Gratia in Augustine's Sermones AD Populum During the Pelagian Controversy

Do Different Contexts Furnish Different Insights?
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-90-04-23157-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 59, 684 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1111 g

Reihe: Brill's Series in Church History

During the last decades, the doctrine of grace of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) has been studied in depth. The occurrence of grace in Augustine’s ca. 580 sermones ad populum has not yet been systematically analysed. This monograph studies the presence of grace in sermones preached during the period of the Pelagian controversy – a debate precisely on the relation between divine grace and human freedom. Does Augustine deal with grace differently in these sermones and his anti-pelagian tractates? First, the gratia content of the sermones does not differ from that of the systematic treatises. Second, the treatment of this topic differs on occasion, a difference determined by the biblical, liturgical, rhetorical and contextual framework of the sermones. This book explores the anthropological-ethical perspective of grace in Augustine, which results in a correction of the image of an Augustine overemphasising God and neglecting man, and in a plea to see continuity in his thinking on grace.

Zielgruppe

All those interested in intellectual history, the history of Late Antiquity, Patristic exegesis, Christian Rhetorics, theological debates on grace, and the history of the Church, as well as philosophers, theologians and philologists.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dupont, Anthony

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Authors Christian Antiquity
Augustine
Writings
Letters
Sermons
Consulted critical editions
Critical editions of sermones ad populum used in this monograph
Translations of sermones ad populum
German
English
Italian
Dutch
Spanish
Consulted translations of Augustine
Bibliography secondary literature
Introduction
Chapter 1. Status quaestionis on research into Augustine’s sermones ad populum and gratia
1. Augustine’s sermones ad populum
1. 1 Augustine’s formation as homilist
1. 2 Genre, occasion, context, public and significance of a sermo
1. 3 Preparation and style of Augustine’s sermones
1. 4 The content of Augustine’s sermones and the importance of their study
1. 5 Chronology and dating of the sermones ad populum
1. 5. 1 A. Kunzelmann
1. 5. 2 Date lists
1. 5. 3 P.-M. Hombert
1. 5. 3. 1 Hombert’s method
1. 5. 3. 2 Hombert’s re-dating
1. 5. 3. 3 Some remarks on Hombert’s method
2. Gratia and the Pelagian Controversy
2. 1 The Pelagian controversy: a historical overview
2. 1. 1 The first phase: Caelestius and Pelagius
2. 1. 2 Second phase: Julian of Aeclanum
2. 1. 3 The third phase: so-called ‘semi-Pelagianism’
2. 1. 4 Concluding observations on the Pelagian controversy
2. 2 An evolution in Augustine’s thought on gratia?
2. 3 The treatment of gratia in anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum
Chapter 2. Fides as gratia and as human task
1. The gratia status of fides in Augustine’s thought
2. Fides in the sermones 143, 144, 168
2. 1 Sermo 143
2. 2 Sermo 144
2. 3 Sermo 168
3. Overview of the thematization of the gratia fidei within the anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum
3. 1 Sermo 365
3. 2 ‘Early’ traces, prior to 416/417
3. 3 ‘Later’ traces, after 416/417
4. Scriptural comparisons
4. 1 Jn. 16,8-11
4. 2 Jn. 1,12
4. 3 Hab. 2,4 (Rom. 1,17, Gal. 3,11)
4. 4 Gal. 5,6
4. 5 Eph. 3,17
4. 6 Rom. 4,5
4. 7 Jn. 6,44
5. Conclusion
Chapter 3. Sermones 293-294: Baptismus Paruulorum in the First Phase of the Pelagian Controversy
1. Augustine’s theology of infant baptism and original sin prior to sermo 294
2. Sermones 293 and 294
2. 1 Context of sermones 293 and 294
2. 2 Sermo 293
2. 3 Sermo 294
2. 4 A comparison of two tractates from the same period
2. 5 The baptismus paruulorum continued: the debate with Julian
3. Infant baptism in the sermones ad populum
3. 1 Sermones ad populum situated in Carthage 413
3. 2 Infant baptism in the corpus of the anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum
4. Scriptural comparisons
4. 1 Mt. 9,12-13 (Lk. 5,31-32; Mk. 2,17)
4. 2 Mt. 1,21
4. 3 Jn. 3,5
4. 4 Jn. 3,13
5. Conclusion
Chapter 4. Prayer as indication of human sinfulness
1. The meaning of prayer in Augustine’s thought
2. Five paradigmatic anti-Pelagian sermons on prayer
2. 1 Sermo 115
2. 2 Sermo 351
2. 3 Sermo 348A
2. 4 Sermo 181
2. 5 Sermo 114
3. Other traces of prayer in the anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum
3. 1 Prayer leads to understanding and faith
3. 2 Prayer as a remedy against sin
3. 2. 1 The universal need for help
3. 2. 2 Help in the struggle against concupiscentia
3. 2. 3 The connection to Mt. 6,12
4. Scriptural comparisons
4. 1 Mt. 6,9
4. 2 Mt. 6,12
4. 3 Mt. 6,13
4. 4 Lk. 18,10-14
4. 5 Lk. 18,1-7
4. 6 2 Cor. 13,7
5. Conclusion
Chapter 5. The theme of human sinfulness in the anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum
1. Augustine’s concept of sin
2. Augustine’s sermones on peccatum
2. 1 Connection with other themes in Augustine’s anti-Pelagian sermones
2. 2 Excursus I: early sermones on sin
2. 2. 1 Sermo 283
2. 2. 2 Sermo 125
2. 2. 3 Sermones 72A, 2 and 142
2. 3 Excursus II: Sermones 151 - 156 and their exegesis of Rom. 7,5 - 8, 17
2. 3. 1 Sermo 151
2. 3. 2 Sermo 152
2. 3. 3 Sermo 153
2. 3. 4 Sermo 154
2. 3. 5 Sermo 155
2. 3. 6 Sermo 156
2. 3. 7 Sermo 154A
2. 4 Eight sermones on sin in the Pelagian controversy
2. 4. 1 Sermo 174
2. 4. 2 Sermo 176
2. 4. 3 Sermo 299
2. 4. 4 Sermo 30
2. 4. 5 Sermo 163
2. 4. 6 Sermo 163A
2. 4. 7 Sermo 170
2. 4. 8 Sermo 335B
3. Sin in the anti-Pelagian sermones ad populum as a whole
4. Scriptural comparisons
4. 1 1 Tim. 1,15-16
4. 2 Gal. 5,16-17
4. 2. 1 Gal. 5,16-17
4. 2. 2 Gal. 5,17
4. 3 Rom. 6,12-13
4. 4 1 Jn. 1,8-9
5. Conclusions
Conclusion
1. Scripture
2. Liturgy 556
3. The Art of Preaching
4. Concrete Context and Target Group
5. Unique Thematisation
6. Chronological Continuity
7. Lacunae?
8. Further Research
9. Conclusion

Leseproben

Introduction

This study investigates the presence and treatment of the theme of the relationship between human freedom and divine grace in Augustine’s sermones ad populum paying specific attention to the sermones related to the period of the Pelagian controversy and the sermones with an anti-Pelagian intent. The research question upon which the present study is based is the following: Do different contexts furnish different insights? More specifically, we endeavour to determine whether the theme of grace is present and thematised in the sermones in the same manner as it is in the systematic writings engaged in the Pelagian controversy. In other words, does the difference in genre lead to a difference in content and/or treatment? The first chapter focuses on the choice of the anti-Pelagian sermones as point of departure for our study and its endeavour to furnish an adequate response to the research question.

The first chapter contains a double status quaestionis. The first presents Augustine’s sermones ad populum and endeavours to discern their uniqueness on the basis of the available scholarly literature on the topic. The second offers an overview of the historical context of the Pelagian controversy, focusing on the various protagonists, their ideas, the succession of (polemic) documents stemming from both ‘camps’, together with a sketch of the recent history of research on the controversy. The historical analysis is then followed by a more systematic study of Augustine’s doctrine of grace, in which the question of potential evolution therein is discussed. Particular attention is addressed to the potential significance of the sermones ad populum for the study of Augustine’s concept of gratia. Is the doctrine of grace treated differently in the sermones and in particular the anti-Pelagian sermones? The chapter concludes with a brief introduction to the anti-Pelagian sermones together with a short overview thereof.

Four central gratia-related themes within the Pelagian controversy are discussed in the following four chapters: fides, baptismus paruulorum, oratio, peccatum (originale). Each of the said chapters is constructed according to the same four-part structure. Firstly, Augustine’s thought on the theme in question – in general and within the context of the Pelagian controversy - is summarised on the basis of recent scholarly studies. Secondly, we endeavour to give the floor to Augustine the preacher, selecting a number of paradigmatic anti-Pelagian sermones per thematic subject, sermones that are dedicated entirely to the theme in question. The content of these sermons is then studied in depth and a detailed survey of secondary literature is provided in the footnote apparatus. Thirdly, and in a more thematic-synthetic manner, the presence of the theme under analysis within the anti-Pelagian sermones as a whole is examined. Fourthly, a number of important biblical citations that emerge in the study of the four themes in the core sermons and in the corpus of the anti-Pelagian sermones are compared. Such biblical citations served as arguments in the Pelagian controversy and were a characteristic feature of sermons as ‘commentaries on Scripture’. The said biblical quotations are then located within the context of Augustine’s writings as a whole. This allows us to draw comparisons not only with the other sermones and with the systematic tractates of the Pelagian controversy, but also with Augustine’s other homiletic activities (enarrationes and tractatus) and work unrelated to the controversy. The first two parts of each chapter explore important secondary literature on the theme in question in addition to the original sources. The third and fourth parts restrict themselves for the most part to primary literature. The data collected in each chapter serves as the basis for a reflection on the unique presence and treatment of the specific gratia-related theme in anti-Pelagian sermones and the (content-based and chronolog

Über Autor(innen)

Dupont, Anthony
Anthony Dupont (Ph.D. Theology, Leuven, 2009) is as a post-doctoral researcher of the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) attached to the Research Unit History of Church and Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven, Belgium. He has published articles on Augustine’s doctrine of grace and his preaching. His field of research and teaching is Late Antiquity and Early Christianity.