DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0051
st. Augustine’s theory.
35
the works of St. Augustine, “ The City of God,” a
synthetic analysis of the Christian doctrines and phi-
losophy representing the spiritual state of the ‘‘elect”
after the Lord, in contradistinction to the darkness and
ignorance of all other schools of learning and of thought.
St. Augustine excludes authoritatively all other sources
of knowledge and learning but such as are drawn from
the “ Books of God.”
History, chronology, ethics, geography, all are to be
accepted by us only as given in the old and the new dis-
pensations. The latter are regarded as a complement
to the doctrines and prophecies of the former, and the
two together as forming the only synopsis of know-
ledge, learning, and wisdom required by mankind. All
profane science was put aside, as useless and dangerous.
He reconstructed the theory of the future upon the basis
of Christian revelation.
Neither eloquence, nor poetry, nor philosophy, nor the
exquisite aesthetic culture of the ancients, far less the
splendour of art, found grace with St. Augustine. All
these are proscribed as the delusive blandishments of the
“City of Mammon.” In the Old and the New Testa-
ments only, the pure gold of the “ true wisdom” is to be
found. The time and the study of man was to be devoted
to the regeneration of his heart and life; the “ pomps
of the world ” were to be forsworn for the graces of the
spiritual kingdom of Christ. With the weapons of holi-
ness, drawn from the armoury of faith, the demon of
Mammon was to be fought.
St. Augustine contemplated the universe as one vast
shrine, wrought out by a master hand, still engaged on
its every detail, and presiding not only over animate and
inanimate nature by general laws, but personally guid-
ing the minutest actions of man and effects of nature.
Every single event was therefore predestined and pre-
pared for the final triumph of “ Divine justice and
truth.”
The inspired writers of the Hebrews had caught, he
said, glimpses of the divine future by direct glimpses of
35
the works of St. Augustine, “ The City of God,” a
synthetic analysis of the Christian doctrines and phi-
losophy representing the spiritual state of the ‘‘elect”
after the Lord, in contradistinction to the darkness and
ignorance of all other schools of learning and of thought.
St. Augustine excludes authoritatively all other sources
of knowledge and learning but such as are drawn from
the “ Books of God.”
History, chronology, ethics, geography, all are to be
accepted by us only as given in the old and the new dis-
pensations. The latter are regarded as a complement
to the doctrines and prophecies of the former, and the
two together as forming the only synopsis of know-
ledge, learning, and wisdom required by mankind. All
profane science was put aside, as useless and dangerous.
He reconstructed the theory of the future upon the basis
of Christian revelation.
Neither eloquence, nor poetry, nor philosophy, nor the
exquisite aesthetic culture of the ancients, far less the
splendour of art, found grace with St. Augustine. All
these are proscribed as the delusive blandishments of the
“City of Mammon.” In the Old and the New Testa-
ments only, the pure gold of the “ true wisdom” is to be
found. The time and the study of man was to be devoted
to the regeneration of his heart and life; the “ pomps
of the world ” were to be forsworn for the graces of the
spiritual kingdom of Christ. With the weapons of holi-
ness, drawn from the armoury of faith, the demon of
Mammon was to be fought.
St. Augustine contemplated the universe as one vast
shrine, wrought out by a master hand, still engaged on
its every detail, and presiding not only over animate and
inanimate nature by general laws, but personally guid-
ing the minutest actions of man and effects of nature.
Every single event was therefore predestined and pre-
pared for the final triumph of “ Divine justice and
truth.”
The inspired writers of the Hebrews had caught, he
said, glimpses of the divine future by direct glimpses of