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In Our Time - St Augustine’s Confessions

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maryeliza54 Thu 15-Mar-18 12:52:46

Did anyone listen to this this morning - it was fascinating in so many ways including the ‘pushy’ mother and his personal. life. But what I found really interesting was the discussion of his legacy - one, on Camus, who wrote his doctoral thesis on him and how SA’s ideas fed into and influenced C’s idea of existentialism and the person who wants to do good but is never able to completely achieve what he wants to do. And secondly, his influence on the protestant churches in that (quote) he took the worst of St Paul, Calvin took the worst of St Augustine and produced the predestination tradition and that the rediscovery of SA , the idea that only grace not works would save you was fundamental to Luther et al and that ironically the reaction of this was the Enlightenment which basically said that we are much better than you ( the churches) think we are and which really made the modern world possible . Amazing food for thought this morning

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MiceElf Thu 15-Mar-18 13:08:45

Agreed. So rare to hear an intelligent and scholarly discussion on religious matters. And so ably chaired by Melvyn Bragg.

I would have loved to have heard the discussion between Melvyn Bragg, his daughter, Marie-Elsa Bragg (who is a CofE priest) and a philosopher whose name escapes me, at a literary festival in the Lakes last month.

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jojo27 Thu 15-Mar-18 13:15:34

My heart went out to the concubine with whom Augustine shared his life for many years. They had a son (Adeodatus) whom she handed over to his father when, after a religious awakening, she went to live the rest of her life in a monastry. From the above, plus the fact that Augustine then entered into a relationship with yet another woman, my question is, 'Why was this woman not made a saint when both Augustine and his 'pushy'mother were?'

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MiceElf Thu 15-Mar-18 14:00:26

In the early church there was no formal canonisation process. People were called saints when they were well known for being martyrs, or living a holy life or as in the case of Augustine being a Doctor of the church, that is, being a distinguished scholar. Or because legends grew up around them, many are known to be just the stuff of ledgends and stories.
Little is known about this lady but this author’s website may be of interest.

aleteia.org/2017/01/11/st-augustines-concubine-speaks/

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