Original scientific paper
The Role of the Act of Faith in Augustine's Conversion
Ivan Bodrožić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-9420
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the paper, starting from the experiences described in Confessions, the author examines the significance of the act of faith in the life of St. Augustine (354-430), the Bishop of Hippo and a great Father of the Church. Reading the first chapter of Confessions from the perspective of Augustine's search for clarity on the issue of faith, the author suggests that Augustine was unusually eager to understand the specific order and the priority of initiative in relationship with God. In this sense, the author indicates to Augustine’s effort to determine whether in the act of faith, from the moment when man seeks God, the initiative is human, or if it is from God, from which it would then be concluded that, first and foremost, God is the seeker of man. Augustine tried to understand who makes the first step, and he came to the conclusion that the first step in the journey of faith was made by God who approached man by manifesting Himself in the history of salvation. Through the servants of His words, and especially through His Son (Praedicator) God stepped into human history, and through the preaching of the Gospel precedes every human initiative. Fully aware of this, Augustine confesses that he seeks God primarily through faith, which means that before that he had received the gift of faith from God. This confirms the primacy of God's revelation to man, otherwise he would not be able to properly and successfully seek Him. Thus, he demonstrates that the issue of seeking God is not only a question of human effort, but most of all the question of God's intervention through which he exits his enchanted circle. Pointing to the essential elements of the dynamics of God's revelation to man, the author also shows that Augustine's faith has Scriptural and ecclesial character insofar as the Hipponite notes that the Holy Scripture is the unique testimony to God’s actions that has been entrusted to the Church as the custodian of its integrity and authenticity.
But apart from God's initiative standing as a general rule at the level of the history of salvation, the author shows that Augustine confesses the primacy of God's initiative also at the level of personal experience. And in Augustine's case, God was the first to act in order to convert Augustine. In this sense, the author draws attention to the fact that Augustine in his Confessions does not describe that he converted, but that he was converted, that is, that God has converted him. God first approached him, cleaned his heart, saved him from his own sinful will, and drew him to His divine will.
Particularly significant unit of this work is the one dedicated to Augustine's understanding of the beginning of faith (initium fidei), where the author points to the fact that Augustine made a turnaround on this issue. He initially claimed that the beginning of faith is human merit, after which God gives other gifts. However, after his work Ad Simplicianum, the first after he became bishop, he says that the beginning of faith also comes from God, by which he acknowledges God's absolute primacy, as described later in Confessions. From the perspective of this understanding the author explores and examines possible Augustine's position on faith from his conversion to Ad Simplicianum, showing how Augustine initially perceived faith as a kind of intellectual tool, and only later matured for the comprehensive understanding of faith as he described afterward in Confessions, pointing to God's irreplaceable initiative that precedes human cooperation in every segment.
Keywords
St. Augustine; Confessions; faith; the act of faith; the beginning of faith (initium fidei); revelation; conversion
Hrčak ID:
104741
URI
Publication date:
5.7.2013.
Visits: 2.554 *