Saturday, 28 January 2012

• Leaning Towards Augustine

  Tonight was the first night of Mr. and Mrs. P's weekly Friday night dinner and study of the book, City of God by Augustine. After spaghetti, we discussed Book One. 

  I became a Christian in 1976 during the charismatic movement and the Jesus People days.  I am sure that dates me quite a bit from most if not all of my readers.  In mentioning it, I just want to point out that I have been to a lot of Bible studies, Sunday School classes, and book studies on all different types of 'Christian' topics, but I have never been a part of a group that wanted to study the City of God. Granted, I have never been a part of a reformed/Calvinist/Catholic/classic book study group either.  Everyone wants to study Beth Moore or Stormie Omartian or the latest Christian relationship gurus in the circles I travel in, but nothing weighty or historical, so this was a real treat for me.  (Who, who, who let the nerd out?)

  I have liked Augustine for several years, having read City of God, the Confessions and On Christian Doctrine, in addition to a short biography here and there.  I have to note that evangelicals like to quote Augustine frequently, but if you ask, very few have ever actually read any of his books:  They just keep parroting his quotes.   Jesus probably feels the same way.  This is Amerika.

  The first time that I read City of God was when Abby was taking gymnastics lessons.  The parents would sit in the stands and watch every move of our amazing children.  Abby was amazing (All of my kids are amazing.), but eventually I started bringing a book to the lessons and leaving Ryan and Aimee to fend for themselves at home.  Little did I know that they were snitching their dad's pre-bagged cheese crackers and secretly trying on my costume jewelry.  (Ryan had NOTHING to do with the jewelry.  I note that they have confessed, but not repented because we have never recovered the crackers.  I am so over it.  They were also secretly watching some television show on PBS which I would have wanted them to watch anyway.  If I had asked them to watch it, they would not have enjoyed it at all.) 

  I believe that the reason I was reading Augustine was because #Doug Wilson recommended it in one of his books on #classical education.  He basically promised us that if we read well as home educators that our children would pretty much naturally follow suit.  This is a kind of a half-truth.  Kids need to develop a taste for good literature, but they acquire it from required reading as well as from parental example.  Most kids are not so virtuous as to choose to read worthwhile books on their own.  However, once they start reading books that matter and learn that they will have to think and give their opinion on the book, they get used to thinking critically and continue to weigh and analyze things whether they are reading weighty books or the Happy Meal box.

  As a dutiful classical home educator, I read and underlined and defined words and made my own footnotes and highlighted away until I had finished all 1095 pages of it.  Until now, I have had no one with whom to discuss it.  In all of my studying, I don't remember ever disagreeing with the bishop of Hippo, but it is possible that I did at some point.  Time will tell as I make my way through it again. 

  One thing that occurred to me tonight as we discussed the fall of Rome and the cultural reaction that followed, fall-out against the church, was that Augustine never blamed the Christians for what happened.  That is so not 20th or 21st century.  I realize that they were not in a democracy, but Augustine never hinted that IF ONLY they had prayed and fasted more or DONE SOMETHING BETTER, that this would not have happened.  In fact, he defended the Christians from the pagan accusations.  It suddenly occurred to me as well that in the book of Revelation that Jesus corrected the churches in chapters 1-3 for things that needed to be changed within the churches, but he never told them that political upheaval or economic distress within their culture would be their fault for not praying enough.  

  Since I have been to more than the typical amount of prayer and intercession meetings and days of prayer etc., somewhere along the line I picked up the idea that if only we prayed more, were more involved, gave more, did more etc. that our world would not be in such bad shape.  That idea is not from God.  The world is in bad shape because of the Fall.  (Think Adam and Eve, not the season.)  The same Paul that wrote to Timothy telling him to pray first of all for leaders so that we could have enough peace to share the gospel, also warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times would come because men would be so wicked.  Paul never blamed Timothy or the church for hard times. He simply said that they would come. 

  Granted, as Americans we have a lot more autonomy than the Christians experiencing the Fall of Rome.  However, we are not God.  We are people.  God determines history.  We participate in it; we do not control it.  God is more sovereign than I gave Him credit for. 

  This is a relief.  I love you, Augustine.

   

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