Primary Authors & Sources
NPNF-302 draws on Philip Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers — the definitive English patristic library for augustinian theology and philosophical polemics. These are not secondary surveys but the fathers themselves. Philip Schaff, ed. provides access to the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers — the standard English patristic corpus that shaped Protestant and Anglican scholarship for generations, notably in Augustin: The City of God, Christian Doctrine and Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral….
Taken together, these readings form a coherent conversation across centuries — students encounter real arguments, not flattened summaries. The required corpus for this course totals 4 assigned works with 46 supplemental volumes available in the library, all integrated with assessments in the BCFK learning platform.
What You Will Study
Students engage Augustine's mature theology on grace, predestination, church, sacraments, and anti-Pelagian polemics alongside his philosophical works engaging Manichaeism, skepticism, and Platonism. Primary readings include selections from City of God, On Christian Doctrine, anti-Pelagian treatises, and Confessions with attention to how Augustine shaped Western Christianity and anticipated Reformation debates centuries later. The course examines Reformed appropriation and critique of Augustinian soteriology, comparing Augustine with later Protestant articulations of grace alone. Students analyze Augustine's exegesis, pastoral concerns, and intellectual rigor as a model and caution for Protestant ministers. The syllabus follows Augustine's corpus on the BCFK reading list with weekly reflection papers.
Course Objectives
Objectives include explaining Augustine's doctrines of original sin, grace, and predestination, comparing Augustinian soteriology with Pelagian and semi-Pelagian alternatives, evaluating Reformed use of Augustine in Calvin and subsequent theologians, and writing critical essays on Augustine's ecclesiology and sacramental theology. Students will identify where Augustinian thought aligns with Westminster standards and where Protestant Reformers modified his legacy. The course cultivates nuanced appreciation for the church's most influential Latin father. Students will summarize Augustine's rules for interpretation and assess their value for Reformed hermeneutics. Assessments require primary source engagement demonstrating comprehension of Augustinian vocabulary and argument structure.
Ministry & Life Application
Augustine teaches ministers to wrestle honestly with sin, grace, and God's sovereignty in preaching and pastoral care. Reformed pastors who know Augustine can show congregants that Protestant doctrine of grace has deep roots in patristic soil, countering claims that Reformation theology invented novelty. House church elders across the Florida Keys gain a master teacher for prayer, repentance, and intellectual devotion to Scripture. Pastoral ministry is strengthened by Augustine's example of passionate love for God combined with rigorous theological labor. Congregations flourish under leaders who understand grace as Augustine did after years of struggle against Pelagian self-sufficiency.