Already a subscriber? - Login here
Not yet a subscriber? - Subscribe here

Browse by:



Displaying: 1-20 of 33 documents


st. augustine lecture 2019

1. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Margaret R. Miles

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
In St. Augustine’s society, men’s tears were not considered a sign of weakness, but an expression of strong feeling. Tears might be occasional, prompted by incidents such as those Augustine described in the first books of his Confessiones. Or they might accompany a deep crisis, such as his experience of conversion. Possidius, Augustine’s contemporary biographer, reported that on his deathbed Augustine wept copiously and continuously. This essay endeavors to understand those tears, finding, primarily but not exclusively in Augustine’s later writings, descriptions of his practice of meditation suggesting that a profound and complex range of emotions from fear and repentance to gratitude, love, rest in beauty, and delight in praise richly informed Augustine’s last tears.

articles

2. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Han-luen Kantzer Komline

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This paper explores changing attitudes toward novelty in early Christianity by focusing on a case study: Augustine of Hippo. It demonstrates that Augustine develops an unapologetically Christian version of the argument from antiquity, unapologetically Christian in that he redefines the very meaning of antiquity in terms of proximity to Christ and in that he relocates the argument from antiquity from the realm of apologetics, where it had become a stock weapon in the arsenal of his predecessors, to the realm of intramural Christian debate. In the process, Augustine relativized temporal measures of “novelty” and “antiquity” and recalibrated the meaning of these terms theologically, with reference to Christ.
3. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Amanda C. Knight

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This article argues that Augustine’s understanding of the internal dynamics of number, order, and weight as they pertain to corporeal creatures supplies the basis for an analogy which characterizes the process of the soul’s reformation. In other words, Augustine understands the soul’s simplicity in an analogous manner to the simplicity of corporeal creatures, and the simplicity of corporeal creatures is determined by the relations between number, order, and weight. This analogy shows that Augustine conceives of the soul as a composite entity with different loves as its constituent parts. In the process of reformation, the soul acquires an ordered disposition as those loves become more like one another. By virtue of this ordered disposition, the soul also acquires a greater degree of integration or number because the likeness of weight among its constituent parts allows the soul to move as a unity toward God as its final end.

book reviews and books received

4. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Zachary Thomas Settle

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
5. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Kevin L. Hughes

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
6. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Maurice Lee

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
7. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
William T. Cavanaugh

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
8. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Adam Ployd

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
9. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Phillip Cary

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
10. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Susan Ashbrook Harvey

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
11. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Christina M. Carlson

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
12. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Nathaniel Grimes

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
13. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
Veronica Roberts Ogle

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
14. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2
James K. Lee

view |  rights & permissions | cited by
15. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 2

view |  rights & permissions | cited by

16. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 1
Ian Clausen

view |  rights & permissions | cited by

st. augustine lecture 2018

17. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 1
David G. Hunter

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This article explores a possible tension in Augustine’s thought between his response to the misconduct of clergy, which stressed swift discipline, and his anti-Donatist theology of sacraments, which emphasized the efficacy of sacraments apart from the moral worthiness of the clergy. I identify five principles that Augustine followed in his handling of clerical misconduct: 1) Decisive action that usually resulted in removal of the offenders from ministry; 2) concern for the rights of the victim over clerical privilege; 3) a just hearing for the accused clergyman; 4) concern for transparency in all proceedings; 5) personal accountability of the bishop for the behavior of his clergy. I conclude by noting several aspects of Augustine’s anti-Donatist ecclesiology and sacramental theology that help to resolve the apparent tension.

articles

18. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 1
Geoffrey D. Dunn

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Augustine’s Epistulae 23A*, 23*, and 22*, written in late 419 and early 420, present his involvement in the dispute concerning the translation of Honorius to Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell), a city Augustine had visited in September 418 while fulfilling a commission from Zosimus of Rome. The translation of bishops from one church to another had been condemned by the 325 Council of Nicaea. The three letters are difficult to interpret because the information to his three correspondents (Possidius of Calama, Renatus, a monk of Caesarea Mauretaniae, and Alypius of Thagaste, who was in Italy at the time) seems to differ. A careful reading reveals that not only did Augustine’s knowledge of the situation change over time, but that the stress he placed on differing elements of that situation also changed depending upon the correspondent. The letters also disclose the involvement of Boniface I of Rome, Zosimus’ successor, and the complex relationship of the African churches with the bishop of Rome, especially in the matter of judicial appeal. What is suggested here is that Augustine, without saying so, seemed to be aware of the criteria Boniface had employed in another translation controversy, which was the approved translation of Perigenes as bishop of Corinth, and that, if applied to Honorius, this would lead the Roman bishop to reach a very different conclusion.
19. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 1
Thomas Clemmons

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This article examines Augustine’s early anthropology, particularly through De Genesi aduersus Manichaeos. The most thorough treatment of this topic is found in the enduring work of Robert J. O’Connell, SJ. O’Connell argues that Augustine drew directly from the Enneads in De Genesi aduersus Manichaeos to formulate his anthropology. This article evaluates and critiques the evidence and implications of O’Connell’s position concerning Augustine’s articulation of the “fall of the soul.” I argue that an attentive text-based reading of De Genesi aduersus Manichaeos reveals the shortcomings of O’Connell’s “Plotinian” rendering of Augustine’s anthropology. More importantly, I show that De Genesi aduersus Manichaeos illuminates dimensions of Augustine’s anthropology often overlooked. These include the human’s transformation to spiritalis through Christ and the eschatological configuration of the caeleste corpus. In contrast to O’Connell’s theory, which emphasizes the necessary “circularity” of Augustine’s anthropological framework (that is, the soul “returns” to a condition identical to the aboriginal state), I argue that in De Genesi aduersus Manichaeos Augustine advances an anthropology that is not merely “circular.”
20. Augustinian Studies: Volume > 51 > Issue: 1
Doug Clapp

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Epistula 151 shows Augustine trying to exert pressure on a high-ranking imperial official from his position outside of the senatorial elite. The aristocrat Caecilianus had written a letter, now lost, chastising Augustine for his lack of correspondence. Augustine’s reply begins and ends according to typical epistolary conventions. The heart of the letter, however, narrates Augustine’s harrowing experience of the arrest and execution of the brothers Marcellinus and Apringius by the imperial commander Marinus. The profound spiritual contrast between villain and victims has the potential to damage Caecilianus’s reputation, forcing him into a corner. He can only agree with Augustine and act accordingly.