Suzy Schaak
List price: $10.00 (that's 20% off!)
When in print I had purchased 3 to pass along to friends.
"Christian Instruction", introduced and translated by John J. Gavigan
"Admonition and Grace", introduced and translated by John Courtney Murray
"The Christian Combat", introduced and translated by Robert P. Russell
"Faith, Hope, and Charity", introduced and translated by Bernard M. Peebles
Index
The supplemental materials in this book consist of fairly short introductions to each work written by the translator of that work, footnotes that explain translation issues, references to other works, including scripture references, and finally, a shared index.
Each of the four works which comprise this book will be discussed in turn.
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The title of the first work, "Christian Instruction", leaves the reader to wonder whether the work is intended to instruct him in Christianity or to be an instructor of others in Christianity. The answer is: yes. To quote Augustine himself, in his discussion of it in his "Retractions":
"I...completed the work in four books. The first three of these help to an understanding of the Scriptures, while the fourth instructs us how to present the facts which we have just comprehended."
Of the "books" alluded to by Augustine, the first prescribes the proper attitude for the study of scriptures, specifically from the perspective of "faith, hope, and charity". The second prescribes a program of education, central to which is knowledge of language: both the general knowledge of language as a system of signs, and specific knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. The third prescribes a system of hermeneutics or interpretive principals and rules. Finally, the fourth is essentially a discussion of rhetorical methods of persuasion and their application to teaching Christianity to others.
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The second work, "Admonition and Grace", was written because a number of monks had been disturbed by an a letter of Augustine which they thought so exalted the importance of divine grace as to leave no place for human free will (and responsibility). The specific question they asked was:
"Why are we preached to, and given commands, in order to have us avoid evil and do good, if it is not we ourselves who do these things, but God who effects in us the will and the deed?"
To the immediate question, Augustine in reply developed the doctrine that while man of his own free will could do no good without grace, he could recognize his own evil, and in that power lay his responsibility:
"Whenever you fail to follow the known commands of God and are unwilling to be admonished, you are for this very reason to be admonished, that you are unwilling to be admonished...You are unwilling to have yourself shown to yourself, that you may see your own deformity, and seek one to reform you, and beg Him not to leave you in your ugliness of soul."
Not content with having answered the question at hand, Augustine went further, and discussed the ultimate origin of sin, and the state of man and the fallen angels before their respective falls and the nature of those falls. Going further yet, he discusses grace with regard to Mary and the elect, and still further, ultimately ending in a theodicy.
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The third work, "The Christian Combat" is a short, muscular work "written in a plain style for brethren not proficient in the Latin language". Its end is to lay out how a Christian should live, and to identify heresies that Christians should avoid falling into. As befitting its audience and purpose, it is simple and direct. The basics of Christian belief and scriptural justifications for them are quickly described, then then warnings are given a series of heresies that must be rejected.
The points of Christian belief covered are the nature of evil (Manichaean dualism being explicitly rejected), the governance of Providence, salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and God as the Trinity.
The list of heresies to be rejected is actually the bulk of the work. Each begins with a "Let us not heed..." introduction, followed by a description of the particular heresy, and then a justification (generally scriptural, sometimes logical) for why it should be rejected.
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"Faith, Hope, and Charity", the fourth and final work in the book, is also known as the "Enchiridion", or handbook. It was written in response to a letter containing a list of questions pertaining to Christian doctrine.
"Faith, Hope, and Charity" begins by discussing is a wide-ranging work, as its origin might suggest. Most of the work is loosely organized around the apostles' creed as a framework for explaning the faith. As such, it discusses belief in God, the goodness of creation, the nature of sin, the origin of sin, God's grace and Christ as the means of man's salvation, the church, the resurrection of the dead, the relation between providence and free will, hope and the Lord's prayer, and finally charity as the crowning principal of the commandments and the true good at which man should aim.
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For my part, the work that really stood out was "Grace and Admonition". The subtlety and power of Augustine's solutions to the problems of grace and free will make truly impressive reading. Several times, I went back to the beginning and started reading again - not because I didn't understand it, but because I was so floored by it, that I simply had to read it again right away.
His wife and child, the center of his earthly world, often are his strength as he battles those whose corruption includes lies, cheating, illegal drugs, violence, even murder. And then there is "the other woman" who is bent on using Dylan for her own sinister purposes.
The story-line, told amid descriptive passages that bring the reader the smells and sounds of the bayou and paint a picture of a sultry, lush Louisiana, tells of a beautiful, former grade school girlfriend of Dylan's, who returns from Hollywood seeking Dylan's help, charming her way into his life. Dylan, unknowingly, must contend with her rather nefarious agenda, while investigating a series of seemingly unrelated lawless acts that drag Dylan into the shadowy, sordid world of the criminal.
And, there, standing among the shadows is a beautiful and very familiar face.
In the end, will good triumph over evil, right over wrong? ...... have faith.
Kerr dismissed the Whitlam Government installed the conservative leader Fraser and called an election. The decision was controversial at the time as it was thought by some that the conservatives would give in and in dismissing Whitlam when he did Kerr handed the conservaties a massive electoral advantage.
More recently Kelly in his book 1975 has critized Kerr on other grounds. That is in his view the failure to comunicate with Whitlam was a serious error.
After teh events Whitlam put out a book attacking Kerr not only for his decision but attacking him as a person suggesting that he was a drunk and a social crawler. This is Kerr's response.
Unfortunately Kerr did not have the gift of the light quip or even the light anything. The book is written in leaden prose and in a tone that is hard to like. It probably now would only be of interest to historians or people who have a high boredom tolerance.
Following the writing of this book, Kerr who had a slight problem with alcohol and who gave a speech at the Melbourne Cup obviously very drunk went into exile moving to Europe.
The social damage done by this episode in Australia's history was repared by the success of the Hawke Labour government and by the parties electoral success in Queensland.