1. Enchiridion 1.6 (BA 9:108–10); trans. Peebles, FOTC 2:372.
Epilogue
Around 421, a man named Laurentius wrote Augustine and asked him to set out the essentials of Christianity. He wanted something brief, "not a work that would tax a whole bookcase," but rather a work like what Greek writers of his day used to call "an enchiridion, a 'handbook,' " quite literally, "a book the hand can hold."1 By this point in his career, Augustine had authored enough books to tax several bookcases. Yet for all his eloquent long-windedness, he remained capable of brilliant brevity and answered Laurentius with a modest-sized Enchiridion, drawing his outline and overview of Christianity from the core virtues of faith, hope, and love.
This book that you have in your hand is, in its own way, an enchiridion. I have tried here to gather together the many Augustines—the philosopher and bishop, the preacher and exegete, the theologian and controversialist—within the covers of a single volume, something that might not tax a whole bookcase, but instead be something the hand can hold. We have explored, or at least scanned, the best-known dimensions of his life and work, but there are others, facets we caught brief glimpses of: the monk, the teacher of prayer, the sacramental theologian, the moralist. My hope is that this survey might help readers discern where they desire to turn to next. In the introduction, I spoke of mosaics, of the way that mosaic was one of the great art forms of Augustine's world, of the way that fourth-century North African mosaic-artists used to create portraits from seemingly haphazard little stones known as tesserae, gem-like tidbits that, when properly arranged, once one stood back, came together to create colorful portraits. My hope is that all these many, many fragmentary quotations, these tiny verbal tesserae, tidbits at once colorful and sharp and gemlike, have begun to come together, to create a mosaic portrait
1. Enchiridion 1.6 (BA 9:108–10); trans. Peebles, FOTC 2:372.