CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

Thomas P. Johnston 263
c) Note some of the issues:
1) As noted in the footnote above, the categories “saved and lost” are essentially
Manichean; just that statement right there includes everyone who believes in
conversion as “essentially Manichean”!
2) Likewise, is not the belief in Total Depravity Manichean?
2) Is not the belief that there is no holiness in the bread of the altar of the Lord
Manichean?
3) Is not the belief that there is no sacredness in a Crucifix or in the statues of the
Blessed Virgin or the saints Manichean?
4) Or holy water, or holy relics, or holy pilgrimage places…
5) Where not Genesis 6:5, Psalms 14 and 53, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:9-20, or
Ephesians 2:1-3 in the Bible of Augustine? Certainly they were!
d) It would seem his line of reasoning in Contra Manichean would and should give
Evangelical scholars a more guarded view of Augustine than is often noted, not to
mention his clear antagonism of Evangelicalism as noted in his Contra Donatisten
(against the self-governing Donatist Puritan-type churches in North Africa).
5) Some comments on the use of Augustine:
a) Perhaps an important study of Augustine is the study how Thomas Aquinas cited him in
his Summa Theologica. Aquinas portrayed Augustine as a Medieval philosophical
scholar.
b) However, it would seem that Calvin cited Augustine to counter the charge that his
reading of Scripture (particularly in the area of Predestination) was novel and new (a
typical charge brought by Rome against anyone who disagreed with them).
c) Note also the sharp words of Catholic Medieval historian Léon-E. Halkin as regards
Augustine’ contribution to Medieval theology, and especially Inquisition! 268
Conclusion: It is important to remember that Augustine read the same Bible that we read
today—in other words, he had the same access to all five Great Commission passages, the
verbal elements of the Book of Acts, the Pauline Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, other elements
of evangelism as found in 2 Corinthians 3-6 and the Book of Philippians. Rather, it would
seem that he chose to deemphasize evangelism in his Confessions and to lead or follow the
Church of Rome into philosophical theology.
268 “One must turn to Saint Augustine to understand how the New Testament could be exploited by an
acrobatic exegesis during all the Middle Ages, and beyond, for Saint Augustine inspired successively Saint Thomas and
Calvin.
“Saint Augustine shared the indulgence of the ancient Fathers when he composed his first writings. His
evolution was only more noticeable. Exaggerate the excesses of the African dissidents and conquer by the political
violence of Christian emperors, he concluded that the repression of error was a legitimate defense.
“Ceding to the temptation of efficiency, Saint Augustine accepted recourse from the secular arm, the use of
violence against the heretics, but nonetheless not to the point of the death penalty. His conclusions, carefully founded
upon psychology as upon history, could do nothing but gain ground with [the march of] time, with the progresses and
reversals of evangelization.
“The time was ripe for Inquisition. For sure, heresy is illegal there where reigns a state religion; error, for a
theologian, has no place, it is a serious sin. The simplicity of these principles will always lead to the most dire extremes
among spirits of systematicians who are incapable of distinguishing, in daily realities rather than only in theory,
between thesis and hypothesis. Contemporary and colleague of the first Inquisitors, Saint Thomas Aquinas interpreted
the Parable of the [Wheat and the] Tares in an unpredictable sense. If one is to believe it, the Lord diminished his
prohibition to cut out the tares by saying precisely, ‘for fear that in pulling the tares, you may likewise pull out the
wheat.’ Where there is no fear of this result, concluded the Angelic Doctor, citing Augustine, the persecution of heretics
is legitimate. [footnote: Summa, SS: Q10, A8; Q11, A3]
“The celebrated canonist Hostiensis made further efforts to justify punishment by [burning at] the stake by
citing the example of the branch that is thrown into the fire: si quis in me non manserit, mittetur foras sicut palmes, et
arescet, et colligent eum et in ignem mittent, et ardet. [footnote: John 16:5]
“Such misunderstanding of the eschatological emphasis of the parables cannot but astonish us. Already Saint
Augustin had interpreted in his own way the parable of the banquet [Luke 19:23] to promote the harshness of his
religious politicization” (Léon-E. Halkin, Initiation à la critique historique [Paris: Armand Colin, 1963], 203-04;
translation mine).