THE present volume consists of seventeen short works of St. Augustine, all taken from the VIth volume of the Benedictine Edition, except the last, which was inserted from the VIIIth volume as connected in some degree with several of the others, and important in itself. The first and last may be classed together as relating to the general principles of evidence in Religion, and the last but one with some of the earlier ones, as going over the Creed with a particular exposition. There is of course some repetition of matter in the several expositions of the Creed, but it was thought worth while to put them together, both in order to give a more complete view of his teaching, and in order to shew how much of it was based on the Creed, and how it was used by the Christians of that time. The Treatise on Catechizing the Unlearned is remarkable as a specimen of the times, besides its great value in shewing what was thought the most needful instruction, and giving hints for conveying it, for which purpose it should be compared with the Sermon to the Catechumens. Aeterna Press

Traditional scholarship often points to the Calvinists and Max Weber's writing on the Protestant ethic as the catalysts to changing Christian attitudes concerning profit-seeking and wealth. Author Skip Worden argues that the seeds of this change occurred centuries earlier. From the beginning of the Commercial Revolution to the fifteenth-century Renaissance, he shows that the predominant Christian thought on economics went through a fundamental shift, becoming favorable toward profit-seeking and wealth-holding. Worden discusses this dramatic change and explains how the general antagonism toward the pursuit of wealth before the Commercial Revolution transformed into Protestant theologians' fighting against the prevailing view of a pro-wealth paradigm during the fifteenth century. Worden contends that the shift away from the Patristic view of wealth occurred well before the addition of the Calvinist spirit of capitalism and the Puritan work ethic into Christian economic vernacular. Drawing on Plato, Cicero, and Augustine, early Protestant theologians unsuccessfully sought to check the rising dominance of the pro-wealth Christian paradigm, which they believed had been pushed too far. These theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth century felt it was too close to advocating love of gain itself, something too close to the sin of greed. How well the Reformation succeeded can be assessed by Worden's insightful concluding study of John D. Rockefeller, the ascetic steward of God's Gold in the form of monopoly.

Composed in 413, this work refutes certain writings that taught that good works were not necessary to obtain eternal life, that faith alone was sufficient for salvation. +