Microsoft Word - IGWEBUIKE JOURNAL VOL.1 NO. 3 IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 78 AUGUSTINE AS THE THOUGHT-CURRENT OF THE CHURCH’S DOCTRINAL TRADITION: REFLECTIONS ON POPE JOHN PAUL II’S AUGUSTINUM HIPPONSENSEM By Kanu, Ikechukwu Anthony, O.S.A., Ph.D. Augustinian Institute, Makurdi, Nigeria ikee_mario@yahoo.com Abstract This paper has studied the reflection of Pope John Paul II on Augustine, who had the principal aim of urging the spiritual sons and daughters of this great saint to keep his fascination alive and attractive in the modern world. He thus discussed Augustine’s thoughts on the interaction of faith and reason, Christ and the church, freedom and grace, charity and the acsent of the spirit. And from his presentation of Augustine, it is arguable that Augustine is the Thought-Current of the Church’s Doctrinal Tradition. Keywords: Augustine, Though-current, Tradition, John Paul II, Augustinum Hipponsensem Introduction The scope and quantity of the works of St Augustine, has placed him withim parameters that makes him a central figure in western thought, and his teachings, a vade mecum in ecclesiastical circles. On the occasion of the 16th Anniversary of the conversion of St Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor, on 28th August 1986, at St Peter’s Basilica, Pope John Paul II praised the philosophical and theological writings of Augustine. However, long before John Paul II, Pope Pius XI had written thus of Augustine: “of those who have flourished from the beginnings of the human race down to our own days, none— or, at most, very few—could rank with Augustine, for the very great acuteness of his genius, for the richness and sublimity of his teachings, and finally for his holiness of life and defence of Catholic truth”185. Paul VI later affirmed: "Indeed, 185 Pius XI, Ad salutem human generis (April 22, 1930): AAS 22 (1930), p. 233. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 79 over and above the shining example he gives of the qualities common to all the Fathers, it may be said that all the thought-currents of the past met in his works and form the source which provides the whole doctrinal tradition of succeeding ages."186 Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Augustinum Hipponsensem, urged "that his philosophical, theological and spiritual doctrine be studied and spread, so that he may continue...his teaching in the Church, a humble but at the same time enlightened teaching which speaks above all of Christ and love."187 At the heart of his reflections on Augustine is to urge the spiritual sons of this great saint "to keep the fascination of St. Augustine alive and attractive even in modern society."188 Reason and faith Pope John Paul II avers that there is the problem that occupied him most in his youth and to which he returned with all the force of genius and the passion of his spirit: the problem of the relationship between reason and faith. That "since we are impelled by a twin pull of gravity to learn,"189 both forces, reason and faith, must work together. He always listened to what faith had to say, but he exalted reason no less, giving each its own primacy in time of importance190. He told all, "Believe that you may understand," but he repeated also, "Understand that you may believe."191 He wrote a work, perennially relevant, on the usefulness of faith192, and explained that faith is the medicine designed to heal the eye of the spirit193, the unconquerable fortress for the defence of all, especially of the weak, against error194, the nest in which we receive the wings for the lofty flights of the spirit195, the short path that permits one to know, quickly, surely and without 186 Paul VI, Discourse to the Religious of the Augustinian Order (May 4, 1970): AAS 62 (1970), p. 426; cf. L 'Osservatore Romano, English edition, May 21, 1970. 187 John Paul II, Discourse to the Professors and students of the "Augustinianum" (May 8, 1982): AAS 74 (1982), p. 800; cf. L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, June 14, 1982. 188 John Paul II, Discourse to the General Chapter of the Augustinian Order on August 25, 1983: Insegnamenti VI-2 (1983), p. 305; cf. L 'Osservatore Romano, English edition, September 3, 1983. 189 Contra Acad. 3, 20, 43: PL 32, 957. 190 De ordine 2, 9, 26: PL 32, 1007 191 Serm. 43, 9: PL 38, 258. 192 De utilitate credendi: PL 42, 65-92. 193 Confess. 6, 4, 6: PL 32, 722: De serm, Domini in monte 2, 3, 14: PL 34, 1275. 194 Ep. 118, 5, 32: PL 33, 447. 195 Serm. 51, 5, 6: PL 387, 337. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 80 errors, the truths which lead the human person to wisdom196. He also emphasizes that faith is never without reason, because it is reason that shows "in what one should believe."197 "For faith has its own eyes, by means of which it sees in a certain manner that what it does not yet see is true."198 Therefore "no one believes anything, unless he has first thought that it is to be believed," because "to believe is itself nothing other than to think with assent...if faith is not' thought through, it is no faith."199 In the great work on the City of God, which is at once apologetic and dogmatic, the problem of reason and faith becomes that of faith and culture. An important text of Augustine may be usefully quoted here: "The heavenly city...draws citizens from all peoples...taking no account of what is different in customs laws and institutions;...she neither suppresses nor destroys anything of these, but rather preserves and fosters it. The diversities that may exist in the diverse nations work together for the single goal of earthly peace, unless they obstruct the practice of the religion that teaches the worship of the one, true and most high God."200 God and man A pair of words Augustine continuously studied is God and man. Pope John Pual II observed that he studied them together as man thinking of God, God thinking of man, who is His image. In the Confessions, he asks himself these two questions: "What are You for me.... What am I myself for You?"201 He is fully convinced of the ineffability of God, so that he cries out: "Why wonder that you do not understand? For if you understand, it is not God."202 It follows that "it is no...small beginning of the knowledge of God, if before we are able to know what He is, we already begin to know what He is not."203 It is necessary therefore to strive "that we should thus know God, if we are able and as far as we are able, the one who is good without quality, great without quantity, the creator not 196 De quantitate animae 7, 12: PL 32, 1041-1042. 197 De uera relig. 24, 45: PL 34, 1041-1042. 198 Ep. 120, 2, 8: PL 33, 456. 199 De praed. sanctorum 2, 5: PL 44, 962-963. 200 De civ. Dei 19, 17: PL 41, 645 201 Confess. 1, 5, 5: PL 32, 663. 202 Serm. 117, 5: PL 38, 673. 203 Ep. 120.3.15: PL 33, 459. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 81 bound by necessity," and thus going through all the categories of reality that Aristotle has described204. Although God is transcendent and ineffable, Augustine is nevertheless able, starting from the self-awareness of the human person who knows that he exists and knows and loves, and encouraged by Sacred Scripture, which reveals God as the supreme Being (Ex 3:14), highest Wisdom (Wis, passim) and first Love (1 Jn 4:8), is able to illustrate this threefold notion of God: the Being from whom every being proceeds through creation from nothing, the Truth which enlightens the human mind so that it can know the truth with certainty, the Love that is the source and the goal of all true love. He finds God as "the eternal internal,"205 most secret and most present206—man seeks Him because he is absent, but knows Him and finds Him because He is present. God is present as "the creative substance of the world,"207 as the truth that gives light208, as the love that attracts209, more intimate than what is most intimate in man, and higher than what is highest in him. Referring to the period before his conversion, Augustine says to God: "Where were You then for me, and how far away? And I was a wanderer far away from You.... But You were more internal than what was intimate in me, and higher than what was highest in me"210 "You were with me, and I was not with You."211 He insists!: "You were in front of me; but I had gone away from myself and did not find myself, much less find You."212 Whoever does not find himself does not find God, because God is in the depths of each one of us. He sees the human person as a tension directed toward God; his words, "You have made us for yourself and our heart has no rest until it rests in You,"213 He writes in the De Trinitate that mankind "is the image of the one whom he is capable of enjoying, and whose partner he can become."214 This faculty "is in the soul of man, which is rational or intellectual...immortally located in his 204 De Trin. 5, 1, 2: PL 42. 912; cf. Confess. 4, 16, 28: PL 32; 704. 205 Confess. 9, 4, 10: PL 32, 768. 206 Confess. 1, 4, 4: PL 32, 662. 207 Ep 187, 4, 14: PL 33, 837. 208 De magistro 11, 38-14, 46: PL 32, 1215-1220. 209 Confess. 13, 9, 10 PL 32, 848-849. 210 Confess. 3, 6, 11: PL 32, 687-688. 211 Confess. 10, 27, 38: PL 32, 795. 212 Confess. 5, 2, 2: PL 32, 707. 213 Confess 1, 1, 1: PL 32, 661. 214 De Trin. 14, 8, 11: PL 12, 1044. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 82 immortality," and therefore the sign of his greatness: "he is a great nature, because he is capable of enjoying the highest nature and of becoming its partner."215 Human nature "has been created in such an excellent state that eventhough it is itself mutable, it reaches happiness by cleaving to the unchangeable good, that is, to God. Nor can it satisfy its need unless it is totally happy; and only God suffices to satisfy it"216. It is because of this basic relationship between man and God that Augustine continually exhorts men to the life of the spirit. "Go back into yourself; the truth dwells in the inner man[woman]; and if you discover that your nature is mutable, transcend yourself also,"217 in order to find God, the source of the light that illuminates the mind. Christ and the Church One may rightly say that the summit of the theological thinking of the Bishop of Hippo is Christ and the Church. The Church is inseparable from Christ. About Christ he writes: "the believer...believes that .in him there is the true human nature; that is our nature, although it is taken up in a unique way into the one Son of God when God the Word received it, such that the One who received it and what He received formed one Person in the Trinity. The assumption of man did not make a quarternity, but the Trinity remained: this assumption wrought in an ineffable manner the truth of one person in God and mankind. Therefore we do not say that Christ is only God...nor only man...nor man in such a way that He would lack something that certainly belongs to human nature...but we say that Christ is true God, born of God the Father...and the same is true man, born of a human mother...nor does His humanity, in which He is less than the Father, take away anything from His divinity, in which He is equal to the Father...The one Christ is both of these."218 He puts it somewhat more briefly: "The same one who is man, is God; and the same one who is God, is man-not by the confusion of the nature but in the unity of the person,"219 "one...person in both natures."220 215 De Trin. 14, 4, 6: PL 42, 1040. 216 De civ. Dei 12, 1, 3: PL 41, 349. 217 De uera relig. 39, 72: PL 34, 154. 218 De dono persev. 24, 67: PL 45, 1033-1034. 219 Serm. 186, 1, 1: 38, 999. 220 Serm. 294.9: PL 38, 1340. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 83 Christ, the man-God221, is the sole mediator between the righteous and immortal God and mortal and sinful human beings, because He is at once mortal and righteous222. It follows that He is the universal way, "which has never been lacking for the human race, no one has been set free no one is set free, no one will be set free."223 The mediation of Christ is accomplished in the work of redemption, which consists not only in the example of righteousness, but above all in the sacrifice of reconciliation, which was supremely true224, supremely free225, and completely perfect226. The essential characteristic of the redemption by Christ is its universality, which shows the universality of sin. He teaches that "Jesus Christ came in the flesh for no other reason...than to give life and salvation to all, to free, redeem, and enlighten those who beforehand were in the death of sins, in sickness, slavery, captivity, and darkness.... It follows that those who are not in need of life, salvation, liberation and redemption cannot have anything to do with this dispen sation of salvation by Christ."227 Because Christ, the only mediator and redeemer of humanity, is head of the Church, Christ and the Church are one single mystical person, the total Christ. He writes with force: "We have become Christ. Just as He is the head, we are the members; the whole man is He and ourselves."228 This doctrine of the total Christ is one of the teachings that mattered most to the Bishop of Hippo, and one of the most fruitful themes of his ecclesiology. About the Church, he wrote that the Holy Spirit as the soul of the mystical body: "what the soul is to the body of a man, the Holy Spirit is for the body of Christ, which is the Church."229 The Holy Spirit is also the principle of community, by which the faithful are united to one another and to the Trinity itself. "By means of what is common to the Father and the Son, They willed that we should have communion both among ourselves and with Them. They willed to gather us 221 Serm. 47, 12-20: PL 38, 308-312. 222 Confess. 10, 42, 68: PL 32, 808. 223 De civ. Dei 10, 32, 2: PL 41, 315. 224 De Trin 4:13, 17; PL 42, 899. 225 De Trin. 4, 13, 16: PL 42, 898. 226 De Trin 4, 14, 19: 42, 901. 227 De pecc. mer. et rem. 1, 26, 39: PL 44, 131. 228 Tractatus in Io 21, 8: PL 35, 1568. 229 Serm. 267, 4: PL 38, 1231. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 84 together, through that gift, into that one thing which both have in common; that is, by means of God the Holy Spirit and the gift of God.230" Another theme dear to Augustine's ecclesiology was that of the Church as mother and teacher. The Church is the mother who gives birth to the Christians231: "Two parents have given us the birth that leads to death, two parents have given us the birth that leads to life. The parents who gave us birth for death are Adam and Eve: the parents who gave us birth for life are Christ and the Church."232 The Church is a mother who suffers on account of those who have departed from righteousness, especially those who destroy her unity233; she is the dove who moans and calls all to return or draw near to her wings234; she is the manifestation of God's universal fatherhood, by means of the charity which "is mild for some, severe for others; an enemy to none, but mother for all."235 She is a mother, but also, like Mary, a virgin: mother by the ardor of charity, virgin by the integrity of the faith that she guards, defends and teaches.236 Freedom and grace It was on the eve of his conversion that he grasped the responsibility of the human person in his actions, and the necessity of the grace of the sole Mediator237, whose power he felt in the moment of the final decision, as the eighth Book of his Confessions eloquently testifies238. He always defended freedom as one of the bases of a Christian anthropology, against his former coreligionists239, against the determinism of the astrologers whose victim he himself had once been240, and against every form of fatalism241; he explained that liberty and foreknowledge are not incompatible242, nor liberty and the aid of divine grace. "The fact that free will is aided does not destroy it; but because it is 230 Confess. 7, 7, 11: PL 32, 739. 231 Ep. 48, 2: PL 33, 188. 232 Serm. 22, 10: PL 38, 154. 233 Psalmus contra partem Donati, epilogus: PL 43,31-32. 234 Tractatus in Io 6, 15: PL 35, 1432. 235 De catech. rud. 15, 23: PL 40,328. 236 Serm. 188, 4: PL 38, 1004. 237 Confess 8, 10, 22; 7, 18, 24: PL 32, 759-745. 238 Confess. 8, 9, 21; 8, 12, 29: PL 32, 758-759; 762. 239 De libero arb. 3, 1, 3: PL 32, 1272; De duabus animabus 10, 14: PL 42, 104- 105. 240 Confess. 4, 3, 4: PL 32, 694-695. 241 De civ. Dei 5, 8: PL 41, 48. 242 De libero arb. 3, 4, 10-11: PL 32, 1276; De civ. Dei 5, 9, 1-4: PL 148-152. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 85 not taken away, it is aided."243 And the Augustinian principle is well known: "He who made you without your participation, does not justify you without your participation. He has made you without your knowledge; He justifies you if you will it."244 One must therefore believe in their compatibility just as one must believe in the compatibility of the two entirely necessary offices of Christ, who is at once savior and judge, for it is on these two offices that freedom and grace depend: "If then God's grace does not exist, how does He save the world? And if free will does not exist, how does He judge the world?"245 He describes and celebrates Christian freedom in all its forms, from the freedom from error- for the liberty of error is "the worst death of the soul"246-through the gift of faith which subjects the soul to the truth247, to the final and inalienable freedom, the greatest of all, which consists in the inability to die and in the inability to sin, i.e. in immortality and the fullness of righteousness248. Augustine teaches no less insistently freedom from time, a freedom that Christ, the eternal Word, has come to bring us by his entry into the world in the incarnation: "O Word that exists before time, through whom time was made," he exclaims, "born in time although You are eternal life, calling those who exist in time and making them eternal!"249 It is well known that St. Augustine studied deeply the mystery of time250 and both felt and stated the need to transcend time in order to exist truly. "That you may be truly yourself, transcend time. But who shall transcend it by his own power? Let Christ lift him up, as He said to the Father: 'I wish that they too may be with me where I am.'"251 Charity and the ascent of the spirit 243 Ep 157, 2, 10: PL 33, 677. 244 Serm 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923. 245 Ep. 214. 2: PL 33, 969. 246 Ep. 105, 2, 10: PL 33, 400. 247 De libero arb. 2, 13, 37: PL 32, 1261. 248 De corrept. et gratia 12, 33: PL 44, 936. 249 Enarr. in ps. 101, d. 2, 10: PL 37, 1311-1312. 250 Confess. lib. 11: PL 32, 809-826. 251 Tractatus in Io 38, 10: PL 35, 1680. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 86 Augustine climbed with steady diligence the steps of the interior ascents, and described their program for all, an ample and well-defined program that comprises the movement of the spirit toward contemplation—purification, constancy and serenity, orientation toward the light, dwelling in the light252 _ the stages of charity — incipient, progressing, intense, perfect253—the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are linked to the beatitudes254, the petitions of the Lord's Prayer255, the examples given by Christ himself256. Augustine located the essence and the norm of Christian perfection in charity, because it is the first gift of the Holy Spirit257 and the reality which prevents one from being wicked258. It is the good with which one possesses all goods, and without which the other goods are of no avail. "Have charity, and you will have them all; because without charity, whatever you have will be of no benefit."259 He indicated all the inexhaustible riches of charity; it makes easy whatever is difficult260, gives newness to what has become a habit261; it gives irresistible force to the movement toward the supreme Good, because charity is always imperfect here on earth262; it frees from every interest that is not God263; it is inseparable from humility—"where there is humility, there is charity"264—and is the essence of every virtue, since virtue is nothing else but well-ordered love;265 it is the gift of God. This final point is crucial, because it separates and distinguishes the naturalistic and the Christian concepts of life. "Whence comes the love of God and of neighbor that exists in humans, if not from God himself? Because if it is not from God, but from men[women], the Pelagians have won: but if it is from God, then we have defeated the Pelagians."266 252 De quantitate animae 33, 73-76: PL 32, 1075-1077. 253 De natura et gratia 70, 84: PL 44, 290. 254 De Serm. Domini in monte 1, 1, 3-4: PL 34, 1231-1232; De doctr. Christ. 2, 7, 9-11: PL 34, 39-40. 255 De Serm. Domini in monte 2, 11, 38: PL 34, 1286 256 De sancta virginitate 28, 28: PL 40, 411. 257 Enarr. in ps. 101, d. 2, 10: PL 37, 1311-1312. 258 Confess. lib. 11: PL 32, 809-826. 259 Tractatus in Io 38, 10: PL 35, 1680. 260 De bono viduitatis 21, 26: PL 40, 447. 261 De catech. rudibus 12, 17: PL 40, 323. 262 Serm. 169, 18: PL 38, 926; De perf. iust. hom.: PL 44, 291 318. 263 Enarr. in ps. 53, 10: PL 36, 666-667. 264 Tractatus in Ep. Io, prol.: PL 35, 1977. 265 De civ. Dei 15, 22: PL 41, 467. 266 De gratia et lib. arb. 18, 37: PL 44, 903-904. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 87 Augustine and the Modern Man Pope John Paul II, as concrete as he had always being, made an effort to concretize Augustine’s thoughts for the application of the modern man in the modern world. 1. He teaches the person who searches for truth not to despair of finding it. He teaches this by his example—he himself rediscovered it after many years of laborious seeking—and by means of his literary activity, the program of which he had fixed in the first letter after his conversion. 2. Augustine's legacy to the theologians, whose meritorious task is to study more deeply the contents of the faith, is the immense patrimony of his thought, which is as a whole valid even now; above all, his legacy is the theological method to which he remained absolutely faithful. We know that this method implied full adherence to the authority of the faith, which is one of its origin—the authority of Christ267—and is revealed through Scripture, Tradition and the Church. 3. It is well known how much Augustine loved Sacred Scripture, proclaiming its divine origin268, its inerrancy,269 its depth and inexhaustible riches;270 and it is well known how much he studied Scripture. But the aim of his own study, and of his promotion of study by others, is the entirety of Scripture, so that the true thought, or as he says, the "heart"271 of Scripture may be indicated, harmonizing it where necessary with itself272. 4. In the controversies that arose concerning the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, his recommendation was that one should discuss "with holy humility, with Catholic peace, with Christian charity,"273 until the truth itself be grasped, which God "has set...upon the throne of unity."274 267 Contra Acad. 3, 20, 43: PL 32, 957. 268 Enarr. in Ps 90, d. 2, 1 : PL 37, 1159-1160. 269 Ep. 28, 3, 3: PL 33, 112; 82, 1, 3: PL 33, 277. 270 Ep. 137, 1, 3: PL 33, 516. 271 De doctrina Christ. 4, 5, 7: PL 34, 91-92. 272 De perf. iustr. hom. 17, 38: PL 44, 311-312. 273 De baptismo 2, 3, 4: PL 43, 129. 274 Ep 105, 16: PL 3, 403. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 88 5. Another contribution of Augustine's teaching to the men and women of today which we may briefly mention is his proposal of the twofold object of study that should occupy the human mind: God and man. 6. Further, he teaches scientists to recognize the signs of God in the things that have been created275 and to discover the "seeds" which God has sown in the harmony of the universe276. 7. To the young, he recalls three great things to them: truth, love and freedom—three supreme goods which stand together. He also invites them to love beauty, for he himself was a great lover of beauty277. It is not only the beauty of bodies, which could make one forget the beauty of the spirit278, nor only the beauty of art279, but the interior beauty of virtue280 and especially the eternal beauty of God, from which is derived the beauty of bodies, of art and of virtue. Augustine calls God "the beauty of all beauties."281 "in whom and from whom and through whom exist as good and beautiful everything that is good and beautiful."282 When he looked back on the years before his conversion, he regretted bitterly that he had been late in loving this "beauty, ever ancient, ever new"283; he admonished the young not to imitate him in this, but to love beauty itself always and above all else, and to preserve to the end the interior glory of their youth in beauty284. Conclusion The foregoing has studied the reflection of Pope John Paul II on Augustine, who had the principal aim of urging the spiritual sons and daughters of this great saint to keep his fascination alive and attractive in the modern world. He thus discussed Augustine’s thoughts on the interaction of faith and reason, Christ and 275 De diversis quaestionibus 83, q. 46, 2: PL 40, 29-31. 276 De Gen. ad litt. 5, 23, 44-45; 6, 6, 16-6, 12, 20: PL 34, 337-338; 346-347. 277 Confess. 4, 13, 20: PL 32, 701. 278 Confess. 10, 8, 15: PL 32, 758-786. 279 Confess 10, 34, 53: PL 32, 801. 280 Ep. 120, 4, 20: PL 33, 462. 281 Confess 3, 6, 10: PL 32, 687. 282 Solil. 1, 1, 3: PL 32, 870. 283 Confess 10, 27, 38: PL 32, 795. 284 Ep. 120, 4, 20: PL 33, 462. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 1 No 3, December 2015. ISSN 2488-9210(Online) ISSN 2504 – 9038(Print) (A Publication of the Augustinian Institute in collaboration with AATREPSCHOLARS) 89 the church, freedom and grace, charity and the acsent of the spirit. And from his presentation of Augustine, it is arguable that Augustine is the Thought-Current of the Church’s Doctrinal Tradition.