"Paul Augustine" by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, summary Automatic translate

This book is a religious and philosophical biography of two of the greatest Christian thinkers, written in 1936. The author draws a bold historical parallel between the destinies of early Christians and those of modern times. He portrays the Apostle Paul and St. Augustine as solitary seekers of truth who lived during crucial periods of civilizational collapse and whose spiritual torments are strikingly similar to the doubts of our contemporaries.

The first saint in history

The Apostle Paul emerges as the first saint of a truly historical, earthly order, in contrast to the semi-mystical disciples of Jesus. Paul is a native of Tarsus, a man with two souls: Hellenic and Jewish. As a boy, working at a loom in his father’s workshop, Saul is tormented by the choice between the triumphant Messiah and the suffering Servant of the Lord. Suddenly, the young man sees a blinding inner light and experiences rapture to the third heaven. This insight quickly fades, followed by a long period of spiritual blindness.

Persecution and enlightenment

Having set off for Jerusalem, Saul studied with the wise Pharisee Gamaliel. Rumors of Jesus of Nazareth soon reached him. Wishing to silence his inner doubts, Saul became the most ardent persecutor of the early Christians. He was present at the stoning of the deacon Stephen and cold-bloodedly guarded the murderers’ garments. His hatred of Jesus’ followers turned into hidden envy of their martyrdom.

On the road to Damascus, where Saul is heading for more persecution, a miracle occurs. A blinding light from heaven casts him to the ground. A voice asks, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?" Jesus reveals Himself to the persecutor, and Saul goes blind. Three days later, Ananias heals him, and Saul becomes Paul — the chosen vessel of the Lord. From this moment, his path as a great preacher begins.

Freedom and conflict with Peter

Paul proclaims the doctrine of justification by faith, not by the works of the Law. The Old Testament brings death and enslavement, while Christ grants blessed freedom. Paul’s Revelation contains a powerful experience of Divine Predestination — a joyful assurance of the salvation of the elect. This bold teaching deeply perplexes Jesus’s closest disciples, accustomed to living by ancient rules.

A sharp and painful conflict arises between Paul and Peter. At the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, a fragile compromise is reached, but later, in Antioch, Paul openly and harshly accuses Peter of cowardice and hypocrisy for refusing to share a meal with converted Greeks. Paul undertakes three great journeys to the pagans. He endures beatings, shipwrecks, and the ridicule of Greek philosophers in Athens. Haters pursue him everywhere. Desiring reconciliation with the Jewish Christians, Paul offers a sacrifice of purification in the Jerusalem Temple. An angry crowd riots. Escaping certain death thanks to his Roman citizenship, Paul demands to be tried by Caesar.

Roman bonds and martyrdom

In Rome, Paul spent his final years under military custody, chained lightly to a soldier. He continued to preach tirelessly, even to the guards of the Praetorian Guard, and penetrated Caesar’s house with the word of Truth. During the Great Fire of 64 AD, Emperor Nero accused Christians of arson. Unprecedented, horrific executions began. Believers were used as living torches to illuminate the imperial gardens and thrown to leopards in the circus arena. During these days of unbearable horror, many Roman brothers cowardly betrayed one another.

Tradition holds that Peter and Paul were executed almost simultaneously. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded on the Ostian Way. In the last moment before the executioner’s blow, Paul again saw the same otherworldly light he had seen on the road to Damascus.

Between two worlds

In 410, the barbarian hordes of Goths, led by Alaric, take Rome. The entire civilized world trembles with horror, Saint Jerome in Bethlehem weeps over the destruction of the human race, but Bishop Augustine of Hippo maintains a striking outward calm. He deeply understands the historical inevitability of the end of the old order. Augustine is portrayed as the first restless intellectual on the throne of holiness, a man who attempted to reconcile fervent faith with an ever-questing, restless mind.

Aurelius Augustine was born in 354 in the African town of Tagaste. His father, Patricius, was a fiery pagan, and his mother, Monica, was a zealous, unconditionally loving Christian. In his youth, Augustine went to Carthage to study rhetoric. There, the ambitious young man plunged headlong into the abyss of carnal passions. He met an unnamed woman with whom he lived for many years in strict fidelity, albeit without legal marriage. From this relationship, a dearly beloved son, Adeodatus, was born.

Labyrinth of Delusions

Seeking a clear answer to the vexing question of the origin of evil, Augustine became fascinated with Manichaeism. The powerful heresy of Manes explains the universe as the eternal struggle of two equal essences — Light and Darkness, God and Counter-God. For nine years, the brilliant rhetorician wanders through this dark labyrinth of lies, attempting to absolve humanity of responsibility for sin. His mother bitterly mourns his spiritual demise and even throws him out of the house. Wanting to escape his familiar Carthaginian environment, Augustine cruelly deceives Monica before sailing, secretly flees to Rome, and then moves to Milan to teach eloquence.

Here, the young teacher begins attending the sermons of the local Bishop Ambrose. At first, he haughtily evaluates only the mastery of his speech, but gradually comes to understand the hidden meaning of what he says. A chance encounter with a carefree, drunken beggar singing on a back street in Milan makes Augustine acutely aware of his own inner slavery and the futility of his career. Monica, who has come to visit her son, insistently demands a profitable, legal marriage with the young bride. For the sake of the upcoming wedding, Augustine, with a heavy heart, parts with his beloved, sending her back to Africa.

A Voice in the Garden

His acquaintance with the works of the Neoplatonists brings Augustine close to the truth, but the final breakthrough in his understanding occurs after the dignitary Pontitian’s story about the Egyptian hermit Antony. This story of spiritual achievement shakes Augustine to the core. In the garden of his Milanese home, he throws himself to the ground in despair, bursting into tears. Suddenly, a child’s clear voice from behind the wall begins to sing, "Take this and read!" Augustine opens the Epistles of the Apostle Paul lying nearby and reads the call to renounce lust and clothe himself in Christ. The darkness of years of doubt instantly dissipates.

Soon, Augustine was baptized along with his son and friend Alypius. On the way back to his native Africa, while resting in Ostia, Augustine experienced a brief moment of pure mystical contemplation of eternity with his mother. A few days after this conversation, Monica contracted a fever and died. Returning to Thagaste, Augustine distributed his property and founded a modest spiritual community. The sudden death of young Adeodatus severed the last strong earthly attachments of the future great saint.

The Besieged City

The inhabitants of the coastal town of Hippo force Augustine to accept holy orders, and a few years later, to the episcopacy. For forty years, he tirelessly defends the purity of the faith. The pastor wages a grueling polemic against the Donatist schismatics, rejecting their bloody fanaticism and calling for the return of the lost through word and reason. In response to the fall of Rome, Augustine writes his colossal work, The City of God. The treatise asserts the existence of an invisible divine state, inextricably intertwined with the devil’s earthly city until the Day of Judgment. There is no senseless accident in history; all the falls and triumphs of empires are invisibly guided by Providence.

Augustine’s last great controversy revolves around the rational teachings of Pelagius. The British monk denies the power of original sin and believes in the natural innocence of every born person. Drawing on ruthless self-observation, Augustine demonstrates the profound corruption of human nature, requiring the saving grace bestowed from above. His uncompromising theological logic compels the bishop to acknowledge the reality of eternal torment even for unbaptized infants. This harsh thought horrifies the saint himself, depriving him of peace of mind on the threshold of death.

Augustine’s career ends in 430. A brutal horde of Vandals, led by Genseric, lays siege to Hippo. The bishop categorically refuses to abandon his flock and dies on the tenth day of a severe fever, alone while reciting penitential psalms. Beyond the city walls, barbarians howl, heralding the coming of long centuries of historical darkness. But the face of the deceased thinker radiates the unearthly light of supreme victory and eternal peace.