Historia ya Kanisa — Sehemu ya 4: Augustino, Utawa, na Kuanguka kwa RomaChurch History — Unit 4: Augustine, Monasticism, and the Fall of Rome

Sehemu ya 3 ilihitimishwa na maaskofu huko Kalkedoni mwaka 451. Kufikia mwaka huo Dola ya Kirumi ya Magharibi ilikuwa tayari imeanguka nusu. Wavisigothi walikuwa wameuteka na kuupora mji wa Roma wenyewe mwaka 410, Wavandali wangefanya hivyo tena mwaka 455, na mfalme wa mwisho wa Magharibi angeondolewa madarakani na chifu wa Kijerumani mwaka 476. Mfumo wa kisiasa uliokuwa umeibeba injili tangu Pentekoste hadi Kalkedoni ulikuwa ukifa. Watazamaji wengi walidhani kanisa lingekufa pamoja nao.Unit 3 ended with the bishops at Chalcedon in 451. By that year the Western Roman Empire was already half-collapsed. Visigoths had sacked Rome itself in 410, Vandals would do it again in 455, and the last Western emperor would be deposed by a Germanic chieftain in 476. The political order that had carried the gospel from Pentecost to Chalcedon was dying. Most observers thought the church would die with it.

Kanisa halikufa. Lilinusurika, katika Magharibi, kwa kiasi kikubwa kwa sababu ya mambo matatu yaliyotokana na karne ya tano. La kwanza lilikuwa askofu wa Afrika Kaskazini aitwaye Augustino wa Hippo, ambaye kazi yake ya kitheolojia ingeunda kanisa la Magharibi kwa miaka elfu moja iliyofuata na bado inaunda mahubiri ya Wakristo wa Kiinjili leo. La pili lilikuwa msomi wa Kilatini aitwaye Yeronimo, ambaye tafsiri yake ya Biblia kwa Kilatini (Vulgata) ilikuwa, kwa kiwango kikubwa mno, Biblia kuu ya Magharibi ya Kilatini kwa milenia iliyofuata. La tatu lilikuwa vuguvugu lililotoka katika jangwa la Misri liitwalo utawa, ambalo lingehifadhi elimu ya Kikristo, kunakili vitabu vya Kikristo, na kuinjilisha Ulaya ya mataifa ya kishenzi muda mrefu baada ya serikali ya Kirumi kukoma kufanya kazi.The church did not die. She survived, in the West, largely because of three things that came out of the fifth century. The first was a North African bishop named Augustine of Hippo, whose theological work would shape the Western church for the next thousand years and still shapes evangelical preaching today. The second was a Latin scholar named Jerome, whose translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate) became overwhelmingly the dominant Bible of the Latin West for the next millennium. The third was a movement out of the Egyptian desert called monasticism, which would preserve Christian learning, copy Christian books, and evangelize barbarian Europe long after the Roman state had ceased to function.

Sehemu ya 4 ni hadithi ya zawadi hizo tatu na ya dola iliyoanguka kuzizunguka. Tutatumia muda wetu mwingi pamoja na Augustino kwa sababu yeye ndiye, baada ya mtume Paulo, mwanatheolojia muhimu zaidi katika historia ya kanisa — na mtu ambaye fundisho lake la neema linaliunganisha kanisa la kwanza na Matengenezo ya Kanisa tutakayoyafikia katika Sehemu ya 7.Unit 4 is the story of those three gifts and the empire that fell around them. We will spend most of our time with Augustine because he is, after the apostle Paul, the most important theologian in the history of the church — and the man whose grace doctrine connects the early church to the Reformation we will reach in Unit 7.

"Umetuumba kwa ajili Yako, Ee Bwana, na moyo wetu hauna utulivu mpaka upumzike ndani Yako." — Augustino, Maungamo I.1"You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You." — Augustine, Confessions I.1

Augustino alizaliwa mwaka 354 katika mji mdogo wa Afrika Kaskazini uitwao Thagaste. Baba yake, Patrisio, alikuwa afisa mpagani wa Kirumi; mama yake, Monika, alikuwa Mkristo mcha Mungu ambaye maombi na machozi yake kwa ajili ya mwanawe aliyetangatanga yakawa mojawapo ya hadithi kuu za akina mama katika historia ya kanisa. Monika alitaka Augustino abatizwe akiwa mtoto mchanga, lakini kwa desturi ya siku zile ubatizo mara nyingi uliahirishwa; alipanda mbegu za injili ndani yake kwa miaka thelathini na mitatu iliyofuata, akangoja.Augustine was born in 354 in the small North African town of Thagaste. His father Patricius was a pagan Roman official; his mother Monica was a devout Christian whose prayers and tears for her wandering son became one of the great mother-stories of church history. Monica wanted Augustine baptized as a baby, but in the custom of the day baptism was often delayed; she planted gospel seeds in him for the next thirty-three years and waited.

Augustino alipelekwa Karthago akiwa na umri wa miaka kumi na saba kwa ajili ya elimu ya juu. Mara moja aliangukia anasa za mji huo, akachukua suria ambaye angekaa naye kwa miaka kumi na mitano, akazaa mwana aliyemwita Adeodato — "aliyetolewa na Mungu." Alisoma mazungumzo ya Kikero yaitwayo Hortensius, ambayo sasa yamepotea, nayo yakamfanya aanze kutafuta hekima, lakini Biblia ilimwonekea kuwa kitabu duni, na Mungu wa Wakristo kuwa wazi mno dini ya kienyeji ya mama yake. Badala yake alijiunga na Wamanikayo, dhehebu la uwili (tulikutana na fundisho la uwili kwa Wagnostiki katika Sehemu ya 2) lililofundisha kwamba vitu vya kimwili ni viovu, roho ni njema, na kwamba kuna pambano la milele la ulimwengu mzima kati ya nguvu mbili zinazokaribia kulingana. Mafundisho ya Wamanikayo yalimwondolea Augustino lawama za kimaadili: dhambi yake ilitoka kwa kanuni ovu katika mwili wake, si kwa nia potovu ambayo alipaswa kuitubia. Alibaki katika dhehebu hilo kwa miaka tisa.Augustine was sent to Carthage at seventeen for higher education. He fell at once into the city's pleasures, took a concubine he would keep for fifteen years, and fathered a son he named Adeodatus — "given by God." He read Cicero's now-lost dialogue Hortensius, which set him searching for wisdom, but the Bible struck him as crude and the Christian God as too obviously the local religion of his mother. He joined instead the Manicheans, a dualistic sect (we met dualism with the Gnostics in Unit 2) that taught matter is evil, spirit is good, and an eternal cosmic struggle is going on between two nearly equal powers. Manichean teaching let Augustine off the hook morally: his sin came from the evil principle in his flesh, not from a corrupt will he had to repent of. He stayed in the sect for nine years.

Bwawa lilianza kupasuka alipokuwa na umri wa miaka thelathini. Alikuwa amehama kutoka Karthago kwenda Roma na kisha Milano, ambako alikuwa ameteuliwa kuwa profesa wa ufasaha katika mji mkuu wa kifalme. Huko Milano alikwenda kumsikiliza mhubiri mkuu Ambrosi — si kwa ajili ya ujumbe, bali ili kujifunza ufundi wa askofu huyo. Alibaki kwa sababu maneno yalianza kumgusa. Jinsi Ambrosi alivyolifafanua Agano la Kale kwa njia ya mafumbo (kiistiari) ilimwonyesha kwamba Biblia haikuwa kitabu duni kama alivyokihukumu alipokuwa kijana. Majibu ya Wamanikayo yalianza kuonekana kuwa hafifu yalipochunguzwa kwa makini. Monika, aliyekuwa amemfuata mwanawe hadi Milano, alitazama, akangoja, akaomba.The dam began to crack when he was thirty. He had moved from Carthage to Rome and then to Milan, where he had been appointed professor of rhetoric in the imperial capital. In Milan he went to hear the great preacher Ambrose — not for the message, but to study the bishop's technique. He stayed because the words began to find him. Ambrose's allegorical handling of the Old Testament showed him that the Bible was not the crude book his teenage self had judged it. The Manichean answers began to look thin under serious examination. Monica, who had followed her son to Milan, watched and waited and prayed.

Mabadiliko yalikuja mwishoni mwa kiangazi cha mwaka 386. Augustino, akilia katika bustani nafsi yake ikiwa imefika mwisho wa uvumilivu, alisikia sauti ya mtoto kutoka nyumba jirani ikiimba "tolle, lege, tolle, lege" — "twaa, usome, twaa, usome." Aliokota nakala ya nyaraka za Paulo iliyokuwa juu ya benchi, akaifungua bila kuchagua, akasoma: "Si kwa ulafi na ulevi, si kwa ufisadi na uasherati, si kwa ugomvi na wivu. Bali mvaeni Bwana Yesu Kristo, wala msiuangalie mwili, kuziwasha tamaa zake" (Warumi 13:13–14). Maneno yaliyomchoma yalikuwa ndiyo maneno ambayo Monika alikuwa amengoja kwa miaka thelathini na mitatu kuyaona yakimchoma. Aliongoka papo hapo. Ambrosi alimbatiza katika Mkesha wa Pasaka wa mwaka 387. Monika alikufa huko Ostia miezi michache baadaye, akiwa tayari kuondoka.The break came in the late summer of 386. Augustine, weeping in a garden at the breaking point of his soul, heard a child's voice from a neighboring house chanting "tolle, lege, tolle, lege" — "take, read, take, read." He picked up a copy of Paul's letters lying on a bench, opened at random, and read: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:13–14). The words that struck him were the words Monica had been waiting thirty-three years to see strike him. He converted on the spot. Ambrose baptized him at the Easter Vigil of 387. Monica died at Ostia a few months later, ready to go.

Augustino alirudi Afrika Kaskazini, akauza urithi wake, na akajaribu kuishi maisha ya utulivu ya kifalsafa pamoja na marafiki wachache. Kanisa halikumwacha. Mwaka 391 alisukumwa mbele kupitia umati huko Hippo na kuwekwa wakfu kwa nguvu kuwa padre (mzee wa kanisa). Mwaka 396 akawa askofu wa Hippo. Alishika kiti hicho cha uaskofu kwa miaka thelathini na minne, mpaka kifo chake mwaka 430 majeshi ya Wavandali yakiwa yanazingira kuta za mji. Kutoka kwenye kiti hicho kidogo cha Afrika Kaskazini aliandika maneno zaidi ya milioni tano na akaiunda teolojia ya kanisa la Magharibi kwa miaka elfu moja iliyofuata.Augustine returned to North Africa, sold his patrimony, and tried to live a life of philosophical retirement with a few friends. The church would not let him. In 391 he was passed through a crowd in Hippo and forcibly ordained a priest. In 396 he became bishop of Hippo. He held the see for thirty-four years, until his death in 430 with Vandal armies besieging the city walls. From that small North African seat he wrote more than five million words and shaped the theology of the Western church for the next thousand years.

Karibu mwaka 400, alipokuwa amekuwa askofu kwa miaka minne, Augustino aliketi kuandika kitabu kisichofanana na chochote kilichowahi kuandikwa kabla. Maungamo ni wasifu wa mwandishi mwenyewe katika umbo la sala ndefu inayoelekezwa kwa Mungu. Augustino anasimulia habari za maisha yake tangu utotoni hadi kuongoka kwake na baada ya hapo, bila kuficha chochote, akiwajibika kwa kila kitu. Kulikuwa na maungamo ya dhambi katika Biblia. Kulikuwa na wasifu katika ulimwengu wa kale. Hakukuwahi kuwa na kitabu kilichounganisha mambo hayo mawili kwa unyoofu wa kuchunguza moyo kama ule wa Maungamo.Around the year 400, when he had been bishop for four years, Augustine sat down to write a book unlike any that had ever been written before. The Confessions is an autobiography in the form of a long prayer addressed to God. Augustine tells the story of his life from infancy through his conversion and beyond, holding nothing back, taking responsibility for everything. There had been confessions of sin in the Bible. There had been autobiographies in the ancient world. There had never been a book that combined the two with the searching honesty of The Confessions.

Kitabu kinaanza na sentensi ambayo imenukuliwa mara elfu kumi: "Umetuumba kwa ajili Yako, Ee Bwana, na moyo wetu hauna utulivu mpaka upumzike ndani Yako." Vitabu kumi na vitatu vinavyofuata vinaufuatilia moyo mmoja usio na utulivu kupitia kila pumziko la uongo ulilojaribu — ngono, tamaa ya kupanda cheo, falsafa, uanachama wa dhehebu, mafanikio ya kikazi — kabla hatimaye haujapata pumziko lake la kweli ndani ya Kristo.The book opens with a sentence that has been quoted ten thousand times: "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You." The thirteen books that follow trace one restless heart through every false rest it tried — sex, ambition, philosophy, sect membership, professional success — before it finally found its true rest in Christ.

Matukio maarufu zaidi yenyewe ni kazi za kiroho za kudumu. Katika Kitabu cha II, Augustino akiwa mvulana pamoja na rafiki zake wanaiba pea kutoka kwenye mti wa jirani — si kwa sababu ya njaa, kwa kuwa walikuwa na matunda bora nyumbani, bali kwa furaha tupu ya kufanya kosa. Augustino anatumia kurasa nyingi juu ya tendo hili dogo kwa sababu lilimfundisha dhambi ni nini katika kiini chake: si kupenda vitu vibaya, bali upendo uliopotoka wa kufanya kosa kwa sababu ni kosa. Katika Kitabu cha VIII kuongoka kwake katika bustani kwa tolle lege kunasimuliwa. Katika Kitabu cha X Augustino anaingia katika mojawapo ya sala maarufu zaidi zilizowahi kuandikwa: "Nimekupenda kwa kuchelewa, Ee Uzuri wa kale sana na mpya sana, nimekupenda kwa kuchelewa! Na tazama, Wewe ulikuwa ndani yangu nami nilikuwa nje, na huko nilikutafuta." Katika Kitabu cha IX kifo cha Monika huko Ostia kinaelezwa kwa upole ambao hakuna mwandishi mwingine wa kale anayeufikia.The most famous scenes are themselves spiritual classics. In Book II, the boyhood Augustine and his friends steal pears from a neighbor's tree — not from hunger, since they had better fruit at home, but for the sheer pleasure of doing wrong. Augustine spends pages on this small act because it taught him what sin is at its core: not the love of bad things, but the perverted love of doing wrong as wrong. In Book VIII the tolle lege garden conversion is told. In Book X Augustine breaks into one of the most famous prayers ever written: "Late have I loved You, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved You! And behold, You were within me and I was outside, and there I sought You." In Book IX Monica's death at Ostia is described with a tenderness no other ancient writer matches.

Maungamo yaliwafundisha Wakristo namna ya kujichunguza ambayo hakuna aliyekuwa ameitenda kwa njia hii kabla. Mchungaji aliyesoma habari za Augustino kuhusu moyo wake mwenyewe atawashauri watu wake kwa jicho kali zaidi la kutambua tatizo. Mwamini aliyeomba sala za Augustino atajijua vizuri zaidi, na kumjua Kristo vizuri zaidi, kwa maisha yake yote yaliyobaki.The Confessions taught Christians a kind of self-examination none had practiced quite this way before. The pastor who has read Augustine's account of his own heart will counsel his people with a sharper diagnostic eye. The believer who has prayed Augustine's prayers will know himself better, and Christ better, for the rest of his life.

Augustino anaitwa Mwalimu wa Neema, naye alistahili cheo hicho katika pambano refu na mtawa wa Uingereza aitwaye Pelagio. Karibu mwaka 400 Pelagio alikuja Roma kutoka Uingereza. Alikuwa mtu makini, mwenye maisha ya kujinyima — si aina ya mtu ambaye kanisa kwa kawaida hulazimika kupambana naye. Lakini mafundisho yake, yalipochunguzwa, yalikuwa kukana neema hadi kwenye kiini chake.Augustine is called the Doctor of Grace, and he earned the title in a long fight with a British monk named Pelagius. Around 400 Pelagius came to Rome from Britain. He was a serious, ascetic man — not the sort the church usually has to fight. But his teaching, when examined, was a denial of grace at the bone.

Pelagio alifundisha kwamba wanadamu huzaliwa wakiwa hawana upande wowote kimaadili. Dhambi ya Adamu ilimdhuru Adamu peke yake; haikuiharibu asili ya kibinadamu yenyewe. Kila mtoto huzaliwa akiwa hana hatia kama Adamu alivyoumbwa. Kila mtu ana uhuru kamili wa kuchagua mema au mabaya kila wakati. Dhambi si hali inayorithiwa; ni mkusanyiko wa maamuzi mabaya. Kwa hiyo wokovu ni kitu tunachokipata kwa juhudi zetu kwa kufuata mfano wa Kristo, tukisaidiwa na mafundisho ya kimaadili ya injili na mfano wa maisha Yake yasiyo na dhambi. Kimsingi, Pelagio alifundisha, mtu angeweza kuwa bila dhambi kama angejitahidi vya kutosha.Pelagius taught that human beings are born morally neutral. Adam's sin damaged Adam alone; it did not corrupt human nature itself. Each child is born as innocent as Adam was created. Each person has full free will to choose good or evil at every moment. Sin is not an inherited condition; it is an accumulation of bad choices. Salvation, accordingly, is something we achieve by following Christ's example, helped by the moral instruction of the gospel and the example of His sinless life. In principle, Pelagius taught, a man could be sinless if he tried hard enough.

Augustino alirudi nyuma kwa mshtuko. Umbo zima la injili, kama alivyolionja katika kuongoka kwake mwenyewe na kama alivyolisoma kwa Paulo, lilikuwa kwamba wanadamu huzaliwa wakiwa tayari wameharibika, kwamba nia imefungwa na dhambi mpaka neema iiweke huru, na kwamba hata kumgeukia kwetu Mungu ni zawadi ya Mungu kabla haijawa uamuzi tunaoufanya. Augustino alimjibu Pelagio kwa zaidi ya muongo mmoja wa maandishi katika vitabu kama Juu ya Asili na Neema, Juu ya Roho na Andiko, na Juu ya Kuchaguliwa Tangu Awali kwa Watakatifu. Mambo matano ya teolojia yake ya kupinga Upelagio yameunda fundisho la wokovu la Magharibi tangu wakati huo.Augustine recoiled. The whole shape of the gospel, as he had experienced it in his own conversion and as he read it in Paul, was that human beings are born already corrupt, that the will is bound by sin until grace frees it, and that even our turning to God is a gift of God before it is a choice we make. Augustine countered Pelagius across more than a decade of writing in books like On Nature and Grace, On the Spirit and the Letter, and On the Predestination of the Saints. Five points of his anti-Pelagian theology have shaped Western soteriology ever since.

Kwanza, dhambi ya asili. Adamu alipoanguka, uzao wake wote ulianguka ndani yake. Tunazaliwa tukiwa tayari tumetengwa na Mungu, tukiwa na mioyo inayoelekea uovu. Augustino alielekeza kwenye Warumi 5 na kwenye uzoefu wa wanadamu wote kwamba hakuna mtu aliyewahi kulazimika kumfundisha mtoto kusema uongo. Pili, utumwa wa nia. Nia haiko katikati bila upande. Nia isiyokombolewa imefanywa mtumwa wa mapendo yake yaliyovurugika. Tunaweza kuchagua tunachokitaka, lakini tamaa zetu zimeharibika, kwa hiyo tukiachwa wenyewe hatuwezi kumtaka Mungu kwa kweli. Tatu, neema itanguliayo. Neema inayomgeuza mwenye dhambi kumwelekea Mungu inakuja kabla ya uamuzi wowote ambao mwenye dhambi anaufanya kwa ajili ya Mungu. Hata imani ni zawadi, si mchango. Nne, ulazima wa neema katika kila hatua. Tunaokolewa kwa neema, tunalindwa kwa neema, tunatakaswa kwa neema, na tunafikishwa nyumbani kwa neema. Hakuna wakati wowote ambapo neema inaweza kurudi nyuma na kutuacha tujikamilishe wenyewe. Tano, kuchaguliwa tangu awali. Uchaguzi wa Mungu wa wateule Wake si jibu kwa sifa njema alizoziona mapema; ndio msingi wa sifa njema yoyote watakayokuwa nayo.First, original sin. When Adam fell, all his descendants fell in him. We are born already alienated from God, with hearts inclined to evil. Augustine pointed to Romans 5 and to the universal human experience that no one has ever had to teach a child to lie. Second, the bondage of the will. The will is not neutral. The unredeemed will is enslaved to its disordered loves. We can choose what we want, but our wants are corrupted, so left to ourselves we cannot want God truly. Third, prevenient grace. The grace that turns a sinner toward God comes before any decision the sinner makes for God. Even faith is a gift, not a contribution. Fourth, the necessity of grace at every step. We are saved by grace, kept by grace, sanctified by grace, and brought home by grace. There is never a moment when grace can step back and let us finish ourselves. Fifth, predestination. God's choice of His elect is not a response to foreseen merit; it is the foundation of any merit they will ever have.

Mtaguso wa Karthago mwaka 418 ulihukumu Upelagio, na Mtaguso wa Efeso mwaka 431 ulithibitisha upya hukumu hiyo. Kanisa la Magharibi lilipokea fundisho la Augustino kuhusu neema kama kanuni ya imani sahihi. Miaka elfu moja baadaye, mtawa wa Kijerumani aitwaye Martin Luther alipoigundua upya Warumi, alimgundua Augustino tena. Mstari kutoka kwa Augustino hadi Matengenezo ya Kanisa unapita katika Warumi 5 na fundisho la dhambi ya asili na la utumwa wa nia. Sehemu ya 7 itaushika mstari huo. Sehemu ya 4 inauweka.The Council of Carthage in 418 condemned Pelagianism, and the Council of Ephesus in 431 reaffirmed the condemnation. The Western church received Augustine's grace doctrine as the rule of orthodoxy. A thousand years later, when a German monk named Martin Luther rediscovered Romans, he discovered Augustine again. The line from Augustine to the Reformation runs through Romans 5 and the doctrine of original sin and the bondage of the will. Unit 7 will pick up that line. Unit 4 lays it down.

Tarehe 24 Agosti 410, majeshi ya Wavisigothi chini ya Mfalme Alariki yaliingia mji wa Roma na kuupora. Walikuwa Wakristo wa aina ya Kiario nao waliyaacha salama makanisa ya mji, lakini mshtuko wa kisiasa haukupimika. Roma ilikuwa haijaporwa na adui wa kigeni kwa miaka mia nane. "Sauti yangu imesongwa na kwikwi," Yeronimo aliandika kutoka Bethlehemu aliposikia. "Mji uliokuwa umeuteka ulimwengu wote wenyewe umetekwa."On August 24, 410, Visigothic armies under King Alaric entered the city of Rome and sacked it. They were Christians of an Arian variety and they spared the city's churches, but the political shock was incalculable. Rome had not been sacked by a foreign enemy in eight hundred years. "My voice is choked with sobs," Jerome wrote from Bethlehem when he heard. "The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken."

Wapagani kote katika dola waliulaumu Ukristo. Walisema miungu ya zamani ilikuwa imeilinda Roma kwa miaka elfu moja. Kisha Roma ikaiacha miungu ya zamani kwa ajili ya Kristo, na miungu ya zamani ikaiacha ianguke. Augustino aliketi ili kuwajibu. Kitabu kilichotokana na kazi hiyo, Mji wa Mungu (De Civitate Dei), kilimshughulisha kwa miaka kumi na minne (412–426) na ni mojawapo ya vitabu vyenye ushawishi mkubwa zaidi vilivyowahi kuandikwa na Mkristo.Pagans across the empire blamed Christianity. The old gods had protected Rome for a thousand years, they said. Then Rome had abandoned the old gods for Christ, and the old gods had let her fall. Augustine sat down to answer them. The book that resulted, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), occupied him for fourteen years (412–426) and is one of the most influential books ever written by a Christian.

Hoja kuu ya Augustino ni fundisho la miji miwili. Tangu mwanzo wa historia ya wanadamu kumekuwa na jumuiya mbili zinazopita ulimwenguni kando kwa kando. Mji wa Mwanadamu umejengwa juu ya kujipenda mwenyewe hata kumdharau Mungu; unajumuisha Babeli na Misri na Roma na kila dola iliyowahi kuinuka kwa upanga na kuanguka kwa upanga. Mji wa Mungu umejengwa juu ya kumpenda Mungu hata kujidharau mwenyewe; unajumuisha Habili na Ibrahimu na Israeli na kanisa, nao ndio mji pekee unaodumu milele. Miji hiyo miwili imechanganyika katika nyakati hizi za sasa. Itatenganishwa tu katika hukumu ya mwisho.Augustine's central argument is the doctrine of the two cities. From the beginning of human history there have been two communities running through the world side by side. The City of Man is built on the love of self to the contempt of God; it includes Babylon and Egypt and Rome and every empire that has ever risen by the sword and fallen by it. The City of God is built on the love of God to the contempt of self; it includes Abel and Abraham and Israel and the church, and it is the only city that endures forever. The two cities are mingled in this present age. They will be separated only at the final judgment.

Matokeo ya fundisho hili yaliunda fikra za Kikristo za Magharibi kwa miaka elfu moja iliyofuata. Dola za dunia hii hufa. Roma ilikuwa lazima ianguke siku moja, kwa sababu Roma ilikuwa mji wa mwanadamu. Kanisa si dola. Kanisa linaweza kuishi kwa kipindi fulani chini ya upendeleo wa kifalme, lakini halitegemei upendeleo huo; lilikuwepo kabla ya Konstantino na litaendelea kuwepo baada ya mfalme Mkristo wa mwisho. Uenyeji wa kweli wa Mkristo uko katika Mji wa Mungu (Wafilipi 3:20). Popote mwamini alipo katika ramani ya kisiasa, yeye ni msafiri ambaye nchi yake halisi iko mahali pengine. Augustino aliandika maneno hayo wakati Wavandali walikuwa wakijiandaa kuuzingira mji wake mwenyewe. Alikufa mwaka 430 mzingiro ukiwa unaendelea. Hippo ilianguka muda mfupi baadaye. Mji wa Mungu ulibaki.The implications shaped Western Christian thinking for the next thousand years. Earthly empires are mortal. Rome was always going to fall, because Rome was a city of man. The church is not the empire. The church may live for a season under imperial favor, but she does not depend on it; she existed before Constantine and she will exist after the last Christian emperor. The Christian's true citizenship is in the City of God (Philippians 3:20). Wherever a believer is on the political map, he is a pilgrim with his real homeland elsewhere. Augustine wrote those words while Vandals were preparing to lay siege to his own city. He died in 430 with the siege underway. Hippo fell shortly after. The City of God remained.

Mtu wa wakati mmoja na Augustino, Yeronimo (takriban 347–420), alikuwa, pamoja na Augustino, Baba mkuu wa pili wa Kilatini wa Magharibi, na msomi mkuu wa kwanza wa Biblia wa kanisa. Yeronimo alikuwa mtawa mwepesi wa hasira na mwandishi stadi wa Kilatini aliyejifunza Kiebrania (ujuzi adimu miongoni mwa Wakristo wa Magharibi) na akayatoa maisha yake kwa ajili ya maandishi ya Maandiko.Augustine's contemporary Jerome (c. 347–420) was, alongside Augustine, the second great Latin Father of the West, and the church's first great biblical scholar. Jerome was an irascible monk and Latin stylist who learned Hebrew (a rare skill among Western Christians) and devoted his life to the text of Scripture.

Papa Damaso alimwagiza Yeronimo karibu mwaka 382 kurekebisha tafsiri nyingi za Kilatini za Biblia zilizokuwa zikishindana na zilizokuwa zikienea katika kanisa la Magharibi. Agano la Kale lilikuwa limetafsiriwa kipande kwa kipande kutoka Septuaginta ya Kigiriki; Agano Jipya lilikuwepo katika matoleo kadhaa ya Kilatini yasiyo safi. Yeronimo alifanya mengi zaidi ya kurekebisha. Alilitafsiri upya Agano la Kale moja kwa moja kutoka Kiebrania (Mkristo mkuu wa kwanza wa Magharibi kwenda nyuma ya Septuaginta hadi maandishi ya Kiebrania), akalitafsiri Agano Jipya kutoka Kigiriki, na akatoa Biblia moja ya Kilatini iliyounganishwa. Matokeo yake yakajulikana kama Vulgata (kutoka versio vulgata, "toleo la kawaida") kwa sababu ilikusudiwa kuwa Biblia ambayo kanisa la kawaida linalozungumza Kilatini lingeweza kuishiriki.Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome around 382 to revise the multiple competing Latin translations of the Bible that were circulating in the Western church. The Old Testament had been translated piecemeal from the Greek Septuagint; the New Testament existed in several rough Latin versions. Jerome did far more than revise. He retranslated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew (the first major Western Christian to go behind the Septuagint to the Hebrew text), translated the New Testament from Greek, and produced a single unified Latin Bible. The result became known as the Vulgate (from versio vulgata, the "common version") because it was meant to be the Bible the common Latin-speaking church could share.

Vulgata ikawa kitabu kimoja muhimu zaidi katika Ukristo wa Magharibi kwa miaka elfu moja iliyofuata. Kila mhubiri katika Magharibi ya Zama za Kati alihubiri kutoka kwayo. Kila mwanatheolojia alinukuu kutoka kwayo. Kila mtawa aliinakili. Msamiati wa teolojia ya Kikristo ya Magharibi — kuhesabiwa haki, kuzaliwa upya, sakramenti, kuchaguliwa tangu awali — kwa kiasi kikubwa ni maneno ya Kilatini aliyoyachagua Yeronimo kwa ajili ya istilahi za msingi za Kigiriki na Kiebrania. Wycliffe alipoitafsiri Biblia kwa Kiingereza katika karne ya kumi na nne, alitafsiri kutoka Vulgata. Luther alipotafsiri kwa Kijerumani katika karne ya kumi na sita, alirudi kwenye lugha za asili, lakini alikuwa akipinga karne nyingi za utawala wa Vulgata. Yeronimo aliunda uhusiano wa Magharibi na Maandiko kuliko mtafsiri mwingine yeyote mmoja hadi wakati wa Tyndale.The Vulgate became the single most important book in Western Christianity for the next thousand years. Every preacher in the medieval West preached from it. Every theologian quoted from it. Every monk copied it. The vocabulary of Western Christian theology — justification, regeneration, sacrament, predestination — is largely Jerome's Latin choices for the underlying Greek and Hebrew terms. When Wycliffe translated the Bible into English in the fourteenth century, he translated from the Vulgate. When Luther translated into German in the sixteenth century, he went back to the original languages, but he was reacting against centuries of Vulgate dominance. Jerome shaped the West's relationship with Scripture more than any other single translator until Tyndale.

Msemo wa Yeronimo unaonukuliwa zaidi ni mfupi na mkali: "Kutoyajua Maandiko ni kutomjua Kristo." Mtu aliyesema hivyo alikaa miaka arobaini katika pango huko Bethlehemu akiwa na maandishi ya Maandiko mbele yake. Alijua alichokuwa akizungumzia.Jerome's most quoted line is short and sharp: "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." The man who said it spent forty years in a Bethlehem cave with the text in front of him. He knew what he was talking about.

Wakati Augustino na Yeronimo walikuwa wakiandika katika miji yao, vuguvugu jingine la Kikristo lilikuwa likijitokeza katika jangwa la Misri, ambalo lingethibitika kudumu vilevile na, kwa hoja nzuri, lenye matokeo makubwa vilevile. Utawa ulikuwa ni Wakristo kujitenga kwa makusudi na jamii ya kawaida ya mijini ili kumtafuta Mungu katika maisha sahili kabisa, maombi, na nidhamu. Ulianza kama vuguvugu la kupinga kanisa la baada ya Konstantino lililokuwa likizidi kustarehe na kuzidi kuwa la kidunia. Ikiwa kila mtu katika dola sasa alikuwa Mkristo kwa jina, baadhi ya Wakristo walihoji, basi njia pekee ya kuichukulia injili kwa uzito ilikuwa kuiacha miji ya dola na kwenda mahali ambapo maafikiano yake hayangeweza kufika.While Augustine and Jerome were writing in their cities, another Christian movement was forming in the Egyptian desert that would prove just as durable and arguably just as consequential. Monasticism was the deliberate withdrawal of Christians from ordinary urban society to pursue God in radical simplicity, prayer, and discipline. It began as a protest movement against the increasingly comfortable, increasingly worldly post-Constantinian church. If everyone in the empire was now nominally Christian, some Christians reasoned, then the only way to take the gospel seriously was to leave the empire's cities and go where its compromises could not reach.

Antoni wa Misri (takriban 251–356) na jangwaAnthony of Egypt (c. 251–356) and the desert

Mkristo mkaapweke (mtawa wa upweke) wa kwanza maarufu alikuwa Antoni wa Misri. Karibu mwaka 270, akiwa kijana, Antoni alisikia somo la Jumapili la Mathayo 19:21 — "Ukitaka kuwa mkamilifu, enenda, ukauze ulivyo navyo, uwape maskini… kisha njoo unifuate." Aliichukua kama amri kwake binafsi. Aliuza urithi wake, akawapa maskini mapato yake, akaenda katika jangwa la Misri, ambako aliishi kwa miaka themanini na mitano iliyofuata katika upweke uliozidi kuwa wa mbali. Athanasio (tuliyekutana naye katika Sehemu ya 3) aliandika wasifu wake — Maisha ya Antoni — ambao ukawa mojawapo ya vitabu vilivyosomwa zaidi katika kanisa la kwanza na ukawavuvia maelfu kufuata mfano wa Antoni. Augustino mwenyewe anaripoti katika Maungamo kwamba Maisha ya Antoni kilikuwa mojawapo ya vitabu ambavyo Mungu alivitumia kumsukuma kuelekea kuongoka kwake mwenyewe.The first famous Christian hermit was Anthony of Egypt. Around 270, as a young man, Anthony heard the Sunday reading of Matthew 19:21 — "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor… and come, follow Me." He took it as a personal command. He sold his inheritance, gave the proceeds to the poor, and walked into the Egyptian desert, where he lived for the next eighty-five years in increasingly remote solitude. Athanasius (whom we met in Unit 3) wrote his biography — the Life of Anthony — which became one of the most-read books in the early church and inspired thousands to follow Anthony's example. Augustine himself reports in the Confessions that the Life of Anthony was one of the books God used to push him toward his own conversion.

Pakomio (takriban 292–348) na utawa wa kijumuiyaPachomius (c. 292–348) and communal monasticism

Antoni alikuwa mkaapweke; hatua iliyofuata ilikuwa jumuiya. Pakomio, aliyekuwa askari wa Kirumi zamani, alianzisha nyumba za kwanza za utawa za kisenobiti (za kijumuiya) karibu mwaka 320 kando ya mto Naili. Nyumba zake za utawa zilikuwa na kuta, malango, ratiba, milo ya pamoja, maombi ya pamoja, na kanuni iliyoandikwa. Mamia ya watawa wangeweza kuishi pamoja chini ya abati mmoja (mkuu wa nyumba ya utawa). Utawa wa Pakomio ukawa mfano mkuu katika Mashariki na ukapelekwa magharibi na watu kama Kasiano.Anthony was a hermit; the next step was community. Pachomius, a former Roman soldier, founded the first cenobitic (communal) monasteries around 320 along the Nile. His monasteries had walls, gates, schedules, common meals, common prayers, and a written rule. Hundreds of monks could live together under a single abbot. Pachomian monasticism became the dominant model in the East and was carried west by men like Cassian.

Benedikto wa Nursia (takriban 480–547) na kanuni ya MagharibiBenedict of Nursia (c. 480–547) and the Western rule

Mtu ambaye angeunda utawa wa Magharibi kwa karne kumi na tano zilizofuata alikuwa Benedikto wa Nursia. Akiwa amechukizwa na hali ya kidunia ya Roma, Benedikto kijana alikwenda milimani, akaishi kama mkaapweke, akakusanya wanafunzi, na karibu mwaka 529 akaanzisha nyumba ya utawa juu ya mlima wa Monte Cassino kusini mwa Roma. Huko aliandika Kanuni ya Mtakatifu Benedikto, hati fupi, yenye uwiano, na ya utu, ambayo ingekuwa msingi wa karibu kila nyumba ya utawa ya Magharibi kwa miaka elfu moja iliyofuata.The figure who would shape Western monasticism for the next fifteen centuries was Benedict of Nursia. Disgusted with the worldliness of Rome, the young Benedict went into the hills, lived as a hermit, gathered disciples, and around 529 founded a monastery on the mountain of Monte Cassino south of Rome. There he wrote the Rule of Saint Benedict, a short, balanced, humane document that would become the foundation of nearly every Western monastery for the next thousand years.

Kanuni ya Wabenedikto ilipanga siku kuzunguka amri maarufu yenye pande mbili ora et labora — omba na fanya kazi. Mtawa angeomba Zaburi pamoja na ndugu zake mara nane kwa siku (Sala za Kanisa za saa maalum), angefanya kazi ya mikono kwa saa kadhaa, angejifunza Maandiko na maandiko ya Mababa wa kanisa katika chumba chake, na angeishi chini ya utii kwa abati katika jumuiya thabiti maisha yake yote. Benedikto aliiita nyumba ya utawa "shule ya utumishi wa Bwana." Ubunifu mkuu wa kanuni hiyo ulikuwa kiasi chake. Haikuwa ule ujinyimaji wa kuadhibu wa jangwa la Misri. Yalikuwa maisha yenye uwiano, yanayoweza kudumishwa, yaliyobuniwa kwa ajili ya waamini wa kawaida waliotaka kumtolea Mungu maisha yao yote.The Benedictine rule organized the day around the famous double command ora et labora — pray and work. The monk would pray the Psalms together with his brothers eight times a day (the Divine Offices), work with his hands at manual labor for several hours, study Scripture and the Fathers in his cell, and live under obedience to the abbot in stable community for life. Benedict called the monastery "a school for the Lord's service." The rule's genius was its moderation. It was not the punishing asceticism of the Egyptian desert. It was a balanced, sustainable life designed for ordinary believers who wanted to give their whole lives to God.

Nyumba za utawa za Wabenedikto zikawa uti wa mgongo wa utamaduni wa Magharibi ya Kikristo katika karne ambazo serikali ya Kirumi ilikuwa imeanguka. Watawa walinakili vitabu vya zamani ambavyo vingepotea vinginevyo. Walikausha mabwawa, wakasafisha misitu, na wakajenga upya mashamba makubwa ya Kirumi yaliyoharibika kuwa vituo vya kilimo. Waliinjilisha Ulaya ya mataifa ya kishenzi; watawa wamisionari kama Augustino wa Canterbury (Uingereza), Bonifasi (Ujerumani), na Kolumbano wa Ireland (bara la Ulaya) waliipeleka injili katika maeneo ambayo majeshi ya Kirumi hayakuwahi kuyatawala. Kwa miaka mia tano baada ya Roma kuanguka, jambo moja kubwa zaidi lililokuwa likiuweka hai ustaarabu wa Magharibi lilikuwa watawa wa Kibenedikto wakifanya hasa kile ambacho Kanuni ya Benedikto iliwaambia wafanye.Benedictine monasteries became the cultural backbone of the Christian West during the centuries when the Roman state had collapsed. Monks copied the books of antiquity that would otherwise have been lost. They drained swamps, cleared forests, and rebuilt ruined Roman estates as agricultural centers. They evangelized barbarian Europe; missionary monks like Augustine of Canterbury (Britain), Boniface (Germany), and the Irish Columbanus (Continental Europe) carried the gospel into territories the Roman legions had never held. For five hundred years after Rome fell, the largest single thing keeping Western civilization alive was Benedictine monks doing exactly what Benedict's Rule told them to do.

Dola ya Kirumi ya Magharibi ilikufa kwa hatua katika karne ya tano. 410: Wavisigothi chini ya Alariki wanaipora Roma. 430: Wavandali wanauzingira na kuuteka Hippo wakati Augustino amelala akifa. 451: Atila wa Wahuni anarudishwa nyuma katika Vita vya Châlons. 455: Wavandali chini ya Genseriki wanaipora Roma mara ya pili. 476: Mfalme wa mwisho wa Kirumi wa Magharibi, kijana mdogo mwenye jina la mzaha Romulus Augustulus ("Augusto mdogo"), anaondolewa madarakani na chifu wa Kijerumani Odoaka. Dola ya Magharibi inakwisha. Dola ya Mashariki, yenye kitovu chake Konstantinopoli, itaendelea kwa miaka elfu moja mingine kama Bizanti.The Western Roman Empire died in stages across the fifth century. 410: Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome. 430: Vandals besiege and capture Hippo as Augustine lies dying. 451: Attila the Hun is turned back at the Battle of Châlons. 455: Vandals under Genseric sack Rome a second time. 476: The last Western Roman emperor, a teenager bearing the joke-name Romulus Augustulus ("little Augustus"), is deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. The Western Empire ends. The Eastern Empire, centered on Constantinople, will continue for another thousand years as Byzantium.

Ramani mpya ya kisiasa ya Magharibi ilichorwa na falme za mataifa ya kishenzi. Wavisigothi huko Hispania. Waostrogothi huko Italia. Wafranki huko Galia (Ufaransa ya leo). Wavandali huko Afrika Kaskazini. Waanglo-Saksoni huko Uingereza. Mengi ya mataifa haya yalikuwa tayari yameinjilishwa katika karne ya nne na wamisionari wa Kiario (maarufu zaidi alikuwa Ulfila, mtume wa Wagothi, aliyeitafsiri Biblia kwa Kigothi). Kwa hiyo walikuwa Wakristo wa Kiario wakitawala juu ya watu wa imani ya Nikea — hali isiyo rahisi iliyozaa karne mbili za msuguano kabla falme nyingi hatimaye hazijageukia Ukristo wa Nikea. Badiliko la uamuzi lilikuja mwaka 496 mfalme wa Wafranki Klovisi alipobatizwa kama Mkristo wa imani ya Nikea, akiipa Magharibi mfalme wake mkuu wa kwanza wa mataifa ya kishenzi aliye Mkatoliki na akaanzisha ushirikiano mrefu kati ya upapa wa Roma na ufalme wa Wafranki ambao ungeunda Ulaya ya Zama za Kati.The new political map of the West was drawn by barbarian kingdoms. Visigoths in Spain. Ostrogoths in Italy. Franks in Gaul (modern France). Vandals in North Africa. Anglo-Saxons in Britain. Most of these peoples had already been evangelized in the fourth century by Arian missionaries (the most famous was Ulfilas, the apostle to the Goths, who translated the Bible into Gothic). They were therefore Arian Christians ruling over Nicene populations — an awkward situation that produced two centuries of friction before most of the kingdoms eventually converted to Nicene Christianity. The decisive turning point came in 496 when the Frankish king Clovis was baptized as a Nicene Christian, providing the West with its first major Catholic barbarian king and beginning the long alliance between the Roman papacy and the Frankish monarchy that would shape medieval Europe.

Kanisa lilinusurika kuanguka kwa dola kwa sababu halikuwahi kujengwa juu ya dola. Mji wa Mungu wa Augustino ulikuwa sahihi. Miundo ya kisiasa ilianguka; maaskofu waliendelea kuhubiri; nyumba za utawa ziliendelea kunakili; wanafunzi wa ubatizo (wakatekumeni) waliendelea kubatizwa; Vulgata iliendelea kusomwa. Kufikia mwaka 500 Ulaya ya Kikristo ya Zama za Kati inayotambulika ilikuwa ikianza kujitokeza juu ya kifusi cha Dola ya Magharibi. Sehemu ya 5 itaendeleza hadithi hiyo.The church survived the fall of the empire because she was never built on the empire. Augustine's City of God had been right. The political structures collapsed; the bishops kept preaching; the monasteries kept copying; the catechumens kept being baptized; the Vulgate kept being read. By the year 500 a recognizable medieval Christian Europe was beginning to take shape on the rubble of the Western Empire. Unit 5 will pick up that story.

Kwanza, kuongoka ni kazi ya Mungu, si mafanikio ya mwongofu. Augustino alitumia miaka thelathini na mitatu akimkimbia Mungu kabla Mungu hajamkamata. Monika alitumia miaka thelathini na mitatu akimwombea mwana ambaye alikuwa na kila sababu ya kumwona kuwa amepotea. Mchungaji, kuongoka ambako unakukatia tamaa zaidi kunaweza kuwa umbali wa mstari mmoja wa Biblia na ukurasa mmoja uliofunguliwa tu kabla ya kutokea. Omba. Panda. Ngoja. Tumaini. Neema iliyomkuta Augustino katika bustani ya Milano haijapungua.First, conversion is God's work, not the convert's achievement. Augustine spent thirty-three years running from God before God ran him down. Monica spent thirty-three years praying for a son she had every reason to consider lost. Pastor, the conversion you most despair of may be one Bible verse and one open page from happening. Pray. Plant. Wait. Trust. The grace that found Augustine in a Milan garden is not in short supply.

Pili, injili ni neema tangu mwanzo hadi mwisho. Pelagio si kitu cha makumbusho cha karne ya tano. Kila kizazi huzaa wakati wa Kipelagio ambapo kanisa huteleza kutoka kwenye neema kuelekea juhudi za kibinadamu, ambapo mahubiri kwa hila hubadilika kutoka "Kristo amewaokoa wenye dhambi" hadi "watu wema hujitahidi zaidi." Mambo matano ya Augustino — dhambi ya asili, utumwa wa nia, neema itanguliayo, neema katika kila hatua, kuchaguliwa tangu awali — si mambo mapya ya wakati wa Matengenezo ya Kanisa. Ni injili kama ilivyohubiriwa tangu Paulo, nayo itakuwa injili mpaka Kristo atakaporudi.Second, the gospel is grace from first to last. Pelagius is not a fifth-century museum piece. Every generation produces a Pelagian moment when the church drifts from grace toward effort, when sermons subtly shift from "Christ has saved sinners" to "good people try harder." Augustine's five points — original sin, bondage of the will, prevenient grace, grace at every step, predestination — are not Reformation novelties. They are the gospel as it has been preached since Paul, and they will be the gospel until Christ returns.

Tatu, kanisa si dola. Augustino aliandika Mji wa Mungu huku akitazama ustaarabu wake ukifika mwisho. Aliwaonya Wakristo wa siku zake wasichanganye mfumo wa kisiasa wa Kirumi na ufalme wa Mungu. Mchanganyiko huo ungeliua kanisa Roma ilipoanguka. Mchungaji, usiufunge ujasiri wa kanisa lako kwa chama chochote cha kisiasa, kipindi chochote cha uchaguzi, au wakati wowote wa kitamaduni. Mji wa Mungu hauko kwenye karatasi ya kura ya mwaka huu.Third, the church is not the empire. Augustine wrote The City of God while watching his civilization end. He warned the Christians of his day not to confuse the Roman political order with the kingdom of God. That confusion would have killed the church when Rome fell. Pastor, do not bind your church's confidence to any political party, any electoral cycle, or any cultural moment. The City of God is not on this year's ballot.

Nne, uaminifu uliofichika si uaminifu uliopotea bure. Mtawa katika chumba chake akinakili mswada hakuwa kwenye televisheni. Pango la Bethlehemu ambamo Yeronimo alitafsiri halikutembelewa na watu mashuhuri. Mama aliyeomba kila usiku kwa ajili ya mwana aliyetangatanga hakuheshimiwa na mtu yeyote isipokuwa Mungu. Na bado miaka mia tano baada ya dola kuanguka, mikono hiyo iliyofichika ilikuwa imejenga Ulaya ya Kikristo. Kuwa mwaminifu katika jambo dogo. Urithi wa maneno milioni tano wa Augustino ulianza na mama wa Afrika Kaskazini ambaye hakuacha kuomba.Fourth, hidden faithfulness is not wasted faithfulness. The monk in his cell copying a manuscript was not on television. The Bethlehem cave where Jerome translated was not visited by celebrities. The mother praying nightly for a wandering son was not honored by anyone but God. And yet five hundred years after the empire fell, those hidden hands had built a Christian Europe. Be faithful in the small thing. The five-million-word legacy of Augustine started with a North African mother who would not stop praying.

Augustino alikufa tarehe 28 Agosti 430, katika makao yake ya uaskofu huko Hippo. Majeshi ya Wavandali yalikuwa yakiuzingira mji. Kuta zingeanguka miezi michache baadaye na mji ungeteketea. Maktaba ya Augustino na miswada yake ambayo haikuwa imekamilika iliokolewa na mtunza maktaba Posidio, aliyeipeleka mahali salama; ndiyo sababu bado tunayo sehemu kubwa ya yale ambayo Augustino aliandika. Askofu mwenyewe alizikwa kabla mji haujaanguka. Siku zake za mwisho alizitumia akiziomba zaburi saba za toba, zilizoandikwa kwa herufi kubwa na kubandikwa kwenye kuta za chumba chake cha ugonjwa.Augustine died on August 28, 430, in his bishop's residence in Hippo. Vandal armies were besieging the city. The walls would fall a few months later and the city would burn. Augustine's library and his unfinished manuscripts were saved by the librarian Possidius, who carried them to safety; that is why we still have most of what Augustine wrote. The bishop himself was buried before the city fell. His final days had been spent praying the seven penitential psalms, written out in large letters and pinned to the walls of his sickroom.

Miaka mitatu kabla ya kufa kwake, Augustino alikuwa ameandika kazi ndogo ya kiwasifu iitwayo Retractations (Masahihisho), ambamo alipitia kazi yake yote ya uandishi na akajisahihisha katika mambo madogo mengi. Hata mwishoni mwa maisha yake alikuwa mtu aliye chini ya mamlaka ya Maandiko, aliye tayari kusahihishwa nayo, aliye tayari kuyarudisha nyuma maneno yake mwenyewe ya awali pale andiko lilipodai. Akili kubwa zaidi ya kitheolojia ya kanisa la kwanza iliendelea kukua hadi siku aliyokufa.Three years before he died, Augustine had written a small autobiographical work called the Retractations, in which he reviewed his entire literary career and corrected himself on dozens of small points. Even at the end of his life he was a man under the authority of Scripture, willing to be corrected by it, willing to walk back his own earlier sentences when the text demanded. The largest theological mind of the early church kept growing until the day he died.

Dola iliyokuwa imempa Augustino lugha yake ya Kilatini, mafunzo yake ya ufasaha, cheo chake cha uaskofu, na mfumo wake wa kitamaduni ilikufa kumzunguka. Neema ambayo Augustino aliipokea katika bustani ya Milano, fundisho la neema alilolitetea dhidi ya Pelagio, Mji wa Mungu alioueleza katika vitabu kumi na vinne — mambo haya hayakufa. Yaliingia katika mfumo wa damu wa Ukristo wa Magharibi na yamekuwa humo tangu wakati huo. Faulu mtihani huu, nasi tutakutana na Ukristo wa Zama za Kati katika Sehemu ya 5 — ulimwengu ambao Augustino alisaidia kuujenga lakini hakuishi kuuona.The empire that had given Augustine his Latin language, his rhetorical training, his episcopal office, and his cultural framework died around him. The grace Augustine had received in a Milan garden, the doctrine of grace he had defended against Pelagius, the City of God he had described in fourteen books — these did not die. They went into the bloodstream of Western Christianity and have been there ever since. Pass this examination, and we will meet medieval Christianity in Unit 5 — the world Augustine helped build but never lived to see.