APE 3 (Augustinian/Paulinian Education)

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ST. AUGUSTINE’S SCHOOL

IBA, ZAMBALES

THE TEACHINGS
OF ST. AUGUSTINE
OF HIPPO

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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Learning Performance Outcome (LPO)

LPO: Mindful, Self-Directed learner and role model

I am a mindful, self-directed learner and role model seeks to understand the
teachings of St. Augustine and to get inspirations from it.

Program Outcome (PO)

All learners are to:

 Become equipped with the significant teachings of St. Augustine and be mindful
of his contributions in the life and mission of the Church.

Essential Performance Outcome (EPO)

EPO: Devotedness in discovering more about the life and teachings of St. Augustine to
gain a drive to follow the inner dictates of the soul.

Performance Standard

 The learner develops authentic interest to imitate and live out the teachings of St.
Augustine.

Content Standard

 The learner demonstrates deep understanding of the teachings of St. Augustine,

his function as doctor of the Church, his system of grace and his influence in the
history.

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Most Essential Learning Outcome (MELO)

 Realization of the significant contribution of St. Agustine in the life and mission of
the Church through His teachings.

Intended Learning Outcome (Objectives)

 Express interest in interiorizing St. Augustine’s teachings, to have a zeal in

seeking for God in all events of life.
 Willingness in making resolutions on becoming active Augusteener/Paulinian
student inspired by the teachings of St. Augustine in living a life of holiness.

INTRODUCTION

This module covers the teachings of St. Augustine, his function as doctor of the Church,
his system of grace and the influence of the Augustinism in the history.

INSTRUCTION

The students will discover and understand the teachings of St. Augustine, his function
as doctor of the Church, his system of grace and the influence of Augustinism in the
history.

To begin…

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is "a philosophical and theological genius of the
first order, dominating, like a pyramid, antiquity and the succeeding ages.

Compared with the great philosophers of past centuries and modern times, he is the
equal of them all; among theologians he is undeniably the first, and such has been his
influence that none of the Fathers, Scholastics, or Reformers has surpassed it." (Philip
Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume III, p. 854);

here, we shall treat of his teaching and influence in three sections:

I. His Function as a Doctor of the Church

II. His System of Grace
III. Augustinism in History

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His function as a doctor of the Church

Augustine was bishop of a third-rate city and had scarcely any direct control over
politics
Augustine's teaching marks a distinct epoch in the history of Christian thought
he was the greatest doctor of the Catholic world
The popes attributed such exceptional authority to the Doctor of Hippo that, even
of late years, it has given rise to lively theological controversies.
in modern times Bossuet, whose genius was most like that of Augustine, assigns
him the first place among the Doctors, nor does he simply call him the
incomparable Augustine," but "the Eagle of Doctors," "the Doctor of Doctors.
Dr. Kurtz calls Augustine "the greatest, the most powerful of all the Fathers, him
from whom proceeds all the doctrinal and ecclesiastical development of the
West, and to whom each recurring crisis, each new orientation of thought brings
it back."
But Adolf Harnack is the one who has oftenest emphasized the unique rôle of the
Doctor of Hippo. He has studied Augustine's place in the history of the world as
reformer of Christian piety and his influence as Doctor of the Church.
In his study of the "Confessions" he comes back to it: "No man since Paul is
comparable to him" — with the exception of Luther, he adds. — "Even today we
live by Augustine, by his thought and his spirit; it is said that we are the sons of
the Renaissance and the Reformation, but both one and the other depend upon
him."
In philosophy he was initiated into the whole content and all the subtilties of the
various schools, without, however, giving his allegiance to any one of them.
In theology it was he who acquainted the Latin Church with the great dogmatic
work accomplished in the East during the fourth century and at the beginning of
the fifth; he popularized the results of it by giving them the more exact and
precise form of the Latin genius.
In general, all Christian dogmatics are indebted to him for new theories that
better justify and explain revelation, new views, and greater clearness and
precision.
his twenty years' conflict with Donatism led to a complete exposition of
the dogmas of the Church, the great work and mystical Body of Christ,
and true Kingdom of God, of its part in salvation and of the intimate efficacy of
its sacraments
Another step forward due to the works of Augustine is in the language
of theology, for, if he did not create it, he at least contributed towards its definite
settlement. It is indebted to him for a great number of epigrammatic formulæ, as
significant as they are terse, afterwards singled out and adopted
by Scholasticism.

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Augustine stands forth, too, as the great inspirer of religious thought

in subsequent ages.
From Gregory the Great to the Fathers of Trent,
Augustine's theological authority, indisputably the highest, dominates
all thinkers and is appealed to alike by the Scholastics Anselm, Peter
Lombard, and Thomas Aquinas, and by Bernard, Hugh of St. Victor,
and Tauler, exponents of Mysticism, all of whom were nourished
upon his writings and penetrated with his spirit.

THE DOMINATING QUALITIES OF HIS DOCTRINE

Augustinian doctrine is, again, essentially theological, and

has God for its center.

Böhringer has said: "The axis on which the heart, life

and theology of Augustine move is God

Augustine's doctrine bears an eminently Catholic stamp and is

radically opposed to Protestantism.

THE CHARACTER OF HIS GENIUS

Whether we consider him as philosopher, as theologian, or

as exegetist...he still appears admirable the unquestioned Master of
all the centuries." Philip Schaff (op. cit., p. 97) admires above all
"such a rare union of the speculative talent of the Greek and of the
practical spirit of the Latin Church as he alone possessed."
Augustine's genius and the true secret of his influence are to be
found in his heart — a heart that penetrates the most exalted
speculations of a profound mind and animates them with the most
ardent feeling
What constitutes Augustine's genius is his marvelous gift of
embracing truth with all the fibers of his soul; not with the heart alone,
for the heart does not think; not with the mind alone, for the mind
grasps only the abstract or, as it were, lifeless truth
Augustine's passion is characterized not by violence, but by a
communicative tenderness; and his exquisite delicacy experiences
first one and then another of the most intimate emotions and tests
them; hence the irresistible effect of the "Confessions."

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HIS SYSTEM OF GRACE

Most personal, for he was the first of all to synthesize the great theories
of the Fall, grace, and free will; and moreover it is he who, to reconcile
them all, has furnished us with a profound explanation which is in
very truth his, and of which we can find no trace in his predecessors.
Hence, the term Augustinism is often exclusively used to designate his
system of grace.
Most powerful, for, as all admit, it was he above all others who won the
triumph of liberty against the Manichæans, and of grace against
the Pelagians.
The system of St. Augustine rests on three fundamental principles:
o God is absolute Master, by His grace, of all the determinations of
the will;
o man remains free, even under the action of grace;
o the reconciliation of these two truths rests on the manner of the
Divine government.
Augustine first lays down the fundamental principle of St. Paul,
that every good will comes from grace, so that no man can take glory to
himself for his merits, and this grace is so sure of its results that human
liberty will never in reality resist it, although it has the power to do so.
Before all decision to create the world,
the infinite knowledge of God presents to Him all the graces, and
different series of graces, which He can prepare for each soul, along
with the consent or refusal which would follow in each circumstance,
and that in millions and millions of possible combinations.
Thus He sees that if Peter had received such another grace, he would
not have been converted; and if on the contrary such another Divine
appeal had been heard in the heart of Judas, he would have done
penance and been saved.
Thus, for each man in particular there are in the thought of God,
limitless possible histories, some histories of virtue and salvation, others
of crime and damnation; and God will be free in choosing such a world,
such a series of graces, and in determining the future history and final
destiny of each soul.
And this is precisely what He does when, among all possible worlds, by
an absolutely free act, He decides to realize the actual world with all the
circumstances of its historic evolutions, with all the graces which in fact
have been and will be distributed until the end of the world, and
consequently with all the elect and all the reprobate who God foresaw
would be in it if de facto He created it.

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MODULE 2

AUGUSTINISM IN HISTORY

The word Augustinism designates at times the entire group

of philosophical doctrines of Augustine

PHILOSOPHICAL AUGUSTINISM

In the history of philosophical Augustinism we may distinguish three very distinct

phases. First, the period of its almost exclusive triumph in the West, up to the thirteenth
century. During the long ages which were darkened by the invasion of the barbarians,
but which were nevertheless burdened with the responsibility of safeguarding
the sciences of the future, we may say that Augustine was the Great Master of the
West. He was absolutely without a rival, or if there was one, it was one of his
disciples, Gregory the Great, who, after being formed in his school, popularized his
theories.

the disciples of Augustine always have a pronounced tinge of mysticism, while the
disciples of St. Thomas may be recognized by their very accentuated intellectualism.

A second period of very active struggles came in the thirteenth century, and this has
only lately been recognized. Renan (Averroes, p. 259) and others believed that
the war against Thomism, which was just then beginning, was caused by the
infatuation of the Franciscans for Averroism; but if the Franciscan Order showed itself
on the whole opposed to St. Thomas, it was simply from a certain horror
at philosophical innovations and at the neglect of Augustinism. The doctrinal revolution
brought about by Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas in favour of Aristotle startled
the old School of Augustinism among the Dominicans as well as among
the Franciscans, but especially among the latter, who were the disciples of the eminent
Augustinian doctor, St. Bonaventure.

From the third period of the fifteenth century to our days we see less of the special
progress of philosophical Augustinism than certain tendencies of an exaggerated
revival of Platonism. In the fifteenth century Bessarion (1472) and Marsilio Ficino
(1499) used Augustine's name for the purpose of enthroning Plato in the Church and
excluding Aristotle. In the seventeenth century it is impossible to deny certain
resemblances between Cartesianism and the philosophy of St.
Augustine. Malebranche was wrong in ascribing his own ontologism to the great
Doctor, as were also many of his successors in the nineteenth century.

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THEOLOGICAL AUGUSTINISM

The history of Augustine's system of grace seems to blend almost

indistinguishably with the progressive developments of this dogma.
Here it must suffice, first, to enumerate the principal phases; secondly,
to trace the general laws of development which mitigated Augustinism
in the Church.

After the death of Augustine, a whole century of fierce contests (430-

529) ended in the triumph of fierce contests (430-529) ended in the
triumph of moderate Augustinism.

St. Cæsarius of Arles obtained from Pope Felix IV a series

of Capitula which were solemnly promulgated at Orange, and gave
their consecration to the triumph of Augustinism (529).

In the ninth century, a new victory was gained over

the predestinationism of Gottschalk in the assemblies of Savonniéres
and Toucy (859-860).

The doctrine of the Divine will to save all men and the universality
of redemption was thus consecrated by the public teaching of
the Church.

In the Middle Ages these two truths are developed by the

great Doctors of the Church.

Faithful to the principles of Augustinism, they place in especial relief

his theory on Divine Providence, which prepares at its pleasure the
determinations of the will by exterior events and interior inspirations.

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SELF-CHECK

Direction: Enumerate 10 significant truths you have learned from St. Augustine o the
first column, on the next column write the values you can imitate from it.

SIGNIFICANT TRUTHS VALUES REALIZED

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ACTIVITY (Reflection)

Direction: Answer the question in not more than 15 sentences.

As an Augusteener/Paulinian, what resolutions can I make to interiorize and apply

in my daily life that values and inspirations I got from his teachings?

References

APA citation. Prat, F. (1911). St. Paul. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton Company. Retrieved August 20, 2020 from New
Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11567b.htm

MLA citation. Prat, Ferdinand. "St. Paul." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 20 Aug.
2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11567b.htm>.

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