Originally Posted By DlandDug >>St. Augustine is one of the most important of the Church fathers relative to the doctrines of original sin and the role of grace in salvation.<< True. But it is also true that Augustine was raised in an environment that was decidedly less than Christian. From the Catholic Encyclopedia: >>Augustine was born at Tagaste... a small free city of proconsular Numidia which had recently been converted from Donatism. Although eminently respectable, his family was not rich, and his father, Patricius, one of the curiales of the city, was still a pagan... Augustine had to spend his sixteenth year at Tagaste in an idleness which was fatal to his virtue; he gave himself up to pleasure with all the vehemence of an ardent nature. At first he prayed, but without the sincere desire of being heard, and when he reached Carthage, towards the end of the year 370, every circumstance tended to draw him from his true course: the many seductions of the great city that was still half pagan, the licentiousness of other students, the theatres, the intoxication of his literary success, and a proud desire always to be first, even in evil. Before long he was obliged to confess to Monica [his mother] that he had formed a sinful liaison with the person who bore him a son (372), "the son of his sin"...<< <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathe n/02084a.htm</a> As is true of many saints, Augustine overcame the errors of his youth to become a towering figure of virtue. But the descriptions of his early life bear witness to the assertion that Northern Africa was not truly a "bastion of Christianity."
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>As is true of many saints, Augustine overcame the errors of his youth to become a towering figure of virtue. But the descriptions of his early life bear witness to the assertion that Northern Africa was not truly a "bastion of Christianity."<< I think that we already agreed that it was becoming Christian during Augustine's time, and that when the Islamic invaders showed up that it was fully Christian. Also that it was not a "bastion" in the sense the Rome or Constantinople were. However, there was a Patriarch of Alexandria, so North Africa wasn't exactly a backwater either.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Of course, the original assertion wasn't about Islam's appeal over Christianity, but rather that Islam is more appealing than Western style democracy and free trade. This is the assertion I dispute.
