On Church Unity In Augustine's On Baptism

The thought of church unity is one core doctrine of Christianity.Most theologians deeply investigate the significance of this thought.According to the Bible,Christ is the head of church,and the church is the body of Christ.Therefore,all Christian churches in the whole world must be unified and become one Catholic church.If some Christians divide their church,this would be a sin against the body of Christ and would be severely punished by God.Thus,every disciple need to take his or her responsibility to protect the unity of church.From apostles to church fathers,including Paul,Cyprian and Augustine,they all industriously fight for the unity of the early Christian church.In the doctrinal controversy with the Donatists,Augustine wrote The Seven Books of Augustine on Baptism,Against the Donatists in 400 AD.He refutes the Donatists' statement upon baptism,and proposes that the validity and holiness of baptism is based only on the trinitarian God,but not on the baptist,even the fault or sin the baptist would not harm the ritual.Meanwhile,Augustine criticises the sectarian wrongdoings of the Donatists.By citing Cyprian's saying that there will be no salvation outside of the Catholic church,Augustine argues for the necessity of church unity and hopes that the trauma made by schism would be cured by doctrinal persuasion and religious coercion.The aim of this thesis is to summarize Augustine's thought of baptism in On Baptismand and then elaborate the relation between baptism and church unity.Eventually,Augustine's argument on baptism was not only helpful for the Roman North African church,but also meaningful for our contemporary world.