Abstracts
Augustiniana 71(2021)
abstract
For a generation, scholars have paid close attention to Augustine’s homiletic efforts and especially to his Sermones ad populum. This attention has resulted in manuscript discoveries, the publication of critical editions, and advances in chronological precision. Recently, scholars have endeavored to situate the content of the extant sermons into Augustine’s theological, polemical, and pastoral views, e.g., his theory of praedestinatio for the electi. This study contributes to the latter trend by reading Augustine’s sermons in light of his antagonism toward lying. To what degree does Augustine burden his listeners with the views regarding lies that he exalts in De mendacio, Contra mendacium, and Enchiridion? By culling two groups from his extant sermons, this study shows that Augustine used diverse techniques to call his audiences to a modified version of his extreme standard. His techniques include rhetorical performances; theological reminders about the 'adopted' position of the children of God; pastoral reminders of the dangers of assuming that God’s self-revelation could contain untruth or that the occasional lie does no harm; as well as 'fire and brimstone' warnings about the perils that await those who are alienated from the truth. It also shows that Augustine’s position is central for his vision for living the Christian life in this fallen world: He believed that all Christians have been called to be more than the typical post-lapsarian human being and that part of his pastoral role was to remind his audiences to strive to imitate Christ, the God-man who was never (intentionally) duplicitous.
key words
Sermones ad populum - mendax - lying - De mendacio - Contra medacium - Enchiridion - Wisdom 1:11 - Psalm 116:11
abstract
This article argues that we should read Augustine’s preaching on the martyrs as endowing them with the qualities of the ideal Christian rhetor. In this way I hope to advance the common observation that martyr discourse is rhetorical. For Augustine, it is not just that martyr discourse is rhetorical; rather the martyrs themselves become rhetors, both in the performance of their acta and passiones as well as in their intended effect on Augustine’s audience. I begin by showing how Augustine depicts the martyrs as rhetors. I then turn to the classical rhetorical tradition to trace concerns over a rhetor’s relationship to justice and virtue, and how these ideas shape the ideal of the perfect rhetor, especially in Quintilian. Pivoting back to Augustine, I examine his own discussion of the ideal rhetor in De doctrina christiana before returning to my original martyrial examples to show that they are not depicted simply as rhetors but as ideal Christian rhetors, promoting divine wisdom and living exemplary lives.
key words
Martyrdom - martyrs - rhetoric - orator - Quintilian - Cicero - De doctrina christiana - Sermones ad populum
abstract
Although Augustine is rightly associated with the rationalistic epistemology of the Platonist tradition — which holds that knowledge comes from the mind rather than from experience — there is an underappreciated, and significant, empirical aspect to his epistemology, which I aim to clarify in this article. In Augustine’s epistemology, knowledge of God depends on the history of his people, his revelation, and above all his Messiah. However, the empirical aspect of Augustine’s theology does not overrule his rationalism, but rather is integrated into it. Augustine is a Christian representative of a broader epistemological tradition which includes Plato as well as Immanuel Kant and which considers warrant for our beliefs to come from the mind even as experience provides the input necessary for the process to begin. It is, of course, a Christianized version of such a nuanced rationalism. In both its rationalistic core and its empirical aspect, knowledge is explained in Christian terms: in the former because the mind does not have these ideas of its own powers but from God’s indwelling and gracious assistance, in the latter because the experience leading to knowledge is the religious experience that founded the Christian church and Scriptures.
key words
Augustine - empiricism - rationalism - illumination - Plato - Kant
abstract
This article presents the first comprehensive examination of the manuscript transmission of Augustine’s Contra Felicem. This work contains the report of a two-day debate, which took place on December 7 and 12, 404, between Augustine and a Manichaean teacher named Felix. After a brief overview of the extant manuscripts, their dating and provenance, the article analyses the relationships between these witnesses. This analysis shows that Contra Felicem was transmitted in two branches, the older one represented by a single, eleventh-century witness from Monte Cassino, the other one consisting of sixteen manuscripts. This latter branch originated in central France, and its oldest manuscripts date to the twelfth century. A stemma summarizes the conclusions regarding the direct transmission of Contra Felicem. Thereafter the article discusses the previous editions of the work, with special attention to the question of which manuscripts the editors consulted. The article concludes with a brief note on the text’s indirect transmission, its circulation during the Middle Ages, and the ratio edendi of a future critical edition.
key words
Augustine - Contra Feliciem - Textual criticism - Manichaeism
abstract
This article studies Cassiodorus’ Institutiones, Book One in its context of the extant Latin introductores. It aims to identify the author’s hermeneutical advice and thereby determine the significance of Book One in the early history of biblical interpretation. It will demonstrate that Cassiodorus’ largely bibliographical recommendations include several important guidelines for interpreting Scripture, as well as serve the purpose of educating Christian clergy/monks in the subtle art of understanding and teaching Scripture. This article will proceed by first introducing the origin of Cassiodorus’ Institutiones in two books. After justifying this article’s almost exclusive focus on Book One of the Institutiones, various hermeneutically relevant issues are investigated in the order that they appear in Cassiodorus’ treatise. Among these are the 'recommended readings' of patristic authors for particular books of the Bible, the issue of what the canonical Scripture as such amounts to, several suggestions of more technical interpretative tasks, and the required moral/spiritual disposition for the adequate understanding of God’s Word. 'Distilling' the hermeneutical advice from Book One of Cassiodorus’ Institutiones facilitates the comprehension of the importance of this particular treatise among the other introductiones. For various reasons, Cassiodorus’ contribution, especially in Book One, has been either seldom acknowledged in the general histories of biblical interpretation or has been neglected altogether.
key words
Jerome Stridon - Augustine of Hippo - Pelagius - Pre-existence of the soul - Origenism - Original Sin - Pelagian controversy
abstract
All kinds of acts desired, considered, and performed by humans under the name of 'love' concern the relation aspired by a 'self' to one or more 'other ones'. For Augustine 'to love' means propter se ipsam rem aliquam appetere (diu. qu. 36,1). This brings into focus the consciousness, reasonableness, and freedom of these loving beings. With his thoughts on love, Augustine picks up motifs of ancient philosophy, points ahead to Kant, and shows that he is a great philosopher who wants to bring 'love' and 'freedom of decision' into harmony with faith in God and, in this way, presents ideas that are still relevant today.
key words
Augustine - Love - Freedom - Faith - Philosophy
abstract
Book VIII of Augustine’s De trinitate is a transition from the biblical and peripatetic preparation (trin. I-VII) to his analysis of the image of God in the human mind (trin. IX-XIV) and the contemplation of the Holy Trinity found thanks to this image (trin. XV). Making this transition, Augustine draws his inspiration from both the Bible and the Platonic tradition to accomplish his ascent to God as the Truth (trin. VIII,1,2-2,3), the Good (trin. VIII,3,4-5), and, finally, Love (trin. VIII,4,6-10,14). As in the Platonic tradition, the search for the Truth and the Good would not be possible without any preceding knowledge of it, which Augustine understands as the ‘impressed notion’ of the Good (trin. VIII,3,4). However, it is not enough, in Augustine’s eyes, to know the intelligible form of the Good; what is needed is to attach oneself to it in love. Even here, we can recognize the Neoplatonic structure of the ‘conversion’ of the derived hypostases to their origin. Finally, the hypostasizing of love as the third element in Augustine’s trinity of the lover, beloved, and love itself (trin. VIII,10,14) finds it analogy in the Platonic Eros as a demonic force. What is not to be found in Plato, but is mentioned by Plotinus (enn. VI,8[39],15,1), is self-referential love, the love of love itself, which is very important in Augustine's analysis. For him this very point seems to open the way not only to the Trinity in God but, at the same time, to the consubtantiality of the three hypostases, where, again, Wisdom (the Son) precedes Love (the Holy Spirit).
key words
Augustine - Trinity - Love - Platonism - Early Christian thinking
abstract
Arendt’s examination of Augustine’s concept of love reveals five points of criticism, four of which she considers as highly problematic, while she positively evaluates the other one. These points of criticism regard the division of the concept of love into caritas and cupiditas, the moral charging of both parts, and the resulting relation to the world, namely a self-denial required by Augustine, a critically questioned relation to others in charity, and a positively understood renunciation of the self via love. Arendt’s criticism of Augustine, however, also casts a critical reflection on her own conception of love in the philosophical discourse. The ‘criticism of love’ illuminates in a very effective way and not to a small extent the genesis of our personal and social ethical self-understandings as such, which have to be understood in terms of responsibility.
key words
Love as appetitus - self-denial - relation to the world - love of neighbour (caritas) - the other - the foreign - responsibility - Augustine - Arendt
abstract
This article presents a new critical edition of Augustine’s s. 256, along with an introduction focusing on the sermon’s anti-Pelagian content and its transmission. The sermon, preached on May 5th 418, deals with the song Alleluia, while its criticism of Pelagianism is implied mainly in the bishop’s use of certain Bible verses, such as Matth. 6,12-13 and Rom. 7,22-25. The sermon’s critical edition could be improved considerably, thanks to the testimony of three homiliaries from England and one from Frankfurt, which constitute a branch unknown to the Maurists.
key words
Augustinus - Sermones ad Populum - Paulus - Pelagians - Alleluia
- Jonathan P. YATES, Vt non simus homines : Augustine's exhortations against lying in his sermones ad populum. Augustiniana 71(2021)1 : 7-26
abstract
For a generation, scholars have paid close attention to Augustine’s homiletic efforts and especially to his Sermones ad populum. This attention has resulted in manuscript discoveries, the publication of critical editions, and advances in chronological precision. Recently, scholars have endeavored to situate the content of the extant sermons into Augustine’s theological, polemical, and pastoral views, e.g., his theory of praedestinatio for the electi. This study contributes to the latter trend by reading Augustine’s sermons in light of his antagonism toward lying. To what degree does Augustine burden his listeners with the views regarding lies that he exalts in De mendacio, Contra mendacium, and Enchiridion? By culling two groups from his extant sermons, this study shows that Augustine used diverse techniques to call his audiences to a modified version of his extreme standard. His techniques include rhetorical performances; theological reminders about the 'adopted' position of the children of God; pastoral reminders of the dangers of assuming that God’s self-revelation could contain untruth or that the occasional lie does no harm; as well as 'fire and brimstone' warnings about the perils that await those who are alienated from the truth. It also shows that Augustine’s position is central for his vision for living the Christian life in this fallen world: He believed that all Christians have been called to be more than the typical post-lapsarian human being and that part of his pastoral role was to remind his audiences to strive to imitate Christ, the God-man who was never (intentionally) duplicitous.
key words
Sermones ad populum - mendax - lying - De mendacio - Contra medacium - Enchiridion - Wisdom 1:11 - Psalm 116:11
- Adam PLOYD, Augustine's martyrs as ideal Christian rhetors. Augustiniana 71(2021)1 : 27-43
abstract
This article argues that we should read Augustine’s preaching on the martyrs as endowing them with the qualities of the ideal Christian rhetor. In this way I hope to advance the common observation that martyr discourse is rhetorical. For Augustine, it is not just that martyr discourse is rhetorical; rather the martyrs themselves become rhetors, both in the performance of their acta and passiones as well as in their intended effect on Augustine’s audience. I begin by showing how Augustine depicts the martyrs as rhetors. I then turn to the classical rhetorical tradition to trace concerns over a rhetor’s relationship to justice and virtue, and how these ideas shape the ideal of the perfect rhetor, especially in Quintilian. Pivoting back to Augustine, I examine his own discussion of the ideal rhetor in De doctrina christiana before returning to my original martyrial examples to show that they are not depicted simply as rhetors but as ideal Christian rhetors, promoting divine wisdom and living exemplary lives.
key words
Martyrdom - martyrs - rhetoric - orator - Quintilian - Cicero - De doctrina christiana - Sermones ad populum
- Mark Jeremiah BOONE, The empirical aspect of Augustine's epistemology. Augustiniana 71(2021)1 : 45-87
abstract
Although Augustine is rightly associated with the rationalistic epistemology of the Platonist tradition — which holds that knowledge comes from the mind rather than from experience — there is an underappreciated, and significant, empirical aspect to his epistemology, which I aim to clarify in this article. In Augustine’s epistemology, knowledge of God depends on the history of his people, his revelation, and above all his Messiah. However, the empirical aspect of Augustine’s theology does not overrule his rationalism, but rather is integrated into it. Augustine is a Christian representative of a broader epistemological tradition which includes Plato as well as Immanuel Kant and which considers warrant for our beliefs to come from the mind even as experience provides the input necessary for the process to begin. It is, of course, a Christianized version of such a nuanced rationalism. In both its rationalistic core and its empirical aspect, knowledge is explained in Christian terms: in the former because the mind does not have these ideas of its own powers but from God’s indwelling and gracious assistance, in the latter because the experience leading to knowledge is the religious experience that founded the Christian church and Scriptures.
key words
Augustine - empiricism - rationalism - illumination - Plato - Kant
- Aäron VANSPAUWEN, The textual transmission of Augustine's Contra Felicem : towards a new critical edition. Augustiniana 71(2021)1 : 89-122
abstract
This article presents the first comprehensive examination of the manuscript transmission of Augustine’s Contra Felicem. This work contains the report of a two-day debate, which took place on December 7 and 12, 404, between Augustine and a Manichaean teacher named Felix. After a brief overview of the extant manuscripts, their dating and provenance, the article analyses the relationships between these witnesses. This analysis shows that Contra Felicem was transmitted in two branches, the older one represented by a single, eleventh-century witness from Monte Cassino, the other one consisting of sixteen manuscripts. This latter branch originated in central France, and its oldest manuscripts date to the twelfth century. A stemma summarizes the conclusions regarding the direct transmission of Contra Felicem. Thereafter the article discusses the previous editions of the work, with special attention to the question of which manuscripts the editors consulted. The article concludes with a brief note on the text’s indirect transmission, its circulation during the Middle Ages, and the ratio edendi of a future critical edition.
key words
Augustine - Contra Feliciem - Textual criticism - Manichaeism
- Tarmo TOOM, Hermeneutical advice for interpreters of Scripture in book one of Cassiodorus' Institutiones. Augustiniana 71(2021)1 : 123-149
abstract
This article studies Cassiodorus’ Institutiones, Book One in its context of the extant Latin introductores. It aims to identify the author’s hermeneutical advice and thereby determine the significance of Book One in the early history of biblical interpretation. It will demonstrate that Cassiodorus’ largely bibliographical recommendations include several important guidelines for interpreting Scripture, as well as serve the purpose of educating Christian clergy/monks in the subtle art of understanding and teaching Scripture. This article will proceed by first introducing the origin of Cassiodorus’ Institutiones in two books. After justifying this article’s almost exclusive focus on Book One of the Institutiones, various hermeneutically relevant issues are investigated in the order that they appear in Cassiodorus’ treatise. Among these are the 'recommended readings' of patristic authors for particular books of the Bible, the issue of what the canonical Scripture as such amounts to, several suggestions of more technical interpretative tasks, and the required moral/spiritual disposition for the adequate understanding of God’s Word. 'Distilling' the hermeneutical advice from Book One of Cassiodorus’ Institutiones facilitates the comprehension of the importance of this particular treatise among the other introductiones. For various reasons, Cassiodorus’ contribution, especially in Book One, has been either seldom acknowledged in the general histories of biblical interpretation or has been neglected altogether.
key words
Jerome Stridon - Augustine of Hippo - Pelagius - Pre-existence of the soul - Origenism - Original Sin - Pelagian controversy
- Norbert FISCHER, Liebe und Freiheit bei Augustin. Augustiniana 71(2021)2 : 151-180
abstract
All kinds of acts desired, considered, and performed by humans under the name of 'love' concern the relation aspired by a 'self' to one or more 'other ones'. For Augustine 'to love' means propter se ipsam rem aliquam appetere (diu. qu. 36,1). This brings into focus the consciousness, reasonableness, and freedom of these loving beings. With his thoughts on love, Augustine picks up motifs of ancient philosophy, points ahead to Kant, and shows that he is a great philosopher who wants to bring 'love' and 'freedom of decision' into harmony with faith in God and, in this way, presents ideas that are still relevant today.
key words
Augustine - Love - Freedom - Faith - Philosophy
- Lenka KARFÍKOVÁ, Die Liebe als ein Gleichnis der Dreifaltigkeit: Platonische Motive in Augustins De trinitate VIII. Augustiniana 71(2021)2 : 181-213
abstract
Book VIII of Augustine’s De trinitate is a transition from the biblical and peripatetic preparation (trin. I-VII) to his analysis of the image of God in the human mind (trin. IX-XIV) and the contemplation of the Holy Trinity found thanks to this image (trin. XV). Making this transition, Augustine draws his inspiration from both the Bible and the Platonic tradition to accomplish his ascent to God as the Truth (trin. VIII,1,2-2,3), the Good (trin. VIII,3,4-5), and, finally, Love (trin. VIII,4,6-10,14). As in the Platonic tradition, the search for the Truth and the Good would not be possible without any preceding knowledge of it, which Augustine understands as the ‘impressed notion’ of the Good (trin. VIII,3,4). However, it is not enough, in Augustine’s eyes, to know the intelligible form of the Good; what is needed is to attach oneself to it in love. Even here, we can recognize the Neoplatonic structure of the ‘conversion’ of the derived hypostases to their origin. Finally, the hypostasizing of love as the third element in Augustine’s trinity of the lover, beloved, and love itself (trin. VIII,10,14) finds it analogy in the Platonic Eros as a demonic force. What is not to be found in Plato, but is mentioned by Plotinus (enn. VI,8[39],15,1), is self-referential love, the love of love itself, which is very important in Augustine's analysis. For him this very point seems to open the way not only to the Trinity in God but, at the same time, to the consubtantiality of the three hypostases, where, again, Wisdom (the Son) precedes Love (the Holy Spirit).
key words
Augustine - Trinity - Love - Platonism - Early Christian thinking
- Frauke A. KURBACHER, Zur Kritik der Liebe: Hannah Arendt und Augustinus. Augustiniana 71(2021)2 : 215-229
abstract
Arendt’s examination of Augustine’s concept of love reveals five points of criticism, four of which she considers as highly problematic, while she positively evaluates the other one. These points of criticism regard the division of the concept of love into caritas and cupiditas, the moral charging of both parts, and the resulting relation to the world, namely a self-denial required by Augustine, a critically questioned relation to others in charity, and a positively understood renunciation of the self via love. Arendt’s criticism of Augustine, however, also casts a critical reflection on her own conception of love in the philosophical discourse. The ‘criticism of love’ illuminates in a very effective way and not to a small extent the genesis of our personal and social ethical self-understandings as such, which have to be understood in terms of responsibility.
key words
Love as appetitus - self-denial - relation to the world - love of neighbour (caritas) - the other - the foreign - responsibility - Augustine - Arendt
- Stijn HOUTHOOFD, 'Canta et ambvla'. Presentation and critical edition of Augustine's sermo 256 on 'Alleluia'. Augustiniana 71(2021)2 : 231-255
abstract
This article presents a new critical edition of Augustine’s s. 256, along with an introduction focusing on the sermon’s anti-Pelagian content and its transmission. The sermon, preached on May 5th 418, deals with the song Alleluia, while its criticism of Pelagianism is implied mainly in the bishop’s use of certain Bible verses, such as Matth. 6,12-13 and Rom. 7,22-25. The sermon’s critical edition could be improved considerably, thanks to the testimony of three homiliaries from England and one from Frankfurt, which constitute a branch unknown to the Maurists.
key words
Augustinus - Sermones ad Populum - Paulus - Pelagians - Alleluia
- Book reviews. Augustiniana 71(2021)2 : 257-540
