Augustine’s Conversion

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module, the students are expected to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the conversion of Augustine

2. Promote healing and reconciliation wherever they are

3. Recognize the presence of God in the significant events in their life

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 The Framework of Augustine’s Conversion

1. Intellectual (took place after reading Cicero's Hortensius)

2. Moral (The example of Bishop Ambrose, Marcus V, St. Anthony of Egypt)

3. Scriptural/Biblical ( Tolle lege and Rom 13: 13 - 14)

 What is Conversion?
The call to conversion is one of the most important religious and moral
themes found in both the Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT).
Though conversion can be defined in a variety of ways and applied to a
diverse range of events in an individual’s life, what seems characteristics
of the experience is a radical change in convert’s existence.
 What is Conversion?
According to the Gospel accounts (Mt. 4:17 and Mk. 1:15), the first
challenge spoken by Jesus in His Public Ministry was “Be
converted!” Jesus calls to conversion and repentance, however, was
not entirely new to His audience because the prophets of Israel had
frequently issued this summon. The prophets used the Hebrew word
shub to call Israel to turn away from idols (Jer. 7:9), injustice and
immorality (Isa. 55:7), and to turn back to God for mercy and
salvation.
 What is Conversion?
In Rabbinic writings, conversion and repentance are
conditions for the coming of the Messiah, who Himself will
convert others to God.
 What is Conversion?
In the NT, the Greek words for conversion or repentance are metanoia (largely in
the Synoptics and in the Book of Revelation) and epistrophe (in Acts, the Pauline
Epistles, and in 1 Peter). Metanoia tends to stress more the processes of thinking
and willing that lie behind an action, whereas epistrophe emphasizes more the
visible characteristics of an external act. In any case, both terms signify a radical
turning around of the whole person and a return home. Thus, the call to conversion
as it is used in both testaments always connotes an intense yearning for return to
the Lord and Divine friendship (Komonchak, 2011).
 What is Conversion?
Komonchak (2011) further teaches us that the Biblical injunction to
conversion reveals three important facts about the divine-human relationship:

1. Sinful humanity is alienated from GOD and is in need ofREUNION

2. Conversion is primarily God’s work towards humanity,

since it is GOD who first offers MERCY and SALVATION.

3. conversion requires a RESPONSE on the part of humanity – a

confession of sinfulness, an openness to receive GOD’SMERCY and
FORGIVENESS in FAITH, and a joyful desire to love God and neighbor in
word and action.
 What is Conversion?
The Catholic Catechism of the Church (n, 1427) likewise proclaims
that Jesus calls to conversion. This is an essential part of the proclamation
of the kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15). In the Church’s preaching,
this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and His
Gospel.
 What is Conversion?
Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of
the Christians. The endeavor of conversion is not just a human
work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart”, drawn and
moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God
who loved us first (CCC, n. 1428; Ps. 51:17; cf. Jn. 6:44;
12:32; 1 Jn. 4:10). This movement was also experienced by
Saint Augustine of Hippo.
 The Framework of Augustine’s Conversion

1. Intellectual (took place after reading Cicero's Hortensius)

2. Moral (The example of Bishop Ambrose, Marcus V, St. Anthony of Egypt)

3. Scriptural/Biblical ( Tolle lege and Rom 13: 13 - 14)

 The Framework of Augustine’s Conversion

1. Intellectual (took place after reading Cicero's Hortensius)

 Augustine reads Hortensius
... my interest in the book was not aroused by its usefulness in the honing of
my verbal skills (which was supposed to be the object of the studies I was now
pursuing, in my nineteenth year, at my mother’s expense, since my father had
died two years earlier); no, it was not merely an instrument for sharpening my
tongue that I used that book, for it had won me over not by its style, but by
what it had to say.
(Conf. III, 4, 7)
 Hortensius by Cicero
It is an exhortation to Philosophy

The idea of philosophy had been surrounded with a religious aura: it

involved more than an intellectual discipline.

Philosophy: a love for Wisdom which would console and purify the
devotees; it demanded, in return, self – sacrifice and moral readjustment.

The exhortation to love Wisdom had been always couched in the

strongly religious idea of a religious conversion, and even of a
conversion to a monastic life.
 True Wisdom
Christianity of the 4th Century introduced Jesus as the True Wisdom ( and not
as a suffering Saviour… there are no crucifixesin the fourth century).

Jesus as the Great Word of God , the Wisdom of God, the Teacher.
 The Framework of Augustine’s Conversion

2. Moral (The example of Bishop Ambrose, Marcus V, St. Anthony of Egypt)

Meeting Bishop Ambrose

A Son of Praetorian Prefect

“
Grown up at Rome with senatorial connections
He claimed a martyred aristocrats among his forebears
Has a rhetorical talent
Unmarried
Governor of Milan
Bishop of Milan
At an early years of episcopasy,
he devoted himself studying Christian
Literature, promoting asceticism
“To him was I led by You, Lord,
“
The Significance of Meeting Bishop Ambrose of Milan

that by him I might knowingly be led to You.

That man of God received me as a father...
I hung on his words attentively.“ (Conf V, 13) www. augnet.org

… Augustine had expected from this distant, paternal figure: “and I first
began to love him… as a man who showed me kindness.”(Conf V, 13) P.
Brown p82
The Significance of Meeting Bishop Ambrose of Milan

“
Augustine described Ambrose as sympathetic, seductive, and one who
enticed others to live the life of Christ. Ambrose had times of general
audience when he was available to anyone who wished to speak with him.

At least on one such occasion, Augustine went along but, finding Ambrose
alone and in prayer, consciously chose to leave the prayer of Ambrose
uninterrupted rather than to converse with him once more.
(www.augnet.org)
 “
The Significance of Meeting Bishop Ambrose of Milan

Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, in his preaching, gave Augustine

exposure to the allegorical and Platonising interpretation of the
Scriptures. To the fascination and satisfaction of Augustine, the
scholarly Ambrose presented his faith as a radically other-worldly
Neo-Platonic philosophy. (www.augnet.org)
Marius Victorinus
“
Augustine was deeply impressed by the story told to him by
Simplicianus about the acceptance of Christ by the famous
orator and philosopher, Marius Victorinus. Augustine was
stirred to emulate him, but finds himself still restrained by
his sexual life and preoccupation with daily
matters. (www.augnet.org)
 Saint Anthony of Egypt
“
He is then visited by a court official, Ponticianus,
who told him and Alypius the stories of the
conversion of Anthony of Egypt and also of two
imperial officials." These stories throw him into a
violent turmoil, in which his divided will struggles
against himself.
 “
Saint Anthony of Egypt

In the time of Augustine, severe asceticism was a standard to

be admired and imitated. The heroes for Christians were
spiritual figures like Saint Anthony of Egypt (251-356).
Anthony gave up even the most innocent pleasures to live as a
hermit in the desert, and formed a community of hermits there.
Antony had died in the Egyptian desert two years after the
birth of Augustine.
 “
Saint Anthony of Egypt
In his Confessions Augustine recorded how one of his friends, a
government official, while walking near the city walls of Treves, found
a copy of the life of Anthony that had been written by the great Saint
Athanasius. He wrote that his friend was attracted to the asceticism of
Anthony in the desert, and had been immediately caught up with the
love of holiness. Augustine reported that he experienced a similar
attraction.
 “
“How long, O Lord, will you be angry forever?
Remember not our past iniquities. For I felt that I was
held by them, and I gasped forth these mournful words,
How long, how long? Tomorrow and tomorrow? Why
not now? Why not in this very hour an end to my
uncleanness?”

(Augustine , Confessions VIII, 11)

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Augustine told it in his Confessions in these words: "I was suddenly
asking myself these questions, weeping all the while with the most
bitter sorrow in my heart, when all at once I heard a sing-song voice of
a child in a nearby house. Whether it as the voice of a boy or a girl I
cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain "Take and read,
take and read.“ ["tolle lege, tolle lege"]
I stemmed the flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a
divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on
which my eyes should fall. So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was
sitting, for when I stood up to move away I had put down the book containing the
epistles of Paul.... I seized it and opened it, and in silence I read the first
passage on which my eyes fell: "Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in
sexual excess and lust, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:13-
14)." (It has been noted by scholars - often with some wonderment -
that Romans 13:13-14 was given no particular significance by Augustine in
anything he wrote prior to the Confessions.) "I had no wish to read more and no
need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as
though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of
doubt was dispelled.” (Conf VIII, 12, 29)
"Not in carousing and
drunkenness, not in sexual excess
and lust, not in quarrelling and
jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the desires of the
flesh (Romans 13:13-14)."
Then we went in and told my mother, who was overjoyed. And when we went on to
describe how it had all happened, she was jubilant with triumph and glorified you,
who are powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out your purpose
beyond all our hopes and dreams… You converted me to yourself, so that I no longer
desired a wife or placed any hope in this world, but stood firmly upon the rule of faith,
…. And you turned her sadness into rejoicing, into joy far fuller than her dearest wish,
far sweeter and more chaste than any she had hoped to find in children begotten of my
flesh. (Conf VIII, 12, 28-30)
I stemmed the flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a
divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on
which my eyes should fall. So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was
sitting, for when I stood up to move away I had put down the book containing the
epistles of Paul.... I seized it and opened it, and in silence I read the first
passage on which my eyes fell: "Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in
sexual excess and lust, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:13-
14)." (It has been noted by scholars - often with some wonderment -
that Romans 13:13-14 was given no particular significance by Augustine in
anything he wrote prior to the Confessions.) "I had no wish to read more and no
need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as
though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of
doubt was dispelled.” (Conf VIII, 12, 29)
This “Tolle lege” experience paves the way for another splendid moment in the life of our
great Father. He decided to retire from work as Professor of rhetoric in the Imperial Court
of Milan and opted to go to a place known asCassiciacum together with his son, mother,
and friends.

Augustine succeeded to experience the grace of God particularly when he was baptized by
Bishop Ambrose on eve of Easter Vigil.
In The Confessions, he tells us the full happiness that he had felt during
his baptism together with his son Adeodatus and his best friend Alypius.
For him, that was the greatest moment of grace – of embracing God
and being with Him. Because of that experience where he had receive
an illumination from God, Augustine freely introduced to us the
doctrine of grace which made him reached the pedestal as Doctor of
Grace.
In order to understand Augustine’s theology of God’s sovereign saving grace, one
must first understand Augustine’s view of the will. According to Augustine (and all the
‘catholic’ church after him), the will was free, but only insofar as it would choose
what it desired. We all long for happiness, according to Augustine. Everybody wants
to be happy. Happiness is the desire of the heart and also of the mind. Augustine’s
point is that - although we all desire true happiness (which is found only in God), our
wills alone are not strong enough to enable us to achieve it.
It is only in this context, when we understand man’s plight: he desires true happiness, but is not able
to will himself to find it since it is found in God alone, in whom he cannot delight while he is in the
flesh… that we are now prepared to truly appreciate Augustine’s understanding of God’s grace:
‘Saving grace, converting grace, in Augustine’s view, is God’s giving us a sovereign joy in
God that triumphs over all other joys and therefore sways the will.’ Grace, then, is God’s active
changing of our heart’s desires so that we can truly desire him above all else, freely choose him, and
as we love him, find in him our true soul’s joy. Our wills are always free to choose to do those things
which we delight in, but they are never free to choose what our wills will delight in. That is why we
need God’s grace.
Since God’s grace is a free gift on which all of our heart’s desires and all of our
salvation depends, God’s grace is necessary for more than just our conversion:
it is necessary for true, ongoing, joyful obedience. Once converted,
Augustine could pray, ‘Give me the grace to do as you command, and command
me to do what you will! … All this makes clear, O holy God, that when your
commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them
(Conf. 2.3.6, Freeman, 2007).
 h

The Doctrine of Grace

Theology of Grace
Theory of Divine Illumination (Illumination from God)
The Light of God made man know the divine/eternal truths

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 The Enlightenment of God
How?
Man's knowledge has two parts

● Scientia (Sciences) ● Sapientia (Virtues)

rational in approach intellectual approach
perceptible to the senses abstract/intuitive
temporal/worldly eternal/beyond this world

Both of them are parts of thinking but differ in terms of objects of

the study and approaches

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Where Divine Illumination gets in?

In the level of Sapientia: The Divine Mind (God) enlightens the human
mind (man) to make judgement.

It is God who makes mental association in the mind which is known as

Grace (which is accessible to all: believers and unbelievers)

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How to nurture the enlightenment of God?

1. openness to God's grace

2. purify the mind
3. reading of Scriptures/Bible can help
4. respect the God's enlightenment (its in varying degrees)

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40
"You have made us for yourself, and our
heart is restless until it rests in you."

(St. Augustine, Conf 1:1)

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 Act of Contrition
My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above
all things.
I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid
whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have
mercy.

Glory be….
Thank you
Ms. Solly Rose J. Jandongan

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