Augustine’s View of Predestination: St. Augustine, Part 9

Although Pelagianism, a view that denies original sin and promotes the idea that salvation can be earned, went against Augustine’s views of grace through Christ, it did encourage Augustine to focus his thinking on the doctrine of predestination. In his early writings, Augustine taught predestination based upon God’s foreknowledge. The idea was that God merely chose those human beings whom He foreknew would freely choose to believe in Him.

In Pursuit of Truth: St. Augustine, Part 7

Augustine’s life (AD 354–430) can be divided into roughly two halves. The first half of his journey was spent searching for the truth that would give meaning, purpose, and significance to his life. The second half was spent reflecting upon, explaining, defending, and living out the truth he encountered through faith in Jesus Christ. Given his life-long quest for truth, years of leadership in the church, and dramatic conversion, Augustine was able to make several contributions of enduring value.

Three Christian Classics

When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food. —Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch Renaissance scholar and theologian

Reading books has been an obsession of mine since my conversion to Christianity as a college sophomore. I sensed my mind really mattered in serving the Lord; so I began a serious pursuit of the “life of the mind” to the glory of God. Today I have a personal library of between 3,000 and 4,000 books.

Top Ten Quotes from Augustine’s Confessions

Considered both a literary and a Christian devotional classic, Augustine’s Confessions is one of my favorite Christian books. I’ve read the book numerous times yet, like all great books, it continues to challenge me intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

Quote of the Week: Saint Augustine, 2

 But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him but in myself and his other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.

—Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992), bk. 1, 20.

Quote of the Week: Saint Augustine

“Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you….The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.”

—Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992), bk. 1, 1.