But the
unforeseen result of this enterprise was to furnish the motifs of
the Church's piety and doctrine for the next thousand years and
more. Wherever one touches the Middle Ages, he finds the marks of
Augustine's influence, powerful and pervasive -- even Aquinas is
more of an Augustinian at heart than a "proper" Aristotelian. In
the Protestant Reformation, the evangelical elements in
Augustine's thought were appealed to in condemnation of the
corruptions of popular Catholicism -- yet even those corruptions
had a certain right of appeal to some of the non-evangelical
aspects of Augustine's thought and life. And, still today, in the
important theological revival of our own time, the influence of
Augustine is obviously one of the most potent and productive
impulses at work.
A succinct characterization of Augustine is impossible, not
only because his thought is so extraordinarily complex and his
expository method so incurably digressive, but also because
throughout his entire career there were lively tensions and
massive prejudices in his heart and head. His doctrine of God
holds the Plotinian notions of divine unity and remotion in
tension with the Biblical emphasis upon the sovereign God's active
involvement in creation and redemption.
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