Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings
INTRODUCTION
that He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross: wherefore God hath exalted Him from the dead, and gave Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father >
Although Augustine was admonished by the Platonic books to forsake the many for the One, to withdraw into himself and contemplate the Light above his mind, all such effort proved futile and left him disintegrated. His early conviction, expressed on reading the Hortensius, that without Christ there can be no wisdom was reinforced on reading the books of the Platonists who seemed to disregard man's need for healing, the need for a savior better and more powerful than man himself.
Through reading Scripture, especially St. Paul, Augustine's personal experience of fallibility in the intellectual and moral order was illuminated, and he began to declare the priority of faith to understanding, the priority of grace to virtuous action.
In the process of answering questions raised by Simplicianus he made his first clear declaration of faith's priority. Previously, writing on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, he had said: "If we believe, it is our work; but if we do good, this is the work of the one who gives the Spirit to believers.">? When he wrote Question 66.3—5 of the Eighty-Three Questions he was of the opinion that God does not grant mercy if good will has not preceded the gift of His grace. By greater attention to the teaching of St. Paul (Rom 9:29), he recognized his false opinion after deep reflection on his own life in the light of the Epistle to the Romans and its commentators. He saw that the initiative for faith, as that for good works, comes from God. Faith is a revelation from God and precedes all good works. Ret -ovee His early position on the priority of the will to faith implied
52. Ibid. 53. Augustine, Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 60.
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