The Confessions of Saint Augustine

[biscuit1953]

I ordered a copy of The Confessions of Saint Augustine because while watching a clip by R.C. Sproul he strongly recommended that every Christians should read it. I am about halfway through it now but notice how strongly he endorses the Catholic Church and the necessity of baptism. I know Augustine is supposed to be a major figure in Christianity but why would a Reformed leader like R.C. Sproul so strongly endorse him if he is wrong about salvation as taught by the Catholic Church and baptism being necessary. I understand John MacArthur understood baptismal regeneration to be a damnable heresy but I don’t know if Sproul went quite that far but, he did consider it a grave error in soteriology. Why is Augustine so highly regarded by so many?

 

[Ransom]

Because Augustine is the most significant and important figure in church history, after the apostles, for the development of Christian theology. He got many things wrong--his view of baptism as necessary to wash away original sin, or his ecclesiology, for example, as developed in the Donatist controversy.

But he also got many things right--his soteriology, articulated in his anti-Pelagian polemics. Remember that Luther was an Augustinian monk; his discovery of justification by faith was influenced by Augustine. And Calvin's citations of Augustine are second only to his citations of the Scriptures. The Protestant Reformation has been called the triumph of Augustine's soteriology over his ecclesiology.

 

[biscuit1953]

Because Augustine is the most significant and important figure in church history, after the apostles, for the development of Christian theology. He got many things wrong--his view of baptism as necessary to wash away original sin, or his ecclesiology, for example, as developed in the Donatist controversy.

But he also got many things right--his soteriology, articulated in his anti-Pelagian polemics. Remember that Luther was an Augustinian monk; his discovery of justification by faith was influenced by Augustine. And Calvin's citations of Augustine are second only to his citations of the Scriptures. The Protestant Reformation has been called the triumph of Augustine's soteriology over his ecclesiology.

Thank you for that reply.