840.由于非洲人的本性就是这样，所以如今启示正在他们当中进行，从它开始的地方扩散，但尚未抵达海岸。他们疏远欧洲的来访者，因为这些人认为人得救唯独凭信，因而仅凭思想和言语，而不需要意愿和行为。他们说，凡遵守敬拜者，不会不照其宗教生活，否则，他必变得愚蠢和邪恶，因为他没从天上得到任何东西。他们称狡猾的邪恶为愚蠢，因为其中没有生命，只有死亡。我曾和奥古斯丁谈过几次，他是三世纪非洲希波的主教。他说，他现在正用对主的敬拜激励他们，并希望这新福音能传播到周边地区。我听到天人为这启示而欢喜，因为它正为他们打开与人类理性能力相连的通道，迄今为止，这通道仍被教会牧师们的普世教义所封闭，该普世教义就是，觉知必须服从信。
840. 由于非洲人的本性就是这样, 所以如今启示正在他们当中进行, 从它开始的地方扩散, 但尚未抵达海岸。 他们疏远欧洲的来访者, 因为这些人认为人得救唯独凭信, 因而仅凭思想和言语, 而不需要意愿和行为。 他们说, 凡遵守敬拜者, 不会不照其宗教生活, 否则, 他必变得愚蠢和邪恶, 因为他没从天上得到任何东西。 他们称狡猾的邪恶为愚蠢, 因为其中没有生命, 只有死亡。 我曾和奥古斯丁谈过几次, 他是三世纪非洲希波的主教。 他说, 他现在正用对主的敬拜激励他们, 并希望这新福音能传播到周边地区。 我听到天人为这启示而欢喜, 因为它正为他们打开与人类理性能力相连的通道, 迄今为止, 这通道仍被教会牧师们的普世教义所封闭, 该普世教义就是, 觉知必须服从信。
840. Since Africans are this way, a revelation is occurring among them today. It began in one place and then spread outward from there, but it has not yet reached the sea coasts. The Africans have no use for new arrivals from Europe who believe that people are saved by faith alone, and therefore just by thinking and speaking, not by willing and doing. The Africans say that none have a worshipful attitude if they are not living by their religion. If we do not live by our religion, they say, there is no way to avoid becoming evil and stupid, because in that circumstance we are not receiving anything from heaven. Even very clever forms of wickedness they characterize as "stupidity" because such acts contain death rather than life.
I have spoken a number of times with Augustine, who was the bishop of Hippo in Africa during the fourth century. He said he still lives in that area [in the spiritual world] and inspires people to worship the Lord; there is a good chance, he said, that this new gospel will spread from there into neighboring regions.
I have heard angels rejoicing about the revelation among Africans that I just mentioned. They are excited because it will open up a communication between them and the human rational faculty. This faculty has until recently been closed to angels as a result of the universal teaching that we have to hold our intellect under obedience to "faith," as defined by church authorities.
840. Since this is the nature of the Africans, at the present time a revelation is being made to them, which is spreading around its point of origin, but has not reached the seas. They reject with contempt visitors from Europe, who believe that a person is saved by faith alone, and by merely thinking and speaking, and not at the same time willing and doing. They say that no one who observes any worship fails to live in accordance with his religion. Otherwise he must inevitably become stupid and wicked, because he then does not receive anything from heaven. Clever wickedness they actually call stupidity, because there is no life, but only death, in it.
I have had several conversations with Augustine, who in the fourth century was bishop of Hippo in Africa 1 . He said that he was at the present time there, inspiring them to worship the Lord, and that he hoped to spread this new gospel into the surrounding districts. I heard of the angels' joy at that revelation, which was opening for them a means of communicating with the human rational faculty, which up to now had been shut up by means of the universal dogma of the clergy that the understanding should be kept subject to faith.
Footnotes:
1. Augustine (354-430) became bishop of Hippo, a town between Algiers and Tunis in North Africa, towards the end of the fourth century; the author uses the words 'third century' here to mean the period between 300 and 400 AD..
840. Because the Africans are such, a revelation has been made among them at the present time, which is spreading round about from the region where it began, but has not yet reached the coasts. They keep aloof from European strangers who believe that man is saved by faith alone, and thus by mere thought and word, and not by will and deed also; saying that he is no man who has any worship and fails to live according to his religion, for then he must needs become stupid and wicked, because he then receives nothing from heaven. They also call crafty wickedness stupidity, because there is no life in it, but death only. I have several times talked with Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo in Africa, in the third century. He said that he is there at this time, inspiring them with the worship of the Lord, and that there is hope that this new gospel will be extended into the surrounding regions. I have heard the angels rejoicing over that revelation, because through it there is being opened to them a communication with the human rational, hitherto closed up by the universal dogma that the understanding must be kept in obedience to the faith of the ministers of the church.
840. Because the Africans are of this character, a revelation has at this day been made to them, which is spreading in all directions from the quarter where it originated, but has not yet reached the seas. They despise strangers coming from Europe who believe that man is saved by faith alone, and thus by mere thought and speech independent of will and action. They say that every man who worships at all, lives according to his religion; and that if he does not, he must become stupid and wicked, because then he receives nothing from heaven. They also term ingenious wickedness stupidity, because there is not any life in it, but death. have conversed several times with Augustine, 1 who in the third century was bishop of Hippo 2 in Africa. He said that he is there at the present time inspiring the natives with the worship of the Lord and that there is a hope of this new Gospel being extended into neighboring regions. I have heard the angels rejoicing over this revelation because by its means communication is opened up with the human rational, hitherto closed by the prevailing dogma, that the understanding should the kept in obedience to the faith taught by the leaders of the Church.
Footnotes:
1. Augustine, the greatest of the Latin Fathers of the Christian Church, A.D. 354-430, was born in Numidia. After an early life, which he describes in his CONFESSIONS, spent in sins, struggles, and defeats ending in ultimate triumph, he became a Christian and was baptized in Milan in A.D. 386. Here turned to Numidia and became bishop of Hippo, where he died. His teaching, based on the dogma that man has no power either of choosing or of realizing good, but that grace must do all, became the basis of the system of theology known in later times as Calvinism.
2. Hippo, city of Numidia, North Africa; a bishop's see.
840. Quoniam Africani tales sunt, ideo apud illos hodie fit Revelatio, quae incepta vadit e Regione sua circum, sed non usque ad Maria; spernunt Advenas ex Europa, qui credunt hominem salvari per solam fidem, et sic per solum cogitare, et loqui, et non simul per velle et facere; dicentes quod nullus homo sit, cui aliquis Cultus, qui non vivit secundum Religionem suam, et si non, quod non possit aliter quam fieri stupidus et malus, quia tunc non recipit aliquid e Coelo; malitiam ingeniosam vocant etiam stupiditatem, quia non vita sed mors est in illa. Loquutus sum aliquoties cum Augustino, qui in tertio Saeculo fuerat Episcopus in Hippone 1 in Africa; dixit quod hodie ibi sit, ac inspiret illis cultum Domini, et quod spes propagationis hujus Novi Evangelii in circumjacentes Regiones ibi sit. Audivi Angelorum gaudium super illa Revelatione, quod per eam aperiatur illis communicatio cum Rationali humano, hactenus per Universale Dogmaticum, quod Intellectus sub obedientia fidei Ecclesiasticorum, occluso.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: Hippo.