For all his devotion to
Jesus Christ, this theology was never adequately Christocentric,
and this reflects itself in many ways in his practical conception
of the Christian life. He did not invent the doctrines of
original sin and seminal transmission of guilt but he did set them
as cornerstones in his "system," matching them with a doctrine of
infant baptism which cancels, ex opere operato, birth sin and
hereditary guilt. He never wearied of celebrating God's abundant
mercy and grace -- but he was also fully persuaded that the vast
majority of mankind are condemned to a wholly just and appalling
damnation. He never denied the reality of human freedom and never
allowed the excuse of human irresponsibility before God -- but
against all detractors of the primacy of God's grace, he
vigorously insisted on both double predestination and irresistible
grace.
For all this the Catholic Church was fully justified in
giving Augustine his aptest title, Doctor Gratiae. The central
theme in all Augustine's writings is the sovereign God of grace
and the sovereign grace of God. Grace, for Augustine, is God's
freedom to act without any external necessity whatsoever -- to act
in love beyond human understanding or control; to act in creation,
judgment, and redemption; to give his Son freely as Mediator and
Redeemer; to endue the Church with the indwelling power and
guidance of the Holy Spirit; to shape the destinies of all
creation and the ends of the two human societies, the "city of
earth" and the "city of God.
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