Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia

Top Highlights

“‘mysticism’: ‘Mystical theology is knowledge of God by experience, arrived at through the embrace of unifying love’ (De mystica theologia 1.6.6).” (Page 576)

“embedded these rational principles in the creation so as to guide the development of the material world” (Page 885)

“To the earthly observer, these events retain their fundamental obscurity even once they have occurred. Considered in its totality, the life of temporal societies appears, not as an orderly ‘progression’ (procursus) toward a determinate end, but as a simple ‘process’ (excursus) by which the two cities run out their earthly existence, with its characteristic blend of successes and failures but no guarantee of salvation in this world (epistula ad Firmum: BA 33:171; civ. Dei 15.21; retr. 2.43.20); for ‘only in heaven has been promised that which on earth we seek’ (en. Ps. 48.6).” (Page 201)

“Grace is fundamentally the illumination of the mind by divine Truth, the Word of God, and the movement of the will by divine Love, the Holy Spirit. This divine operation takes many forms, which are differentiated by the condition of the particular created spirit: repentance, faith, prayer, charity, perseverance, and glory. God works in many ways, from governance of the bodily world, through control of the effects of good and evil intentions, to dwelling and operating within the good angels and faithful Christians.” (Page 398)

“All choices and acts are born of desire, appetite, and hence are rooted in love, either in the love that grace alone makes possible, caritas, or in sinful love, cupiditas. But consciousness does not stand outside will, rationally, indifferently deliberating how best to use the will to procure its ends. Rather knowledge, deliberation, will, choice, and body interpenetrate one another and inseparably form a whole.” (Page 30)