ULOGA ČINA VJERE U AUGUSTINOVU OBRAĆENJU
THE ROLE OF THE ACT OF FAITH IN AUGUSTINE’S CONVERSION

Summary/Abstract: In the paper, starting from the experiences described in Confessions, the author examines the significance of the act of faith in the life of St. Augustine (354-430), the Bishop of Hippo and a great Father of the Church. Reading the first chapter of Confessions from the perspective of Augustine’s search for clarity on the issue of faith, the author suggests that Augustine was unusually eager to understand the specific order and the priority of initiative in relationship with God. In this sense, the author indicates to Augustine’s effort to determine whether in the act of faith, from the moment when man seeks God, the initiative is human, or if it is from God, from which it would then be concluded that, first and foremost, God is the seeker of man. Augustine tried to understand who makes the first step, and he came to the conclusion that the first step in the journey of faith was made by God who approached man by manifesting Himself in the history of salvation. Through the servants of His words, and especially through His Son (Praedicator) God stepped into human history, and through the preaching of the Gospel precedes every human initiative. Fully aware of this, Augustine confesses that he seeks God primarily through faith, which means that before that he had received the gift of faith from God. This confirms the primacy of God’s revelation to man, otherwise he would not be able to properly and successfully seek Him.

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