Blessed Augustine and predestination

[Rafael Daher]

A friend of mine tell me that the Blessed Agostine teachs the predestination, both to good and to evil. Its true?

[Herman Blaydoe]

No, not quite. Predestination is simply what happened when certain protestants, particularly John Calvin, extrapolated the teachings of Blessed Augustine down the path taken by Anselm and elaborated on by Aquinas. It represents a possible logical conclusion of what he started, but I suspect he would be very unhappy with where they took his ideas!

It should also be pointed out that the Orthodox Church does not hold with these conclusions. Unfortunately, Blessed Augustine developed much of his theology in a vacuum, without access to the Eastern Fathers, since he did not read or speak Greek. Therefore his errors did not get corrected and caused others to take even more erroneous paths after him. From this we learn the importance of SYMPHONIA, the agreement of the Saints, the importance of preserving "..that which has been taught at all times in all places..." and not depend on any single individual other than Christ Himself! But the consensus of the Holy Church helps us stay on the correct path.

[Owen Jones]

It's Biblical. The problem is one of interpretation.