Christian Faith and Augustine

Augustine contributed greatly to Christianity. He was a man who held beliefs that transcended his turbulent beginnings and manifested into insightful philosophy. Such philosophy became deeply embedded in Christianity and would lend the way for further examination of Biblical text in the future. This essay will discuss Augustine's beliefs- through his contributions to the Church's beliefs and practices. Augustine contributed not just in the religious sense, but in the philosophical sense. For example, one of his main contributions was Theory of Time seen in Book 11 of Confessions.

In it, he developed what some may say a challenging concept of time. From there he examined and tried to explain how young children express language, learn. One of his famous lines "Believe in order that you may understand" can be seen again interspersed in Confessions, with a clear example concerning a crime committed.

"When, then, we ask why a crime was done, we believe it not, unless it appear that there might have been some desire of obtaining some of those which we called lower goods, or a fear of losing them." (Augustine 28) Augustine had the ability to convey his thoughts in such a way that it offered a deeper look not just into the ideas expressed in the Bible, but ideas contemplated by the Self. He offered proof of God's existence through Eternal Truths.

Augustine contended that human minds can apprehend objective, universal, necessary, and unchanging truths superior to the human mind itself. To explain such Eternal Truths, an eternal God exists for that purpose. Augustine's response to conundrum of Evil was that although evil exists and is real, it has no substance. Instead, evil exists through the absence of goodness. Going further into the concepts of good and evil, he developed a theory of knowledge labeled, 'Divine Illumination'.

This theory posits humans gain divine information directly from God and are thus dependent on God for continued knowledge. Augustine also posited that God made creation from nothing mirroring the 'big bang' theory in cosmology. These arguments, theories and concepts invited those looking to reflect and contemplate, to try to understand the Self through the Self's relation to God. Augustine's contribution to the Church were seen throughout his remaining 35 years of life.

His main contribution and what earned him his reputation in the present, was his exposition of the New Testament. "His careful exposition of the New Testament, particularly the letters of Paul, gained him a reputation which continues today as the 'second founder of the Christian faith'." (Murphy 12) Augustine successfully synthesized Christian thought through On the City of God. City of God like the famous novel by Charles Dickens, is a story of two cities: city of God, city of the world.

Here Augustine provides further examination of human thought through the lens of Biblical Scripture. Augustine's other contributions, his doctrine of the church and sacraments, the doctrine of grace, and the doctrine of the Trinity- helped paved the way for future generations.