One of the great theologians of the Western Church is an African Christian, St Augustine of Hippo, the great doctor of grace who lived in the fifth century.  We just celebrated his Feast on Thursday 28 August. His most important works include the Confessions, The City of God, and On Christian Doctrine. 

 

Augustine lived in a time of political instability. Rome itself fell to the Visigoths in the year 410. The idea that the pax Romana might be disrupted was unimaginable to Roman citizens, just like the idea that there might be a war in Europe again may seem unimaginable to us. Augustine wrote his treatise on The City of God in response to this political calamity. But his Confessions, which form a meditation on the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, is perhaps his most abiding legacy. In Chapter 10 of the Confessions, Augustine meditates on his creatureliness and his experience of the created world. He says this:

 

Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you... You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.