Where can I find Augustine's...

I had answered last night but my post is held up for moderation because it included a bunch of links in it. Grrr...

Anyway, others have probably gotten you to most of the info I gave. The English translation is called "Faith and Works" not "On Faith and Good Works" and it's available in the Ancient Christian Writers series from Paulist Press. Logos does not carry this series (yet), but you can put a plug in for it in the Suggestions forum. I'm not sure I can include a link even to that post on this very site, but if you Google "Ancient Christian Writers" site:community.logos.com you will find it.

Also there is an entry on it ("Fide et operibus, De") in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia. 

Fide et operibus, De (On Faith and Works). This is a work datable to 413, in which Augustine replies to some anxious inquiries from educated laity concerning doctrines being derived from selected scriptural quotations (retr. 2.38). Augustine refers to this treatise elsewhere (ep. 205.4.18; Dulc. qu. 1.2; ench. 18.67). The conclusion (f. et op. 27.49) gives a succinct summary of the three main issues under discussion and Augustine’s threefold response. His argument throughout is entirely based on Scripture. It has been suggested that the source of the controversial views under refutation was Jerome (in Is. 66.24) or Ambrosiaster (comm. in 1 Cor. 121–22), though there is inadequate evidence to confirm this.

The first section (1.1–6.8) refutes the view that baptism may be freely given to all, even unrepentant sinners. Building on insights from the anti-Donatist debate, Augustine argues that Scripture indicates both a present and future mingling of virtuous and sinners in the church. The counsel of Scripture, Paul’s practice (2.3), and the example and teaching of Jesus (5.7) all concur in advising patient tolerance, not premature separation, still less a policy of relaxing discipline concerning entry into baptism. This is illustrated by the presence of unclean animals in Noah’s ark (27.49). Their presence indicated tolerance, not corruption of doctrine or dissolution of discipline.

Against the second point, which argued that baptism should be administered prior to instruction on living the Christian life, Augustine stresses the absolute necessity of such training of catechumens prior to baptism (6.9–13.20). Catechists must encourage good morals and right habits in the competentes consonant with baptismal faith (13.19; 18.33; 19.35; 27.49). One can only put on the new (Col. 3:9–10) if stripped of the old (6.9). Apostolic preaching consistently urged repentance prior to baptism (8.12). The inseparable twofold commandment of love must not be divided into pre-and postbaptismal observances (10.16). To stress that the Israelites only received the Law after crossing the Red Sea fails to recognize their prior liberation from Egyptian captivity (11.17). Augustine finally notes that membership in the church has ethical consequences (12.18).

The longest section (14.21–26.48) is devoted to the third error, which Augustine regarded as periculosissima. He builds on and further develops his previous points. Based on a faulty exegesis of 1 Corinthians 3:11–15, the opponents had argued that even the most notorious sinners, despite persistence in their waywardness, would attain salvation “through fire” if they believed in Christ and received the sacraments.

The kernel of Augustine’s counterargument is the essential link between faith and good works. The opponents indulged in a false security (14.21). While recognizing certain obscurities in St. Paul, Augustine firmly upholds his teaching on justification by faith, noting that this implied no rejection of good works (14.21–22). Thus Paul neither contradicts himself nor is in opposition to the clear teaching of Peter, James, Jude, and John on the inseparability of faith and good works. There is no possible salvation without good works. Augustine proffers his own exegesis of 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 in 16:27, anticipating Enchiridion 18.68 and De civitate Dei 21.26. It is the faith which works through love (Gal. 5:6), when built on the foundation of Christ, which alone guarantees salvation. Profession of faith must be accompanied by repentance from dead works. The violentia fidei, by acquiring the Spirit, enables the accomplishment of the Law, characterized by an inseparability of faith and love (21.39–22.40). The baptized must avoid being dry springs (2 Pet. 2:17), waterless clouds (Jude 12), or practitioners of dead faith (James 2:20). Entry into God’s kingdom (26.48) requires baptismal rebirth (John 3:5) and virtue exceeding that of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). Faith and good works form a seamless whole.

In addition to its three main foci, De fide et operibus is noteworthy for its penitential doctrine. The classic patristic triad of mortifera (impurity, idolatry, and murder) is noted (19.34), the heinous nature of adultery receiving regular censure. Lesser faults are compensated for by almsgiving (19.34) or the daily remedy of reciting the Lord’s Prayer (26.48). The unusual distinction of an intermediary category of sins, not requiring the humility of penance sed quibusdam correptionum medicamentis (26.48), has been interpreted as evidence for a private rite of penance by P. Galtier and K. Adam, a view rejected by B. Poschmann.

The work complements other evidence on the formation of catechumens in North Africa (6.9; 18.33), emphasizing the duties of catechumens, catechists, and church officials (13.19; 19.35; 27.49).

Augustine’s views in De fide et operibus were important in terms of later reflection on purgatory, hell, and denying universal salvation, especially to those who failed to integrate faith and good works.

→ Faith; Grace; Initium fidei

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Editions

CSEL 41, ed. J. Zycha, 33–97; PL 40:197–230.

  Translation

Faith and Works, trans. Sr. M. Ligouri, FC 27:215–82.

  Studies

A.-M. La Bonnardière, “Pénitence et réconciliation des Pénitents d’après saint Augustin,” REtAug 13 (1967): 31–53 and 249–83; G. J. Lombardo, Saint Augustine’s “De Fide et Operibus,” an annotated translation (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1950); G. J. Lombardo, “An Introduction to the ‘De Fide et Operibus’ of Saint Augustine,” SP 18, 4 (1990), 78–84; R. C. Mortimer, The Origin of Private Penance in the Western Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939), 60–110; J. Pegon, La Foi et les Oeuvres—De fide et operibus, La Foi Chrétienne, BA 8 (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer et Cie, 1951), 345–461 and 503–9; J. Turmel, Histoire de la Théologie Positive (Paris: Beauchesne et Cie, 1904), 178–97.

FINBARR G. CLANCY, S.J.

Finbarr G. Clancy, "Fide Et Operibus, De" In , in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 359-60.

Rosie Perera said:

All I could find was an entry on it in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia.

If anyone should happen to want this, they just put it on the weekly Catholic Twitter deal:  http://twitter.com/CatholicLogos/statuses/240098593153896448. (Good timing! [:)])

These are two different works

1. On Faith and works (= De Fide et operibus), the one discussed here.

2. "Faith and the creed (= De fide et symbolo), a speech of Augustine given at the council of Hippo in 391 as he was still a priest, presenting the creed.

Gotta love how titles can be translated differently...