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Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown :: A Critical Review

Scott Fillmer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:15:00 +0000

The following critical book review of Augustine of Hippo can also be found in PDF on my writing page, or Critical Review of Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo.

Critical Review: Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown, originally published in 1967 and updated in 2000, is a comprehensive look at the life of the Bishop of Hippo, Saint Augustine, and perhaps even more importantly, an exhaustive study of the life of a North African from A.D. 354 to A.D. 431. Brown, in 1967, at the age of 32, before the information age gave birth to Google and superficial research methods, penned a research giant on Augustine. Although the scholastic study of Augustine continued to advance after the first printing in 1967, Brown’s work on Augustine still remains a benchmark for Augustinian study today and an edifying place to start for those interested in a study of Augustine.

In this highly annotated book, Brown moves chronologically through Augustine’s life, from birth to death, and spares no detail along the way. Brown moves from Augustine’s recounting sin as a child by stealing pears from a fruit tree, which haunted him throughout his life, to contemplation and prayer at the end of his life on two hundred and thirty plus books Augustine would organize before his death. Augustine of Hippo is broken up into five large sections or transitions of Augustine’s life with chronological tables preceding each section.

Through each chapter Brown knits together a mix of Augustine’s personal timeline of life’s major events while never divorcing the history of the Roman Empire, and more specifically, that of 4th and 5th century life in North Africa. Though Brown is never quick to call Augustine out when he is wrong, even when he is obviously wrong, he prods the reader with objective truths until one starts to desire a deeper knowledge of Augustine than even Brown can deliver in 1967.

Augustine, seen as a gifted child by his parents and basically raised by his Catholic mother Monica, was well educated (in Latin but not Greek) in the philosophy of his day, and as such, spent a good portion of his early life concentrating on Manichaeism and then Platonism. He would eventually carry a Neo-Platonist Christian worldview into his Bishopric and be influenced by some of their ideals throughout the remainder of his life. One of Augustine’s life-long struggles that Brown accentuates is that of the flesh. Against his mother’s wishes, Augustine took a concubine, whom he cared for deeply. He eventually set her aside for a traditional, pre-arranged, first class marriage, which he eventually declined anyway. Augustine ends up leaving for Italy, without telling Monica who was to travel with him, to continue his study in Rhetoric. After years of philosophical struggle, at the age of 33, Augustine begged Ambrose to wash away his sins in baptism, and in April of A.D. 387 he was baptized.

From birth leading up to his Christian conversion, Augustine did not live a “Holy” life, as did other Christian philosophers turned Bishop. Once converted though, Augustine spent much of his life writing and preaching long sermons to fight heresies, most of which he was intimately familiar with himself. Here, Brown chronicles in great detail not only Augustine’s conversion and perhaps his greatest literary output of Confessions, but also his shift from free-will philosophy of Manichaeism, through his epic fight with the Donatist’s, and on to his final battle with original sin and baptism against Pelagius. Brown’s use of primary Latin sources here is exhaustive, and sometimes confusing, but he gives these heresy battles in Augustine’s life incredible detail by using Augustine’s own words from his sermons, letters, and books. Brown’s use of secondary sources throughout the text is even larger in number and his seventeen- page bibliography is a historical gift to future Augustinian study.

One of the more interesting aspects of the text comes from the updated 2000 publication being reviewed here. As explained in an amended preface, Brown did not seek to write an updated edition to his 1967 publication. Instead, Brown viewed his original writing as a historical reference point in itself, written at a point in time in Augustinian study, and one to be kept historically in tact. As with any scholastic research, time moves on and new discoveries are made, as was the case with Augustine. To accommodate for new discoveries made since 1967 Brown added a two-section epilogue outlining such evidences as the 1975 discovery of the Divjak letters and the 1990 findings of the Dolbeau sermon manuscripts. If a reader has any prior knowledge of Augustine the suggestion might be made to read the epilogue first to be able to compare and contrast Brown’s findings from 1967 with the more recent evidence.

To conclude the reading of Augustine of Hippo is to begin an Augustinian study. Although Augustine of Hippowould not be considered an all-inclusive biography it certainly has its place in the historical study of Augustine. For one studying the life of Saint Augustine this biography is essential tool, and Brown has provided an important piece into the historical study of possibly the greatest theologian in history.

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Chasing Saint Francis of Assisi by Ian Cron :: Review

Scott Fillmer — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:21:09 +0000

A few weeks ago when I was in Atlanta for Catalyst I went to a blogger-ish meeting that took place after Catalyst had ended, called Off the Blogs (photos of that night). During one of the sessions, Carlos Whittaker from Ragamuffinsoul talked to the group about things going on in his life, and he mentioned a book he was reading that I had never heard of before, called Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron.

I am struggling with finding words to review this book adequately as it really took me to another place in how I think about God, the traditions of the Church as seen from a historical perspective, and the local modern church of today. Where I am part of the local modern church today by the mere fact that I am alive in 2009, Chasing Francis took me back to the traditions in the church during the 1200′s when Saint Francis of Assisi was alive. It got me to more closely examine the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, and it was loaded with things we can apply to church today that Francis championed some 800 years ago.

This book is an allegory of sorts and it mixes fact and fiction throughout as Chase (the main character) goes on a pilgrimage that follows the life of Saint Francis of Assisi after he has been told by the elders to take a leave of absence as Pastor of a modern contemporary church to think about its direction. I tried to read the book with an open mind, not necessarily a critical mind, and it gave me a better appreciation for the roots of the Catholic church (which really are the roots to THE church), and the labels we tend to apply to everything in our world today.

Our Protestant-Catholic Misconceptions

Growing up Protestant the misconceptions and exaggerations I had/have of the Catholic church is probably similar to most in a denominational type church, but the story did focus on a Catholic Saint, and I found this passage very telling:

…My initiation into conservative Christianity included being taught that Catholics weren’t really ‘saved.’…
“What do you want to talk about?” Kenny said. “Transubstantiation, sola Scriptura versus the magisterium, praying to Mary, or all the other stuff Catholics and Protestants get hung up on? I’m too old for that. I’d rather be a reverent agnostic.”

“You’re an agnostic?” I asked. “The word agnostic means ‘not knowing.’ There are countless mysteries that I have to say… ‘I don’t know’.

and he went on to put the differences to rest as far as the story in this book goes to say:

…no one tradition has a corner on the faith market. Sharing the wisdom each of our traditions brings to the table will create more well-rounded Christians. Francis was a Catholic, evangelical preacher, radical social activist, devoted to prayer… who worshiped with all the enthusiasm of a Pentecostal.

and that is how he started down his pilgrimage into the life of Francis. I started off with zero knowledge about this Believer who lived 800 years ago, but left with a great curiosity to learn more.

Chasing Francis may have been written as a work of fiction, but the principles will ring true with any of us caught in the modern life of iPhone’s, Twitter, Facebook, and trying to be connected to the newest latest greatest, and then trying to bring it into the church.

For me, our methods in the church today in 2009 are different, our tools are different, and our words we use are different than any other time in history. We reach out to people in different ways than ever before, but we also don’t need to ignore the history and traditions of the church (minus the time frame in which our 66 books were written), and only look to the future. There are many who have come before us that have a lot to teach us, if we reach out to them.

Top 10 Bullet Points from Chasing Francis

Here are a few of the bullet points I took away from Chasing Francis. I scribbled, wrote, highlighted, and underlined half the book, so these are just a few of the ones that stuck out to me.

the Bible is less about ideas or doctrines than it is a story about people and their up-and-down relationship with God
the Bible is more a painting than a photograph [in context of interpretation of a painting]
postmoderns are good at criticizing the old way of doing things, but not very good at offering up positive alternatives for going forward
Francis didn’t criticize the institutional church, nor did he settle for doing church the way it had always been done
when did I loose the childlike ability to hear God in nature?
I’m not a character in search of an Author; I have a story.
possessions dissipate the energy which they need for other and more real things
Labels are misleading. They objectify people. They are a form of relational laziness
come and see how we preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words
if we spent less time worrying about how to share our faith with someone on an airplane and more time thinking about how to live radically generous lives, more people would start taking our message seriously.

In the end, I would say this is a must read, but only if it could be read with an open mind to think about the fact that there may be other ways to exercise our faith that we may disagree with, but that doesn’t make them wrong. It challenged by thinking and I loved the book. I will leave this post with one of my favorite quotes in the book from Henry David Thoreau.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. – Thoreau

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A Real Life from Mother Teresa :: Quips

Scott's Misc — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:02:18 +0000

This is a small post series I started last week called Quotes and Quips (see last entry called Quotes and Quips // a Little Dirty Dinner) that is taken from small pieces that my mother-in-law saved or cutout and put in a binder.

The binder was left to me when she passed away back in April and I am sharing a few of her favorites, this one is called A Real Life, I had not read this or seen this text before today, but I really like it and wanted to share it with my readers. This one was really an incredible look at how a lady thought who impacted this world in such a great way before her death. She even had questions about her own faith and wrote about these questions in her own journal and that to me was the most genuine thing I had ever heard about her.

People are unreasonable,
illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will
accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.

if you are successful, you may
win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today may be
forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honest and transparency make
you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.

What you spend years building
may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People who really want help may
attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.

Give the world the best you
have and you may be hurt.
Give the world your bests anyway.

- Mother Teresa

It is not a comical or humorous poem but I like the heart that comes with it. When someone tells you that you should go “help” someone and has never done anything with their life it isn’t quite as powerful as when Mother Teresa says the same thing.

Mother Teresa spent her life helping others, but from what I have read, it also gave her great joy. I was fascinated by the letters that surfaced after her death where people questioned her faith. From one line of one letter where she said:

Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, Listen and do not hear the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me â€” that I let Him have [a] free hand.

That to me is powerful. Someone is our world is always looking to take a shot at faith in Jesus Christ and will jump at any chance. That to me is a spiritual person who can look more honestly at herself than any of us probably can, and it shows she was human.

Do you have something like this poem to share? Just leave a comment below with the link so we can go read it. My mother-in-law loved to collect little clippings, I know she wasn’t the only one.