A Companion to Augustine

A Companion to Augustine presents a fresh collection of scholarship by leading academics with a new approach to contextualizing Augustine and his works within the multi-disciplinary field of Late Antiquity, showing Augustine as both a product of the cultural forces of his times and a cultural force in his own right.

• Discusses the life and works of Augustine within their full historical context, rather than privileging the theological context
• Presents Augustine’s life, works and leading ideas in the cultural context of the late Roman world, providing a vibrant and engaging sense of Augustine in action in his own time and place
• Opens up a new phase of study on Augustine, sensitive to the many and varied perspectives of scholarship on late Roman culture
• State-of-the-art essays by leading academics in this field

List of Figures xi

Notes on Contributors xii

Preface xviii

Source Acknowledgments xix

Abbreviations xxi

The Works of Augustine xxiv

Chronology of Augustine’s Life xl

1 Introduction 1
Mark Vessey

PART I Contexts 9

2 Political History 11
Christopher Kelly

3 Cultural Geography 24
William E. Klingshirn

4 Religious Sociology 40
Éric Rebillard

PART II Confessions 55

5 Spes Saeculi: Augustine’s Worldly Ambition and Career 57
R. S. O. Tomlin

6 Love and Belonging, Loss and Betrayal in the Confessions 69
Kate Cooper

7 TheConfessions as Autobiography 87
Paula Fredriksen

8 Reading the Confessions 99
Catherine Conybeare

PART III Media 111

9 Augustine and Language 113
Philip Burton

10 Augustine’s Information Circuits 125
Claire Sotinel

11 Augustine and Roman Public Spectacles 138
Richard Lim

12 Augustine and Books 151
Guy G. Stroumsa

PART IV Texts 159

13 Augustine and the Latin Classics 161
Danuta Shanzer

14 Augustine and the Philosophers 175
Sarah Byers

15 Augustine and the Books of the Manicheans 188
Johannes van Oort

16 Augustine and Scripture 200
Michael Cameron

17 Augustine and His Christian Predecessors 215
Mark Edwards

18 Augustine as a Reader of His Christian Contemporaries 227
Michael Stuart Williams

19 Augustine among the Writers of the Church 240
Mark Vessey

PART V Performances 255

20 Philosopher: Augustine in Retirement 257
Gillian Clark

21 Conversationalist and Consultant: Augustine in Dialogue 270
Therese Fuhrer

22 Mystic and Monk: Augustine and the Spiritual Life 284
John Peter Kenney

23 Preacher: Augustine and His Congregation 297
Hildegund M€uller

24 Administrator: Augustine in His Diocese 310
Neil B. McLynn

25 Controversialist: Augustine in Combat 323
Caroline Humfress

PART VI Positions 337

26 Augustine on the Will 339
James Wetzel

27 Augustine on the Body 353
David G. Hunter

28 Augustine on Friendship and Orthodoxy 365
Stefan Rebenich

29 Augustine on the Church (Against the Donatists) 375
Alexander Evers

30 Augustine on the Statesman and the Two Cities 386
Robert Dodaro

31 Augustine on Scripture and the Trinity 398
Sabine MacCormack

32 Augustine on Redemption 416
Lewis Ayres

PART VII Aftertimes 429

33 Augustine’s Works in Circulation 431
Clemens Weidmann

34 Augustine in the Latin West, 430–ca. 900 450
Conrad Leyser

35 Augustine in the Western Middle Ages to the Reformation 465
Eric L. Saak

36 The Reception of Augustine in Modern Philosophy 478
Johannes Brachtendorf

37 Augustine and Postmodernism 492
John D. Caputo

38 Envoi 505
James J. O’Donnell

References 517

Index 563

A Companion to Augustine

“Overall, this volume is an essential tool for any theologian’s or philosopher’s library and it will make a nice complementary volume to the Cambridge Companion to Augustine, the second volume of which was just published last year.” (Exegetical Tools, 1 October 2015)

“This is a successful Companionthat fills in certain lacunae in the study of Augustine and late antiquity. As such, it is more suited to scholars with specific interests than beginners looking for entry points into Augustine’s complex and sophisticated thought.” (Religious Studies Review, 1 December 2013)

“As such, this present inter-and intradisciplinary companion to Augustine gathers and presents new flavours within Augustine research, which certainly leaves us yearning for more." (Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses)

“Besides an introduction by Mark Vessey, this truly impressive volume has seven parts; each of the parts has many articles by some of the finest Augustinian scholars and historians of late antiquity . . . All told, the volume is a fine contribution to Augustinian studies by some of the best scholars of the present day.” (Catholic Historical Review, 1 January 2013)

“For those of us who teach Augustine on a regular basis, but who are not members of the sprawling familia of scholars who have structured their research agendas around the work of this fascinating and deeply influential late antique bishop, this volume is a treasure trove of judicious assessments and learned insights. It would not be difficult to structure a veryworthwhile seminar on the age of Augustine using its contents, particularly Parts I-V. Mark Vessey has performed an exceptional service by marshalling this legion of specialists to produce what will surely be one of the most important resources for the study of Augustine for many decades to come.” (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 16 February 2013)

“Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through rearchers/faculty.” (Choice, 1 November 2012)

Mark Vessey is Professor of English and Principal of Green College at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Latin Christian Writers in Late Antiquity and Their Texts (2005), and has edited Augustine and the Disciplines: From Cassiciacum to Confessions (2005) and The Calling of the Nations: Exegesis, Ethnography, and Empire in a Biblical-Historic Present (2011). Augustine (354–430 CE) stands with Homer, Plato, and Aristotle among the pre-eminent authorities in Western culture, and his Confessions is the only literary work from the early Christian centuries (aside from the New Testament) that is still widely read today. Long recognized as an outstanding Christian theologian, he has in recent decades also acquired a reputation as an exceptional exponent of the culture of the late Roman world, one whose texts vividly bring the era to life.

This companion is the first to present Augustine as a historical figure within an expanded world of late antiquity. State-of-the-art essays by leading specialists in this field provide orientation to his material, social, and intellectual milieu; his life and career; his writings; issues of the day with which he was engaged; and the main phases of his latter-day reception and influence. Each chapter pulls together resources for readers who want to anchor historically important Augustinian ideas and impulses in the complex realities of the author’s life and afterlife. The result is a multifaceted portrait of Augustine in action in his own and later times.