Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: Augustine, Part 1

Let's pray. Oh Oh father I Pray that we mean what we say. I Will suffer not to hide thee not I ask beside thee. There is a savage Necessity in the Christian life To wage war against the hiddenness of your glory.

Pluck out an eye If you must to get to heaven and see God Cut off a hand if you must to wean yourself off lower pleasures and Fix yourself on endless ones. And I pray that you would make warriors of us all make savages of us if we must be in order not to let television or.

Food or.

Internet or the praise of men. Hide thee and I pray that you would use Augustine's life and thought to sharpen our sword Jesus name. I pray we heard this morning that the unthinkable happened in 410 A .d.

Namely that Alaric and the gods came against Rome and sacked it. St. Jerome was in Palestine at the time and He said if Rome can perish What can be safe? Well Rome didn't perish Immediately 66 more years until the last Emperor was dethroned by the Germans and The shockwaves in that 410 event across the Mediterranean very quickly.

Augustine was 55 years old in the prime of his ministry. He would go on ministering the word for another 20 years in Hippo just southwest across the sea in present-day Algeria. For another 20 years, but it was shocking.

Oh, it wasn't the end yet and As you heard this morning it did unleash the city of God in which his own philosophy of history Over against the possible demise of Rome was developed for about 20 years of writing.

August 28 430 he dies and Just as he's dying 80 ,000 Vandals as they were called were coming across the north of Africa where they had invaded through Spain and The city in which he was living and ministering was under siege.

In other words these times in which Augustine lived were tumultuous times and between the shifting of whole civilizations. In those last months as he saw the Vandals coming he had heard that two other Catholic bishops had been tortured to death in other cities as they came as the Vandals came and when his own elders Counseled him with the words of Jesus flee to another city He said Let not one dream of Holding our ships so cheaply that the sailors Let alone the captain should desert her in a time of peril.

But strangely he died four months before the city was overrun and completely sacked by the Vandals and I just want to insert a Preliminary Parenthetical exhortation to courage here. My friend John Enzer came from Boston to talk about pro-life issues two weeks ago at our church and He pointed out to me something I'd never noticed before then I'll point it out to you in Revelation 21 8 in the list of things that will be passed into the lake of fire a first sin on the list is cowardice.

Take that home brothers and open your mouths. That's a princess. I will not forsake this ship, but the Lord took him. He had been Bishop in Hippo since 396. Five years before that he had been appointed priest and elder and had preached so Approximately 40 years now.

He had been serving this one church in Hippo Shepherding God's little flock there and defending the faith and Had become known all over the Empire in the Christian Church. Anyway, as if God besotted biblical articulate persuasive Defender of the faith against manichaeism and Donatism and Pelagian ism.

Those were the three big false teachings as he saw them in his day and he Wrote on all of them. He wasn't Unbelievable controversialist for all the mysticism in him. We'll say more about that later on.

Just before he died He handed over the reins to Heraclius his associate because he was an old man. Now he died when he was almost 75 and Heraclius picked up the administrative duties and on the day when Heraclius was installed as Co-adjutant Bishop there was a great ceremony and Augustine took his seat in the Cathedral the throne where he sat to preach.

He sat to preach for 40 years. The people stood and he sat. I think that would really settle some pastors down to take content seriously instead of motion. Would be really hard for me. I'm glad that's not in the Bible.

Heraclius stood in front of him to preach the sermon at this retirement of their beloved Bishop and Overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy he said The cricket chirps The swan is silent. So if you wondered where the title came from That's where it comes from the cricket chirps The swan is silent.

If Heraclius had known what we now know about the next 16 centuries He wouldn't have said that. Because the swan it is not silent today. He never has been silent for 1600 years and he was not silent he had Several more years to go when this man was installed and some of his great work was done right up to the end.

The man's influence is simply incalculable as you know Adolf Harnack Said that the greatest man the church has possessed between Paul and Luther is Augustine now Harnack was German. He had to say Luther but Others have said things differently than that for example Christian History magazine without any Qualification or hesitation said.

Now this is written just a few years ago after Jesus and Paul. Augustine of Hippo is the most influential figure in the history of Christianity. Benjamin Warfield said argued in his writings on Augustine that he entered both the church and the world as a Revolutionary force and not merely created an epoch in the history of the church.

But determined the course of its history in the West up to the present day. He said he had a literary talent second to none in the annals of the church and then he added the whole development of Western life in all its phases.

Was powerfully affected by his teaching. Now one of the most remarkable things about his influence is that it has flowed into Remarkably contradictory camps. So for example, he is revered as one of the greatest if not the greatest father in Catholic Roman Catholic Church.

And Warfield said Augustine gave us the Reformation. Well, that's odd. He said that quote not only because Luther was an Augustinian monk or the Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian but Because the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace.

Over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man. Both sides in the controversy the Reformers and the counter Reformation appealed on a huge scale to the texts of Augustine. There are unresolved issues in Augustine.

One way of putting it that Warfield did use was the Reformation was the triumph of Augustine's view of grace over Augustine's view of the church. I don't want to make much of that but something like that is probably the case because as I read His views on sacraments and baptism. I cannot put them together with some other things that he says, but that's for another time.

I'm not expert enough in Augustine to resolve those things. There are reasons for why Augustine has had such a phenomenal impact this biography here. Written by a man named Augustine, although it's written Augustino trape.

Called st. Augustine man pastor and mystic where you can find a lot of very personal. This is kind of anecdotal Biography a lot of personal things which are interesting. I I like them as well as long as I'm showing you books.

Let me just go ahead and show the rest. This is the main one I've leaned on and probably is esteemed as the modern biography that is most authoritative Peter Brown Augustine of Hippo. It's a very very good biography in my judgment.

And of course, this is his autobiography up to age 32. Which are formative years. But the confessions have I probably in my talk here quote from the confessions more than anything else and They have this same edition of the city of God in the bookstore unless they're all gone.

But you can check those out. This is a good translation. I think you should read these in a modern translation. I Have this thing about modernizing The Puritans. I don't like that. I don't like Updated English versions of Jonathan Edwards or Owen.

But I do like if you've got a translate from Latin do it in the contemporary idiom don't enshrine anybody's old translation of Augustine so I enjoyed reading this one remembering how I had read as a 19 year old at Wheaton the confessions of Augustine in another kind of English.

In this one Augustino trape he said something very very good to explain his influence. Augustine was a philosopher theologian mystic and poet in one his lofty powers Complimented each other and made the man fascinating in a way difficult to resist.

He is a philosopher But not a cold thinker. He is a theologian But also a master of spiritual life. He is a mystic but also a pastor. He is a poet but also a controversialist. Every reader thus finds something attractive and even overwhelming depth of metaphysical intuition rich abundance of theological proofs.

Synthetic power and energy. Psychological depth shown in spiritual assents and a wealth of imagination sensibility and mystical fervor. Now I found that quote accurate and unexaggerated from my exposure to Augustine over the years.

So we all must who undertake to say anything about this man insert a disclaimer. Benedict Groschel has written the most recent that I know of 1996 the most recent a treatment of his works and He went to Villanova University in his researches where they have the Augustinian Heritage Institute and Was overwhelmed that there is a library of works on and by Augustine works on Augustine fill a library and Then he was exposed to the computer five million word disks that Augustine wrote and of course he Inserted his disclaimer.

I Remember reading it I didn't take a note on it that somebody even in Augustine's own day said anybody who claimed to have read all of Augustine is a liar. Here's what? Groschel says I felt like a man beginning to write a guidebook of the Swiss Alps.

After 40 years, I can still meditate on one book of the confessions. It's divided into 13 books on one book of the confessions. During a week-long retreat and come back. Feeling frustrated that there is still so much More gold to mine in those few pages I for one know that I shall never in this life escape from the Augustinian Alps.

Well That's true. Nevertheless people visit the Alps and So we're going to visit the Alps and I just take heart from the fact that one can go to the Alps and spend an hour there and benefit from it and Not have exhausted the Alps.

So that's where we are. If you ask now, well suppose I want to spend a little more time in the Alps when you're done. Where should I go? I Would say as virtually everybody else would say start with the confessions read the you've never read Augustine's confessions.

You should David Wells told me at supper last night. He assigns this in his class on spiritual classics or classics of the Western heritage or whatever the class is called and Anybody that leaves that book out of spiritual classics would of course be Committing an error start there.

Then the other four big books Famous books are number one on Christian doctrine which he wrote between 397 426 the Enchiridion on faith hope and love which Warfield says is his most serious attempt to systematize his thought on the Trinity written over another 25 year period which gave definitive formulation to the printed Trinity for years and Then the city of God which he spent about 29 years Writing.

No, no, no, no, not 29 years from 413. I was doing my math wrong from 413 to 426 13 years. So let's go on a little short tour here. I'm very eager to get to my thesis. But I want also to weave it into his life.

So I'm I'm torn as to how to proceed but I'll weave them Together the best I can. What I have seen and what I want to preach When we get to it is Tremendously important I believe for our day for me personally.

It's tremendously important and I think the Lord is putting together a conference here with what David Wells is saying what Alistair Begg said This morning and what I'm about to say that has a coherency about it Though perhaps some apparent tensions in it that will be very good for us to think through.

I titled this the Power of pleasure in the life and thought of st. Augustine. I Might have called it The sovereignty of joy in the life of Augustine or the sovereign the place of sovereign joy in the exposition and defense of evangelical Calvinism or if I wanted to Be Really at home I would say it's about the Augustinian roots of Christian hedonism.

Which in fact it is and It is a delight to me to find my own tree planted in such deep soil. But let's go to the life first. Augustine was born November 13 354 his father Patrick or Patricius was a middle-aged.

I mean a middle-income farmer. Not wealthy scraped together money to give him the best education. He could in rhetoric first in Madara 20 miles away from the gas where he was born, which is south of Hippo in northern Africa in Algeria.

Today then between the ages of 17 and 20. He was educated in Carthage. His father was a unbeliever until the year of his death and he died when Augustine was 16 years old. His mother Monica is very famous because of her relentless prayer for her lecherous son and I'm not sure that she did the best job.

She should rearing him. He said as I grew to manhood. I Was inflamed with desire for a surfeit of hell's pleasures. My family Made no effort to save me from my fall by marriage. Their only concern was that I should learn how to make a good speech and how to persuade others by my words.

So poor Monica. She's included in that as Is his father? Then he said particularly about his father my father took no trouble at all to see how I was growing in your sight. Oh God. And Whether I was chaste or not.

He cared only that I could have a fertile tongue but he left for Carthage when he was 17 and His mother waking to the danger evidently said to him That he should not commit fornication and above all not seduce a man's wife.

And this is what he said. I Went to Carthage where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust. My real need was for you my God. He's writing this at age What's 397 354 from 397 43 my real need was for you my God.

Who are the food of the soul. I was not aware of this hunger. I Was willing to steal and steal. I did. Although I was not compelled by any lack. I Was at the top of the school of rhetoric. I was pleased with my superior status and swollen with conceit.

It was my ambition to be a good speaker for the unhallowed and inane purpose of gratifying human vanity so lust theft and conceit. He took a concubine when he was 16 and lived with her for 15 years and Had a son by her adiotus, which means gift of God.

To put his life in a nutshell from that early schooling in Carthage on Who's getting trained in rhetoric to be a teacher and so for 11 years? 19 to 30 he taught rhetoric first in Carthage then Rome then Milan and Was basically a schoolteacher for young aspiring well-to-do Roman boys and the next 44 years he was a bishop.

So you could sum his life up to say he spent 11 years as a profligate and 44 years as a celibate. Because once he was cured he went all the way with chastity and Would never come near a woman and women were forbidden from entering the monastery where he lived next door to the bishop's house or to the church.

Now here is an interesting thing his conversion Did not happen nearly as suddenly as it's made out often. We have to make things simple when we are telling little stories and sermons and whatnot. But I was apprised that this was a very long drawn-out agonizing thing for example.

In Carthage when he was 19 years old He read for the first time Cicero specifically the Hortensius and This had an effect on him, which was a kind of first conversion. Cicero's a total pagan. There's no Christ in it but He says it altered my outlook on life.

It changed my prayers to you. Oh Lord and Provided me with new hopes and aspirations. This is 11 years before his conversion all my empty dreams suddenly lost their charm. My heart began to throb with a bewildering passion for wisdom and eternal truth.

I began to climb out of the depths into which I had sunk in order to return to you. My god how I burned with longing to have wings to carry me back to you away from all earthly things. Although I had no idea what you would do with me for yours is the wisdom in Greek the word philosophy means love of wisdom and it was this love that the Hortensius and flamed in me.

Now that sounds really good. But he lived with his concubine and he was a pagan for another 11 years, but what had happened was he experienced by the providence of God a lifting out of the Groveling of lust in Carthage at least to the level of caring about some truth issues.

So don't begrudge pagan conversions to paganism. Don't begrudge that that can be used of the Lord in the university. If you see a guy move out of Living with his girlfriend to start reading Plato rejoice.

Don't give him any encouragement that that's salvation but it might become salvation because it did for Augustine. Well, he fell in with the manatees and I don't want to take you through that long Deal of 11 years of trying to understand this dualism and all that.

When he was 29 big jump now, he went to Rome but in Rome. These boys these students he did not like they were very Misbehaving and so he looked for another place to teach as soon as he could and in God's providence.

He said the Lord trans Furred him to Milan north of Rome Milan, Italy. And there two things happened he discovered the Platonists and he met.

Ambrose the bishop.

These are awesome things as he describes them because the Platonists were his second conversion. He he discovered Plotinus. Who cares and who knows about? Plotinus died in 270 a neo Platonist recovering the Vision of Plato's ideas and forms.

Remember from college philosophy classes and he fell absolutely in love and appropriated this Platonism into his search for wisdom So that it stamped him for the rest of his life. A lot of people write off Augustine today because they just say he's just distilled Christianized Platonism.

Which I think is a mistake. And He met Ambrose this godly truth-speaking bishop Peter Brown this biographer here says that the discovery of Plato and Plotinus did nothing less than shift the center of gravity of Augustine's spiritual life.

He was no longer identified with his God as in Manichaeism. This Platonic God that he now met was utterly Transcendent so that's a next stage in his moving toward Christianity. Now you can hear the influence of his Platonism as he diagnoses in those days his own condition.

Here's the way he described it. I had my back to the light and My face was turned toward the things which it illumined. Remember the the story of the cave in Plato. So that my eyes By which I saw the things which stood in the light were themselves in the dark.

This is a Platonic analysis of his lost condition at that moment.