J. Bourke, ed., The Essential Augustine (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1974). (continued)
Introduction xv
ble. Chapter 5, therefore, explores Augustine the exegete. Here again, I intertwine examples of his practical exegesis with his more theoretical reflections, drawing especially on Books 1–3 of On Christian Teaching.
We today think of Augustine mainly as a theologian. He was that, but he was no academic. His theological works sprang from pastoral concerns and clashes. He was also, by training and by temperament, a debater. His theology was crafted in the searing fires of controversy. This "kiln" gives his theology its distinctive coloration and contours and occasional hard edges. Four controversies shape his career. Chapter 6 looks at the first of these, his debate with the Manichees. Manicheism was a gnostic religion founded in the third century by a Persian prophet, Mani, and spread east to China and west into the Roman Empire. Augustine himself had been a Manichee for nearly a decade. One thread of Confessions is a debate with his former co-religionists, but Confessions is only the best known of his anti-Manichean writings. This debate drew on his best energies in the 390s.
Chapter 7 looks at a second controversy, his debate with the Donatists. North African Christians had divided into two rival churches, Catholic and Donatist. The Donatists were, for much of the fourth century, the larger, but had severed communion with other Christians around the Empire. Here we will see a sampling of Augustine's letters, pamphlets, and provocative sermons, as they poured forth against a violent backdrop of religious terrorism and spasms of government repression. This debate occupied his best energies, both pastoral and theological, through the first decade of the 400s, climaxing in the Conference of Carthage in 411, where the schism was ended by government edict.
Chapter 8 steps away from controversy—at least, the face-to-face variety—and surveys the second of Augustine's masterpieces, On the Trinity (De Trinitate). This work, written in fits and starts between 400 and 422, addresses the central Christian mystery, "the Trinity who God is," as Augustine used to put it.11 The issue is this: How can Christians call Jesus "God" and call the Holy Spirit "God" and not end up with three gods? The question had been a burning one for much of the fourth century. Augustine was committed to the Council of Nicaea (325), its creed and its defenders, and used this work as a way to think through its implications. His synthesis would deeply influence the theological tradition of the medieval West and beyond. I highlight here his unique contributions, especially the search for the impress of Trinity within each of us.
Chapter 9 returns to controversy and looks at his third masterpiece, On
11. De Trinitate 15.6.10; 15.17.28 (CCL 50A:473, 502).
xvi Introduction the City of God. Its subtitle, Against the Pagans, names its polemical focus. Its writing was sparked by the Gothic sack of Rome in 410. Pagans interpreted the sack as the gods' punishment for the Christian banning of sacrifices to Rome's ancient divine protectors. Augustine defended Christianity against the charges, launching his massive rebuttal in 413 and completing it, after many interruptions, in 426. His guiding concept is of two cities, the City of God and the earthly city, and he uses it as a framework to think through the epic course of human history, to probe the meaning of society and government, law and justice, war and peace, and much, much else.
Chapter 10 explores Augustine's final controversy, a long-running and bitter debate with the Pelagians. Pelagius (c. 350–c. 425) was an ascetic who worked as a spiritual advisor to Rome's aristocratic elite and was horrified by Augustine's views on grace. Around 411, Augustine was drawn into the fight by close friends who were alarmed by Pelagius's sharp-witted disciple, Caelestius, who once sought ordination in Carthage and ended up accused of heresy. Only later and only slowly did Augustine engage Pelagius himself. The clash became an international cause célèbre and occupied Augustine's best energies through the 410s. After Pelagius's final condemnation in 418, Augustine continued being drawn into controversy by Julian of Eclanum, an Italian bishop who chose exile over seconding the papal condemnation of Pelagius. This no-holds-barred battle with Julian never let up. The two continued exchanging long and venomous treatises through the 420s. Virtually to the day he died, Augustine felt compelled to answer Julian's attacks, leaving no taunt unanswered.
That defines the breadth. What about the brevity? Seeing the big picture is never easy; seeing it briefly is doubly difficult. I have worked to keep chapters to a manageable length, roughly 30 to 40 pages, something that one might read in a single sitting. One exception is the chapter on City of God, which is longer, though this should come as no surprise, given the work's epic length and scope. A second is the final chapter on the Pelagians, which excerpts from a corpus of literature several times the size of City of God. Keeping things brief has been a difficult task, especially since I have had, for each chapter, to choose from original sources that run on for many hundreds of pages. Within individual chapters, I have chosen brief excerpts, each running from one to five pages in length. Each excerpt gets its own brief introduction that highlights its context and, on occasion, its distinctiveness.
Of the hundreds of possibilities, why choose the ones I did? My overarching concern was to include Augustine's "greatest hits," all the best known and most often quoted texts. To help with this, I have consulted working Augustinian scholars as well as the vast scholarship on Augustine they have pro-