Discussing Saint Augustine: His Biography And Brief Overview Of Books On Against The Donatists On Baptism

Introduction

In this paper we will be discussing Saint Augustine. We will briefly look at his biography. From there we will move to a brief overview of book one and book two on Against the Donatists on baptism. After this we will try to analyse the exposition of psalm 10. Finally we will conclude.

Saint Augustine bishop of Hippo

He was born on the13th of November 354 in Tagaste in Numidia, North Africa. He died on the year 430. His parents were Patricius and Monica. His father was not a Christian for most of his life. His father was baptized when he was about to die. On the other hand his mother was a faithful Christian who always prayed for Augustine to repent. Before Augustine got converted he was not living a Christian life as his mother would have wanted. Augustine was living what can be called a reckless life as a young man. At some point Augustine had a relationship with a girl of “low social class” (ibid 11). They were blessed with a son who later died at the age of seventeen. Augustine had a brother and a sister. It is not clear who was the eldest among his siblings.

He started school in his local place at Tagaste. He did not finish there he then moved to Madaura. After the death of his father he moved again to Carthage. His studies there were sponsored by somebody else because his family was no longer affording as his father was now late. Augustine was one of the Manichaeas according to the Encyclopedia of Catholicism (113). It is also said that Augustine was “interested in Stoics logic and ethical assertions” (Chadwick 2001: 9). In his arguments “he was more in agreement with Neo-Platonists” (ibid).

Bishop Ambrose is the one who had much influence on Augustine (Encyclopedia of Catholicism 114). After reading Athanasius’s life of Anthony he was converted and he asked to be baptised in a year. After his baptism his mother died. In 391 he was “forced to ordination” then “in 396 he was consecrated bishop” of Hippo “until his death” in 430 (Encyclopedia of Catholicism 114).

One of his works is the book on Baptism, Against the Donatists. In book one he was writing against the Donatists. He said that baptism is valid even to those who are outside the Catholic Church only if it is not conducted by the heretics (Knight 2009). In book two he shows that the authority of Cyprian was in fact challenging the Donatists more than the Catholic Church. He was of the idea that those who were against the teachings of the church when they come back they should be welcomed only if that is going to bring peace in the church (Knight 2009).

Psalm 10

Psalm 10 is taken from the exposition on the psalms or what is also called the enarrations on the psalms. This psalm was written during the time of the Donatist schism. Augustine wrote this work responding to the Donatists that he believed they were breaking the church of Christ. The Donatist schism was a result of two bishops that were consecrated for the same diocese. The first bishop was not accepted. Those who were against him claimed that one of the bishops who consecrated him was not in the state of conducting any sacraments (exposition of psalms: 160). Donatus is the second bishop who was elected. And his consecration to be a bishop brought division to the church. The division was caused by the result that there were those who supported the first bishop yet others supported Donatus. The Donatists saw themselves as the ones who are representing the true church. They viewed their opposite part as being lost and in the dark. The Donatists believed that they were in good position to conduct sacraments because they were not a scandal to the church. They viewed their counterpart as a group of sinners.

When Augustine came to this church of Africa he found it in this situation, divided and turning against each other. He then tried to deal with this situation. One of the ways he used was the psalms. Psalm 10 is one of the psalms he used to respond to the Donatist schism. From the text that Augustine was using that is the psalms the numbering is different from the new revised standard version of the holy bible we are using now. In this version psalm 9 is divided into two psalms that makes psalm number 10 to be psalm number 11. Some of the books that I will be using they talk about psalm 11 yet they are referring to the same psalm that Augustine was using as which is psalm 10.

When we give a closer look at the exposition of psalm 10 Augustine speaks about the Donatists directly. He explains each verse according to what he thinks is directed to the Donatists. When one looks at the subtopics one will notice that the very first is a command to those who are following Donatist not to continue following them. Augustine then continues to explain why it is not good to follow the Donatists. The very first thing he says is that the whole psalm is against the ‘heretics’ (:160). He says the heretics pretend that they have the truth and that they should be followed. He said that when the heretics do this they are misleading innocent people. As he uses this psalm Augustine is warning the heretics that whatever they are doing is not good because they are leading people astray. Augustine says that as the heretics mislead innocent people they claim that they are the ones who have Christ on their side. Augustine is not happy about this division because he says the innocent are already in good hands of Christ but they are being confused. He said that they are confused because they even ask as the psalm says that why are they asked to leave the Lord that they trust and just wonder around (160). Those who fall in the trap of the heretics according to Augustine they lose something important. They lose what they have and chase for nothing. Those who have a strong faith they are not shaken but they hold on in their faith. They do so by telling the heretics that they have their lord and they do not need to follow an emptiness leaving Christ behind.

As he moved to verse 3 Augustine shows that heretics are dangerous because they do not only manipulate the innocent people. They try to destroy the Catholic Church. They do this by painting it as a church of sinners. The heretics present themselves as perfect people. Their target is those who are innocent because sometimes it is easy to win then. Another point that Augustine touches is that, when the heretics approach the innocent they do so when they see that the church is not in a good state, they target when the church is undergoing some dark challenges that makes the church to be looked down. When the church is in a form of crisis it is easy to confused the innocent. However those with strong faith are not shaken, because they ‘trust in the Lord’ (161).

Augustine continues to explain verse 3 focusing on the line that speaks about the moon. He gives us a different understanding of how it works or gets its light and shines. In his explanation he shows us that the moon gets its light from the sun. He therefore said that the moon in this psalm represents the church. The church gets light from Christ who is the ultimate light. The church is spiritual and physical. The spiritual part is always shining. What gets dark sometimes is the physical part. The church is made up of people. People do make errors sometimes because they are human beings. And they are not perfect at all times, they try to be perfect. The church on its own she does not have light but she gets light from Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. In this allegory Augustine is not denying that the church sometimes can be wrong (161-162).

However Augustine suggest that from the mistakes that the church makes Christ is always present. And that Christ continues to enlighten his church so that she does not go astray. Again he said bad things may happen in the church at the dark times of the church. However those who are faithful followers of Christ do not need to worry because they ‘trust in the Lord’. The faithful must always say that even in dark times we still ‘trust in the Lord’ (163). As Dahood said that this psalm is the ‘song of trust. He continues to say that no matter what the justice of God will never fail (1965:68).

On the other hand the heretics pretend to be perfect. They try everything in their powers to win the innocent. They know the weakness of the innocent and then they manipulate them. The heretics manipulate innocent people by using material things. Instead of telling them the truth they mislead them. In these material things they make people to focus on them and forget Christ. Augustine is questioning this because the very same people who are blaming the church are the ones who are not leading people to God but to themselves (163).

Augustine is not happy at all about the Donatists. His argument is that the Donatists claim to be holy yet they cannot prove their holiness. He says that he understands that sometimes to see the holiness of other people we do not have to see their hearts but their works. However Augustine is not fully convince by that. Hence, because he believes that even priest and bishop who are involved in bad acts there is still Christ behind them who makes all sacraments valid. Even if a priest or a bishop is not holy. For Augustine for sacraments to be effective we must believe in Christ not in a ‘fellow human’. The argument here is that we cannot prove the presence of Christ in priests and bishops by looking at their actions. We do not know what is going on in their hearts. And when it comes to the ordained ministers when they are conducting sacraments it is not them who makes them valid. But it is Christ who is always present in his ministers even in their dark times (164).

Augustine slams on those who follow Donatists. He uses Jeremiah 17: 5 to support his argument that God will punish all those who do not trust in him but in a ‘fellow human’ (164). Augustine says that those who do not know heretics, who happened to be Donatists in this case, will recognised heretics by their tendency of misleading innocent people, telling lies and ‘destroying what God made perfect’ (166).

Even though heretics destroy the perfect creation of God our lord Jesus Christ always shows mercy. He is compassionate to the holy ones and to the sinners. Jesus is never a heartless judge. We notice this from the text that Augustine uses to support his point. He used John 14:27. In this verse he shows that all that Christ wants to give us is his peace. Heretics do not realize the love of God. What they do they destroy even the temple of God. They turn Catholics against Catholics because they want to portray the church as a deformed institution. Hence Augustine suggests that we should respond with love and kindness because Christ will never leave his church to be destroyed by the heretics. To show that God loves us more than we deserve Augustine adds that Judas one of Jesus’ apostles was not a perfect and faithful person yet Christ did not judge him and chase him away. Instead he kept him close up to the end. This shows that Christ gives his work even to sinners. Therefore who are we to judge another human being (166).