St Augustine of Hippo – författare

In any commentary on a portion of the Old Testament by a writer unacquainted with Hebrew, exact criticism, and freedom from mistake, must not be expected. But the Psalms have been so in the mouth and in the heart of God''s people in all languages, that it has been necessary often to find an explanation suitable to imperfect translations. And no doubt it is intended that we should use such explanations for the purpose of edification, when we are unable to be more accurate, though in proving doctrine it is necessary always to remember and allow for any want of acquaintance with the original, or uncertainty with respect to its actual meaning. However, the main scope and bearing of the text is rarely affected by such points as vary in different translations, and the analogy of the faith is sufficient to prevent a Catholic 4 mind from adopting any error in consequence of a text seeming to bear a heterodox meaning. Perhaps the errors of translation in the existing versions may have led the Fathers to adopt rules of interpretation ranging too far from the simple and literal; but having such translations, they could hardly use them otherwise. Meanwhile St. Augustin will be found to excel in the intense apprehension of those great truths which pervade the whole of Sacred Writ, and in the vivid and powerful exposition of what bears upon them. It is hardly possible to read his practical and forcible applications of Holy Scripture, without feeling those truths by the faith of which we ought to live brought home to the heart in a wonderful manner. His was a mind that strove earnestly to solve the great problems of human life, and after exhausting the resources, and discovering the emptiness, of erroneous systems, found truth and rest at last in Catholic Christianity, in the religion of the Bible as expounded by St. Ambrose.

The Sermons of St. Augustine, besides their other excellencies, furnish a beautiful picture of perhaps the deepest and most powerful mind of the Western Church adapting itself to the little ones of Christ. In them, he who has furnished the mould for all the most thoughtful minds for fourteen hundred years, is seen forming with loving tenderness the babes in Christ. Very touching is the child-like simplicity, with which he gradually leads them through what to them were difficulties, watching all the while whether he made himself clear to them, keeping up their attention, pleased at their understanding, dreading their approbation, and leading them off from himself to some practical result. Very touching the tenderness with which he at times reproves, the allowance which he makes for human infirmities and for those in secular life, if they will not make their infirmities their boast, or in allowed duties and indulgences forget God. But his very simplicity precludes the necessity of any preface. His Sermons explain themselves. They appear from a passage in the Commentary on the Psalms to have been often taken down in writing at the time by the more attentive sort of hearers (as were those of St. Chrysostom); Possidius states that this was done from the commencement of his presbyterate, and that "thence through the body of Africa, excellent doctrine and the most sweet savour of Christ was diffused and made manifest, the Church of God beyond seas, when it heard thereof, partaking of the joy."

Book I. The treatise opens with a short statement on the subject of the authority of the Evangelists, their number, their order, and the different plans of their narratives. Augustine then prepares for the discussion of the questions relating to their harmony, by joining issue in this book with those who raise a difficulty in the circumstance that Christ has left no writing of His own, or who falsely allege that certain books were composed by Him on the arts of magic. He also meets the objections of those who, in opposition to the evangelical teaching, assert that the disciples of Christ at once ascribe more to their Master than He really was, when they affirmed that He was God, and inculcated what they had not been instructed in by Him, when they interdicted the worship of the gods. Against these antagonists he vindicates the teaching of the Apostles, by appealing to the utterances of the Prophets, and by showing that the God of Israel was to be the sole object of worship, who also, although He was the only Deity to whom acceptance was denied in former times by the Romans, and that for the very reason that He prohibited them from worshipping other gods along with Himself, has now in the end made the Empire of Rome subject to His Name, and among all nations has broken their idols in pieces through the preaching of the Gospel, as He had promised by His prophets that the event should be.Book II. In this book Augustine undertakes an orderly examination of the Gospel according to Matthew, on to the narrative of the Supper, and institutes a comparison between it and the other Gospels by Mark, Luke, and John, with the view of demonstrating a complete harmony between the four Evangelists throughout all these sections.Book III.

This edition includes the two books that St. Augustine wrote as explanations on the Sermon On The Mount which our Lord delivered and which are written down in Matthew 5-7.

This edition contains the following writings:Contents: On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of InfantsOn the Spirit and the LetterOn Nature and Grace, Against PelagiusConcerning Man''s Perfection in RighteousnessOn the Proceedings of Pelagius,A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original SinOn Marriage and Concupiscence.On the Soul and Its OriginA Treatise Against Two Letters of the PelagiansA Treatise on Grace and Free Will.Treatise on Rebuke and GraceA Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints,A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance, Being the Second Book

This edition contains the following writings:Of the Morals of the Catholic Church.On the Morals of the Manichaeans.Concerning Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans.Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus, the Manichaean.Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental.Reply to Faustus the Manichaean.Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans.On Baptism, Against the DonatistsIn Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist, Bishop of Cirta.A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists

The moral treatises contain much that will instruct and interest the reader; while some views will appear strange to those who fail to distinguish between different ages and different types of virtue and piety. Augustine shared with the Greek and Latin fathers the ascetic preference for voluntary celibacy and poverty. He accepted the distinction which dates from the second century, between two kinds of morality: a lower morality of the common people, which consists in keeping the ten commandments; and a higher sanctity of the elect few, which observes, in addition, the evangelical counsels, so called, or the monastic virtues. He practiced this doctrine after his conversion. He ought to have married the mother of his son; but in devoting himself to the priesthood, he felt it his duty to remain unmarried, according to the prevailing spirit of the church in his age. His teacher, Ambrose, and his older contemporary, Jerome, went still further in the enthusiastic praise of single life. We must admire their power of self-denial and undivided consecration, though we may dissent from their theory.Contents:St. Augustine: On Continence. [De Continentia.]St. Augustine: On The Good Of Marriage. [De Bono Conjugali.]Notice.St. Augustine: Of Holy Virginity. [De Virginitate.]St. Augustine: On The Good Of Widowhood. [De Bono Viduitatis.]St. Augustine: On Lying. [De Mendacio.]St. Augustine: To Consentius: Against Lying. [Contra Mendacium.]St. Augustine: Of The Work Of Monks. [De Opere Monachorum.]St. Augustine: On Patience. [De Patientia.]St. Augustine: On Care To Be Had For The Dead. [De Cura Pro Mortuis.]Footnotes

The most weighty of the doctrinal treatises is that on the Holy Trinity. The Latin original (De Trinitate contra Arianos libri quindecim), is contained in the 8th volume of the Benedictine edition. It is the most elaborate, and probably also the ablest and profoundest patristic discussion of this central doctrine of the Christian religion, unless we except the Orations against the Arians, by Athanasius, "the Father of Orthodoxy," who devoted his life to the defense of the Divinity of Christ. Augustine, owing to his defective knowledge of Greek, wrote his work independently of the previous treatises of the Eastern Church on that subject. He bestowed more time and care upon it than on any other book, except the City of God.Besides this treatise the following works are included:The Enchiridion, or On Faith, Hope and LoveOn the Catechising of the UninstructedTreatise on Faith and the CreedConcerning Faith of Things not SeenOn the Profit of BelievingOn the Creed

The four books of St. Augustin On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana, iv libri) are a compend of exegetical theology to guide the reader in the understanding and interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, according to the analogy of faith. The first three books were written ad 397; the fourth was added 426. It is the first and best patristic work on biblical Hermeneutics, and continued for a thousand years, together with the Prefaces of Jerome, to be the chief exegetical guide. Although it is superseded as a scientific work by modern Hermeneutics and Critical Introductions to the Old and New Testaments, it is not surpassed for originality, depth and spiritual insight.

De Civitate Dei, (full title: De Civitate Dei contra Paganos), translated in English as The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. It is one of Augustine''s major works, standing alongside his The Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, and On the Trinity. Augustine is considered the most influential Father of the Church in Western Christianity, and The City of God profoundly shaped Western civilization. Augustine wrote the treatise to explain Christianity''s relationship with competing religions and philosophies, as well as its relationship with the Roman government, with which it was increasingly intertwined. It was written soon after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. This event left Romans in a deep state of shock, and many saw it as punishment for abandoning traditional Roman religion for Catholic Christianity. It was in this atmosphere that Augustine set out to console Christians, writing that, even if the earthly rule of the Empire was imperiled, it was the City of God that would ultimately triumph. Augustine''s eyes were fixed on Heaven, a theme of many Christian works of Late Antiquity. (from wikipedia.com)

Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St. Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was "Confessions in Thirteen Books", and it was composed to be read out loud with each book being a complete unit. The work outlines Augustine''s sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. (from wikipedia.com)