“Augustine became a theologian of the greatest importance for later dogmatics, one who dominated the following centuries. Every reformation returns to him and Paul. For every dogma he found a formula that was taken over and repeated by everyone else. His influence extends to all churches, schools of theology, and sects. Rome appeals to him for its doctrine of the church, the sacrament, and authority, while the Reformation felt kinship with him in the doctrine of predestination and grace. Scholasticism, in construing its conceptual framework, took advantage of his sharp observation, the acuteness of his intellect, the power of his speculation- Thomas, in fact, was called the best interpreter of Saint Augustine. Mysticism, in turn, found inspiration in his neoplatonism and religious enthusiasm. Both Catholic and Protestant piety buoy themselves up on his writings; asceticism and pietism find nourishment and support in his work. Augustine, therefore, does not belong to one church but to all churches together. He is the universal teacher (Doctor universalis). Even philosophy neglects him to its own detriment. And because of his elegant and fascinating style, his refined, precise, highly individual and nevertheless universally human way of expressing himself, he, more than any other church father, can still be appreciated today. He is the most Christian as well of the most modern of all the fathers; of all of them he is the closest to us. He replaced the aesthetic worldview with an ethical one, the classical with the Christian. In dogmatics we owe our best, our deepest, our richest thoughts to him. Augustine has been and is the dogmatician of the Christian church.”
-Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena, p. 138
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