Church Fathers

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Church Fathers Jerome and AugustineThe Church
from 300-500AD

• Mike Buehrer
• Blacksburg Christian Fellowship
• Oct. 20, 2002

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Overview

• Overview of Period (300A.D. 500 A.D.)
• Constantines conversion allowed shift in focus
  from survival and apologetics to doctrine
• Church Fathers
• Jerome
• Vulgate
• Augustine
• Conversion
• Pelagianism
• Lessons for today
• Website www.mprg.org/people/buehrer
• Look under biographical info

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Timeline 300 500 A.D.
300 A.D.
400 A.D.
500 A.D.
350 A.D.
450 A.D.
Jerome
Conversion of Constantine
Athanasius
Chrysostom -Bishop of Constantinople
Council of Chalcedon
Council of Nicea
Ambrose Bishop of Milan
Patrick Missionary to Ireland
Augustine
Conversion of Augustine
Jerome completes Vulgate
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Augustine Jerome
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Jerome Eusebius Hieronymous Sophronius

• Born in Stridonius (near Adriatic) 342 to
  Christian parents
• Educated in Rome
• Spent time going through catacombs reading the
  inscriptions as a student
• Baptized by Pope Liberius in 360
• Traveled much of ancient world and was a great
  scholar
• 373 Arrived in Antioch where he went out to
  wilderness for 4 years to study
• Although well known for personal holiness,
  learning and integrity, often offended people
  with this biting, sarcastic style.

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Jerome in the Wilderness

• God convicted Jerome of his love for scholarship
• Spent four years in the desert of Chalcis (Near
  Antioch in Syria)
• Lived an austere life of fasting and discipline
• Alone with the enemy, I threw myself in spirit
  at the feet of Jesus, watering them with my
  tears, and tamed my flesh by fasting whole
  weeks.
• Learned Hebrew during this time in addition to
  the Greek and Latin that he knew

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Jerome - Vulgate

• Jerome was one of the biggest scholars of his day
• Secretary to Damasus, bishop of Rome from 382-385
• Damasus wanted a uniform translation for the
  western church that spoke primarily common
  Latin.
• Jerome began his work in 382, moved to Bethlehem
  after Damasus death in 385, and finished the
  Latin translation in 405
• Vulgate from Latin vulgus or common

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Jerome

• Involved in several heresies
• Wrote vehemently on the perpetual virginity of
  Mary
• Strongly opposed Pelagianism
• One of the greatest scholars of the western
  church
• In Bethlehem he lived in a cave near where the
  Savior was born.
• Started a free school and hospice for pilgrims
• Died in 420

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Augustine

• Born Aurelius Augustinus in Tagaste near Hippo,
  North Africa (modern day Algeria) in 354
• Born to a Christian mother and pagan father
• Studied in Carthage
• Originally saw Christianity as religion for the
  simple-minded
• Surrounded by cauldron of unholy loves
• Took on a concubine while in teens
• Spent 71 of his 75 years in North Africa
• 383 Moved to Italy (Rome and Milan) for four
  years where Ambrose was Bishop of Milan

Oldest surviving image of Augustine, from the 6th
century.
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North Africa
Hippo Regius
Carthage
Thagaste
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Conversion of Augustine

• Lord make me chaste, but not yet.
• He intellectually assented to the gospel, but
  couldnt accept Christ.
• The Lord finally moved him to convert to
  Christianity in 387.
• While sitting in a garden he heard a child sing
  Take it and read. He picked up and read
• Romans 1313,14 Let us behave properly as in
  the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in
  promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and
  jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and
  make no provision for the flesh in regard to
  lust.

JAN VAN SCOREL (1520)
It was as though the light of faith flooded into
my heart and all the darkness of doubt was
dispelled.
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Augustine

• Augustine would have been happy with the monastic
  life.
• However, his reputation as being a brilliant
  Christian spread.
• 391 - ordained as a priest
• 395 - bishop of Hippo
• He was involved in nearly every controversy of
  his time
• Donatists
• Pelagianism
• Prolific writer
• 100s of treatises, letters, commentaries
• On the Trinity
• Confessions
• City of God

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Augustine

• Wrote over 100 books, 200 letters and 400 sermons
• Confessions (397-401 AD)
• Spiritual autobiography
• Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
• City of God (416 AD)
• Response to the fall of Rome to Visgoths
• Gods work in history
• City of Man vs. City of God
• On the Trinity
• On the Psalms

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- Eph. 21-10
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Augustine The Will

• Augustine taught that due to the fall, man was
  unable to save himself. It was totally of Gods
  grace.
• Pelagianism Man contributes to his own
  salvation.

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Lessons for Today

• Jerome and Augustine both demonstrated tremendous
  
• Spiritual Discipline
• Dedication to God
• Personal Holiness
• Jerome
• Scholarship/Bible Study/Doctrine must be not be
  for their own sakes, but strengthen our walk and
  relationship to God
• Augustine
• Even after mind is convinced, the heart must be
  converted
• Prayers of a mother
• Free will vs. Predestination is still an issue
  today!

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References

• K.S. Latourette, A History of Christianity,
  Prince Press 1975
• B.L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language,
  Nelson 1995.
• H.C. Sheldon, History of the Christian Church,
  Hendrickson Publishers 1994.
• H. Von Campenhausen, The Fathers of the Church,
  Hendrickson Publishers 1998.
• T. Dowley Ed., Erdmans Handbook to The History
  of Christianity, W.B. Erdmans Publishing Co.
  1977.
• E.E. Carirns, Christianity Through the Ages, 3rd
  Ed., Zondervan Publishing 1996.
• A.K. Curtis, J.S. Lang, and R. Peterson, The 100
  Most Important Events in Christian History,
  Fleming H. Revell 1991.
• S.M. Houghton, Sketches from Church History,
  Banner of Truth 1980.
• Augustine, Confessions, Penguin Books, 1987.