The Catholic University Bulletin Volume 19 PDF Download

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Catholic University Bulletin. / Vol. XVIII. January, 1912. No. 1. ST. AUGUSTINE. It is difficult to write about St. Augustine without appearing to exaggerate. Even to cite the encomiums of critics and historians, to put together the sentences in which great men have expressed their estimate of his greatness would leave one open to the charge of indulging in panegyric where critical examination would he more appropriate. On the other hand, one cannot open up the subject St. Augustine without some reference to the extraordinary greatness of his genius. He was great as a philosopher; he was still greater as a theologian. He was great in the personal sanctity which he attained, great in his zeal and prudence as a Churchman, great in his faults as well as in his virtues, and greatest of all, perhaps, in the simplicity of heart which enables us to see him as he really was. He combined, says one admirer, the powerful and penetrating logic of Plato, the deep scientific conceptions of Aristotle, the knowledge and intellectual suppleness of Origen, the grace and eloquence of Basil and Chrysostom. We may add that if he is second to the other great Christian teachers in any one respect, if he is lacking in the subtleness of metaphysical skill which characterized Athanasius, if he is inferior to Ambrose in practical institutional genius, if he is excelled by Aquinas in technical skill and in the gift of systematisation, he stands above them all in tenderness of heart and the supreme power of reaching the soul of his reader. Catholics have called him The greatest doctor of the Catholic World. But Protestants have claimed him too. Harnack has said No man since Paul is comparable to him, and less thoughtful Protestant writers have maintained that Augustine is t...