Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12. 2.

This is resistance and reformation on the Fight, laugh, feast network.

We have to be particularly careful when it comes to the great heroes of the faith.

We want to make sure that we see them in the right light,

not making too much out of them, but not making too little out of them either.

Augustine of Hippo is one of those very rare historical figures that we are more likely to underestimate than overestimate. Unlike most modern celebrities, he was far, far more important than he or we could have ever imagined.

In fact, it would be almost impossible to overestimate the influence of the

work of Augustine on the shaping of our culture and our world over the course of the past

16 centuries. There is little hyperbole in the assertion that this man is the virtual intellectual founder

of Western civilization, and thus one of the most remarkable figures in the whole of history.

According to Martin Luther, the pioneering work of Augustine set the very course of Western civilization. According to John Knox,

his was the very essence of incisive Christian thought applied to the circumstances of this poor

fallen world. When Peter Lombard compiled his sentences, providing the medieval world with its basic

handbook of theology, he acknowledged his supreme debt to the masterful work of Augustine. When

Gratian compiled his principal handbook of canon law, he too recognized the vital import of the seminal foundations

laid by Augustine. Cassiodorus and Bothius both relied heavily on Augustine's worldview

paradigm as well as hermeneutical methodology in establishing the Western pattern of covenantal and classical education.

Anselm, Aquinas, Petrarch, Pascal, Bellarmine, Calvin, Kirkagard, and Kuyper.

They all counted the work of Augustine as their first and primary intellectual influence.

Even the world of Islam recognized his eminence, calling him Hrumi Kabir, the great Christian.

...