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172 pages

English

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Most theology students realize Augustine is tremendously influential on the Christian tradition as a whole, but they generally lack real knowledge of his writings. This volume introduces Augustine's theology through seven of his most important works. Matthew Levering begins with a discussion of Augustine's life and times and then provides a full survey of the argument of each work with bibliographical references for those who wish to go further. Written in clear, accessible language, this book offers an essential introduction to major works of Augustine that all students of theology--and their professors!--need to know.

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Philosophie et théologie

Christian theology

Theology

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	15 mars 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441240453
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0749€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 2013 by Matthew Levering
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4045-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture quotations are from Ignatius Press’s Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translations of the Confessions are taken from Saint Augustine: Confessions , translated by Henry Chadwick © 1991 Oxford University Press. Used with permission.
Translations of On the Trinity are taken from The Trinity © 1991 Augustinian Heritage Institute, published by New City Press. Used with permission.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
To David Solomon
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. On Christian Doctrine 1
2. Answer to Faustus, a Manichean 19
3. Homilies on the First Epistle of John 49
4. On the Predestination of the Saints 71
5. Confessions 89
6. City of God 113
7. On the Trinity 151
Conclusion 187
Notes 191
For Further Reading 192
Subject Index 195
Scripture Index 201
Back Cover 203
Acknowledgments
M y first thanks go to my beloved wife, Joy! She is wonderful and she makes life fun. I thank God every day for her and for our children. This book was written as a spiritual exercise during a period when I was particularly in need of Augustine’s wisdom. I sought out Lewis Ayres at an early stage of the project, and he graciously encouraged it. Gerald Boersma, my good friend and former student who has become an expert on Augustine under Lewis’s tutelage, read the manuscript and made helpful suggestions, as did the Reformed theologian Michael Allen. Andrew Hofer, OP, a patristics scholar who has a mastery of all things theological, reviewed the manuscript twice, and without his help I don’t think that the book could have come to fruition. At a crucial juncture, Scott Hahn pointed my attention to Augustine’s Answer to Faustus, a Manichean . A version of chapter 2 appears as “Scriptural and Sacramental Signs: Augustine’s Answer to Faustus ,” Letter and Spirit 7 (2011): 91–118. In November 2010 Joel Green invited me to speak to his Hermeneutics of Christian Scripture group at the Society of Biblical Literature, where I delivered an excerpt from what eventually became chapter 6. A version of this lecture was published as “Linear and Participatory History in Augustine’s City of God ,” Journal of Theological Interpretation 5 (2011): 175–96, for which I am grateful. At Baker Academic, Rodney Clapp, Jim Kinney, and James Ernest generously took an interest in the manuscript, and Tim West guided it through production. Elizabeth Farnsworth, an excellent doctoral student in theology at the University of Dayton, skillfully compiled the indexes. In addition to these good friends, let me mention Hans Boersma, Michael Carter, Jason Heron, Reinhard Hütter, Bruce Marshall, Alan Mostrom, Michael Vanderburgh, and Thomas Joseph White, OP, who were among those whose friendship and mentoring meant so much to me during the period of writing. I dedicate the book to David Solomon, founder of the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, with gratitude and esteem.
Introduction
A ugustine’s friend and first biographer, Possidius, wrote that “so many things were dictated and published by him and so many things were discussed in the church, written down and amended, whether against various heretics or expounded from the canonical books for the edification of the holy sons of the Church, that scarcely any student would be able to read and know them all.” [1] Augustine wrote over one hundred treatises, countless letters and sermons, and more than five million words in all. Although few scholars can become acquainted with all of his writings, there are certain pivotal works that one simply must know if one is interested in the development of Christian theology, biblical exegesis, and Western civilization. [2] This is especially the case because Augustine has always been, and remains today, a controversial thinker whose insights into the realities of God and salvation can be easily misunderstood.
Setting aside the longer exegetical works such as the Literal Commentary on Genesis , On the Psalms , and Tractates on the Gospel of John , which would burst the bounds of this book, [3] the list of Augustine’s necessary works includes the following seven: On Christian Doctrine (396–97, 426); Answer to Faustus, a Manichean (397–98); Homilies on the First Epistle of John (407); On the Predestination of the Saints (428–29); Confessions (397–401); City of God (413–26); and On the Trinity (399–419). [4] In order to engage later Catholic and Protestant theology and in certain cases Eastern Orthodox theology [5] one must know these works. Even more important, one must read these works to gain an appreciation for why such a great thinker gave his life to the realities proclaimed by Christian Scripture. And, lastly, it is by reading these works that one will be able to evaluate the development and present intellectual impasse of Western civilization. Augustine speaks as powerfully today as he did sixteen hundred years ago.
My task in this book is to present these seven pivotal works of Augustine. Here we find the themes that Augustine plumbed most deeply: how to interpret Christian Scripture, the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, the unity of the Church in charity, God’s eternity and simplicity, grace and predestination, conversion, the meaning of history, the two “cities,” the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the divine Trinity. The first two works, On Christian Doctrine and Answer to Faustus, a Manichean , set forth the central components of Augustine’s theology of Scripture and of scriptural interpretation. The next two works, Homilies on the First Epistle of John and On the Predestination of the Saints , explore the grace of the Holy Spirit and the charity that unites the Body of Christ. The final three works, Confessions , City of God , and On the Trinity , form a triptych that shows how human life (individual and communal) is an ascent to full participation in the life of the Triune God, who descends in Christ and the Holy Spirit to make possible our sharing in the divine life.
Augustine wrote his longer works over a period of years. For example, City of God took around thirteen years to complete, and On the Trinity may have taken longer. Yet each of his works is a carefully orchestrated unity. It is therefore not enough simply to survey Augustine’s central ideas. One needs to follow the argument of each work in its entirety in order to see how the great rhetorician weaves his ideas together in the service of Christian instruction. Many introductions to Augustine’s theology treat his ideas on this and that topic, drawing upon a wide variety of his treatises, letters, and sermons. It seems to me more fruitful to introduce Augustine’s major ideas by surveying his most important works in their entirety. [6]
In preparing this book, I have had especially in mind the needs of students and educated readers who desire an introduction to Augustine. As a reader of Scripture, Augustine helps us to avoid historicism by constantly reminding us that true interpretation of Scripture requires learning both the historical meaning of the biblical “signs” and their salvific referent ( On Christian Doctrine and Answer to Faustus, a Manichean ). Since Christianity is a communion of persons rather than simply an interpretation of texts, we come to know Scripture rightly in the Church, where Scripture nourishes the love of God’s people ( Homilies on the First Epistle of John ). This friendship with God and each other is not something that we can give ourselves, but is entirely God’s gift in Christ and the Spirit ( On the Predestination of the Saints ). As individuals seeking true friendship ( Confessions ) and as communities seeking true peace ( City of God ), humans have been created for union with the Triune God, who draws us to himself by knowledge and by love ( On the Trinity ). Augustine offers a pattern of biblical reading, of living the Scriptures, that invites us to enjoy friendship with the Triune God who has created and redeemed us.
I include in this volume one work from each of Augustine’s major disputations namely, with the Manichees, Donatists, and Pelagians, respectively. Augustine’s Answer to Faustus, a Manichean is particularly important for its defense of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, especially through its insistence that words and deeds of the Old Testament often refer typologically to Christ and the Church. Augustine’s Homilies on the First Epistle of John shows his exegetical effort to explore the requirements of charity and to end the fourth-century schism between Catholics and Donatists. Lastly, his On the Predestination of the Saints , which belongs to his anti-Pelagian writings, sets forth the biblical evidence in favor of the utter gratuity of the eternal God’s gift of salvation.
The present book also attends to the variety of genres in which Augustine wrote. Confessions is autobiographical, even