Augustine of Hippo
Augustine was born in North Africa to an unbelieving father and a praying Christian mother, Monica. He studied rhetoric at Carthage, lived for years with a woman he never married, and drifted through Manichaeism and Neo-Platonism. In Milan the preaching of Ambrose began to reach him, and in a garden, hearing a child say “Pick it up and read it,” he opened to Romans 13:13–14 and believed. He became bishop of Hippo and served there until his death in 430.1
Augustine has been called “the Doctor of Grace.” Against Pelagius, who taught that people are born morally neutral, he taught that all are born in sin and must be drawn and saved by God’s grace:2
We conclude that a man is not justified by the precepts of a holy life, but by faith in Jesus Christ; in a word, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith; not by the letter, but by the spirit; not by the merits of deeds, but by free grace.3 Augustine of HippoOn the Spirit and the Letter
Against the Donatists, he taught that the church is a mixed body of saints and sinners and that the sacraments are valid even when given by an unworthy minister. He is also called the father of amillennialism.4
His Legacy
Both Roman Catholics and Protestants claim him. Rome built on his sacramental teaching, his view of the church and apostolic succession, and his early suggestion of purgatory. The Reformers built on his doctrine of grace and on his confession that Scripture alone is free from error and above every council. Busenitz notes that Augustine did not always speak of justification with the Reformers’ clarity, but that the Reformers “greatly appreciated his emphasis on the undeserved nature of God’s grace.”5
