CHF 3 Lesson 1 St. Augustine On Worship

University of San Agustin
General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

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CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES
LESSON 1: ST. AUGUSTINE ON WORSHIP
OVERVIEW
A grace-filled day everyone!
to this 1st lesson on St. Augustine on Worship
Hope you are now ready to engage for another year of

formation for the betterment of yourselves not only as a
human person but also as a Christian and as an
Augustinian!
This lesson focuses on St. Augustine's concept not only

of religion and worship but on what is true religion and
true worship. As a beginning lesson this will help
correct, if not, deepen students’ concepts on true
religion and worship; enlighten them and guide them on how to render true
worship to God especially during this time of pandemic. This lesson also serves as
fertile ground ready for students’ to welcome with openness and enthusiasm the
lessons that lie ahead to be planted in their minds and hearts. May this lesson
bring students to a lively worship life founded on an enlightened faith and love of
God in Jesus Christ through the teachings of St. Augustine.
Let us entrust this endeavor to the guidance of the Holy Spirit that it may bear
much fruit in your life.
TIME FRAME: 1 week/6 hours
Email: crs@usa.edu.ph | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403

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PERFORMANCE STANDARD:
The learners:
a. manifest a very satisfactory understanding of the
teaching of St. Augustine on true worship
b. illustrate clearly how true worship and true religion

be practiced/observed during this time of pandemic.
At the end of the lesson, the learners will be able to:
1. Discuss what is true worship and true religion

according to St. Augustine
2. Illustrate how true religion and piety be observed.
3. Reflect on how is true worship and true religion be
lived/observed during this time of the pandemic
As we start with this lesson, may I invite you to

pray the Official Prayer before Class.
Leader: When we live in unity,

All: How good and how pleasant it is.
Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine,
All: That we may dwell together in peace.
Leader: Let us pray,
All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be present in
the midst of all who come together in His name. Help
us to recognize His presence among us and
experience in our hearts the abundance of Your grace,
Your mercy, and Your peace, in truth and in love. We
OPENING PRAYER ask this, through Christ, Our Lord Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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Instruction:
Using your cellphone, open Mentimeter App. and answer the questions to
participate actively in the activity. Please answer the survey honestly by
checking the answers closest to your heart.
SURVEY
on one’s ideas and feeling
about
RELIGION and WORSHIP
1. What is your religious affiliation?

0 Roman Catholic 0 Protestant
0 LDS/Mormon 0 Jehovah’s Witness
0 Seventh Day Adventist 0 Iglesia ni Cristo
0 Philippine Independent/Church/Aglipay 0 Muslim
0 No Affiliation 0 Others, pls specify: _______

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2. Which of the following statements is closest to your idea about religion?

0 Binds and relates us with a higher being (God)
0 A set of beliefs and practices which one is subject to believe and practice
0 Something that controls what I should believe and how I should live
0 Unsure/Don’t know
3. Which of the following statements comes closest to your own views about religion?
0 Only one religion is true, or
0 Many religions may be true, or
0 There is very little truth in any religion
4.Which of the following is closest to your belief in relation to this statement, “Religion
cannot save man”
0 Agree 0 Unsure/Don’t Know
0 Don’t believe in religion or any religion 0 Disagre
5. Do you believe in God?

0 Yes 0 Unsure/Don’t know 0 No
6.Which of the following descriptions comes closest to your own attitude towards
religion?
0 Love and Respect 0 Respect
0 Skeptical
7. Which of the descriptions comes closest to your own feelings towards religion:
0 Happy and grateful 0 hopeful

0 Sad 0 Boring
0 Hate 0 Discontented
0 resentment 0 Indifferent

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Synthesis:
Each person has varying ideas and feelings about religion and worship. It
ranges from positive ideas and feelings to the negative ones on another
extreme but there are those who are also indifferent about these things.
There are factors which brought about these varying ideas and feelings
among people and among you students. But this is not our focus in this
lesson. We only need to respect and love people in this regard. However, in
this lesson we are going to study St. Augustine’s notion of religion and
worship to deepen or if not correct your ideas about religion and thereby
improve your religious and worship life.
If you are now ready, let us start our

lesson proper. May I invite you to
dispose yourselves to listen and
reflect on the following Scripture text:

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Biblical Text:
Romans 12:1-2
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice
“Therefore, I beg you, brothers, by the

mercies of God, to present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be fashioned according
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may
prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
EXEGESIS
These verses are densely packed, and require that we examine them phrase-by
phrase. If we do that, this passage will reward us with one expected treasure after
another-as if pulling a beautiful silk scarf from its container only to find another one
behind it-and another and another.
“Therefore I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God”(v.1a).
The word, “therefore,” links this chapter to what went before-namely, Paul’s treatise
regarding God’s grace and our faith. The reader might have assumed that faith is the
only required response to God’s mercy, although chapter 6 should be dispelled that
notion. In that chapter Paul said, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that
grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any
longer?” (6:1-2. “Paul… does not know, and has also never approved of a justification
which does not introduce and lead to a life of righteousness”(Peter Stuhlmacher, quoted
in Talbert,281). Now Paul re-emphasizes that our faith should issue fort in holy lives-that
faith and faithfulness are forever linked. In this chapter, Paul offers practical counsel
regarding faithful discipleship.

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“To present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable (euareston-well-pleasing)

to God” (v.1b).
There are two Greek words for body: 1) SARX, often translated “flesh”, and 2) SOMA.
While the two are similar, sarx is the external, physical body that was seen as worldly
and opposed to God. Soma is similar to sarx in many ways (physical, mortal, weak),
but as Paul uses it in his epistles soma is not external to the person but rather one
aspect of the person, who is united as body and spirit. This understanding reflects
Paul’s Jewish background, which viewed the person holistically.
So Paul said, “Don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts.”
(6:12). In his view, there is nothing incompatible in body and spirit. Both are
important. Both are sacred. Both are essential to human life, and both are
compatible with Christian discipleship and our relationship to God.
This understanding of the body is quite different from that of the Greek dualis,
influenced by Plato, which separated the world into its visible (physical, material) and
invisible (spiritual) aspects. For the Greeks, the physical, material world was
something to be endured until the souls could be freed of it. Greek dualists could
never have suggested offering of the bodies to God as a living sacrifice, because
such an offering would be inherently unworthy of God.
Gnosticism was a form of Greek dualism that bedeviled the early Church. Gnostics
took Greek dualism one further step, saying that the physical material world was evil.
They accordingly denied the incarnation and deity of Jesus.
“ a living sacrifice” (v.1.b)
Torah law required Jews to observe a complex system of animal sacrifices. To atone
for sin and to remind the people of the significance of their sins. Only animals without
blemish were acceptable offerings (Leviticus 23:18). The Christians in Rome to whom
Paul is writing this epistle are for the most part Gentiles, and feel no obligation to offer
animal sacrifices. Paul sys, however, that they have a sacrificial obligation that, in
fact, surpasses that of the animal sacrifices required by Torah law. Christians are not
allowed to substitute an animal’s life for their own, but are instead required to sacrifice
their own lives.

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The requirement, however, is no longer ritual slaughter, but instead the presentation
of the living person to God- a living sacrifice-- a life dedicated to the service of God
- a life committed to doing God’s will-- a life lived in faith and lived out in faithfulness.
They are to present their bodies for God’s purposes on Sunday in worship and on
Monday in the workplace. There is no moment or circumstance in which the
obligation does not apply. This is “the true sacrificial worship to which the cult of
Jerusalem Temple had all along pointed. Romans 12:1 does with temple worship, in
other words, what 2:25-29 did with “circumcision” (Wright, 704). This living
self-sacrifice, Paul declares, is “holy, acceptable (euareston- well-pleasing) to God”
(V.1). Animal sacrifices were holy, because they required taking something precious
(a life) and offering it to God. In our antiseptic world, where we buy meat
shrink-wrapped from a refrigerated case, we must stretch to imagine what it must be
like to raise an animal from birth-and then to see that animal slaughtered- and then
to eat a portion of the meat as an act of worship. It had to be sobering-wrenching.
To watch an animal die violently is repulsive, and the rendering process is even more
so.
The slaughter of the animal reminded the person that, apart from the grace of God, it
would be his/her life required on the altar. Now Paul tells Roman Christians that it is
indeed their lives that are required, but not on the temple altar. Instead, they are to
offer themselves as a living sacrifice. Such sacrifices are holy and pleasing to God,
even as animal sacrifices, offered in the right spirit, were holy and pleasing to God.
Living sacrifices are holy in that they represent lives lived in accord with the will of
God.
“which is your spiritual (logiken-- rational, genuine, true) service”

(latreian--service) (v.1).
The word logiken has a variety of meanings, and it would seem that Paul chose it for
its breadth. To present our bodies to God as living sacrifices is, indeed, a spiritual act.
To live lives dedicated to God’s service, whether clergy or laity, is genuine
worship--the logical outcome of a decision to follow Christ.

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“Don’t be conformed to this world (aiono-age), but be transformed

metamorphousthe
by the renewing of your mind” (v.2). The word that is translated “conformed” has to
do with conformation that is malleable-- that can change from day to day or year to
year. The person that is” conformed to this world (aioni” is free to embrace the next
popular
Philosophy or fad at will. Being “conformed to this world” is rather like being a leaf
blown by the wind, never knowing exactly where you are going next--or why. The
word that is translated “transformed” , however, is quite different , and involves
transformation at the core of one’s being. (Barclay, 157-158 and Dunn). If being
“conformed” would leave us adrift like a leaf, being “transformed” would leave us
with feet on the ground- anchored- steady. Paul is calling us not to be caught up in
every fad or wafted by every breeze, but instead to let the Spirit transform us at our
core so that we can have a faith strong enough to maintain course in spite the winds
of popular opinion. What are the things of this age that mold and shape masses of
people? They include popular culture, such as motion pictures, movies, music, and
sports. They include popular philosophies, such as New Age and PC thinking. They
include incentives to succeed, even at the expense of vulnerable people. They
include racism, nationalism, sectarianism, and denominationalism--forces that
teach that our tribe is good and the other tribes are bad. There are surely many other
examples of the things of this age that would mold us into shapes not suited for the
Kingdom of God. Meditate and see what comes to mind.
“but be transformed (metamorphousthe) by the renewing of your mind”

(v.2b).
In verse 1, Paul called us to give God our bodies. Now he calls us to give God our
minds. Metamorphousthe is the word from which we get the English word,
metamorphosis. The example of metamorphosis that comes to mind is the
caterpillar, which is transformed into a butterfly. For a time, it is one thing, but then it
becomes, by the grace of God, a wholly different thing. The caterpillar is not
beautiful, but the butterfly is. The caterpillar crawls, but the butterfly flies on gossamer
wings. Gardeners don’t like caterpillars, but plant special plants to attract butterflies.

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So it is by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit that we who were one
thing (conformed to this age) can be transformed (metamorphosized) into something
wholly different-- people who are Godly and holy.
““but be transformed (metamorphousthe) by the renewing of your mind” (v

2b).
Today, we would be more likely to speak of a “change of heart” than a renewal of

the mind. Paul, however, calls us to permit the Spirit to transform our minds, knowing
that the person who learns to think Godly thoughts will soon experience a change of
heart as well.
Godly thoughts transform every aspect of our being. As an example, who adopts
Godly
Thinking often enjoys improved health, because he,she learns to regard his/her body
as a Temple of the Holy Spirit and is therefore more likely to treat his/her body with
new respect. That is not to say that Christians do not engage in unhealthy practices,
but the more godly our thinking, the less likely we are to become victims of drug
abuse, alcohol abuse, tobacco, promiscuous sex, workaholism, worry, and the other
unhealthy practices.
“So that you may prove (dokimazein--prove,test) what is good, well-pleasing

(euareston--well-pleasing), and perfect will of God” (v.2c).
The renewing of our minds enables us to “discern the will of God” (v.2). The
world is full of people who assume that God’s will mirrors their own-- people
who try to force God into the mold of their own thinking. Republicans and
Democrats alike assume that God endorses their respective platforms.
Denominations often assume that their particular slice of the Church has
discovered truths that make them superior to other Christians. But these
examples of the ways that we allow this age (aioni) to shape our thinking. If
we are to discern God’s will, it will not be by trying to remake God in our own
image---by having god to conform to our

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prejudices--but by allowing the Spirit to renew our thinking--by becoming putty in

God;s hands, so to speak--by allowing God to shape our thinking and our lives.
So, after all that is being said, we ask ourselves : what is the message of
these to us?
Paul is telling us that our reasonable worship is “to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship to God” (Rom
12:1).
I. ST. AUGUSTINE’S NOTION ON WORSHIP
A. WHAT IS WORSHIP?
The word in the Hebrew for worship in the verb form is “shachah” and it means
“to bow down, to prostrate oneself” or to “lay flat on the ground.” We see many
in the Old Testament prostrate themselves before the Lord.
The Greek word for worship that is often used in the New Testament is
“proskyneō” and this means to “kiss the hand, to fall on the knees,” or to
“prostrate oneself” which is similar to what it is in the Old Testament but there are
other Greek renditions of the word worship like “prokeneuo” which means to
“pay homage” and “sebazomai” which mean “to render religious honor.”
The word worship comes from the old English word “weorþscipe” with the root of
it being “worthiness” or “worth-ship” or “worth – to give” or in its simplest form,
“worth to something.

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”
Jesus told the woman at the well “true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is
spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
Other translations of the word worship, particularly in the Old Testament, mean to
“touch the forehead on the ground.”
We define worship as revering, reverence, adoration, veneration, paying

homage to. Sadly, according to this definition, we sometimes worship anything
but God like sports, a favorite team, a sports star, our children or spouse, our car
or any number of things or persons which we are commanded not to do, even if
they are angels (Ex 20:3-6; Rev 19:10). To worship anything or anyone else
besides God is idolatry. Paul tells us that our reasonable worship is “to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship to God” (Rom 12:1).
B. ST. AUGUSTINE’S NOTION OF WORSHIP
St. Augustine never made a systematic treatise regarding Christian worship.

Nevertheless, in some of his works, especially in his sermons, he preached
regarding certain liturgical celebrations and explained the meaning of the rites for
pastoral reasons. He also addressed different questions asking for his
authoritative opinions; while other teachings on Christian worship and liturgy can
be found in his polemical works, most especially against the Donatists.
At the beginning of the De Civitate Dei Book X, the Bishop of Hippo reminds his
readers that everyone seeks a happy life and indicates that this can be attained by
directing religion and sacred rites to God. He commends the Platonists among all
the philosophers for teaching this correctly since they performed ritual acts which
were intended to put their soul in contact, beyond every soul and all mutable
spirits, with the supreme God.

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During the Patristic era, doctrine and worship are tightly connected. The early
Christians believed that worship will be erroneous if it is not founded on the right
doctrine. St. Augustine, as found in his writings, is teaching us that knowledge of
Christ is at the center of worship. This understanding will aid us go deeper and find
greater meaning when it comes to our Christian worship. St. Augustine never made a
systematic treatise regarding Christian worship. Nevertheless, in some of his works
we can find his teachings on worship. In the writings of St. Augustine especially in his
sermons, he preached regarding certain liturgical celebrations and explained the
meaning of the rites for pastoral reasons. He also addressed different questions
asking for his authoritative opinions; while other teachings on Christian worship and
liturgy can be found in his polemical works, most especially against the Donatists.
TRUE WORSHIP
At the beginning of the De Civitate Dei

Book X, the Bishop of Hippo reminds his
readers that everyone seeks a happy life
and indicates that this can be attained by
directing religion and sacred rites to God.
He commends the Platonists among all the

philosophers for teaching this correctly
since they performed ritual acts which were
intended to put their soul in contact,
beyond every soul and all mutable spirits,
with the supreme God.
Nevertheless, St. Augustine pointed out their error of teaching the worship of many
gods, even of demons. This leads him to ask what true worship is and how is religion
and piety to be observed

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Bishop Augustine then introduced three Greek terms to signify worship:
latreia, threskeia and eusebeia.
1. Latreia, ordinarily understood in Geek as service owed to human beings,

however, in the Scriptures, it means “service which pertains to the worship of
God.” The Latin equivalent for this may be cultus but this is not owed to God
alone.
2. Threskeia or religio in Latin means “more precisely not just any worship but
specifically the worship of God.” However, religio can still be ambiguous
because it can be observed when it comes to human relationships.
3. Eusebeia or piety is also the worship of God but is used for duties to parents.
As a conclusion, St. Augustine suggests that

among the three terms, latreia, which is servitus
in Latin, is “specifically the service by which we
worship God.” This pertains to the worship of
the true who at the same time “makes his
worshippers god.”
-Augustine through the Ages, 1999
Worship for St. Augustine, does not benefit

God but the ones giving the worship since it is
in the worship of God that man attains
blessedness. He affirms the analogy of Plotinus
pointing out that the sun is God and the moon is
the rational soul. As the moon is illuminated by
the sun, so, too, does the soul shine by
participation in the true light, which is God.
Because it is man who benefits from God, man
owes their service to God.

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“We must believe, therefore, that God not only has no need of cattle or
any other corruptible and earthly thing but does not even need a
person’s righteousness itself. Rather we must hold that everything
done in rightly worshipping God is of benefit not to God but to man.
For no one would say that he had served the interests of a fountain by
drinking from it, or that he had served the interests of a fountain by
drinking from it, or that he had served the interests of a light by using
it to see.”
-Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, 1999),p. 827
Latreia is done either “in certain sacrament or in our very selves,” since
collectively and individually we are his temples.
Individually Collectively
WE ARE GOD’S TEMPLES

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That is why man is called to love God with all his heart, with all his soul and with
all his mind and love his neighbor (Mt. 22:37-39).
‘‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor
as yourself.’
(Mt. 22:37-39)
Thus St. Augustine concludes that: what makes true worship and what makes a true
religion are these:
● genuine godliness and

● service due to God alone.
-Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, 1999)
When it comes to worship, God requires sacrifice.

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What sacrifice is GOD after?
The animal sacrifices that the patriarchs under the law offered are considered a
“visible sacrament of an invisible sacrifice...it is a sacred Sign.” This sign
points out to the true sacrifice which is mercy
The Sacrifice Pleasing to God
A. Critique of pagan worship.
According to St. Augustine the pagans used images as signs to signify a

creature to be worshipped. The god Neptune for them represented not a god but
represented the whole sea.
For the Bishop of Hippo, there is no point in worshipping a creature, either

Neptune a god or the sea, since neither is God. He regards these signs
as“useless” and signifies a “form of enslavement to the flesh”.

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B. Critique of Jewish worship practices.
The same is true with the Jews and their practices. They treated “the signs of
spiritual things as things in their own right, quite unaware of what they should
be referred to” and they were “unable to lift up the eyes of the mind above
bodily creatures, to drink in the eternal light.”
Jewish sacrifice and burnt offering
The Jews held on to their practices on sabbath and on sacrifices but they did not
go beyond these realities.
St. Augustine suggests that signs are not to be thought of as ultimate realities.
Rather, they must point out to these ultimate realities and those who observe these
signs must know the realities they refer to.
This is what the Jews who formed the first Church did. They freed themselves from
the useless signs by learning that God was to be honored in performing these
visible signs. This is what made them “ready for the Holy Spirit that they sold all their
possessions, and laid the price at the feet of the apostles (Acts 4:35), to be
distributed to the poor.

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C. There is no contradiction between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the
new dispensation.
The Bishop of Hippo, of course, clarifies this. They are but a foreshadowing and
prefiguring of what was to come, and the true religion is “always dependent on the
special revelation of the Judeo-Christian Dispensation”. Nevertheless, while the old
law commanded them to offer sacrifices of slaughtered animals, it is mercy and
any act of mercy for His sake that God truly desires.
TRUE SACRIFICE
The true sacrifice, then, is every act done in order that we might cling to God in
holy fellowship, that is, every act which is referred to the final good in which we
can be truly blessed. Thus, even the mercy which we extend to human beings is
not a sacrifice if it is not done for God’s sake.
II. ST. AUGUSTINE ON TRUE RELIGION
A. MEANING OF RELIGION
1. The Catholic Encyclopedia
Religion is derived from the Latin word religare which means “to bind”.
Religion in its simplest form implies the notion of being bound to God.
" We are tied to name God and bound to Him “religati” by the bond of
piety, and it is from this, that religion has received its meaning ."
(Lactantius)
2. Religion refers to the person's self-identification as having a connection or

affiliation with any religious denomination, group, body, sect, cult or other
religiously defined community or system of belief. (Religion Reference Guide,
National Household Survey,Canada, 2011)

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3. St. Augustine, in his City of God X.3, derives religio from religare in the sense of
recovering: "having lost God through neglect [negligentes], we recover
Him [religentes] and are drawn to Him." In his treatise "On the True
Religion ", he says: "Religion binds us [religat] to the one Almighty
God.
B. WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE
From all those that we have considered previously, St. Augustine thus, describes
the true religion as…
“the worship of the one God, who is acknowledged by the sincerest piety to be
the source of all kinds of being, from which the universe derives its origin, in which
it finds its completion, by which it is held together.”
In his Retractations, he stresses that the Christian religion is the true religion which
“has been vouchsafed to men... for this same worship of God.”
Given this definition, P. Schrodt highlights these important characteristics of a true

religion:
1. The only way toward happiness (the “good and blessed life”) is through the
practice of religion;
2. The explicit acknowledgement of monotheism is an absolute requirement for

“true religion”;
3. Since the one and only God is the originator and perfecter of all the universe
contains, it follows that this one God is also the inherent teleology toward
which the universe as process is ultimately ordered.

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St. Augustine derives the word religio from religare which signifies a “gathering
together again” to God in contrast with superstition which worships or gives service
to creatures and intermediaries. This claim is fortified when he says, “between our
minds and the truth...there is no intermediate creature.”
This use of the etymology religare emphasizes St. Augustine’s idea that “religion is
concerned with the union of human beings with God” where the soul ascends to
Him.
For this reason, St. Augustine admits the agreement of Platonic teachings with
Christian doctrine. He compares Plato’s intelligible world with “the very eternal
and immutable reason by which God made the world.” He even claimed that if
Plato and his disciples were alive, they would see in Christianity what they sought
in vain.

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Yet, despite their similarities, the African Bishop finds Platonism and Platonic
religious rights as inadequate. He opposed their “denial that moral purification of
the soul can result from any mediation other than that of Christ.” You Platonists
have to some extent, as if through some faint and shadowy image, caught sight
of what we should strive to attain. But you are not willing to acknowledge the
incarnation of the immutable Son of God, by which we are saved and through
which we are enabled to arrive at the realities in which we believe and which, in
some small measure, we understand. In a fashion, then, you see—if only from a
great distance and with clouded vision—the country in which we should abide,
but you do not keep to the path that leads to it.
Hence, for St. Augustine, despite the astuteness of Platonic doctrine, fails in
recognizing the need for Christ as mediator in their worship and ascent to the one
God. They posited that the liberation of souls is only preserved for a few
philosophers with a lesser form of redemption for the masses. Hence, they were
not able to find a universal way of redemption.
It is only in the Christian religion, the true religion, St. Augustine highlights, that
salvation is surely to be found because it has Christ as mediator between God
and man.
Christ - the mediator between God and man.

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CREATIVE ILLUSTRATION:
Illustrate in creative ways St. Augustine’s concept of true religion and worship and
the ways by which these can be observed during this time of pandemic.
RUBRICS:
● Ideas – sufficiently expressed - 5

● Illustration- creative, ideas are meaningfully expressed - 10
● Originality & effort - 5
○ Total ---- 20 points

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A. Reflection Writing:
Write your own personal reflection on St. Augustine’s concept of true religion and
true worship and the ways by which it can be truly observed (practiced/lived)
during this time of pandemic?
RUBRICS:
● Ideas - expressed the concepts St. Augustine -5

● Organization of ideas (logical, correct words used) - 5
● Grammar -5
● Practical ways -doable during this time of pandemic - 5 points
Total ------- 20 points
B. As a summary of our lesson, what three insights did you learn about the
following:
1. What is worship?
2. What is true worship according to Saint Augustine?
3. What is true religion for Saint Augustine?

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1. For St. Augustine, Worship does not benefit God but the ones giving the
worship since it is in the worship of God that man attains blessedness.
2. Latreia, ``servitus in Latin, is “the service by which we worship God” and

pertains to the worship of the true who at the same time “makes his
worshippers god.”
3. For St. Augustine,what makes true worship and what makes a true religion are
these: genuine godliness and service due to God alone.
4. True sacrifice is every act done in order that we might cling to God in
holy fellowship, that is, every act which is referred to the final good in which
we can be truly blessed. Thus, even the mercy which we extend to human
beings is not a sacrifice if it is not done for God’s sake.
5. A happy life can be attained by directing religion and sacred rites to God.
6. True religion is “the worship of the one God.
7. Christian religion is the true religion which “has been vouchsafed to men... for
this same worship of God.
8. Religion is concerned with the union of human beings with God” where the
soul ascends to Him.
9. It is only in the Christian religion, the true religion that salvation is surely to be
found because it has Christ as mediator between God and man.

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You made it splendidly in LESSON 1!

Once again, thank you for being patient and
enthusiastic in doing all the tasks in LESSON 1 .
STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY! GOD BLESS!

www.usa.edu.ph
References:
1. Don, Dominic. St. Augustine’s’ Christology and his idea on

Christian worship. Lecture Series for ASF3. Unpublished. 2021.
2. Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. A Fitzgerald
164-169 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1999).
3. https://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and
Copyright © Catholic Online
4. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/ref/guides/99-010-x/99-010-x201
1010-eng.cfm (Religion Reference Guide, National Household Survey, Canada. 2011.

www.usa.edu.ph

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CHF 3 Lesson 1 St. Augustine On Worship

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University of San Agustin

General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES

LESSON 1: ST. AUGUSTINE ON WORSHIP

to this 1st lesson on St. Augustine on Worship

Hope you are now ready to engage for another year of

This lesson focuses on St. Augustine's concept not only

TIME FRAME: 1 week/6 hours

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b. illustrate clearly how true worship and true religion

At the end of the lesson, the learners will be able to:

1. Discuss what is true worship and true religion

As we start with this lesson, may I invite you to

Leader: When we live in unity,

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1. What is your religious affiliation?

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2. Which of the following statements is closest to your idea about religion?

5. Do you believe in God?

0 Happy and grateful 0 hopeful

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If you are now ready, let us start our

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“Therefore, I beg you, brothers, by the

“Therefore I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God”(v.1a).

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“To present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable (euareston-well-pleasing)

“ a living sacrifice” (v.1.b)

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“which is your spiritual (logiken-- rational, genuine, true) service”

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“Don’t be conformed to this world (aiono-age), but be transformed

“but be transformed (metamorphousthe) by the renewing of your mind”

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““but be transformed (metamorphousthe) by the renewing of your mind” (v

Today, we would be more likely to speak of a “change of heart” than a renewal of

“So that you may prove (dokimazein--prove,test) what is good, well-pleasing

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prejudices--but by allowing the Spirit to renew our thinking--by becoming putty in

I. ST. AUGUSTINE’S NOTION ON WORSHIP

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We define worship as revering, reverence, adoration, veneration, paying

B. ST. AUGUSTINE’S NOTION OF WORSHIP

St. Augustine never made a systematic treatise regarding Christian worship.

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At the beginning of the De Civitate Dei

He commends the Platonists among all the

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Bishop Augustine then introduced three Greek terms to signify worship:

latreia, threskeia and eusebeia.