God sees the first sparks of response, he pours in his grace.” (Chadwick, 1975: 233) Augustine admits the very reality that imitating the noble teachings of Jesus Christ and embracing of a true religion is the most rejoicing thing and the source of salvation of the soul as well, that make all despair and disappointment disappeared from human mind. He declares his conversion to Christianity as the special favours upon him from the Lord, as well as the kind expression of His grace upon the sinful man. Hence both Father and Son are divine, along with the Holy Spirit, who sent glad tidings to the Holy Mary regarding the arrival of Christ. “Naturally the Son is fully divine: the Father is God, and the Son is God, for whatever is begotten of God is God. The Spirit, too, although Irenaeus nowhere expressly designates Him God, clearly ranked as divine in his eyes, for He was Gods Spirit, ever welling up from His being.” (Kelly, 2000:102) Thus unconditional belief in the divinity of all the three i.e. God, Christ and Holy Spirit is essential for seeking the God’s grace, according to the doctrine of St. Augustine. St. Augustine not only declares the divine forgiveness and salvation as the part of God’s grace, but also he views His blessing of bestowing the power of free will upon man as a symbol of His grace. God knew that humans have propensity to disobey the Lord, while the angels are always submissive and complying. Even then, man enjoys the power of free will, where he has the open choice of moving either towards good or to adopt evil ways of transgressions and non-compliance. Hence, though there is no justification at all of blessing humans either with the free will, or with the salvation, but God’s grace has covered all heavens and earth, which showers countless mercies upon humanity by blessing them with life, comforts, joys, free will of thought and action, and salvation in the world Hereinafter. REFERENCES: Augustine, St. (2004) The City of God. Kissinger Publishing New York Augustine, St. (410) On Nature and Grace. (Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1503.htm) Chadwick, Henry. (1975) The Early Church Penguin Books Ltd. England Chadwick, Henry. (2003) The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great. Oxford Printing Press New York Kelly, Dr. J.N.D. (1978) Early Church Doctrines 5th edition. Hendrickson Publishers New York O’ Donnell, James J. (2001) Augustine: Christ & the Soul. (Retrieved from http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/twayne/aug4.html) Stanley, Joseph F. (2001) Cognate Fathers of the Church: Grace, Original Sin, and the Possibility of Sinlessness in the Anti-Pelagian Works of Jerome and Augustine (Quoted in http://www.binghamton.edu/history/resources/bjoh/Stanley_CognateFathers.htm) Warfield, Benjamin B. (1905) The Theology of Grace Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy (Part 4) A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1905, pp. 13-71) http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/bbwpelagian4.htm Warner, Rex. (2001) The Confessions of St. Augustine. Signet Classic Penguin Group (USA) Inc. New York http://www.dbu.edu/naugle/pdf/disordered_love.pdf http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3818/is_199901/ai_n8838945 Augustinian Theology (Quoted in http://demo.lutherproductions.com/historytutor/basic/medieval/genknow/augustinian.htm) http://en.allexperts.com/q/Jehovah-s-Witness-1617/Source-2.htm Read More