Although Augustino of Hippo does not go down equally well with all
Introduction
1. Tbc God Question in Augustine and IL~ Relevance Today
Although Augustino of Hippo does not go down equally well with all
today, it is nonetheless very noticeable how mnny or them have been fascinated by him ru1d still arc.' To cite only the Gcrman-speakiog world. notable examples can be given: Adolf von Han1~Ck. Reinhold Seebcrg. Romano Guardini, Bcnhold Altaner. Erich Pnywara. l lans Urs VQn Balthasar, and Ladislaus Boros. No less notewonhy is the fact that these and ()(her friends of Augustine have interested themselves in his conception or God' This fact need not surprise anyone who reflects lhntthe Bishop of Hippo hnd to deal with those intellectual and religious currents or thought that focused their attention chiefly on the question of God: Gno,tie dualism that lived on in Ivfanicheism, nnd the Stoic and Plmonic traditions with their inc1ination to monism.
The imponance of Augustine's properly theological thought becomes even clearer when we realize t1mt in his The City af God. the mof·a impor1ant apologia from Chrhuan antiquity, Augustine used the <o-ealled "tripanite theology" as his poim or depnnure in his critique of Roman religion' Mon: clearly than all the other Church fathers. and even more unambiguously than
Lactantius and Euscbius of Caesarea. he gives in this critique the reasons why Christians found the theology of the myths meaninglc;s. ;hows bow carefully
Lhey distinguished what was useful and what uiiclcss in the theology of {he philosophers, nml dcmonsu-ates the dangers they h:td to take into account in making political theology lheir ()W rt .:
The importance that ha~ been atuibuted in our time to Augustjne·s teach·
111g on God becomes even more explicable l'rom the fact that the question of God dominmed Augustine's own religious expericnco. The often repeated mOttO, "1 am detennined to know God and the ~1<11:·• ;hows that after >ell~ knowledge there was in his early years only one Other object wonhy of asci· entific and thL'(Ilogical quest: God. And when. later on. he devoted his best