Title: Downs' Chapter 8, "Fathers of the Church"

Date: 17 August 2006

Summary: This is the third assignment from Downs' book. This chapter considers two early contributors to Christianity, Augustine (354-430 CE) and Aquinas (1225-1274 CE). A summary of their impact on Christianity follows.

Augustine grew up in a period of social disintegration--the collapse of the Roman Empire. He became a Christian at 33, a priest at 37, and the Bishop of Hippo in what is now Algeria at 41. While a bishop Augustine wrote his two famous works, Confessions and City of God. In these he developed the accepted Christian concepts of original sin, predestination, grace, and final perseverance. Much of what he wrote was in response to heresy.

In Confessions Augustine explains how he became a Christian. He argues that God predestined him--led him, in fact, to God. He discusses his early life as a student, his premarital relationship and child out of wedlock, and his life as a teacher of rhetoric. He then goes on to argue that all of his explorations led no where, that only Christianity gave him relief from pride and lust.

His second major work is City of God. Here Augustine counters those who argued that Christianity was the reason Rome fell; instead he maintains that God predestined Rome's fall because of Rome's sin and error. Augustine then goes on to discuss the resurrection of the body, life after death, and a Christian's civic duties. Augustine argues that there are two cities--one on earth founded by Cain, and the other of God founded by Abel. The former is inhabited by the ungodly, the vast majority of people alive today. Augustine intended the Christian Church to rule over secular states; Downs' says Augustine wrote the political platform for the medieval church. Thus the church succeeded the secular authority of Rome said Augustine, and actually did so for a time.

Thomas Aquinas comprises the second part of chapter 8. Aquinas was born into an Italian aristocratic family and entered the Dominican order at 16. Aquinas tried to codify the sum of Christian tradition in Summa Theologica. His attempt to do so gained him recognition as a scholastic during the rise of the first European universities. As a scholastic Aquinas tried to demonstrate harmony between faith and reason, that knowledge could be obtained from either. The bible was a good source of knowledge derived from faith; the Greeks provided knowledge from natural law. Aquinas used the teachings of Aristotle, for example, to defend Christianity.

The method that Aquinas used in his work was to ask a question, present arguments for and against, offer a conclusion, and list the refutations of the arguments he rejected. He did this some 3,000 times and responded to some 10,000 objections to Christian beliefs. He divided his work into three parts: God, man, and the God-man. Topics he considered include existence, nature, creation, government, sacraments, mortality, ethics, love and hate, sin and grace, law, society, slavery, and heresy. Later scientific thought, when it ran counter to the views of Aquinas, were often considered heresy. This delayed the advance of science for many years to come. Yet his influence is still felt in Christianity today.

In conclusion, one can see that the views of Augustine and Aquinas were crucial to the development of Christianity. Original sin, virtue, and the sacraments are three of the many issues they discussed.

Reaction: I had no idea that an African was so influential to the formation of Christian thought. I admire Aquinas' attempt to work out a compromise between faith and reason, something akin to making a circle square. None of my friends know anything about these important Christian thinkers. I am glad that I am better aware of the origins of much of the belief system advocated by millions of Christians worldwide.

Question: Any serious student of Christianity must understand the major contributions made by Augustine and Aquinas. Describe how the fall of Rome affected Augustine's view of Christianity, then consider how Aquinas balanced faith with reason.

Augustine was profoundly affected by his environment. The same invaders who had entered Rome besieged his home, Hippo. These anxious times shaped his view of God as all-powerful. Augustine developed this idea in his a two-city, god-godless approach to Christianity. Aquinas' view of faith and reason was that of a compromise: he tried to bring unity to Christianity by ordering and codifying its beliefs and he used both faith (the bible) and reason (natural law) to do so.