augustinian means of, or relating to St Augustine of Hippo or his doctrines, especially on predestination and grace. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.
Why “augustinian” is a great word
AUGUSTINIAN — [Adjective, Noun] Of, relating to, or following Saint Augustine of Hippo, his theological doctrines (especially on grace and predestination), or the religious orders adhering to his rule. From the Latin Augustīniānus, from Augustīnus (pertaining to Augustine) + -iānus (adjectival suffix meaning 'pertaining to'), after Augustine of Hippo. Unlike "Thomistic," which builds a cathedral of reason from natural law, or "Benedictine," which finds its rhythm in the stability of the choir and the field, Augustinian is an inward turn toward the unquiet heart. It is the torchlight searching the caverns of memory, the weight of a pear stolen not from hunger but from the sheer, perverse love of the act, and the relentless logic of a grace that is both unmerited and inescapable—a doctrine forged in the heat of a personal history that could never quite forget the gardens at Milan or the voice saying *tolle, lege*. It is the doctrine that our greatest wisdom is to know we are lost, and our only hope is a gift we cannot earn.
Etymology
From Middle English Augustinen, from Latin Augustīniānus, from Augustīnus + -iānus, after Augustine of Hippo. By surface analysis, Augustine + -ian.
adj
- Of, or relating to St Augustine of Hippo or his doctrines, especially on predestination and grace.“What does Freud oppose to the view that the future is already written? It is in so far as chance does exist in the physical, as opposed to mental world, that Freud distinguishes himself from a superstitious person. Yet the analyst never takes a chance event at face value. Everything mental — that is speakable — is determined. This sense of determination, the famous determinism that Freud is rebuke”
- Of, or relating to several religious orders influenced by him.
noun
- A follower of St Augustine or his doctrines, especially on predestination and grace.
- A friar or monk of any Augustinian order.
- A member of a supposed radical group of the early Reformation, who allegedly believed that humans would not enter Heaven until the Last Judgment.“Such be the […] Hutites, Auguſtinians, Monaſterians, Bocaldians, Hoffmaniſts, Georgians, Memniſts, with the reſt, amounting to the number of two hundred and three ſcore knowne Sects, by the computation of Caſpar Vlenbergius, and others aboue twelue yeeres agoe; […]”