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 ship 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 cast 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 Manicheanism and Donatism and Pelagian is 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 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 that 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 an 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

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 had weathened 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 find 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 but 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 5 ,000 ,000 word discs that Augustine wrote and of course he

Inserted his disclaimer, I Wish I had jotted down in my readings. I only 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 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

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 chased or not

He cared only that I could have a fertile tongue well, 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 surprised 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 Bird 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 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