Augustine as a Reader of His Christian Contemporaries

Abstract

Augustine was not a great reader of his Christian contemporaries. That is to say, he seems not to have expended every energy (as might be expected of a modern scholar) in keeping up with the very latest to have been written on every topic on which he pronounced, or in which he could claim an interest. Part of the reason for this must be his relatively late conversion to Christianity. For as O'Donnell has pointed out, Augustine the professor of rhetoric-as he was by the time he reached his thirties-was inevitably better acquainted with the ancient Greek and Latin classics than he was with the far less sophisticated writings associated with Christianity (O'Donnell 2005a: 125). Indeed, his elliptical path to Christianity meant that the new convert was most familiar with the Christian Scriptures on account of their use by the Manicheans; and the contemporaries with whom he met to discuss ideas in Milan were more often Neoplatonists than Christians. Thus it seems clear that Augustine, unfamiliar with even the fundamental texts of his new religion, will have scarcely ventured into the writings of contemporary Christians. It is possible that Augustine would have sought to fill this gap as he settled down to his new life as a Christian, but any ambitions in that direction were frustrated by his return to North Africa and the new responsibilities he took on for the church at Hippo. Even after his ordination as priest there, he was conscious of the need to catch up with his (Christian) reading, which at that stage seems to have meant the Scriptures themselves (Ep. 21.3). Moreover, had he wanted to read more widely, it is not clear that Hippo had much to offer. Copies of the gospels could be acquired in the town, or so Augustine implied; but he could also claim-perhaps with some hope of being believed-that even a text of Cicero was unobtainable (O'Donnell 2005a: 126; Ep. 118.9). Whether that was true or not, it seems unlikely that the latest writings of Latin theologians would be easy to find; and there was of course a further constraint on Augustine's reading in the fact of his inexpert Greek. We must therefore not imagine Augustine to have had a comprehensive grasp of the Christian literature we take for granted today.

Does evil imply God’s existence?

“…38 Rowan Williams helpfully argues that evil is not a noun describing an entity but is instead a verb and label we give to the incremental process of decay and dysfunction. 39 Privation theory is, therefore, a 'grammar of evil'. 40 The presence of an excess of what would otherwise act as a good may therefore reorient organs to a negative end, just as a washing machine with too many clothes in it may malfunction.…”

“…39 Privation theory is, therefore, a 'grammar of evil'. 40 The presence of an excess of what would otherwise act as a good may therefore reorient organs to a negative end, just as a washing machine with too many clothes in it may malfunction. 41 Furthermore, Makan notes that another flaw with the idea that cancer is an exception to privation theory arises from the fact that it is a disease, a corruption of something good -it exploits and hijacks an existent good by redirecting the end of its functions.…”

Towards a theology of the Psalm titles: The Davidic voice and the totus Christus

“…In his exposition of Augustine's account of the Psalms, Rowan Williams writes, 'What is distinctive about any hermeneutic of singing the Psalms is that singing them is quite simply and literally an appropriation of Christ's life, in history and eternity'. 46 Williams has made the link between Augustine's appeal to the Psalms in his Confessions as comparable to a life's history (Conf. 11.28.38) and the way in which the divine and human voice are unified through Augustine's work in the Enarrationes, most particularly through the totus Christus.…”

A Comparative Study of Augustine's De Trinitate and Ghazali's Kitab al-mahabba on Human Knowledge of and Love for God

“…6 In other words, the divine essence is neither "an abstract principle of unity, nor a 'causal' factor over and above the hypostases," 7 rather to be God at all is "to be desirous of and active in giving the divine life." 8 This fact of the inseparability of divinity from the relationality of the triune life, holds primacy for Augustine not as a piece of abstract metaphysical theology but rather as a pointer to the character of human relationality with the divine, who is relationality in and of His very essence. Principally, Augustine correlates the Word with knowledge and the Spirit with love (caritas) -and if both are "inseparable in the unity of the Trinity, so…must knowledge be inseparable from [the] love of God."…”

“…When an unjust soul recognises and loves justice in another, "the pattern [one] perceives is [precisely that which one seeks] to realise in [oneself]." 18 If justice itself is loving, since it by nature wills the "good of all," 19 what our moral yearning longs for "is love itself, in that it is directed to persons who are loving… [and] to love loving generosity as the goal and standard of our humanity is to love it as the good, which is to love it as God." 20 Augustine concludes (alluding to 1 John 4:16), "if a man is full of love, what is he full of but God?"…”