Abstracts
Augustiniana 68(2018)
This paper focuses on the question of Plotinus’ influence on Augustine’s conception of the matter of the corporeal world, in order to highlight not only the undeniable tangency points, but also the relevant theoretical differences between the two thinkers. The following topics will be covered: (1) the relationship between the concept of matter and the notions of form, privation, mass, and non-being; (2) the epistemological and ontological status of formless matter; and (3) its ethical and metaphysical implications.
key words
Matter - Form - Privation - Mass - Non-being
The purpose of this article is to offer a close reading of a passage from Book Nine of the Confessions (9.4.8-11) which is an example of a spiritual exercise in written form. In the passage at issue, Augustine prays Psalm 4, which becomes an opportunity for him to demonstrate the relationship of Christian spiritual practice to its Manichean and Neoplatonist counterparts. The bishop of Hippo here introduces a method of prayer which will later be codified as lectio diuina, and associates it with Neoplatonic ascent to God through the levels of creation and the soul. Augustine also demonstrates how rhetoric can be used to engage the readers and to enable them to participate in the spiritual exercise that is a part of the text. The four chapters of Book Nine that are analyzed here in fact provide an encompassing synthesis of the main themes of the Confessions and a manifesto of a convert who shares with his reader his new understanding of his own past and future.
key words
Augustine - Confessions - the Manichaeans - Neoplatonism - Spiritual exercise - Contemplation - lectio divina
Comment expliquer le dialogue de sourds qui s’est joué entre Augustin et Julien d’Eclane? En examinant l’argumentation et les modes de pensée dans le Contra Iulianum d’Augustin et l’Ad Turbantium de Julien, on peut constater que les méthodes logiques sont sensiblement les mêmes; de même la construction de l’êthos de l’auteur et la déconstruction de l’autre sont relativement semblables. Alors que, pour Julien, l’homme, grâce à la raison, peut tout comprendre, Augustin estime, en revanche, que depuis le péché originel, la capacité d’argumenter a été mise en danger; ce qui explique le raisonnement parfois tautologique de l’évêque d’Hippone. La raison humaine est incapable, selon Augustin, d’expliquer ou comprendre les mystères de Dieu.
How should we explain the ‘dialogue of the deaf’ that took place between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum? If we study the argumentation and the ways of reasoning in Augustine’s Contra Iulianum and Julian’s Ad Turbantium, we see that the logical methods are essentially the same, as are the construction of the author’s êthos and the destruction of that of the other. But, whereas for Julian, human beings can understand everything thanks to reason, for Augustine, the capacity to argue and to understand has been damaged as a result of original sin. It is for this reason that Augustine’s arguments are sometimes tautological, for human reason is unable to explain or understand God’s mysteries.
key words
Augustine - Contra Iulianum - Julian of Aeclanum - Ad Turbantium - Dialectic - Argumentation
This article deals with the doctrines of double justice and, closely related, that of double justification, which were developed in the context of the Diet of Regensburg (1541) in an attempt at reconciling Catholics and Lutherans by introducing the notions of 'inherent' and 'imputed' justice. More specifically, attention is paid to the way in which the Cologne theologian Johann Gropper expounded the doctrine in his Antididagma (1544) and to the way in which this explanation was received in Leuven. Under the guidance of Ruard Tapper, the Leuven Faculty of Theology rebuked Gropper for his opinions. After mail correspondence between Leuven and Gropper, the latter slightly adapted his position, as is demonstrated by his Articuli antididagmatis. In 1544, the Leuven theologians issued 59 articles, subsequently condensed to 32, which were conceived as accurately summarizing the teachings of the Catholic Church. The eighth article criticizes Gropper’s ideas on justification. In 1554, an elaboration and further clarification of the 32 articles, entitled Declaratio articulorum, was published in Lyon under Tapper’s name but without his knowing. Since the text was strongly influenced by Gropper’s views, Tapper distanced himself from it, and instead published an Explicatio articulorum (1555), which strictly followed the Tridentine decree on justification, exposing once again the 'unreliability' of Gropper’s doctrine of justification. Remarkably, however, even in the early 1550s, when the Council of Trent had already formally rejected the doctrine, two important Franciscan theologians active in Leuven, Nicholas Tacitus Zegers and Adam Sasbout, in their works showed acquaintance with, and sympathy for the doctrine of double justice.
key words
Double justice - Double justification - Johannes Gropper - Antididagma - Ruard Tapper - Johannes Driedo - Nicholas Tacitus Zegers - Adam Sasbout
Starting with an analysis of Gennadius of Marseille’s biographical notice on Tyconius, the present article first discusses the possible contents of the African Donatist’s lost work De bello intestino. It then moves on to define the possible meaning of the expression 'bellum intestinum'. It is concluded that in the later tradition, there was an 'external' and an 'internal' meaning, the inward shift beginning with Augustine and his correspondent Paulinus of Nola, and prevailing among Augustine’s many disciples. This 'internal' meaning of 'bellum intestinum', denoting the Christian’s permanent inner struggle between flesh and spirit (see, e.g., Rom. 7 and Gal. 5:17) is not attested in the works of Tyconius in so far as they have come down to us. From his recently reconstructed commentary on the Apocalypse of John, the most likely solution appears to be that, in the title of Tyconius’ De bello intestino, the expression is used in its 'external' meaning, referring to the enduring war between good and bad Christians within the Church.
key words
Tyconius - De bello intestino - Augustine - Romans 7 - Galatians 5:17 - Donatism - Ecclesiology - The Christian combat
L’articulation dialectique entre la première partie apologétique et la seconde partie catéchétique de La Cité de Dieu de saint Augustin pose problème. Toutefois, la notion augustinienne de mémoire permet de comprendre l’histoire universelle déployée dans la seconde partie à partir de l’autorité des Écritures comme une réponse aux lacunes et impasses de la mémoire païenne de l’histoire telles qu’elles sont dénoncées dans les livres de la première partie. Ce faisant, saint Augustin atteint l’objectif apologétique de La Cité de Dieu: montrer l’éclatante supériorité de la mémoire chrétienne de l’histoire sur la mémoire païenne.
The dialectical relationship between the apologetic first part and the catechetic second part of saint Augustine’s City of God is a problematic one. However, the Augustinian notion of memory allows us to better understand Augustine’s account of universal history. Developed in the second part of the work at issue, and based on Scriptural authority, this account provides an answer to the gaps and impasses of Pagan historical memory that are singled out in the first part. In proposing his alternative account, saint Augustine achieves the apologetic aim of his City of God, which consists in demonstrating the absolute superiority of Christian historical memory over its Pagan counterpart.
key words
Saint Augustine - apologetics - Historiography - (structure of) De civitate Dei - Memory - Confessiones - Theology of history - Eternity - Holy Scripture
This article discusses the many aspects of sin and concupiscence in Augustine’s Confessions. It first analyses how these concepts function in the narrative about his early years, and then explores the story of Augustine’s early and later adolescence. From several references in Books 3 and 4, it is concluded that Augustine had strong – albeit temporary – homoerotic feelings. The following books evidence his lasting longing for concubitus with a woman, first experienced with his Una and later with an interim concubine. This sinful concupiscential desire (several times referred to as his ‘disease’) even beset the monk and bishop Augustine at the time when he wrote his literary masterpiece: in Book 10 he confesses nocturnal emissions caused by his sex dreams. Although particularly in the later parts of Book 10 (esp. 10,41ff.) Augustine describes concupiscentia as having a rather broad spectrum of meanings, its ‘sinful’, sexual meaning prevails in the whole of his Confessions. The same appears to go for a related concept such as libido. All this leads to the conclusion that confessio in the sense of ‘confession of sexual sins’ is an essential feature of Augustine’s work.
key words
Augsutine - Confessions - Concupiscence - Sex - (Original) Sin - libido - voluptas - confessio - Anti-Manichaean polemic
Deification (θεοποίησις, theōsis) occupies a central place not only in Eastern Orthodox doctrine but also in Augustine’s theology. This article analyses Augustine’s theoretical position on the deification of humans and their emotions, i.e. on whether humans could 'become God' by participating in the divine nature of the Trinity. This contribution will evaluate the validity of the criticism that Augustine does not offer a correct deification theory, as his major concern – due to the absence in his doctrine of an essence/energy distinction – is merely the fulfilment of humanity rather than the genuine deifying transformation of human beings. This article will suggest that, while Augustine refers to God’s essence as being 'simple' and 'indivisible', he stresses another level of the divine operation, i.e. the real presence of the Holy Spirit (as the fullness of God) in faith, which shapes the human life toward deification. In this process, the human substance is transformed into a better form and participates in the divine spiritual nature, as a hallmark of the deification of emotions. It is thus more than human beatitude, as has been claimed by some Orthodox critics.
key words
Augustine - Deification - Emotion
The incorporeality of the soul is a central subject in Augustine’s thought and plays a primordial role in De quantitate animae, which discusses the question of the soul’s relation to the body. The analysis of the philosophical sources of the various theses presented by Evodius and Augustine in this dialogue reveals Augustine’s thorough familiarity with the debate between Stoics and Neo-Platonists on this subject. In addition, this study allows us to see how Augustine rethinks Neoplatonic concepts in order to affirm the non-corporeal nature of the soul, which paves the way for a new conception of the human subject.
key words
Body - Sensation - Soul - Neo-Platonism - Stoicism - Plotinus - Porphyry - intentio - De quantitate animae
- Enrico MORO, Augstine and Plotinus on the matter of the corporeal world. Augustiniana 68(2018)1 : 7-24
This paper focuses on the question of Plotinus’ influence on Augustine’s conception of the matter of the corporeal world, in order to highlight not only the undeniable tangency points, but also the relevant theoretical differences between the two thinkers. The following topics will be covered: (1) the relationship between the concept of matter and the notions of form, privation, mass, and non-being; (2) the epistemological and ontological status of formless matter; and (3) its ethical and metaphysical implications.
key words
Matter - Form - Privation - Mass - Non-being
- Mateusz STRÓŻYŃSKI, Psalmody and spiritual exercise in book nine of Augustine's Confessions. Augustiniana 68(2018)1 : 25-58
The purpose of this article is to offer a close reading of a passage from Book Nine of the Confessions (9.4.8-11) which is an example of a spiritual exercise in written form. In the passage at issue, Augustine prays Psalm 4, which becomes an opportunity for him to demonstrate the relationship of Christian spiritual practice to its Manichean and Neoplatonist counterparts. The bishop of Hippo here introduces a method of prayer which will later be codified as lectio diuina, and associates it with Neoplatonic ascent to God through the levels of creation and the soul. Augustine also demonstrates how rhetoric can be used to engage the readers and to enable them to participate in the spiritual exercise that is a part of the text. The four chapters of Book Nine that are analyzed here in fact provide an encompassing synthesis of the main themes of the Confessions and a manifesto of a convert who shares with his reader his new understanding of his own past and future.
key words
Augustine - Confessions - the Manichaeans - Neoplatonism - Spiritual exercise - Contemplation - lectio divina
- Mickaël RIBREAU, Un dialogue de sourds? Argumentation et modes de pensée dans le Contra Iulianum d'Augustin. Augustiniana 68(2018)1 : 59-90
Comment expliquer le dialogue de sourds qui s’est joué entre Augustin et Julien d’Eclane? En examinant l’argumentation et les modes de pensée dans le Contra Iulianum d’Augustin et l’Ad Turbantium de Julien, on peut constater que les méthodes logiques sont sensiblement les mêmes; de même la construction de l’êthos de l’auteur et la déconstruction de l’autre sont relativement semblables. Alors que, pour Julien, l’homme, grâce à la raison, peut tout comprendre, Augustin estime, en revanche, que depuis le péché originel, la capacité d’argumenter a été mise en danger; ce qui explique le raisonnement parfois tautologique de l’évêque d’Hippone. La raison humaine est incapable, selon Augustin, d’expliquer ou comprendre les mystères de Dieu.
How should we explain the ‘dialogue of the deaf’ that took place between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum? If we study the argumentation and the ways of reasoning in Augustine’s Contra Iulianum and Julian’s Ad Turbantium, we see that the logical methods are essentially the same, as are the construction of the author’s êthos and the destruction of that of the other. But, whereas for Julian, human beings can understand everything thanks to reason, for Augustine, the capacity to argue and to understand has been damaged as a result of original sin. It is for this reason that Augustine’s arguments are sometimes tautological, for human reason is unable to explain or understand God’s mysteries.
key words
Augustine - Contra Iulianum - Julian of Aeclanum - Ad Turbantium - Dialectic - Argumentation
- Antonio GERACE & Gert GIELIS, The ambiguous reception of the doctrine of duplex iustitia in Leuven (1544-1556). Augustiniana 68(2018)1 : 91-123
This article deals with the doctrines of double justice and, closely related, that of double justification, which were developed in the context of the Diet of Regensburg (1541) in an attempt at reconciling Catholics and Lutherans by introducing the notions of 'inherent' and 'imputed' justice. More specifically, attention is paid to the way in which the Cologne theologian Johann Gropper expounded the doctrine in his Antididagma (1544) and to the way in which this explanation was received in Leuven. Under the guidance of Ruard Tapper, the Leuven Faculty of Theology rebuked Gropper for his opinions. After mail correspondence between Leuven and Gropper, the latter slightly adapted his position, as is demonstrated by his Articuli antididagmatis. In 1544, the Leuven theologians issued 59 articles, subsequently condensed to 32, which were conceived as accurately summarizing the teachings of the Catholic Church. The eighth article criticizes Gropper’s ideas on justification. In 1554, an elaboration and further clarification of the 32 articles, entitled Declaratio articulorum, was published in Lyon under Tapper’s name but without his knowing. Since the text was strongly influenced by Gropper’s views, Tapper distanced himself from it, and instead published an Explicatio articulorum (1555), which strictly followed the Tridentine decree on justification, exposing once again the 'unreliability' of Gropper’s doctrine of justification. Remarkably, however, even in the early 1550s, when the Council of Trent had already formally rejected the doctrine, two important Franciscan theologians active in Leuven, Nicholas Tacitus Zegers and Adam Sasbout, in their works showed acquaintance with, and sympathy for the doctrine of double justice.
key words
Double justice - Double justification - Johannes Gropper - Antididagma - Ruard Tapper - Johannes Driedo - Nicholas Tacitus Zegers - Adam Sasbout
- Johannes VAN OORT, De bello intestino : In search of Tyconius' and Augustine's use of a term. Augustiniana 68(2018)1 : 125-140
Starting with an analysis of Gennadius of Marseille’s biographical notice on Tyconius, the present article first discusses the possible contents of the African Donatist’s lost work De bello intestino. It then moves on to define the possible meaning of the expression 'bellum intestinum'. It is concluded that in the later tradition, there was an 'external' and an 'internal' meaning, the inward shift beginning with Augustine and his correspondent Paulinus of Nola, and prevailing among Augustine’s many disciples. This 'internal' meaning of 'bellum intestinum', denoting the Christian’s permanent inner struggle between flesh and spirit (see, e.g., Rom. 7 and Gal. 5:17) is not attested in the works of Tyconius in so far as they have come down to us. From his recently reconstructed commentary on the Apocalypse of John, the most likely solution appears to be that, in the title of Tyconius’ De bello intestino, the expression is used in its 'external' meaning, referring to the enduring war between good and bad Christians within the Church.
key words
Tyconius - De bello intestino - Augustine - Romans 7 - Galatians 5:17 - Donatism - Ecclesiology - The Christian combat
- Philippe COURNAULT, Deux mémoires en vis-à-vis. Pour une lecture de La Cité de Dieu. Augustiniana 68(2018)2 : 141-191
L’articulation dialectique entre la première partie apologétique et la seconde partie catéchétique de La Cité de Dieu de saint Augustin pose problème. Toutefois, la notion augustinienne de mémoire permet de comprendre l’histoire universelle déployée dans la seconde partie à partir de l’autorité des Écritures comme une réponse aux lacunes et impasses de la mémoire païenne de l’histoire telles qu’elles sont dénoncées dans les livres de la première partie. Ce faisant, saint Augustin atteint l’objectif apologétique de La Cité de Dieu: montrer l’éclatante supériorité de la mémoire chrétienne de l’histoire sur la mémoire païenne.
The dialectical relationship between the apologetic first part and the catechetic second part of saint Augustine’s City of God is a problematic one. However, the Augustinian notion of memory allows us to better understand Augustine’s account of universal history. Developed in the second part of the work at issue, and based on Scriptural authority, this account provides an answer to the gaps and impasses of Pagan historical memory that are singled out in the first part. In proposing his alternative account, saint Augustine achieves the apologetic aim of his City of God, which consists in demonstrating the absolute superiority of Christian historical memory over its Pagan counterpart.
key words
Saint Augustine - apologetics - Historiography - (structure of) De civitate Dei - Memory - Confessiones - Theology of history - Eternity - Holy Scripture
- Johannes VAN OORT, Sin and concupiscenc in Augustine's Confessions : an analytical overview of the relevant texts and some conclusions. Augustiniana 68(2018)2 : 193-207
This article discusses the many aspects of sin and concupiscence in Augustine’s Confessions. It first analyses how these concepts function in the narrative about his early years, and then explores the story of Augustine’s early and later adolescence. From several references in Books 3 and 4, it is concluded that Augustine had strong – albeit temporary – homoerotic feelings. The following books evidence his lasting longing for concubitus with a woman, first experienced with his Una and later with an interim concubine. This sinful concupiscential desire (several times referred to as his ‘disease’) even beset the monk and bishop Augustine at the time when he wrote his literary masterpiece: in Book 10 he confesses nocturnal emissions caused by his sex dreams. Although particularly in the later parts of Book 10 (esp. 10,41ff.) Augustine describes concupiscentia as having a rather broad spectrum of meanings, its ‘sinful’, sexual meaning prevails in the whole of his Confessions. The same appears to go for a related concept such as libido. All this leads to the conclusion that confessio in the sense of ‘confession of sexual sins’ is an essential feature of Augustine’s work.
key words
Augsutine - Confessions - Concupiscence - Sex - (Original) Sin - libido - voluptas - confessio - Anti-Manichaean polemic
- Yuan GAO, Augsutine's doctrine of the deification of emotions : a confrontation with the eastern orthodox view of Theōsis. Augustiniana 68(2018)2 : 209-227
Deification (θεοποίησις, theōsis) occupies a central place not only in Eastern Orthodox doctrine but also in Augustine’s theology. This article analyses Augustine’s theoretical position on the deification of humans and their emotions, i.e. on whether humans could 'become God' by participating in the divine nature of the Trinity. This contribution will evaluate the validity of the criticism that Augustine does not offer a correct deification theory, as his major concern – due to the absence in his doctrine of an essence/energy distinction – is merely the fulfilment of humanity rather than the genuine deifying transformation of human beings. This article will suggest that, while Augustine refers to God’s essence as being 'simple' and 'indivisible', he stresses another level of the divine operation, i.e. the real presence of the Holy Spirit (as the fullness of God) in faith, which shapes the human life toward deification. In this process, the human substance is transformed into a better form and participates in the divine spiritual nature, as a hallmark of the deification of emotions. It is thus more than human beatitude, as has been claimed by some Orthodox critics.
key words
Augustine - Deification - Emotion
- Jérôme LAGOUANÈRE, Âme, corps et conscience de soi dans le De quantitate animae. Augustiniana 68(2018)2 : 229-256
The incorporeality of the soul is a central subject in Augustine’s thought and plays a primordial role in De quantitate animae, which discusses the question of the soul’s relation to the body. The analysis of the philosophical sources of the various theses presented by Evodius and Augustine in this dialogue reveals Augustine’s thorough familiarity with the debate between Stoics and Neo-Platonists on this subject. In addition, this study allows us to see how Augustine rethinks Neoplatonic concepts in order to affirm the non-corporeal nature of the soul, which paves the way for a new conception of the human subject.
key words
Body - Sensation - Soul - Neo-Platonism - Stoicism - Plotinus - Porphyry - intentio - De quantitate animae
- Book reviews. Augustiniana 68(2018)2 : 257-400