Table Of Content3
A Companion to the Study
of St. Augustine
A
Companion to the Study
OF
AUGUSTINE
ST.
EDITED BY
ROY W. BATTENHOUSE
BAKER BOOK HOUSE
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Copyright1955byOxfordUniversity Press, Inc.
Reprinted1979by Baker BookHouse
withpermissionofthe copyrightowner
LibraryofCongress Catalog
CardNumber: 55-6253
ISBN: 0-8010-0760-7
ANPNHOATROBLOIRT,HOMPIRCIHINGTAEND,BUYNICTUESDHISNTGAT-EMSALOLFOYA,MEIRNIC.CA
1979
Preface
The sixteen hundredth anniversary, this year, of St. Augus-
tine's birth is a fitting occasion for renewed attention to his life
and work. His appeal has never been more pertinent, probably,
than today. Our own twentieth-century tensions, bred of a secu-
larized society in torment, find a close parallel in his fourth-
century Mediterranean world. Augustine was then the inter-
preter of such tensions, the analyst at a profound level of the
spiritual deficiencies and cultural decay which characterized
Roman life and indirectly were disturbing the Christian com-
munity. By his personal involvements in the situation, along
with an acute vision of its deeper meanings, he made of the
crisis an exercise of transition to new foundations. The signifi-
cant features of his total accomplishment, therefore, deserve
periodic review by all thoughtful people.
The present book is offered as a tribute to St. Augustine's
importance, and as a guide to the study of his works. It is writ-
ten to aid, as a kind of companion, the appreciation of his
varied contributions and of their enduring significance. The
method here is that of fresh review, analysis, and evaluation.
The story of his life is first resurveyed; individual chapters are
then devoted to major writings; and finally certain important
aspects of his thought are put under investigation and criticism.
Since the book is intended primarily as an introduction, for
new readers as well as for old, the coverage is adjusted, in the
progressive sections, to three levels of approach. The early chap-
ters are broadly comprehensive, and mainly informative, merely
Preface
to suggest St. Augustine's range and riches. The middle sec-
—
tion undertakes something more advanced and scarcely to be
—
found in any one modern book on Augustine namely, a sys-
tematic exposition of the contents of his chief works (excepting
his sermons and scriptural commentaries), with critical appraisal
at important points. This section should help especially the
student of the history of ideas. Third, a section entitled 'Special
Aspects of St. Augustine's Thought' includes essays in which
evaluation is predominant. Here each chapter, in drawing
widely from a variety of works, offers interpretations and crit-
ical judgments. It is our hope that even the specialist scholar
will find something of fresh value in this section.
Sixteen college and seminary teachers are the authors of this
volume. Each is immediately responsible only for his own chap-
ter, yet the work as a whole has emerged as a project which has
had the benefit of group discussion as its continuing context.
All the authors (as well as a few others not contributing to the
volume) are members of a small theological society known as
the Duodecim, which for a dozen years has met semi-annually
to hear papers and to debate their contents. Five such meetings
during the years 1945-7 were devoted solely to St. Augustine.
Out of this experience, immensely beneficial to the members
themselves, arose the plan and purpose of the present book. All
of the original papers have been recast or revised, and new es-
says have been added. The supervision of this effort has been
the responsibility of the editor. He has sought to remove over-
lapping, in so far as is practicable, and to guide the propor-
tions of the treatment. But the final product is a group accom-
plishment.
The central theme of our book is the continuing vitality of
Augustinian wisdom. The reader will find occasional differ-
ences of interpretation by the contributors, particularly in ref-
erence to the degree of influence Neoplatonism continued to
hold on Augustine. He will also find Augustine's occasional de-
ficiencies noted and variously probed. Nevertheless, in the com-
posite perspective of the volume there is conveyed a common
awareness of Augustine's signal value for our understanding ol
vi
Preface
Western culture and for our grappling with present-day issues.
Furthermore, the book as a whole is directed more toward
the learner than the specialist. In planning the book we thought
of it as useful in college courses in the humanities as well as
for advanced courses in philosophy and history. We shall be
especially pleased if teachers are helped by this volume to in-
troduce into the university curriculum, as a normal offering, a
semester course on Augustine. At the same time, we believe the
book will have appeal generally for the average clergyman,
teacher, or man of letters.
Four of the essays in this volume have already been sepa-
rately published in professional journals. For permission to re-
print these essays we are indebted to The Journal of Religion
(essays 4 and 15), to Church History (essay 11), and to The
Harvard Theological Review (essay 12). We also wish to ac-
knowledge with gratitude the encouragement given us by the
Hazen Foundation, which has supplied grants-in-aid for our
meetings and for some stenographic services as well. The editor
could not have succeeded, moreover, without a self-denying
willingness on the part of each author to carry through this proj-
ect despite a multitude of other claims on time and labor. And
virtually all the Duodecim members have given aid, at one time
or another, as editorial consultants. The editor owes particular
thanks to Albert C. Outler, Cyril C. Richardson, James H.
Nichols, and the society's Executive Secretary, Paul Ramsey.
Finally, Mrs. Battenhouse has, inevitably but graciously, helped
with the chores of correspondence and with the index.
ROY W. BATTENHOUSE
Bloomington, Indiana
August, 1954
vn
Contributors
DANIEL D. WILLIAMS: Professor of Christian Theology, Univer-
sity of Chicago; author of God's Grace and Man's Hope, 1949, and
What Present-Day Theologians Are Thinking, 1950; Associate Di-
rector, Study of Theological Education, 1954-5.
ROY W. BATTENHOUSE: Associate Professor of English, Indiana
University; author of Marlowe's 'Tambnrlaine,' 1941, and of essays on
Shakespeare; formerly Associate Professor of Church History, Episco-
pal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass.
JOSEPH B. BERNARDIN: Rector, St. Andrew's Church, Maryville,
Tennessee; author of The Intercession of Our Lord, 1933, and An
Introduction to the Episcopal Church, 1940; Chaplain, U.S.A.R.
DAVID E. ROBERTS: Hartley Professor of the Philosophy of Reli-
gion, Union Theological Seminary; author of Liberal Theology (with
H. P. Van Dusen), 1942, and Psychotherapy and a Christian View of
Man, 1950.
T. S. K. SCOTT-CRAIG: Professor of Philosophy, Dartmouth Col-
lege; formerly Assistant Professor of English, Hobart College; author
of Christian Attitudes to War and Peace, 1938; Chairman of Faculty
Work in the Episcopal Church, 1952-4.
STANLEY ROMAINE HOPPER: Professor of Christian Philosophy
and Letters, Drew University, Madison, N.J.; author of Crisis of
Faith, 1944; editor of Spiritual Problems in Contemporary Literature,
1952.
FREDERICK W. DILLISTONE: Chancellor of Liverpool Cathedral,
England; formerly Professor of Theology, Episcopal Theological
ix
Contributors
School, Cambridge, Mass.; author of The Structure of the Divine So-
ciety, 1951, and Jesus Christ and His Cross, 1953.
PAUL LEHMANN: Colwell Professor of Applied Christianity,
Princeton Theological School; author of Forgiveness, 1940, and of es-
says in Christianity and Property (ed. J. Fletcher), 1947, and Christian
Faith and Social Action (ed. J. Hutchison), 1953; formerly Associate
Professor of Biblical History, Wellesley College.
CYRIL C. RICHARDSON: Washburn Professor of Church History,
Union Theological Seminary; author of The Church through the Cen-
turies, 1940, and Early Christian Fathers, 1953-
EDWARD R. HARDY, JR.: Professor of Church History, Berkeley
Divinity School; formerly tutor at the General Theological Seminary;
author of Miltant in Earth: Twenty Centuries of the Spread of Chris-
tianity, 1940, and Christian Egypt, 1952.
ROBERT E. CUSHMAN: Professor of Systematic Theology, Duke
University; formerly Professor of Religion, University of Oregon;
author of essays in the fields of Christian ethics, the history of doc-
trine, and Plato studies.
WILLIAM A. CHRISTIAN: AssociateProfessor of Religion, Yale Uni-
versity; author of essays on philosophy of religion; formerly Associate
Professor of Religion, Smith College.
ALBERT C. OUTLER: Professor of Theology, Perkins School of
Theology, Southern Methodist University; formerly Professor of The-
ology, Yale University; author of Psychotherapy and the Christian
Message, 1954, and of a new translation of Augustine's Confessions
and Enchiridion, 1955.
THOMAS J. BIGHAM: Instructor in Christian Ethics, General The-
ological Seminary; associate in University Seminars, Columbia Uni-
versity; former Chairman, Commission on Religion and Health, Na-
tional Council of Churches.
ALBERT T. MOLLEGEN: Professor of New Testament Language
and Literature, Virginia Theological Seminary.
ROGER HAZELTON: Abbot Professor of Christian Theology,
Andovcr Newton Theological Seminary; author of Renewing the
Mind, 1949, and On Proving God, 1952; formerly Dean of the Chapel
and teacher, Colorado College.
OTHER MEMBERS OF DUODECIM
Professors Joseph Haroutunian, McCormick Theological Seminary;
Paul Minear, Andover Newton Theological School; James H. Nich-
ols, University of Chicago; W. Norman Pittenger, General Theological
Seminary; Samuel Terrien, Union Theological Seminary; Julian
Hartt, Yale University Divinity School; Paul Ramsey, Princeton Uni-
versity; George Johnston, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto;
Hugh T. Kerr, Jr., Princeton Theological Seminary; Franz Hilde-
brandt, Drew University; and Mr. Burns Chalmers, American Friends
Service Committee.
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