Four Spiritual Giants – Raymond Brown – published Kingsway 1997

 

Augustine Bishop of Hippo – born 354 AD

 

Introduction from Wikipedia

Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstɨn/^[1][2] or /ˈɔːɡəstɪn/;^[2] Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis;^[3] 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as St Augustine, St Austin,^[4] or St Augoustinos, was an early Christian theologian whose writings are considered very influential in the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria) located in the Roman province of Africa. Writing during the Patristic Era, he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers. Among his most important works are City of God and Confessions, which continue to be read widely today.

According to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith."^[5] In his early years, he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus.^[6] After his conversion to Christianity and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different perspectives.^[7] He believed that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom and he framed the concepts of original sin and just war.

When the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City.^[8] His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople.^[9]

In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint, pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated 28 August, the day of his death. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses.^[10] Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, he is also considered a saint, his feast day being celebrated on 15 June.^[11] He carries the additional title of Blessed among the Orthodox, either as "Blessed Augustine" or "St. Augustine the Blessed."^[12]

Description of how Augustine cried out to help in his spiritual search

“In the quest for God, the rational processes are not only limited; they are also impaired. Augustine discovered that in the pursuit of spiritual reality his agile mind was a labyrinth of confused ideas and, like all else in his personality, the choice gift of human rationality had been perverted and distorted by sin. He was seeking to know God – but on his own terms, in his own time and by his own means. His imaginative mind was constantly diverted to sensual priorities; he had been side-tracked into false ideas about God; his intellectualism had become idolatrous and infected by pride; and the Bible, the very book which alone could bring him to God, he had hastily dismissed as inferior literature. The opening section of the Confessions gives eloquent expression to his need of help beyond himself:

“Have mercy so that I may find words…Speak to me that I may hear…The house of my soul is too small for you to come to it. May it be enlarged by you. It is in ruins: restore it. In your eyes it has offensive features. I admit it, I know it; but who will clean it  up?” p 18

 

Only the Humble receive the message of scripture

“He came to realise that only the humble receive the message of Scripture. Its message is not “open to the proud” and he says “I was not in any state….to bow my head to climb its steps”

 

Ambrose the gifted preacher in Milan persuaded him to take Scripture seriously, and then Augustine had a dramatic conversion experience:

“I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting. There I had put down the book of the apostle when I got up. I seized it, opened it, and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit. “Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh and its lusts” (Romans 13.13-14).

I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.” P 21

 

Augustine reflected on how God had been with him through all his times of rebellion

“This love of God is not confined to infancy; it pursued him through childhood and adult experience. He constantly testifies to that loving hand which was behind so many events in his young life. God did more than feed a loving, dependent child; he persistently followed an arrogantly independent, morally perverse adult, and did so with infinite compassion. This theme of the patient, seeking, inescapable love of God is never far from his mind. “I travelled along the broad way of the world, but you did not desert me”. P.23

 

In his pursuit, God is not remotely deterred by our stubborn determination to keep him at bay:

“The closed heart does not shut out your eye, and your hand is not kept away by the hardness of humanity, but you melt that when you wish, either in mercy or in punishment, and there is “none who can hide from your heat”….You alone are always present even to those who have taken themselves far from you….You were there before me, but ….I could not even find myself, much less you. “ p.23

 

Augustine gave thanks that God had preserved him from falling into even worse temptation than he had already succumbed to

“I also attribute to your grace whatever evil acts I have not done. What could I not have done when I loved gratuitous crime? I confess that everything has been forgiven, both the evil things I did of my own accord, and those which I did not do because of your guidance.

No one who considers his frailty would dare attribute to his own strength his chastity and innocence, so that he has less cause to love you, as if he had less need of your mercy….He should love you no less, indeed even more; for he sees that the one who has delivered me from the great sickness of my sins is also he through whom he may see that he himself has not been a victim of the same great sicknesses.” P 23

 

Augustine said he travelled very far away but God still had his hand on him:

“I travelled very far from you, and you did not stop me. I was tossed about and split, scattered and   boiled dry in my fornications. And you were silent. How slow I was to find my joy…At the time you said nothing, and I travelled much further away from you into more and more sterile things productive of unhappiness…incapable of rest in my exhaustion.” P 24

 

The sin of pride even worse than the sin of lust

“The temptation is to wish to be feared or loved by people for no reason other than the joy derived from such power, which is no joy at all.”

 

He writes about human being in terms of Everyman and Everywoman

 

“The Incarnational becomes a model for the penitent’s return to a Holy God. We must abandon all thought by our intellectual acumen, religious knowledge or moral superiority we can ascend to God. Such a way is not open to us. Everyman must descend from the pinnacle of self-reliant pride, kneeling in dependent humility. If we are honest the pinnacle is a proud illusion; life’s sins have  brought us low enough and there is little to boast about. “Come down so that you can ascend…For it is by climbing up against God that you have fallen.”  Only Christ can dislodge us from the pinnacle of pride, and it was a long time before Augustine acknowledged it.” P. 28

 

“There is a God shaped vacuum in every human life and Augustine’s opening saying is eloquent about our deepest spiritual need – God himself: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Only he can fill the cavernous emptiness with true and lasting satisfaction.” P 31

 

Martin Luther – A Simple Way to Pray

 

Martin Luther; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German monk, Catholic priest, professor of theology and seminal figure of a reform movement in 16th century Christianity, subsequently known as the Protestant Reformation.^[1] He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.

Luther taught that salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge^[2] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.^[3] Those who identify with Luther's teachings are called Lutherans.

His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, which had a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,^[4] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the King James Bible.^[5] His hymns influenced the development of singing in churches.^[6] His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.^[7]

 

Luther opposed indulgences

 

“Official doctrine still insisted on the need for penitence and denied that remission of sin could be obtained by buying indulgences. But by 1517 most people had come to believe that the purchase of an indulgence guaranteed remission of guilt as well as of penalty. Luther challenged his contemporaries to a serious debate on these crucial issues by posting his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. Though the date of the event – All Saints Eve, 31^st October 1517 – has become world famous, at the time there was nothing remotely unusual in such an action: it was a common way of inviting academic colleagues to an informed theological discussion.”

 

Luther on prayer

 

Martin Luther recognised that prayer is difficult

He went through very dark times of prayer

 

“Once when threatened by the Catholic authorities, he had been compassionately “kidnapped” by the sympathetic Elector of Saxony and given protective asylum in Wartburg Castle. Forcefully isolated from his work at Wittenberg, Luther became unwell, describing this bleak experience as his “Isle of Patmos”, “my wilderness”. During this time he found it almost impossible to pray and wrote to his friend Melanchthon, saying:
“I sit here like a fool and hardened in leisure, pray little…I do not know whether God has turned away from me…Already eight days have passed in which I have written nothing, in which I have not prayed or studied; this is partly because of temptations of the flesh, partly because I am tortured by other burdens.”

 

Work is prayer

Luther believed that work could take precedence over prayer at times of crisis and importance.

 

Very much believed in the Devil

Spiritual conflict at the heart of what he did

 

Meditation with Scripture key to what he did

“In sharing his own practise of prayer, Luther says that he goes to his room, “or if it is during the day and I have time, to the church where others are gathered, and begin to say the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and then, if I have time, some words of Christ, Paul or the Psalms, saying them quietly to myself just as children do.”p. 71

“Luther quietly recited the commandments because they are not only a revelation of God but also an exposure of ourselves. Here we see the kind of people we are always in danger of being and becoming, but for the grace of God: idolatrous, ungrateful, irreverent, forgetful, indifferent to the working conditions of other people, disrespectful to parents, aggressive and violent to those we dislike, unfaithful in life’s most intimate relationships, greedy, lustful for things which belong to other people, read to say things which are blatantly untrue even though others may suffer because of it and always wanting just a little more than we have got” p 73

 

The Lord’s Prayer was a key model for Luther’s prayers

 

“Luther greatly admired the example of Bernard of Clairvaux.  He was specially fond of Bernard’s saying, “Hen we begin not to want to become better, we cease to be good.” Luther’s understanding of the Christian life is dynamic; the believer is constantly on the move. Those who do not press on vigorously, gradually slip back. He insists that any Christian “who does not go forward in God’s way goes backward”.

 

Luther concerned about the making of a good Christian

 

“For Luther, the making of a good Christian is the work of a lifetime. God is like a gifted sculptor who, at the beginning of his work, can see in his mind what he intends to make out of the unshaped, even unpromising material before him. One of Luther’s gifted interpreters put it like this: “As the great artist sees the finished statue in the rough marble, so God sees already in the sinner, whom he justifies, the righteous man that he will make of him.

Such supremely delicate work continues through the whole life, so the worst thing is to settle down contentedly to mediocre Christian living. The Lord is continually luring us on to something higher and better: it is the devil’s device to make us sleepy and complacent. Christians who wish to grow in grace constantly reach out to fresh experiences of God’s grace at present just beyond their fingertips. They exalt God in the words of the hymn writer: “Glory to thee for all the grace I have not yet tasted”

The pursuit cannot be made in our own energy, relying solely on our slender resources. Believers are totally dependent on the power of the word and the work of the Spirit. The word of God will teach, correct, encourage and inspire us; the Spirit of God will empower us in our conflict with the devil, giving us “wisdom and strength to withstand him bravely and gain the victory.”

Both qualities, wisdom and strength, are vital if we are to conquer temptation. The wisdom will come through the written word the Spirit gave, for “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1.21). The word makes us wise so that we know what is right; the Spirit guarantees the moral dynamic to do what is right” p 90

 

Luther says that someone praying must be like a barber

“A good clever barber must his thoughts, mind and eyes concentrated upon the razor and the beard and not forget where he is in his stroke and shave. If he keeps talking or looking around or thinking of something else, he is likely to cut a man’s mouth or nose, or even his throat” p 95

 

God’s name and the Lord’s prayer are frequently abused, says Luther

“Luther says that the Lord’s Prayer is “the greatest martyr on earth, for everybody tortures and abuses it while few cherish and use it joyfully as it should be used.” He says that the same can be said for God’s name, repetitively interjected in the prayers of unthinking people; and much the same can be said about God’s word, carelessly bandied about without serious thought concerning the immense value of every telling phrase”. P 96

 

 

Luther believes the following is important when it comes to prayer

 

1)     We need to affirm our confidence in God

 

“As he reflects on the words “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth (in the creed)” one theme after another cries out for further contemplative meditation, such as the character of God, the nature of our humanity (“what you are, where you come from”) and the wonder of creation “the handiwork of God.” To reflect on this teaching is to be reminded of our total indebtedness to the God who has made us (Creator) and loves us (Father). It reminds us that of ourselves we are “nothing…can do nothing” and “are capable of nothing”. In making us, God generously gave us the breath we breathe, and it can be lost within seconds. “At any moment he can return you to nothingness””. P 100.

 

2)     We need to affirm our security in Christ

 

“With the confession of Christ and his unique work of redemption, he specially focuses on the believer’s assurance. Here is firm Protestant doctrine standing in stark contrast to Catholic uncertainty and hesitancy about the Christian’s salvation. If we recognise that God is our Creator, then we may know with the same degree of certainty that Christ is our Saviour and Redeemer:

“Just as you had to count yourself a creature of God and never doubt it, so here, too, you must count yourself among the redeemed and never doubt it. Of all the words in it you must put first the word “our”. Jesus Christ, our Lord, suffered for us, died for us, rose again for us, so that everything is for us and applies to us and you too are in included in that “our”. So the word is given to you personally.”

The great truth of Christian assurance in the lesson book will surely ensure that the hymn book carries a psalm of gratitude, so that as confident believers, we may “give hearty thanks for this grace and be joyful over such redemption”” p 102

 

3)     We need to affirm our dependence on the Spirit

His emphasis was on the need for personal conversion

 

Luther wrote in reference to the verse Galatians 2.20 “The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me”

“Read therefore with great vehemence these words “Me” and “For Me” and so inwardly practise with yourself that you with a sure faith may conceive and print this “Me “in your heart and apply it to yourself, not doubting but that you are the number to whom this word “Me” belongs, also that Christ had not only loved Peter and Paul and given himself for them, but that the same grace which is comprehended in this “Me” as well pertains and comes to us as to them”. P 103

 

John Bunyan and “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners”

John Bunyan (28 November 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English Christian writer and preacher, who is well known for his book The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he became a non-conformist and member of an Independent church, and although he has been described both as a Baptist and as a Congregationalist, he himself preferred to be described simply as a Christian. He is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on August 30, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (US) on August 29. Some other Churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (August 31) together with St Aidan of Lindisfarne.

 

Went through huge amount of torment and guilt before coming to a deeper faith

A lot of this is expressed in “Grace Abounding”

 

“Our reading of Grace Abounding could become spiritually transforming if, as well as understanding Bunyan’s painful consciousness of sin, we became more sensitive to our own. Possibly we ought to make self-examination part of our experience of meditation.” P 126

 

He battled between conflicting passages of scripture

 

“A promise of Christ brough the greatest peace. Esau’s threat was silenced by the compelling invitation of Jesus.: “And him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out””.There were no exceptions. A single phrase was enough to awaken a rhapsody of exaltation. “O the comfort I had from this word, in no wise”. He had not reached the end of the struggle, but this marked the beginning of peace. Assurance came to Bunyan by trusting Christ’s unfailing promise and recalling his persistent love. Comforted by those mercifully inclusive words “in no wise” he was given the courage to look his greatest fear in the face. “ p 131