Aurelius Augustinus

Repere biografice.
Coordonate privind doctrina
augustiniană
Biogra
 Augustine the Monk
In his early years as a Manichean monk, St.
Augustine had trouble interpreting the Bible.
Manichaeism was a major religion founded by
an Iranian prophet in Persia.
Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic
cosmology describing the struggle between a
good, spiritual world of light, and an evil,
material world of darkness.
Augustine’s Conversion to Christianity
In the summer of 386, at the
age of 31, Augustine
converted to Christianity.
He said his conversion was
prompted by a childlike
voice he heard telling him to
"take up and read" which he
took as a divine command
to open the Bible and read
the first thing he saw.
Augustine read from Paul's
Epistle to the Romans
wherein Paul outlined how
the Gospel transformed
believers, and the believers'
resulting behavior.
Opera
De la convertirea sa la creştinismul
de rit catolic în 386 până la
moartea sa ca Episcop de Hippo în
anul 430, el a scris aproape 117
cărţi. A atins toate temele
fundamentale ale teologiei şi vieţii
creştine: natura lui Dumnezeu şi a
oamenilor, problema răului, a
liberului arbitru şi a
determinismului, războiul şi
agresiunea umană, fundamentele
vieţii sociale şi ale ordinii politice,
doctrina bisericii, vocaţiile creştine
ş.a.m.d
Augustine Interprets the Scriptures
After his conversion, he learned from St. Ambrose to
interpret the Scriptures symbolically.
His writings were very influential in the development of
Western Christianity.
Scholars have long acknowledged that the view of God
held by the earliest Christians changed dramatically over
the course of centuries.
Early Christian views of God were more personal and less
abstract than those that emerged later from the creeds
written over the next several hundred years.
The key ideological shift that began in the second century
A.D., after the loss of apostolic authority, resulted from a
conceptual merger of Christian doctrine with Greek
philosophy and the loss of priesthood authority.
 Discuss
Why do you think Augustine was searching for
more understanding?
What confused his understanding of the
scriptures?
What do we have today that allows us to more
fully understand the meaning of correct
scripture as found in the Book of Mormon?
 Augustine’s Religious Concepts
Augustine developed the concept of a spiritual city of
God.
His concepts included the Trinity as defined by the council
of Nicaea and later the Council of Constantinople that
also identified with Augustine’s City of God.
In the Catholic and Anglican Churches he is considered a
saint while the Calvanists and many of the Protestant
churches consider his teachings on salvation and divine
grace make him one of the fathers of the Protestant
Reformation.
Some of Augustine’s doctrines include views on original
sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination.