Blake's goal for this project was to use music to capture and convey the grace of God in the life of St. Augustine. During his first masters degree at seminary, he was assigned to read The Confessions of St. Augustine for a course in church history. From the outset, he was less than enthused. Largely unfamiliar with the theological writings of the early church, Blake had yet to see the value in reading such an antiquated work, especially one originally written in Latin. The whole thing just seemed sort of disconnected.
Then he read it.
What Blake found in reading that book was phenomenal. He saw the beauty of the gospel on display through a very genuine, very personal testimony. He saw the wonder of the grace of God in triumph over the power of sin through superior joy. While he did not embrace all of Augustine's theological positions (especially on matters like the sacraments) he did very much identify with Augustine's description of the bondage of the will. And even more so, he marveled at the description of sin's dismay in light of the supreme joy of knowing God. So much so that he began writing songs about it. With a tight schedule and an even tighter budget, Blake began to record those songs in his apartment. The result of that is on his newly released album, "Songs of a Pious Heart: A Tribute to the Confessions of St. Augustine."
You can buy the CD off his site or buy the MP3s from Amazon.
