Religion

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29952, 13 October 1962, Page 3

Religion

The Word of CM according to Saint Augustine. By A. D. K. Polman. Hodder and Stoughton. 239 pp. Index.

Augustine of Hippo in North Africa (354-430) has had a greater influence on western theology than any other in history, not excluding Thomas Aquinas. It could be said that as a Christian thinker he comes next to the Apostle Paul. But for Augustine western theology would never have taken the shape in which it is familiar to us. Books innumerable have been written about him. two of them “The City of God” and his “Confessions” are well-known and are surely found in the libraries of teachers and preachers who have a concern tor origins. Protestants and Roman Catholics join in paying tribute to this early scholar John Calvin was deeply influenced by Augustine and Calvinism owes much to Augustine’s theory of predestination. Although we have moved away from the harsh intolerent and intolerable aspects of predestination, it has stall a great function in modern theology insofar as it reminds us forcibly of the sovereignity of God without which the scaffolding of Christian doctrine would collapse. This book is written by a Dutch scholar. Dr. A. D. R. Pofanan, professor at the John Galvin Academy, Holland, and holding such a position be writes from the viewpoint of Calvinism. The translator. Arnold Pomerons, has worked excellently for Augustine is very discursive and much addicted to allegory; moreover, the Dutch language is not the easiest to translate. The theme of this learned work is to show the close relationship of Augustine’s teaching to the Word of God and by the Word of God is meant the Bible. Augustine holds that the Word of God as Holy Scripture is divinely inspired. He rejects the idea of a purely mechanical inspiration. The Evangelists were not mere clerks but assumed full responsibility for their work. It is in the act of Proclamation that the Word of God finds Its true function. In an interesting account of the place of the pulpit in North African worship, Augustine states that it Stood in the highest point of the church, thus overlooking the entire building. He held that the church building, in which the regular service was conducted, was meant first and foremost for preaching the Word and only secondarily for the services of the Sacrament. Augustine was a great and, at times, a violent controversialist. He had many opponents, tor the period was one of a great proliferation of heresy. While Augustine’s theo- ■ logy is not only difficult to ■ understand and bis allegorical treatment of Scripture has little relationship to modern accepted scholarship, i his name is known and remembered by millions because of one saying found in his “ConfemioM,” “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” Perhaps that is sufficient for most ordinary people for it contains a truth without which the Christian Faith would be faithless.