Augustine: From Rhetor to Theologian

Richard C. Smith is a professor of Classics at the University of
Alberta.

This neatly produced volume was derived from a scholarly conference at
Trinity College, University of Toronto, held to celebrate the
sede-centennial of Augustine’s conversion. Fifteen of the original 31
papers are presented, including the contributions of the editor and
three associate editors. A list of contributors, a brief introduction,
and an index are also included.

The last paper, by Thomas Halton, is an overview of the translations of
Augustine into English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, which
partially compensates for the general omission of bibliographies except
for the topical notes provided by the individual authors. It must be
pointed out, however, that the editor’s own paper, “The Study of
Augustine’s Christology in the Twentieth Century” has not only notes
but a bibliography in a helpful exception to the norm.

The other papers are a mixture of literature, history, and theology,
with five papers dealing directly with some aspect of the Confessions
such as literary unity or the presence of fictional elements in the
narrative. T.D. Barnes pursues the relationship of “Augustine,
Symmachus and Ambrose,” while the themes of Grace, Election, and the
Fall as well as Augustine’s views of Goodness Baptism, Christ, and the
Holy Spirit are also presented in other papers. The relation of
Augustine to Neoplatonic thought is examined, as is the influence of his
Platonism on early Medieval Theology, while Michael Fahey discusses how
studies on Augustine’s understanding of the Church developed during
the period from 1861 to 1979.

All in all, it is clear that work on Augustine is still flourishing
more than 1600 years after his conversion in 386, and that those who
attended the conference had an intellectual feast.