Protestant apologists, especially of the Reformed/Calvinistic variety, love to claim Augustine as an early Church Father who professed their unique beliefs on grace, predestination, authority, and many other topics. I personally think such an exercise is an ahistorical grasping at straws and a false reading of a very Catholic man.Dave Armstrong recently made a post on his blog that goes a long way towards proving that point. On all of the following doctrines, Dave has provided quotes from the works of Augustine that show the Catholicity of his thinking:
- Apostolic succession
- Baptism
- "Catholic" Church
- Church authority
- Contraception
- Deuterocanonical books
- Eternal security
- Eucharistic adoration
- Real Presence in the Eucharist
- Faith Alone
- Irresistible grace
- Mary: Mother of God, perpetual virgin, sinless
- Sacrifice of the Mass
- Merit
- Mortal and venial sin
- The papacy and the Roman See
- Penance
- Primacy and preeminence of Peter
- Prayers for the dead
- Purgatory
- Relics
- Invocation/intercession/veneration of the saints
- Scripture alone
- Sacred Tradition
- St. Augustine: Are Reformed Protestants or Catholics Closer Theologically to His Teaching?
- The Ambiguous Relationship of Luther and the Early Protestants to St. Augustine
- Answers For An Inquiring "Bible Christian" on Bible and Tradition Issues (Particularly St. Augustine's Position)
- "Man-Centered" Sacramentalism: The Remarkable Incoherence of James White: How Can Martin Luther and St. Augustine Be Christians According to His Definition?
- St. Augustine's Belief in the Real Presence
- St. Augustine's Eucharistic Doctrine, and a Counter-Challenge to Protestants Who Try to "Co-Opt" Him
- Refutation of James White on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 and Purgatory [includes lengthy citations from St. Augustine]
- Lutheran Pastor Paul T. McCain's Extreme Insults of Pope Benedict XVI & Catholics, and Concealment of What St. Augustine Actually Taught about Salvation
Pax Christi,
phatcatholic
3 comments:
Thanks much for the link, good buddy! Hope all is going well for you. I often think about how much fun I had visiting y'all in Ohio-land.
Yup, I was just thinkin about that the other day. Btw, I think you left your pillow here. Want me to mail it to you?
I have a proposal for something for you to research, if you have the time.
There is an argument out there that since the mass is a representation of the cross of Christ and, as the Roman Catechism puts it, "is truly a propitiatory Sacrifice, by which God is appeased and rendered propitious to us", we have no need of confession.
Further from the Roman Catechism on this point, "If, therefore, with a pure heart, a lively faith, and affected with an inward sorrow for our transgressions, we immolate and offer this most holy victim, we shall, without doubt, obtain mercy from the Lord, and grace in time of need; for SO delighted is the Lord with the door of this victim that, bestowing on us the gift of grace and repentance, He pardons our sins. Hence this usual prayer of the Church: As often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated, so often is the work of our salvation being done; that is to say, through this unbloody Sacrifice flow to us the most plenteous fruits of that bloody victim."
There are also several popes who've said the same thing. I've been having difficulty coming up with a response to the statement that because of this Confession is superfluous. Can you speak to this?
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