Editing Augustine of Hippo (section)

==== Ecclesiology ====
{{See also|Ecclesiology}}
[[File:Carlo Crivelli - St. Augustine - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|''St. Augustine'' by [[Carlo Crivelli]]]]
Augustine developed his doctrine of the Church principally in reaction to the [[Donatist]] sect. He taught there is one Church, but within this Church there are two realities, namely, the visible aspect (the institutional [[hierarchy of the Catholic Church|hierarchy]], the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|Catholic sacraments]], and the [[laity]]) and the invisible (the souls of those in the Church, who are either dead, sinful members or elect predestined for Heaven). The former is the institutional body established by Christ on earth which proclaims salvation and administers the sacraments, while the latter is the invisible body of the elect, made up of genuine believers from all ages, who are known only to God. The Church, which is visible and societal, will be made up of "wheat" and "tares", that is, good and wicked people (as per Mat. 13:30), until the end of time. This concept countered the Donatist claim that only those in a [[state (theology)|state of grace]] were the "true" or "pure" church on earth, and that priests and bishops who were not in a state of grace had no authority or ability to confect the sacraments.{{sfn|González|1987|p=28}}

Augustine's ecclesiology was more fully developed in ''City of God''. There he conceives of the church as a heavenly city or kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires which are self-indulgent and ruled by pride. Augustine followed [[Cyprian]] in teaching that bishops and priests of the Church are the [[apostolic succession|successors of the Apostles]],{{sfn|González|1987|p=}} and their authority in the Church is God-given.

The concept of [[Church invisible]] was advocated by Augustine as part of his refutation of the Donatist sect, though he, as other Church Fathers before him, saw the invisible Church and visible Church as one and the same thing, unlike the later Protestant reformers who did not identify the Catholic Church as the [[One true church|true church]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Justo L. Gonzalez |title=A History of Christian Thought: Volume 2 (From Augustine to the eve of the Reformation) |date=1970–1975 |publisher=Abingdon Press}}</ref> He was strongly influenced by the [[Platonism|Platonist]] belief that true reality is invisible and that, if the visible reflects the invisible, it does so only partially and imperfectly (see [[Theory of Forms]]).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JeXFXXHBgnoC Wallace M. Alston, The Church of the Living God: A Reformed Perspective] (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002 {{ISBN|978-0-664-22553-7}}), p. 53</ref> Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/non-orthodox_ch7.pdf|title=Patrick Barnes, The Non-Orthodox: The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church}}</ref>