Today, August 28, is celebrated by Roman Catholics and many Anglicans/Episcopalians, Independent Catholics, and Lutherans as the feast of Augustine of Hippo.
I had always disliked Augustine - the Confessions just never really did it for me, even as I know many who found it lifechanging.
Then, in the Independent Catholic jurisdiction of which I was the bishop, a tiny Augustinian order joined and, to show support, I became an oblate - and my dislike was transformed.
First, original sin, which he developed into a doctrine held by most of the Western church, teaches that humans are depraved and cut off from G!d by our nature (or, in the case of evangelicals who do not baptize infants, a tendency toward sin that, with the first sin after someone hits the "age of accountability") and are incapable of any good deeds until redeemed through Jesus. The Jewish teaching that we have both a yetzer tov, a good inclination, and a yetzer ra, an evil inclination - the latter being necessary and good when deployed appropriately but causing problems when it is deployed inappropriately - is much healthier. (Influenced by Rabbi Ira Stone, a contemporary mussar teacher, I see yetzer hara as being concern for self and yetzer tov being the concern for others and Today, August 28, is celebrated by Roman Catholics and many Anglicans/Episcopalians, Independent Catholics, and Lutherans as the feast of Augustine of Hippo.
I had always disliked Augustine - the Confessions just never really did it for me, even as I know many who found it lifechanging.
Then, in the Independent Catholic jurisdiction of which I was the bishop, a tiny Augustinian order joined and, to show support, I became an oblate - and my dislike was transformed.
First, original sin, which he developed into a doctrine held by most of the Western church, teaches that humans are depraved and cut off from G!d by our nature (or, in the case of evangelicals who do not baptize infants, a tendency toward sin that, with the first sin after someone hits the "age of accountability") and are incapable of any good deeds until redeemed through Jesus. The Jewish teaching that we have both a yetzer tov, a good inclination, and a yetzer ra, an evil inclination - the latter being necessary and good when deployed appropriately but causing problems when it is deployed inappropriately - is much healthier. (Influenced by Rabbi Ira Stone, a contemporary mussar teacher, I see yetzer hara as being concern for self and yetzer tov being the concern for others and G!d.)
If this doctrine itself were not bad enough, the idea that humans, despite being incapable of avoiding sin, are nonetheless deserving of eternal damnation and that G!d capriciously chooses to save only a small number of the elect and leaves the rest to suffer eternal conscious torment in hell is mindbogglingly horrifying. Why the "elect" are enjoying bliss by spending eternity with such a monstrous entity makes no sense. It would be hard to find an off-the-rack theological system more ready made to support racism and other forms of bigotry, seeing that humanity is divided into the elect and the damned through no merit of their own. The further development of this doctrine by Martin Luther, a antisemite so virulent that the Nazis reprinted some of his writings as propaganade, and the Genevan serial killer John Calvin only made it worse.
And speaking of antisemitism, Augustine explicitly blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus in his commentary on the Psalms in a passage that prior to Vatican II was part of the office of Matins on Good Friday, required to be read by priests and members of religious orders. The readings undoubtedly influenced the antisemitic preaching that stirred up mobs who attacked Jews on Good Friday.
So glad that I am no longer Augustine's coreligionist. May Christians find the courage and strength to eradicate his toxic legacy from their theology.
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