.png){kind=small}
He is one of the most significant figures in Christian history – a huge influence on Western philosophy and Western Christianity. He wrote classic books including The City of God. But Augustine was not always a man captivated by the Lord. As a proud young man he was devoted to his own lusts and ambitions.
Over the past month, I have read Augustine's Confessions, as well as many of his letters and writing from the early period of his life, before he became bishop of the church at Hippo.
I've pulled out all that helps us understand his formational journey.
---
Here are some of my favourite quotes from Augustine:
“Cursed be you, Society, onstreaming—into you, you hellish river, men’s children are thrown…”
“I was one of those misled and misleading, deceived and deceiving, at the mercy of assorted lusts – with a public life teaching the arts which claim to be liberal, and a private one given over to heresy.”
“I was drawn to the peace I found in virtue and repelled by the rancor I found in vice …”
On reading books of philosophy: “I was puffed up with learning and nowhere to be seen was that basis of lowliness on which is built the love that is Christ Jesus. That was not something I could learn from these books.”
“I wanted more to rest in You than reason about You”
On writing to his friend Nebridius: “it gratifies me that you should thank me when I write freely to you whatever crosses my mind; and to whom can I more willingly write nonsense than to one whom I cannot displease?”
From the beginning of his work, 'Soliloquies': "Hear me, hear me, graciously hear me, my God, my Lord, my King, my Father, my Cause, my Hope, my Wealth, my Honor, my House, my Country, my Health, my Light, my Life. Hear, hear, hear me graciously, in that way, all Your own, which though known to few is to those few known so well. Henceforth You alone do I love, You alone I follow, You alone I seek, You alone am I prepared to serve, for You alone are Lord by a just title, of Your dominion do I desire to be."
.png)