How did Saint Augustine of Hippo influence religion?

Answer 1

The Church Father Augustine of Hippo was a Manichaean Auditor from 373 to 382. Manichaeanism was a Christian Gnostic sect radically different from what is now known as Christianity, and the status of Auditor was relatively lowly, indicating that he had not yet been informed of the true mysteries of the religion.

Augustine became dissatisfied with Manichaeanism and transferred his allegiance to what had become the mainstream branch of Christianity. Apart from his Gnostic background, he was also influenced by Stoicism, Platonism and Neoplatonism. One of the concepts he brought into Catholic religious belief was that of original sin, which had its background in Gnosticism.

Augustine wrote on ethics and was one of the most influential early Christians in the development of ethical teaching. He taught a strong form of Unqualified Absolutism. Faced with biblical passages that seemed not to support some of his teachings, he was forced to dissemble and reinterpret the scriptures.

He opposed abortion at any stage of pregnancy, but considered that the gravity of participation in an abortion depended whether or not the foetus had yet received a soul. According to his beliefs, this occurred at 40 days for males, and 90 days for females.

Augustine was honoured as a Doctor of the Catholic Church in 1298.

Roman Catholic Answer

St. Augustine of Hippo is without doubt the greatest doctor of the Church, "a philosophical and theological genius of the first order". As such, I am remarkably poorly qualified to answer this question, but his influence on the Church from the late fourth to the early fifth century is still felt today, fifteen centuries later. After his conversion and baptism he fought heresies his entire life. He left the Church one of its great religious orders - the Order of St. Augustine, which is even older than my own order, the Order of St. Benedict. He also left us a plethora of writings which are still published and read today. There are three links below to three separate articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia which I would recommend that you read.

Of his writings, his Confessions: "of all the works of the holy Doctor none has been more universally read and admired, none has caused more salutary tears to flow. Neither in respect of penetrating analysis of the most complex impressions of the soul, nor communicative feeling, nor elevation of sentiment, nor depth of philosophic views, is there any book like it in all literature." Catholic Encyclopedia

Other autobiographical and correspondence includes:

The Retractions

The Letters

Philosophy: St. Augustine was a first rate philosopher who philosophy is still studied today. His works include:

Contra Academicos

De Beata Vita

De Ordine

De Immortalitate animae

De Magistro

St. Augustine wrote numerous apologies, the most famous being The City of God, which again is still a best seller.

He fought heresy his whole life and wrote numerous books against the following heresies:

The Manichaeans

The Donatists

The Pelagians

The Semipelagians

Arianism

He wrote numerous books on Scriptural exegesis, Dogmatic and moral theology, and pastorals and preaching.

All of the above books are enumerated in the Encyclopedia at the links below.

One final note, Protestants have had a mixed time with St. Augustine. From Martin Luther who admitted that justification by faith alone was not found in St. Augustine works (justification by faith alone is the founding principle of all Protestantism). Nevertheless Protestants have historically tried to make St. Augustine into a proto-protestant and nothing could be further from the truth. St. Augustine was a Catholic to his very marrow.