Augustine of Hippo on Continuation of spiritual gifts
Open in principle, cautious in practice
THE POSITION
Earlier work suggests the miraculous gifts belonged to the church's founding era. Later, in the Retractations and City of God 22, he acknowledges miracles occurring in his own time and partly walks the earlier view back.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
4 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Bishop of Hippo. The single most influential theologian in Western Christianity; both Catholic and Reformed traditions claim him. Anti-Pelagian works, the Enchiridion, and On Baptism Against the Donatists.
Cite this page
"Augustine of Hippo on Continuation of spiritual gifts", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/augustine/spiritual-gifts (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/augustine/spiritual-gifts).