Abstracts
Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4
En jetant un regard sur son passé, le jeune évêque constate avoir été souvent poussé par l’ambition et l’égoïsme. Dans ses dialogues se trouve déjà l’ébauche d’une réflexion philosophique sur l’orgueil qui à ses yeux est la racine de tous les maux. Après son errance manichéenne concernant la source du mal il continuera à désigner l’orgueil comme l’origine du mal car, épaulé par la tradition grecque et le témoignage biblique, Saint Augustin a compris que ce mal ne pouvait que germer dans la volonté d’un être raisonnable. D’abord il y eut la chute de l’ange due à l’orgueil et ensuite ce sera l’ange jaloux qui entrainera l’homme dans la même chute. Les deux sont la source mais aussi les victimes du mal, ce qui fait qu’on pourrait prétendre que le diable n’est pas le début absolu du mal. Si en premier lieu le Père de l’Eglise situe la possibilité de la tentation dans l’inévitable conscience de soi, aussi bien du diable que de l’homme, par après pour cette tentation de l’homme il recourra au rapport symbolique homme-femme présent dans l’esprit de l’homme. Dans ses oeuvres plus tardives la conceptualisation du mal pour autant que cela soit possible, a encore mûri. L’orgueil est principalement représenté comme une maladie qui a vu le jour dans l’histoire des hommes et qui peut également être guérie. Le mal n’est pas une fatalité pour Saint Augustin.
key words
pride - evil - temptation - the Fall
The French occupation of the Southern Netherlands turned the schuilkerken or ‘hidden churches’ of the Northern Netherlands – previously mission posts – into refuges where clerics could continue to live and work within the context of their order. Religious freedom had been introduced in the Republic in 1795, but the government’s ban on the communal religious life remained in force. Clerics therefore had to live independently in presbyteries or in the ‘stations’ or mission posts, which acquired a new importance as places of refuge. But the Dutch Augustinian Mission was troubled by a shortage of manpower. The Augustinians struggled to find a solution as the suppression of the monastic orders in the Southern Netherlands made it impossible to train new recruits. In the meantime, religious had to deal with the attentions of their old rivals the secular clergy, who looked with covetous eye to the wealthy religious stations. This article’s narration of the life of Hildebrand Verhoeckx (1766-1815) demonstrates the extent to which the preservation for the order of the stations – especially of Utrecht and Groningen – was at the forefront of the Augustinians’ minds. The letters and travels of Augustinians such as De Carnoncle, Van de Winckel, Henricus Kleijn and Augustinus Naudts shed light on the contacts that Augustinians in the north and south of the former Provincia Belgica maintained with each other.
key words
Provincia Belgica - French Revolution - Low Countries - Dutch Republic
Following Augustine’s own reconsideration of his seminal work in Retr. 2.6.1, this article argues that a close reading of the usage of the verb excitare ('stir up, excite, arouse, wake up') throughout the Confessions clearly reveals the ways in which protreptic literary features shaped the communicative purpose of this text as well as how this classical rhetorical model was reframed in light of Augustine’s evolving theological convictions (after 396 CE). To demonstrate the protreptic purpose and theological significance discernible in the use of this verb, this essay carefully explores both the rhetorical traditions in which Augustine was schooled and the theological perspectives he came to hold. By exploring Augustine’s use of protreptic language in describing his own encounter with Cicero’s Hortensius (Conf. 3.4.8; 8.7.17), a work composed according to the classical model of λόγος προτρεπτικός, this essay reveals how protreptic communicative purpose shapes the central leitmotif of the Confessions (Conf. 1.1.1; 5.1.1; 11.1.1), disclosing the ways in which the expanding discourse of being 'stirred up' forms a complex and evangelizing theology of human participation in divine love. In light of these evaluations, this essay contends that Augustine’s Confessions must be considered a work of protreptic theology, composed with explicit intentions to enfold and ultimately convert its readers.
key words
protreptic - rhetoric - theology - conversion - participation
No scholar seems to have been really interested in concentrating attention on the Donatist community of Rome, the so-called 'montenses'. To be more precise there are no studies specifically dedicated to this theme, maybe because of an almost total lack of testimonies about it. In this article I am trying to demonstrate that Donatists would have re-read the prophecy in Hab 3, 3 to base their ecclesiology on the identification of Donatus the Great (as known as Donatus from Casae Nigrae or Donatus of Carthage) with the image of the Saint (Sanctus) coming from the Shady Mount (mons umbrosus) and so this peculiar interpretation of Habacuc’s prophecy would be at the origin of the name 'montenses'.
key words
Donatism - Donatus - Montenses - Habacuc - Augustine
The dispositio or arrangement which Augustine himself uses as a frame of reference in De doctrina christiana is not always immediately obvious in his sermons. Several authors of older publications have detected little or no structure in the sermons. More recent publications show that others suspect that there is some kind of structure. Nonetheless uncertainty about the organisation of the sermons is still widespread. This article presents an examination of the structure of sermons 186 and 187. It argues that the internal division of these sermons can be determined on the basis of linguistic signals. Moreover, the use of scriptural quotations or references also points to the existence of separate sections. The results of this study show that Augustine also implemented the division into four parts which he presented in De doctrina christiana in his sermons.
key words
Augustine - Christian sermon - scriptural quotations - structural arrangement (dispositio)
In the writings of Pelagius and Augustine one finds a number of interpretations of the Pauline metaphor of templum Dei. Augustine used the metaphor of templum Dei on many occasions, and he did it in a way very similar to Pelagius’s. Both writers recognized its twofold meaning, concerning both an individual Christian and the Church. But when Augustine started his polemics against Pelagius he came up with new, different interpretations of the Pauline metaphor. This paper argues that this is not a mere coincidence. The evidence presented suggests that Augustine must have read Pelagius’s Expositiones to the Pauline Letters to Corinthians. In reaction to these readings, the bishop of Hippo also modified his understanding of the image of templum Dei. This development, which started already around 411, is particularly evident after the year 416. During these years, Augustine underlines the fact that in the absolute sense, templum Dei may describe only the eschatological reality, the kingdom of God, and not the present, wounded state of being. One of the most important testimonies is Augustine’s Letter 187 where one finds direct polemics against Pelagius. It is also shown that, at some point, Augustine started to prefer other images. To support this thesis, numerous testimonies from Augustine’s and Pelagius’s works are presented and discussed.
key words
pelagianism - exegesis - St. Paul - God's temple - ecclesiology
This article proposes an alternative to O’Connell’s thesis regarding the young Augustine’s theory of man through a detailed parallel analysis of the Latin text of the De Genesi contra Manichaeos and of the Greek text of the Enneads and illustrates Augustine’s dependence on and at the same time distance from Plotinus’ thought. Through a strictly philological analysis of all the texts under exam the article demonstrates that O’Connell’s conclusions, which for years have stirred a heated debate among scholars, cannot be held. Augustine never thought of man in Paradise as disembodied, as O’Connell suggests, but rather as provided with a body that was different from the one man has on earth.
key words
(young) Augustine - Plotinus - Soul - embodiment - O'Connell
- Bernard BRUNING, Augustine's concept of pride : ut cancer serpit (en. Ps. 1,1). Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 9-81
En jetant un regard sur son passé, le jeune évêque constate avoir été souvent poussé par l’ambition et l’égoïsme. Dans ses dialogues se trouve déjà l’ébauche d’une réflexion philosophique sur l’orgueil qui à ses yeux est la racine de tous les maux. Après son errance manichéenne concernant la source du mal il continuera à désigner l’orgueil comme l’origine du mal car, épaulé par la tradition grecque et le témoignage biblique, Saint Augustin a compris que ce mal ne pouvait que germer dans la volonté d’un être raisonnable. D’abord il y eut la chute de l’ange due à l’orgueil et ensuite ce sera l’ange jaloux qui entrainera l’homme dans la même chute. Les deux sont la source mais aussi les victimes du mal, ce qui fait qu’on pourrait prétendre que le diable n’est pas le début absolu du mal. Si en premier lieu le Père de l’Eglise situe la possibilité de la tentation dans l’inévitable conscience de soi, aussi bien du diable que de l’homme, par après pour cette tentation de l’homme il recourra au rapport symbolique homme-femme présent dans l’esprit de l’homme. Dans ses oeuvres plus tardives la conceptualisation du mal pour autant que cela soit possible, a encore mûri. L’orgueil est principalement représenté comme une maladie qui a vu le jour dans l’histoire des hommes et qui peut également être guérie. Le mal n’est pas une fatalité pour Saint Augustin.
key words
pride - evil - temptation - the Fall
- Martijn SCHRAMA, Hildebrand Verhoeckx (1766-1815) : notes on an Augustinian family history. Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 83-154
The French occupation of the Southern Netherlands turned the schuilkerken or ‘hidden churches’ of the Northern Netherlands – previously mission posts – into refuges where clerics could continue to live and work within the context of their order. Religious freedom had been introduced in the Republic in 1795, but the government’s ban on the communal religious life remained in force. Clerics therefore had to live independently in presbyteries or in the ‘stations’ or mission posts, which acquired a new importance as places of refuge. But the Dutch Augustinian Mission was troubled by a shortage of manpower. The Augustinians struggled to find a solution as the suppression of the monastic orders in the Southern Netherlands made it impossible to train new recruits. In the meantime, religious had to deal with the attentions of their old rivals the secular clergy, who looked with covetous eye to the wealthy religious stations. This article’s narration of the life of Hildebrand Verhoeckx (1766-1815) demonstrates the extent to which the preservation for the order of the stations – especially of Utrecht and Groningen – was at the forefront of the Augustinians’ minds. The letters and travels of Augustinians such as De Carnoncle, Van de Winckel, Henricus Kleijn and Augustinus Naudts shed light on the contacts that Augustinians in the north and south of the former Provincia Belgica maintained with each other.
key words
Provincia Belgica - French Revolution - Low Countries - Dutch Republic
- Jonathan REIMER, 'Stir up the heart' : the use, protreptic purpose and theological significance of the verb excitare in Augustine's Confessions. Augustiniana 63(2013) : 155-172
Following Augustine’s own reconsideration of his seminal work in Retr. 2.6.1, this article argues that a close reading of the usage of the verb excitare ('stir up, excite, arouse, wake up') throughout the Confessions clearly reveals the ways in which protreptic literary features shaped the communicative purpose of this text as well as how this classical rhetorical model was reframed in light of Augustine’s evolving theological convictions (after 396 CE). To demonstrate the protreptic purpose and theological significance discernible in the use of this verb, this essay carefully explores both the rhetorical traditions in which Augustine was schooled and the theological perspectives he came to hold. By exploring Augustine’s use of protreptic language in describing his own encounter with Cicero’s Hortensius (Conf. 3.4.8; 8.7.17), a work composed according to the classical model of λόγος προτρεπτικός, this essay reveals how protreptic communicative purpose shapes the central leitmotif of the Confessions (Conf. 1.1.1; 5.1.1; 11.1.1), disclosing the ways in which the expanding discourse of being 'stirred up' forms a complex and evangelizing theology of human participation in divine love. In light of these evaluations, this essay contends that Augustine’s Confessions must be considered a work of protreptic theology, composed with explicit intentions to enfold and ultimately convert its readers.
key words
protreptic - rhetoric - theology - conversion - participation
- Matteo DALVIT, The Donatists' ecclesiological reflection about Habacuc's prophecy. Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 173-188
No scholar seems to have been really interested in concentrating attention on the Donatist community of Rome, the so-called 'montenses'. To be more precise there are no studies specifically dedicated to this theme, maybe because of an almost total lack of testimonies about it. In this article I am trying to demonstrate that Donatists would have re-read the prophecy in Hab 3, 3 to base their ecclesiology on the identification of Donatus the Great (as known as Donatus from Casae Nigrae or Donatus of Carthage) with the image of the Saint (Sanctus) coming from the Shady Mount (mons umbrosus) and so this peculiar interpretation of Habacuc’s prophecy would be at the origin of the name 'montenses'.
key words
Donatism - Donatus - Montenses - Habacuc - Augustine
- Joost VAN NEER, Language and Scripture as structuring principles of Augustine's sermones 186 and 187. Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 189-229
The dispositio or arrangement which Augustine himself uses as a frame of reference in De doctrina christiana is not always immediately obvious in his sermons. Several authors of older publications have detected little or no structure in the sermons. More recent publications show that others suspect that there is some kind of structure. Nonetheless uncertainty about the organisation of the sermons is still widespread. This article presents an examination of the structure of sermons 186 and 187. It argues that the internal division of these sermons can be determined on the basis of linguistic signals. Moreover, the use of scriptural quotations or references also points to the existence of separate sections. The results of this study show that Augustine also implemented the division into four parts which he presented in De doctrina christiana in his sermons.
key words
Augustine - Christian sermon - scriptural quotations - structural arrangement (dispositio)
- Rafał TOCZKO, The image of templum Dei in Pelagius and Augustine. Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 231-255
In the writings of Pelagius and Augustine one finds a number of interpretations of the Pauline metaphor of templum Dei. Augustine used the metaphor of templum Dei on many occasions, and he did it in a way very similar to Pelagius’s. Both writers recognized its twofold meaning, concerning both an individual Christian and the Church. But when Augustine started his polemics against Pelagius he came up with new, different interpretations of the Pauline metaphor. This paper argues that this is not a mere coincidence. The evidence presented suggests that Augustine must have read Pelagius’s Expositiones to the Pauline Letters to Corinthians. In reaction to these readings, the bishop of Hippo also modified his understanding of the image of templum Dei. This development, which started already around 411, is particularly evident after the year 416. During these years, Augustine underlines the fact that in the absolute sense, templum Dei may describe only the eschatological reality, the kingdom of God, and not the present, wounded state of being. One of the most important testimonies is Augustine’s Letter 187 where one finds direct polemics against Pelagius. It is also shown that, at some point, Augustine started to prefer other images. To support this thesis, numerous testimonies from Augustine’s and Pelagius’s works are presented and discussed.
key words
pelagianism - exegesis - St. Paul - God's temple - ecclesiology
- Paolo DILEO, Plotinus and the young Augustine on the Fall of the Soul. Augustiniana 63(2013)1-4 : 257-288
This article proposes an alternative to O’Connell’s thesis regarding the young Augustine’s theory of man through a detailed parallel analysis of the Latin text of the De Genesi contra Manichaeos and of the Greek text of the Enneads and illustrates Augustine’s dependence on and at the same time distance from Plotinus’ thought. Through a strictly philological analysis of all the texts under exam the article demonstrates that O’Connell’s conclusions, which for years have stirred a heated debate among scholars, cannot be held. Augustine never thought of man in Paradise as disembodied, as O’Connell suggests, but rather as provided with a body that was different from the one man has on earth.
key words
(young) Augustine - Plotinus - Soul - embodiment - O'Connell