On November 25, OLSWA was honoured to host Dr. Peter Burnell of the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Arts and Science. Dr. Burnell has taught at several Canadian universities, including McMaster and Queen’s. He received his BA at the University of Wales, in his native Britain, and wrote his PhD thesis on the classical writer Virgil. Dr. Burnell is a classicist who has developed a special interest in St. Augustine and has published many works.

Dr. Burnell lectured on the controversial topic of the “damnation of babies,” as discussed by St. Augustine. At first, Augustine seems to posit unequivocally the horrifying thought that babies who die before baptism are “consigned to hell for eternity.” Dr. Burnell went on to show how complex the issue actually was to Augustine.

“You need to be free from sin in order to enter heaven,” said Dr. Burnell. “All human beings are conceived in a state of spiritual alienation from God.” They need the gift of the Holy Spirit if they are to be brought into intimacy with God. A necessary means of this intimacy is baptism. But unbaptized babies die in the state of original sin.

It turns out that, contrary to what many people think, Augustine did not invent the concept of original sin; he only coined the phrase. It first appears in his Confessions. Dr. Burnell indicated that some Church Fathers who preceded Augustine, such as St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, seemed to support such a doctrine. Importantly enough, the 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains similar principles regarding the necessity of baptism for salvation. Yet the Catechism also states that, “[A]s regards children who have died without baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God” (CCC 1261).

Dr. Burnell would yet want to extend the hope of salvation that is also expressed in the Catechism to Augustine’s thinking as well: “Augustine does not assert or imply that unbaptized babies are damned as a class.”  He notes that in both the Catechism and in Augustine, “divine compassion is limitless, and that God applies that compassion to every human being, and does not withhold it for enigmatic reasons.” Thus, those who do not receive God’s compassion are those who reject it. But what about the guilt of original sin? “Augustine… allowed numerous exceptions to baptism… like the martyrs, the Patriarchs, and [the non-Israelite] Job, who all give witness to the vital grace of faith.” Most curiously, Augustine included among the martyred, the ‘Holy Innocents,’ who were, of course, unbaptized infants.

His conclusion was both provocative and elegant. “The Church is careful in its assertions. It doesn’t propose a theory. The Church is content to point out what it does not know, and shows what it may believe.” Therefore, it is possible to maintain a note of hope with regard to the salvation of unbaptized infants. Neither Augustine nor the Church is without this hope: “There is no divergence between Augustine and the Church’s teaching today.”

Dr. Burnell’s lecture was well-attended and well-received. The OLSWA community appreciated his brilliant insight into such a controversial subject and appreciated his thorough explanation.