Abstracts
Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4
In this article, we try to compare some elements of the Augustinian theory of memory with the concept Petrarch used. We do so because Petrarch used the Augustinian concept of memory and made Augustine his main source in thinking about the structure of our memory. For Augustine then, our memory may, in the first place, seem the place where we meet ourselves. But in the end it is the place where we lose ourselves. It is the domain of pure subjectivity and the only way out is the fact that our deepest memory is God. He is the one that turns our subjective memory into an objective truth. That is also the reason Augustine can integrate the notion of memory into the Trinitarian doctrine. Memory tells us about the domain between being an non being and shows us the necessity of recreation. Petrarch seems to follow this scheme and he also stresses the loss of our identity when it comes to our memory. But although he completely adapts the Augustinian scheme, he uses it in the opposite way. The structure of what memory is, remains the same: it is the loss of identity. It is a mirror without end. But this loss also shows us the ideal of what we can achieve. Memory is not there to make us find God, it is there to rediscover the ideal man. No need of a Trinitarian doctrine, just the necessity of a stoic ideal of what man can be when he strives for a better life.
key words
memory - identity - ideal - God - trinity
I have demonstrated in a series of articles that it is possible to uncover the arrangement of Augustine’s Nativity sermons in a different manner than by looking at the traditional rhetorical rules. Thus the parts into which the texts of these sermons are divided can be identified by using a twofold method, in which the results of an analysis of the use of language (e.g. changes in sentence type, the use of various kinds of particles and unusual word and constituent order, often indicative of poetic use of language) and the results of an analysis of the use of Scripture (changes in quoted or referenced verses or clusters of verses from Scripture) support each other. On the basis of this twofold method, which is comparatively easy to apply and verify, it has been possible to determine divisions of sermons into four, three and five parts. The division into four parts (in ss. 186 and 187) corresponds to the division which Augustine himself proposes in the fourth book of doctr.chr. He says nothing about the divisions into three and five parts, but the sermons in which these are used appear chaotic and difficult to understand if the arrangement is not recognized. Using the twofold method it has been possible to determine that ss. 189 and 194 consist of five parts. This means that – despite marked differences in composition – they have the same coherent structure and a clear argument, representing a strategy in which Augustine moves from the introduction, through a preparation for a didactic moment, to this didactic moment itself, followed by a supporting part and, finally, a conclusion.
key words
Nativity sermon - Christmas sermon - scriptural quotations - structure - arrangement (dispositio, ordo)
As a theologian, an exegete, a pastor, and a teacher, Augustine had a complex and lifelong relationship to the Christian scriptures. For most of his life – and especially the forty years he spent as a member of the catholic clergy – he held to a 'high' view of those scriptures and believed that they had all been inspired by God. This essay examines Augustine’s use of 2 Peter 1:20-21, one of the two passages in the New Testament that explicitly claim that scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit. This examination is conducted in three steps: a review of Augustine’s teaching regarding the nature of scripture in general; a review of the main exegetical and interpretive issues for understanding 2 Peter 1:20-21; and, finally, a somewhat detailed discussion of the ways in which Augustine employed these two verses. It concludes that, despite making relatively frequent appeal to 2 Peter 1:20-21, Augustine, somewhat paradoxically, never offered a detailed exegesis of them. In other words, despite his 'high' view of scripture, Augustine only rarely supported his view via appeal to verses that offered it explicit support.
key words
Augustine - Scripture - Inspiration - Biblical exegesis - 2 Peter
During the Pelagian controversy, the precise relation between grace and free will was an important issue. Augustine emphasized the priority of grace over human beings’ free will after the Fall. Pelagians such as Julian of Aeclanum were of the opinion that such view annihilated human beings’ free will. Throughout history, time and again, scholars belonging to different schools and denominations have discussed this issue at length. In this article, we concentrate on Augustine’s view on love as grace during his debate with Julian. We argue that one should broaden the scope of this question and pay attention to the role of divine love as an important and decisive factor with regard to the proper activity of grace in the redemption and liberation of human beings. Thinking the relation between human beings and God in terms of love is a help in order to overcome the unfruitful grace-freewill antinomy. In fact, such approach does justice to both the Scriptural sources of Augustine’s position and the bishop’s spiritual view on the topic under consideration.
key words
Augustine - Julian of Aeclanum - fall - grace - free will - love - God's mercy
The present paper argues that Augustine’s emotion theory is explained as a theory of personal identity. Augustine analyzes personal identity primarily as unity and integrity of the will (uoluntas). He perceives the will as focused on objects, and characterizes it as love (amor), an emotion that expresses this intentionality, and from which all other specific emotions arise. By linking the successful constitution of identity in the sense of coherence and unity to the will’s orientation to God and therefore to a certain orientation of emotions, Augustine’s emotion theory proves to be a theory of personal identity.
key words
Personal identity - emotion - love - will - confessions
In De uera religione Augustine articulates a theology of ascent in the context of a Plotinian metaphysic of the return of an image to participate most fully in its source. However, unlike Plotinus, Augustine insists that a successful ascent of the image is predicated on the grace of the initial descent of the imago dei in the Incarnation. This article argues that De uera religione 12.24 is a critical passage in Augustine’s early theology of the ascent of the soul as imago to participate in the Trinity. This passage contains the nucleus of the central themes to be developed throughout De uera religione, namely, the ascent from the many corporeal changing things to the one supreme, incorporeal good – the Holy Trinity. De uera religione 12.24 also demonstrates that Augustine’s enthusiasm regarding Platonism has its limits already in this early work: Platonic κάθαρσις proves to be insufficient to overcome the fallen human condition. At this point, Augustine’s theology augments and transforms his Platonic proclivities: it is the grace of God made present through the Incarnation that restores the soul to health.
key words
De vera religione - imago dei - ascent - Plotinus - incarnation
Recent scholarship on Augustine has begun to uncover the richness of his doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This essay aims to contribute to new research focused on the pneumatology found in Augustine’s earliest writings by highlighting the ecclesiological dimension of his doctrine of Spirit. In the first half of the essay, I survey dominant scholarly narratives of Augustine’s earliest understanding of the church, on the one hand, and of his early doctrine of the Holy Spirit, on the other. These narratives tend to read Augustine in a heavily Neo-Platonic light, with the result that: (1) Augustine’s earliest articulations of the incarnation and church are interpreted as extrinsic to his predominantly introspective philosophical program; and (2) a wedge is driven between Augustine’s understanding of the outward work of Christ and the more inward work of the Holy Spirit. Over against these narratives, I then set recent scholarship on Augustine’s early Trinitarian theology as well as on his early understanding of scriptural exegesis. I argue that the latter, in particular, helps us see how Augustine’s theology is from the outset 'incarnational', broadly understood. As such, we can best understand the emergence and intersection of his early pneumatology and ecclesiology within this incarnational-scriptural framework. To substantiate that claim more concretely, then, I turn in the second half of the essay to Augustine’s earliest anti-Manichean text, The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life (De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus manichaeorum). Scholars have observed in that work the association of love language with the Holy Spirit. Additional language of pneumatological significance in De moribus, namely that of harmony [concordia] and peace [pax], has been attributed to Augustine’s anti-Manichean theology of scripture. I argue that even that theology of scripture can only be fully understood in light of Augustine’s nascent understanding of the Catholic church as a part of the whole history of salvation, which is in turn comprehensible only through the lens of the incarnation. Against that backdrop, an intrinsic conceptual relationship between pneumatology and ecclesiology is emerging already at this early stage in Augustine’s thought.
key words
early Augustine - Holy Spirit - Catholic Church - pneumatology - ecclesiology - anti-Manichean - pedagogy - rhetoric
This study offers an overview and analysis of Augustine’s polemical usage of quotations from Christian authors in several key texts from throughout the Pelagian controversy. Contrary to the account of Éric Rebillard, I argue that Augustine consistently used the opinions found in these quotations as evidence of his own orthodoxy and of the Pelagians’ heterodoxy and, thus, consistently employed an argumentative technique modern scholars have called 'patristic argumentation'. Augustine regularly coupled his use of patristic argumentation with displays of rhetorical prowess, as he sought to convince his audience of the agreement between his own position and that of the quoted author. Further, Augustine often attempted to validate his use of patristic argumentation by suggesting that the authors whom he had quoted were reliable witnesses to the orthodox doctrine found in Scripture and in the Church’s teaching. I also argue that it is important to recognize the broader context of the controversy when attempting to understand Augustine’s use of these quotations. From the very beginning of the controversy, Augustine and his allies were confronted with Pelagian claims that African theology was out of step with that of the broader Church – claims that only increased in intensity as the controversy progressed. In this sense, the quoted opinions of his Christian predecessors provided Augustine with crucial evidence to persuade his readers that his positions were traditional and orthodox.
key words
Augustine - Pelagian controversy - patristic argumentation - patristic citation - rhetoric
Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428) was the author of the only theological treatise written by an Eastern bishop in defence of Pelagianism. It is entitled Against those who say that men sin by nature and not by will. Regrettably, this treatise has been lost and only fragments remain. In addition to analyzing the extant sources relating to Theodore’s treatise, this article will provide a selective status quaestionis, in which the areas that have been left undeveloped by previous scholars will be identified. In particular, according to Photius, Theodore wrote this treatise to counter Jerome’s Dialogus adversus Pelagianos, but a comparison between these two works has yet to be undertaken. A careful comparison between the remaining fragments of Theodore’s work and Jerome’s dialogue will be used to suggest that Theodore did not have direct knowledge of Jerome’s dialogue. There are discrepancies and misunderstandings in Theodore’s work that would be difficult to explain if Theodore had relied directly on Jerome’s work. It will be proposed, as hypothesis, that Julian of Aeclanum, expelled from Italy in 418, acted as an intermediary, bringing the news of the Pelagian controversy to Cilicia. Marius Mercator recorded that Julian was welcomed by Theodore during his exile and that he wrote his last work (Ad Florum) against Augustine there. Julian’s work contains all of the issues found in what remains of Theodore’s treatise and several unique exegeses. It seems, therefore, that Theodore borrowed from Julian’s argument against Augustine to oppose Jerome.
key words
Theodore of Mopsuestia - Jerome - Julian of Aeclanum - Pelagian controversy
- Matthias SMALBRUGGE, L'identité sans structure, le dynamisme de la mémoire. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 11-24
In this article, we try to compare some elements of the Augustinian theory of memory with the concept Petrarch used. We do so because Petrarch used the Augustinian concept of memory and made Augustine his main source in thinking about the structure of our memory. For Augustine then, our memory may, in the first place, seem the place where we meet ourselves. But in the end it is the place where we lose ourselves. It is the domain of pure subjectivity and the only way out is the fact that our deepest memory is God. He is the one that turns our subjective memory into an objective truth. That is also the reason Augustine can integrate the notion of memory into the Trinitarian doctrine. Memory tells us about the domain between being an non being and shows us the necessity of recreation. Petrarch seems to follow this scheme and he also stresses the loss of our identity when it comes to our memory. But although he completely adapts the Augustinian scheme, he uses it in the opposite way. The structure of what memory is, remains the same: it is the loss of identity. It is a mirror without end. But this loss also shows us the ideal of what we can achieve. Memory is not there to make us find God, it is there to rediscover the ideal man. No need of a Trinitarian doctrine, just the necessity of a stoic ideal of what man can be when he strives for a better life.
key words
memory - identity - ideal - God - trinity
- Joost VAN NEER,Christ is born : Augustine's Nativity sermons 189 and 194, with a learning trajectory in five phasess. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 25-57
I have demonstrated in a series of articles that it is possible to uncover the arrangement of Augustine’s Nativity sermons in a different manner than by looking at the traditional rhetorical rules. Thus the parts into which the texts of these sermons are divided can be identified by using a twofold method, in which the results of an analysis of the use of language (e.g. changes in sentence type, the use of various kinds of particles and unusual word and constituent order, often indicative of poetic use of language) and the results of an analysis of the use of Scripture (changes in quoted or referenced verses or clusters of verses from Scripture) support each other. On the basis of this twofold method, which is comparatively easy to apply and verify, it has been possible to determine divisions of sermons into four, three and five parts. The division into four parts (in ss. 186 and 187) corresponds to the division which Augustine himself proposes in the fourth book of doctr.chr. He says nothing about the divisions into three and five parts, but the sermons in which these are used appear chaotic and difficult to understand if the arrangement is not recognized. Using the twofold method it has been possible to determine that ss. 189 and 194 consist of five parts. This means that – despite marked differences in composition – they have the same coherent structure and a clear argument, representing a strategy in which Augustine moves from the introduction, through a preparation for a didactic moment, to this didactic moment itself, followed by a supporting part and, finally, a conclusion.
key words
Nativity sermon - Christmas sermon - scriptural quotations - structure - arrangement (dispositio, ordo)
- Jonathan P. YATES, Sed spiritu sancto inspirati locuti sunt : 2 Peter 2:20-21 in Augustine. Augustiniana 64(2014) : 59-74
As a theologian, an exegete, a pastor, and a teacher, Augustine had a complex and lifelong relationship to the Christian scriptures. For most of his life – and especially the forty years he spent as a member of the catholic clergy – he held to a 'high' view of those scriptures and believed that they had all been inspired by God. This essay examines Augustine’s use of 2 Peter 1:20-21, one of the two passages in the New Testament that explicitly claim that scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit. This examination is conducted in three steps: a review of Augustine’s teaching regarding the nature of scripture in general; a review of the main exegetical and interpretive issues for understanding 2 Peter 1:20-21; and, finally, a somewhat detailed discussion of the ways in which Augustine employed these two verses. It concludes that, despite making relatively frequent appeal to 2 Peter 1:20-21, Augustine, somewhat paradoxically, never offered a detailed exegesis of them. In other words, despite his 'high' view of scripture, Augustine only rarely supported his view via appeal to verses that offered it explicit support.
key words
Augustine - Scripture - Inspiration - Biblical exegesis - 2 Peter
- Mathijs LAMBERIGTS, Augustine's view on love as grace in the controversy with Julian of Aeclanum. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 75-91
During the Pelagian controversy, the precise relation between grace and free will was an important issue. Augustine emphasized the priority of grace over human beings’ free will after the Fall. Pelagians such as Julian of Aeclanum were of the opinion that such view annihilated human beings’ free will. Throughout history, time and again, scholars belonging to different schools and denominations have discussed this issue at length. In this article, we concentrate on Augustine’s view on love as grace during his debate with Julian. We argue that one should broaden the scope of this question and pay attention to the role of divine love as an important and decisive factor with regard to the proper activity of grace in the redemption and liberation of human beings. Thinking the relation between human beings and God in terms of love is a help in order to overcome the unfruitful grace-freewill antinomy. In fact, such approach does justice to both the Scriptural sources of Augustine’s position and the bishop’s spiritual view on the topic under consideration.
key words
Augustine - Julian of Aeclanum - fall - grace - free will - love - God's mercy
- Dagmar KIESEL, Die Emotionstheorie Augustins als Theorie personaler Identität. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 93-123
The present paper argues that Augustine’s emotion theory is explained as a theory of personal identity. Augustine analyzes personal identity primarily as unity and integrity of the will (uoluntas). He perceives the will as focused on objects, and characterizes it as love (amor), an emotion that expresses this intentionality, and from which all other specific emotions arise. By linking the successful constitution of identity in the sense of coherence and unity to the will’s orientation to God and therefore to a certain orientation of emotions, Augustine’s emotion theory proves to be a theory of personal identity.
key words
Personal identity - emotion - love - will - confessions
- Gerald BOERSMA, The ascent of the image in De vera religione. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 125-151
In De uera religione Augustine articulates a theology of ascent in the context of a Plotinian metaphysic of the return of an image to participate most fully in its source. However, unlike Plotinus, Augustine insists that a successful ascent of the image is predicated on the grace of the initial descent of the imago dei in the Incarnation. This article argues that De uera religione 12.24 is a critical passage in Augustine’s early theology of the ascent of the soul as imago to participate in the Trinity. This passage contains the nucleus of the central themes to be developed throughout De uera religione, namely, the ascent from the many corporeal changing things to the one supreme, incorporeal good – the Holy Trinity. De uera religione 12.24 also demonstrates that Augustine’s enthusiasm regarding Platonism has its limits already in this early work: Platonic κάθαρσις proves to be insufficient to overcome the fallen human condition. At this point, Augustine’s theology augments and transforms his Platonic proclivities: it is the grace of God made present through the Incarnation that restores the soul to health.
key words
De vera religione - imago dei - ascent - Plotinus - incarnation
- Douglas FINN, Holy Spirit and Church in the early Augustine. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 153-185
Recent scholarship on Augustine has begun to uncover the richness of his doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This essay aims to contribute to new research focused on the pneumatology found in Augustine’s earliest writings by highlighting the ecclesiological dimension of his doctrine of Spirit. In the first half of the essay, I survey dominant scholarly narratives of Augustine’s earliest understanding of the church, on the one hand, and of his early doctrine of the Holy Spirit, on the other. These narratives tend to read Augustine in a heavily Neo-Platonic light, with the result that: (1) Augustine’s earliest articulations of the incarnation and church are interpreted as extrinsic to his predominantly introspective philosophical program; and (2) a wedge is driven between Augustine’s understanding of the outward work of Christ and the more inward work of the Holy Spirit. Over against these narratives, I then set recent scholarship on Augustine’s early Trinitarian theology as well as on his early understanding of scriptural exegesis. I argue that the latter, in particular, helps us see how Augustine’s theology is from the outset 'incarnational', broadly understood. As such, we can best understand the emergence and intersection of his early pneumatology and ecclesiology within this incarnational-scriptural framework. To substantiate that claim more concretely, then, I turn in the second half of the essay to Augustine’s earliest anti-Manichean text, The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life (De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus manichaeorum). Scholars have observed in that work the association of love language with the Holy Spirit. Additional language of pneumatological significance in De moribus, namely that of harmony [concordia] and peace [pax], has been attributed to Augustine’s anti-Manichean theology of scripture. I argue that even that theology of scripture can only be fully understood in light of Augustine’s nascent understanding of the Catholic church as a part of the whole history of salvation, which is in turn comprehensible only through the lens of the incarnation. Against that backdrop, an intrinsic conceptual relationship between pneumatology and ecclesiology is emerging already at this early stage in Augustine’s thought.
key words
early Augustine - Holy Spirit - Catholic Church - pneumatology - ecclesiology - anti-Manichean - pedagogy - rhetoric
- Andrew C. CHRONISTER, Augustine and patristic argumentation in his anti-Pelagian works. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 187-226
This study offers an overview and analysis of Augustine’s polemical usage of quotations from Christian authors in several key texts from throughout the Pelagian controversy. Contrary to the account of Éric Rebillard, I argue that Augustine consistently used the opinions found in these quotations as evidence of his own orthodoxy and of the Pelagians’ heterodoxy and, thus, consistently employed an argumentative technique modern scholars have called 'patristic argumentation'. Augustine regularly coupled his use of patristic argumentation with displays of rhetorical prowess, as he sought to convince his audience of the agreement between his own position and that of the quoted author. Further, Augustine often attempted to validate his use of patristic argumentation by suggesting that the authors whom he had quoted were reliable witnesses to the orthodox doctrine found in Scripture and in the Church’s teaching. I also argue that it is important to recognize the broader context of the controversy when attempting to understand Augustine’s use of these quotations. From the very beginning of the controversy, Augustine and his allies were confronted with Pelagian claims that African theology was out of step with that of the broader Church – claims that only increased in intensity as the controversy progressed. In this sense, the quoted opinions of his Christian predecessors provided Augustine with crucial evidence to persuade his readers that his positions were traditional and orthodox.
key words
Augustine - Pelagian controversy - patristic argumentation - patristic citation - rhetoric
- Giulio MALAVASI, The involvement of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the Pelagian controversy. Augustiniana 64(2014)1-4 : 227-260
Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428) was the author of the only theological treatise written by an Eastern bishop in defence of Pelagianism. It is entitled Against those who say that men sin by nature and not by will. Regrettably, this treatise has been lost and only fragments remain. In addition to analyzing the extant sources relating to Theodore’s treatise, this article will provide a selective status quaestionis, in which the areas that have been left undeveloped by previous scholars will be identified. In particular, according to Photius, Theodore wrote this treatise to counter Jerome’s Dialogus adversus Pelagianos, but a comparison between these two works has yet to be undertaken. A careful comparison between the remaining fragments of Theodore’s work and Jerome’s dialogue will be used to suggest that Theodore did not have direct knowledge of Jerome’s dialogue. There are discrepancies and misunderstandings in Theodore’s work that would be difficult to explain if Theodore had relied directly on Jerome’s work. It will be proposed, as hypothesis, that Julian of Aeclanum, expelled from Italy in 418, acted as an intermediary, bringing the news of the Pelagian controversy to Cilicia. Marius Mercator recorded that Julian was welcomed by Theodore during his exile and that he wrote his last work (Ad Florum) against Augustine there. Julian’s work contains all of the issues found in what remains of Theodore’s treatise and several unique exegeses. It seems, therefore, that Theodore borrowed from Julian’s argument against Augustine to oppose Jerome.
key words
Theodore of Mopsuestia - Jerome - Julian of Aeclanum - Pelagian controversy