Abstract
The doctrine of divine election is part of the heritage of Western Christianity. Discussions in the reformed tradition point to the older Augustine as the one who developed the doctrine of double predestination in the controversy with the semi-Pelagians. The thesis of this study is that the birth of this doctrine can be found in the writings of the young Augustine in the early years of his episcopacy. Personal explorations into St. Paul’s letter to the Romans and written questions from Simplician of Milan prompted him to write on Chapter 9. Augustine’s reading of Romans 9 is compared with the preceding works of Marius Victorinus and Ambrosiaster. The account of Augustine’s conversion in his Confessiones document indicates his involvement in Romans. Especially his Ad Simplicianum documents “a veritable revolution in his theology” towards a fully developed doctrine of grace. The concept of God’s foreknowledge of human acts no longer sufficed to understand the diverse fates of the twins Esau and Jacob.
Highlights
The doctrine of divine election is part of the heritage of Western Christianity
In his Retractations (426-7), Augustine, looking back at the Exposition, focusses on what he wrote on Romans 9:10-13: “When I was discussing what God chose in a man not yet born, whom he said his elder son would serve, and what he rejected in this elder son, likewise not yet born.”
Why an inaugural lecture on predestination? Because this angle of thought highlights the doctrine of grace as primarily and God’s free gift
Summary
When there is such a keen interest in the catholicity of the early Church on the one hand and a sharp realisation of our minority status on the other, why did I choose the topic of predestination? It may seem the very worst choice. God is held accountable for the sad situation of the world If he predestined our fate, he could have prevented our fall. If Augustine – with St. Paul – can be called the founding father of this specific doctrine of free grace (Pranger 2002:273), grounded in God eternally electing sinners to salvation in Christ, where was this doctrine first thought through? When the Congrégation sur l’élection eternelle de Dieu of 1551, addressed to the public and written in the vernacular, was published, the editor filled the remaining pages at the end of the book with long quotes from these treatises in French If they represent the mature theologian, when did this African father begin to teach a doctrine of predestination in the early years of his development as an expositor of Scripture? In which constellation of ideas in Augustine’s development was the concept of predestination born and formulated?
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