Saint Augustine's Not so Quiet Revival

A young man enters church. He is not quite sure what he is expecting. He is not entirely sure why he has come. But over the years has tried to find freedom in money, sex and pleasure. But felt the brokenness of a life given to sin. He knows something about Jesus. He likes some of the ideas he has heard from the bible. He has dabbled in philosophy. He has been involved in politics. And now he has come to church.

Over the past year or so there have been any number of articles about the so called ‘quiet revival’. There have been hours of podcasts arguing that there is or isn’t a kind of spiritual awakening going on. But however we describe the facts on the ground there seem to be many whose story sounds a little like that young man.

While I could have been describing a couple of people that I have met over this last year they weren’t who I had in mind. The person didn’t step into church this year. He stepped into church 1700 years ago. In his Confessions Augustine describes a journey of faith that may be familiar to many today. He describes his own personal – not so quiet – revival.

Augustine’s testimony seems especially relevant as we seek to speak of Jesus today. He carefully curated a public profile. He restlessly sought to find fulfilment. He exhausted himself in a search for love. He experienced success. But could not escape brokenness. And so he finally tried church.

He knew about Jesus. He liked the idea of Jesus. But for years he recoiled from the person of Jesus. Like someone churning through podcasts, twitter feeds and YouTube clips, he saw glimpses of the gospel in the books he read and teachers he followed. But kept stumbling at the same point. The humility of God made known in the human flesh of Jesus. He offers to others a warning from his own experience.

"The wise and prudent, however, while they aim at the heights of God, do not put their trust in lowly things, but pass them by, and hence they fail to reach the heights. Vain and worthless, puffed up and elated, they have halted, as it were, on the wind-swept middle plain between heaven and earth".1

As he looks back on his youth in the Confessions, Augustine remembers how much he felt drawn to the philosophy of the Bible. He loved ideas and sought inspiration. He explored myths and chased a message in which to root his life. But all the time he refused to meet Jesus. He finally came one day to listen to a preacher who slowly and steadily showed him Jesus in the Bible. At long last Augustine turned from the idea of the incarnation to a trust in the incarnate one. He turned from a myth that fed his pride to the man who demanded his worship. And as he himself became a preacher, he called others to do the same.

We seem to be hearing more voices speaking of Jesus today. But so many of them feel caught up and lost in the ‘the wind-swept middle plain’ that Augustine describes. It is so common to hear Jesus spoken of as an illustration or inspiration for something else. Some might offer the incarnation as a simple message of inclusion. Others might read it as the central myth from which our culture has been built. Some spin the incarnation right. Others twist it left. But both reduce Jesus to an idea. They turn the man into a myth.

Both work the kind of bait and switch that we see in a supermarket Christmas ad. They hook us in with something true. A longing for love. A craving for relationship. And then they spin that truth into sales. As people around us feel the brokenness of our world they need so much more than inspiration. As they sense the goodness of the gospel they need more than a myth. They don’t need an idea. They need God made flesh. They need the man Jesus Christ.

What Augustine describes in his own testimony feels true for so many in our churches today. They may have been drawn by a fascination with philosophy. They might be dabbling with politics. They might simply be sick of the brokenness of sin. Somewhere amidst the podcasts, twitter feeds and YouTube clips, they might have caught a glimpse of the gospel. But they don’t need more ideas. They don’t need renewed inspiration. They need to meet Jesus. Like Augustine all those centuries ago – like all of us today – they need to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

We need to know and embrace the truth that Augustine himself came to preach at Christmas:

"Exult, you who are just; it is the birthday of the Justifier. Exult, you who are weak and ill; it is the birthday of the Saviour. Exult, you who are captives; it is the birthday of the Redeemer. Exult, you who are slaves; it is the birthday of the Ruler. Exult, you who are free; it is the birthday of the Liberator. Exult, all Christians; it is the birthday of Christ."2

Footnotes:

1. Augustine, ‘Sermon 184,’ in Mark Hamilton and Rhys Laverty, eds, Advent Homilies (Davenant Press, 2024).

2. Augustine, ‘Sermon 184.’

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Revd. Dr. Luke Foster teaches Systematic Theology and Church History at Oak Hill college. He spent eight years serving with Crosslinks as a missionary in the Centre for Pastoral Studies (CEP), an Anglican training college in Chile’s capital city Santiago. Luke is now based in London and is a trustee of the Latimer Trust.

Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust.