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Davenant Discussion – Augustine’s Confessions Intro
February 28, 2020 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Friday, February 28 Augustine's Confessions
Come enjoy fellowship, a dessert or snack, beverages, and informal discussion with us as we explore the riches of the first part of Augustine’s Confessions together. There is no need to have read it before; we’ll read a section together and discuss it. The relevance of Augustine for our lives today may surprise you. This is rooted in his continuous allusion to and thorough centeredness upon the Scriptures. As we discuss the book, we’ll ponder also its application and relevance to our lives and for the church today.
The Confessions begins: “You are great, Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and infinite is your wisdom. And man desires to praise you, for he is a part of your creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that you resist the proud.”
This sets the tone for the entire work as Augustine recounts his personal history of rejection of his mother’s faith, rebellious years, philosophical and theological explorations and wanderings, and subsequent transformation by God’s work of grace in saving him. Interwoven throughout are rich theological musings and prayers that have blessed followers of Christ and deeply impacted the church for over 1500 years. For example, just from the first chapter:
“I would not exist – I would simply not be at all – unless I exist in you, from whom and by whom and in whom all things are.
“The house of my soul is too narrow for you to come in to me; let it be enlarged by you. It is ruins; restore it.
“However, Lord, to you most excellent and most good, architect and governor of the universe, thanks would be due, our God, even if you had not willed that I should survive my boyhood.”
We will do well to consider these truths together and retrieve the riches of what Augustine has left us in his Confessions!
Suggested Donation: $10
Future Discussions will be announced soon!
This program will offer something of an intellectual crash course in how to be an intelligent, faithful and historically-grounded Protestant in the twenty-first century. Beginning with a grounding in key biblical themes and Protestant doctrines, the program will continue with explorations of the four other core themes described above: Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics. Featuring readings, lectures, and discussion seminars each day, it will provide an intense but rewarding time of intellectual stimulation, laying a foundation for faithful Christian discipleship in the modern world, rooted in the wisdom of the past.
“There were other joys to be found in their company which still more powerfully captivated my mind – the charms of talking and laughing together and kindly giving way to each other’s wishes, reading elegantly written books together, sharing jokes and delighting to honour one another, disagreeing occasionally but without rancour, as a person might disagree with himself, and lending piquancy by that rare disagreement to our much more frequent accord. We would teach and learn from each other, sadly missing any who were absent and blithely welcoming them when they returned.”
