The Feast Day of Saint Augustine in a Time of Various Slow Motion Collapses

Today is the feast day of Saint Augustine.  One of my seminary textbooks called him the most important thinker/theologian in the history of the Christian church.  Not one of the most important--the most important.

He was alive from 354 to 430; I'm always a bit startled when I look up his dates and remember just how long ago he lived.  Other thinkers have had centuries to rival Augustine as the most important thinker, but so far, very few people have come close.

We can trace our ideas about original sin and grace back to him. His thinking about God and God's existence outside of time has been enormously influential. His views of just war continue to be debated. His confessional style continues in writing to this day.

Many people focus on his early days, his sin loving days, and wonder how he came to be one of the leaders of the Church.  But this morning, I'm wondering if his prolific writing about such a wide variety of topics is rooted at the end of his life more than the beginning.

My Church History professor pointed out that Augustine lived until almost the end of the Roman empire, and it's important to remember that the end didn't happen with a bang.  People like Augustine could see what was coming, and he must have had a sense--perhaps a deep, deep sense--of all that was going to be lost.

This morning, I'm wondering if he wrote so much down because he knew how much would be lost, if his prolific writing was rooted in the knowledge/sense/foreboding of upcoming disaster.  And of course, my mind goes to our own time, my own pendulum swings from "I must get everything recorded" to "Why bother?  Humans will not survive this."

Augustine was living in a similar time  to ours;  there had been diseases and political intrigue and invaders coming from all directions, along with upheavals that kept various populations on the move.  I'd like to channel some of his writing energy in response to all of these slow motion collapses.