What was Augustine’s Fatalistic View? How then did it come about that by the fourth century, many Christians had turned away from their essentially Jewish roots? Rabbi Daniel Boyarin quotes a letter that St. Jerome wrote to Augustine of Hippo - "The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe. But while they desire to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other."
He was describing those who believed in the Nicene Creed but "prayed in synagogues, kept the Sabbath, and adhered to dietary and other rules." Jerome could not fathom how this could possibly be, so he decided they must be neither. But Boyarin argues that some Hassidic Jews today believe Yeshua is the Messiah and other Hassidic Jews do not, yet both are still considered Jews, just as Catholics and Protestants today are both considered Christians. They are not two opposing categories but one complex category.12 READ MORE: Augustine's Fatalistic View of Yeshua's Message.
