Skip to main content

Augustine of Hippo (church father)

Augustine of Hippo was born in the Roman province of Africa (modern-day Tunisia/Algeria) in the year 354. His mother, Monnica, was a devout Christian, but his father Patrick only became a Christian believer at the end of his life (in 370). 

Early in life, Augustine enrolled as a catechumen (preparing for Christian baptism), but did not go through with it. Aged 17, Augustine began a relationship with a slave girl and they had a child together, Adeonatus. While Augustine was later estranged from his son's mother, he and Adeonatus remained in touch with one another. 

Moving to cosmopolitan Carthage for his studies, Augustine was caught up in sexual promiscuity, famously praying, "Give me continence and chastity, but not just yet." Straying from his Christian upbringing, he tried various belief systems: the teachings of Cicero, the religion of the Manichees, and later Neo-Platonism. 

Augustine pursued a career in rhetoric, and accepted a position as lecturer in Milan in 384. It was at Milan that he attended the services of the Milan church, presided over by bishop Ambrose. The powerful singing and convincing preaching drew Augustine, but he resisted repentance. One day, in a garden, he heard a child's voice saying, "Pick up and read." Picking up a codex of Paul's letters, Augustine read the words, "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh." (Romans 13) At this moment he believed. It was the year 386; Augustine was 32 years old. At Easter the following year, Augustine was baptised by Ambrose at the Milan church. 

Having become a Christian, Augustine became disillusioned with his profession as a teacher of rhetoric, and resigned. He made plans to relocate to his native Africa along with a group of other single Christian men in what would eventually morph into a monastic community. Travelling south from Milan, the group were waiting at Rome for some time. It was at this time that his mother Monnica sadly died. 

Augustine finally arrived in Africa in 388, settling at Thagaste with his group of Christian "brothers". The group was something of a Christian think tank, and Augustine's role included that of answering questions on the faith; he would later publish eighty three such questions covering a range of theological and other issues. 

In 391, Augustine made a trip to the nearby town of Hippo, served by bishop Valerius. It was on this trip that he was begged to accept ordination from the bishop and to help him in his work. At Hippo, Augustine organised a monastic community for which he wrote a "rule" (monastic instructions for communal living) - the most ancient western monastic rule. Several brothers came from Thagaste to "get things started". The make-up of the Hippo monastic community was different to that at Thagaste, and included former slaves. Later on, a parallel community for nuns was formed at Hippo. During this time, Augustine wrote polemical works against the thinking of the Manichees. In 396, Augustine was made co-bishop alongside Valerius, and on the latter's death in 397, Augustine became sole bishop at Hippo.

At this point, Augustine is 43 years old and has 33 years ahead of him as bishop of Hippo.  

[to be continued...] 

  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bury, Greater Manchester - Timeline of churches

979?      First Church on the site of the present Parish Church (the picture below is an artist's impression of Bury parish church in 1485). This was the only church in the town of Bury until 1719 (see below).  1585      Parish church (re)built in the gothic style . 1650     During the Commonwealth, Henry Pendlebury was ordained for  Holcombe Chapelry.  1662     Having been ejected from the Church of England,  Henry Pendlebury of Holcombe   (1626-1695) held services at a Chapel on Bass Lane by Richard Kay, and others ejected from the C of E (replaced in 1712 by Dundee Chapel, Holcombe) 1669      The vicar of Bury parish reported to the Bishop of Chester that he heard several conventicles were "constantly kept at private houses of Independents, Presbyterians, Dippers and other such like jointly, of the bset rank of the yeomanry and other inferiors." 1689      ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Die Erweckung (revival of evangelical Christianity in Germany in the 1800s)

Die Erweckung (literally, "the Revival") is a name for the revival of evangelical Christianity in Germany in the 1800s. It has overlap with the Réveil in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands, and also with the second Evangelical Revival in Britain and the Second Great Awakening in America. The Pietist movement, which began during the Baroque era around 1675 under the leadership of Philip Spener, had waned by the 1730s. By this time, Halle university, originally founded by Pietists and a flagship of the movement, became a centre for rationalism under academics such as Christian Wolff (1679–1754).  In the interim, Pietism was kept alive in part by a network of small groups (the Diaspora) which followed the spirituality of the Moravian Christians, a movement similar to Pietism but with its own church structures under the leadership of Von Zinzendorf. There was also the Basle-based Christentumsgesellschaft founded by Urlsperger in 1780, a society founded to counter the ratio...
Post a Comment
Read more

The origin and spread of the early Baptist churches in the North West of England and elsewhere

The origins of Baptist churches go back to the 1600s.  The very first Baptist church began in 1609 and was for English speaking Christians based in the Netherlands, relocating to London in 1611 (Thomas Helwys). These churches were known as "General Baptists" and followed the theology of Arminius and the Anabaptists.  A second genesis of Baptist churches was in London in about 1638 (John Spilsbury). These churches followed the Reformed Theology of John Calvin and the Synod of Dordt. In 1644, the First London Baptist Confession was signed by seven Baptist churches in the capital.  Baptist churches later spread from London outwards.  During the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651), there were Baptist Christians in the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell. In 1648 the New Model Army campaigned in Lancashire during the Second Civil War.  1. John Wigan & the "Coldhouse cause"   During the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651), John Wigan (d. 1665),...
Post a Comment
Read more