 John Calvin (1509-1564) |
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Greetings!
Dr. Bruce L. McCormack, Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and a friend of the Foundation, recently suggested to one of our seminars that we read Augustine's The Spirit and the Letter.
I have done so, and I have been richly rewarded, so I am passing along his recommendation to you.
Augustine's The Spirit and the Letter is a brilliant, classic exposition of the grace of God. Augustine understands that while we are created with freedom of choice and even have received the good gift of the law to instruct us about God's will, those alone are not sufficient for us to live the good life, to be righteous, or to will the good in regard to salvation.
Instead, we must also receive the additional gift of the grace of God, the gift of the Holy Spirit by which our freedom of choice is healed and strengthened so as to love, to desire, to seek, and so to will the good.
Augustine wrote this against an overconfidence in the human ability for goodness being advocated by Pelagius. It continues to stand over against all self-righteousness.
The Spirit and the Letter is readily available in several English translations. I have provided information about those, as well as some some study notes and excerpts, at this link on the Foundation website:
Augustine, The Spirit and the Letter
It is my hope that this guide might be of use to you in your personal study. It is also my hope that it might serve as a syllabus for adult study classes in our various congregations. As an introduction, I shall share a couple of excerpts below.
The Spirit and the Letter makes me realize once again why John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, in the Ford Lewis Battles translations, includes seven pages in triple columns of references to Augustine!
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The Spirit and the Letter
Augustine. The Spirit and the Letter. In Answer to the Pelagians: The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones, The Spirit and the Letter, Nature and Grace, The Perfection of Human Righteousness, The Deeds of Pelagius, The Grace of Christ and Original Sin, The Nature and Origin of the Soul, introduction, translation, and notes by Roland J. Teske, pp. 133-194. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Part I -- Books, vol. 23. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press (NCP), 1997. "The human will is helped to achieve righteousness in this way: Besides the fact that human beings are created with free choice of the will and besides the teaching by which they are commanded how they ought to live, they receive the Holy Spirit so that there arises in their minds a delight in and a love for that highest and immutable good that is God, even now while they walk by faith, not yet by vision. By this [love] given to them like the pledge of a gratuitous gift, they are set afire with the desire to cling to the creator and burn to come to a participation in that true light, so that they have their well-being from him from whom they have their being. For free choice is capable only of sinning, if the way of truth remains hidden. And when what we should do and the goal we should strive for begins to be clear, unless we find delight in it and love it, we do not act, do not begin, do not live good lives. But so that we may love it, the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not by free choice which comes from ourselves, but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5)." [chapter 3, paragraph 5, pp. 145-146] "The first commandment of righteousness by which we are ordered to love God with the whole heart and the whole soul and the whole mind, upon which there follows the second about loving the neighbor, we will fulfill in that life, when we see face to face. But this commandment has been given to us now in order to admonish us about what we ought to ask for in faith, about where we ought to place our hope, and about how we ought to forget what lies behind and stretch ourselves out toward what lies ahead. Accordingly, so far as I can judge, they who know how far they are, despite their progress, from the perfection of righteousness have made much progress in the righteousness which still needs to be made perfect." [chapter 36, paragraph 64, p. 187] For more, click Augustine, The Spirit and the Letter. |
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 Grace and Peace, |
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