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Displaying: 1-20 of 24 documents


1. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Vincenzo Ceci Filosofía, Sabiduría, Trinidad en las primeras obras de san Agustín
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The article aims to show in the first works of St. Augustine the convergence of philosophy and wisdom on Trinitarian knowledge, and how the latter, despite the small number of references, occupies an important place among the theoretical objectives of the neoconvert. Furthermore, it aims to look for gnoseological and epistemological guidelines of the trinitarian reflection. This implies an attentive analysis of the relationship between faith and reason, as it appears in the Dialogues, and therefore of the relationship between Christian faith and Neoplatonic philosophy, from the perspective of the young Augustine, rethought in the light of those recent studies that show their criticism about this relationship. The article follows a diachronic method, without ignoring where necessary, timely references to the works which St. Augustine wrote during his own maturity; and stresses the historical dimension of the argument discussed, revealing the sources of ancient, late antiquity and patristic thought, alluding to its developments in medieval thought. From the whole emerges the intellectual and spiritual profile of a Christian thinker characterized by a strong rationalist tension, and a philosophical project that culminates in the rational knowledge of the trinitarian dimension of God. And the latter, far from being understood according to the Plotinian or Porfirian metaphysical model, will appear in the Dialogues according to the Christian model, stressing particularly the topic of consubstantiality.
2. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Kolawole Chabi La predicación agustiniana como un locus theologicus et spiritalis: elementos de espiritualidad de san Agustín pastor-predicador
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In thais article, we have confronted the question of Augustinian preaching as a theological place and a crucible of expression and transmission of a certain spirituality that he draws from its source, which is Christ, the only Master who teaches both the preacher and the faithful. Our study allowed us to show the source of inspiration of the preacher of Hippo, which is precisely the study and meditation of the Holy Scriptures. We also highlighted the humility, the love and the ardent desire to be useful to the salvation of the faithful of which he was responsible, which characterizes the ministry of Saint Augustine. His prayer, his confessions, and his kindness in preaching, are elements that could always inspire preachers of all times.
3. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Enrique Eguiarte, Mauricio Saavedra El sentido de la confessio en los Soliloquia y en las Confessiones
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In this article, some parallels between the Soliloquia and Confessiones are revealed, particularly as concerning the self-knowledge (nouerim me) and the knowledge of God, two elements that the article links to the augustinian concept of confessio, in its different meanings, such as confessio laudis, confessio fidei, confessio peccatorum, confessio amoris, as well as the implications that this confessio has with other elements, such as the petitio considerationis, that is, the request made by Saint Augustine to God to be heard. The presence of the petitio considerationis has been analyzed not only in the text of the Soliloquia, but also within the text of the Confessiones, following its traces through four psalms where this petitio considerationis has left its marks, to indicate the various elements in which St. Augustine invites us to reflect, and highlighting, in particular, the importance that the Sacred Scripture has for St. Augustine. Finally, the presentation of the reading strategies and the implicit readers that St. Augustine presents both within the Soliloquia and within the Confessions is discussed.
4. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Josef Lössl ¿Qué tan mala es la conciencia mala de Agustín (mala conscientia)?
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The subject if this article is a brief discussion of the concept of «bad conscience» (mala conscientia) as opposed to «good conscience’ (bona conscientia) in the Works of Augustine, with specific reference to Augustine’s theology of grace. The article considers Augustine’s use of the concept in a wide range of his Works, especially in some sermons and also compares this use with the meaning of the earliest occurrences of the Word suneídhsiç /conscientia and related forms in ancient Greek literature. One of the findings of this comparison is that Augustine’s basic understanding of conscientia in the moral sense was remarkably similar to those early occurrences.
5. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Graziano Malgeri La passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis en los Sermones de Agustín
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The article presents in the first part, a approach to the passio of Perpetua and Felicitas, making a synthesis of the main essays on it. In the second part, the article focuses on Augustine’s Sermones de Sanctis, particularly the sermons in which the Bishop of Hippo comments on the passio of Perpetua and Felicitas, namely ss. 280, 281, and 283 auct. (Erfurt 1). The article presents the discussion of the common elements which are in them. Subsequently, it is focused on the characteristics which are peculiar to each of these sermons. The passio of Perpetua and Felicitas is also analized within Augustine’s en. Ps. 47.
6. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Jane Merdinger Desafiando la sutileza de los donatistas: los cánones litúrgicos de Agustín y Aurelio en el Concilio de Hipona
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My article investigates Catholic councils of the North African Church during the 390s, when it was struggling against its formidable rival, Donatism. I shall demonstrate that the delegates’ concern over the Donatist Church’s strength played a larger role in the formulation of canons during that decade than scholars have previously suspected. I shall argue that despite Augustine ‘s rudimentary grasp of Donatist theology ca. 391- 395, he recognized the significant threat posed by the dissident church and successfully maneuvered behind the scenes (together with Aurelius, primate of Carthage), crafting several canons that are not overtly anti-Donatist but in essence are directed against Donatist encroachment upon Catholic hearts and minds. My article will commence with a brief overview of the Council of 390, presided over by Genethlius, primate of Carthage. Historians have dismissed Genethlius as ineffective against the Donatists, but I shall argue that several canons enacted in 390 paved the way for Augustine’s and Aurelius’ reforms. I shall then examine canons from the Council of Hippo (393 CE), Augustine’s and Aurelíus’ inaugural conclave that ushered in their ambitious programme to rejuvenate the Catholic Church in Africa. Liturgical canons will receive special attention. I believe that they provide clues to heterodox behavior by Donatists during their celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Though the council fathers targeted Arianism as well in 393, Donatist practices spurred them lo promulgate canons forfending against questionable rites that might be adopted unwittingly by Catholic congregations.
7. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Virgilio Pacioni Los presupuestos de una doctrina moral en el pensamiento de san Agustín
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The article deals with the notion of human nature based on what Saint Augustine exposes in De immortalitate animae, following Varron’s footsteps on the unity of the soul and body, and the prima naturae, as they appear in his work De Philosophia. It is also pointed out that St. Augustine separates himself from the Varronian thought in regard to the highest good of the human being, since for him it is placed in the soul, as it appears in De moribus ecclesiae catholicae. On the other hand, the Augustinian basic ethical principle regarding goods is developed, presenting the distinction between the things that have to be loved propter se and those that have to be loved propter aliud, to subsequently make a presentation of the concept of uti and frui, as both are developed in De Doctrina Christiana and in the De Ciuitate Dei. It also stresses the innovative value of amor sui, where Saint Augustine modifies the stoic concept of oikéiosis, following the idea of the two loves as pondus, both caritatis and cupiditatis. As a deepening of the same concept of oikéiosis, the psychological process of the free act is analyzed, comparing the Augustinian process with the process described by Aristotle in his Ethica Nicomachea.
8. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Piotr Paciorek La controversia entre Agustín y Juliano de Eclana: sobre la Ley y la gracia
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In 418, the Italian bishop of Eclanum (Aeclanum: Mirabella-Eclano), Julian (380-454), engaged Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in an extensive debate about three key issues of the Catholic faith, all of which are essentially grounded in sound philosophy and can be proven by reason. These are: the state of nature after sin, the authority of law (legis auctoritate), and the free will of rational beings (libertas arbitrii), the last of which remains vigorously debated today in response to the early concept of determinism. These three issues, in particular, preoccupied Augustine’s thoughts and writings up until his death.
9. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Marie Pauliat Non inuenit tantam fidem in Israel: el texto del acto de fe del centurión (Mt 8, 5-13) interpretado en los Sermones in Matthaeum de Agustín de Hipona
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How to characterize the scriptural exegesis that Augustine of Hippo develops in the Sermons on Scripture? The interpretations of the pericope of the act of faith of the centurion (Matth. 8:5-13) allow, by comparison, to provide elements of answer to this question. Only two continuous commentaries of it are preserved in the works of Augustine: the Sermon 62 (Carthage, 399) and the Sermon Morin 6 (409). It is, however, the subject of some sixty mentions, covering all genres (letters, exegetical treatises, polemics) and almost all chronological and polemical contexts (Manicheism, Donatism, Pelagianism). With this pericope, Augustine reminds both the Manicheans that Scripture must be received with faith, and the Donatists that members of the Church come from the east and the west. The accents are very different in the two sermons: the clearly theological perspective in the Sermo Morin 6 is colored in the Sermo 62 of a discrete and complex rhetorical use which aims to prepare the exhortation not to go to the banquets of the idols that form the second part of this sermon. Augustine’s homiletic exegesis enters into full consonance with the double inscription of the sermon in its liturgical and historical contexts: the first involves developing the faith of the faithful to unify the Body of Christ and the second to lead them to put into practice the requirements of this faith in the concrete circumstances of their lives. The themes of homiletic exegesis then contribute to making the sermon one of the mediations of grace in the work in the liturgy.
10. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Diana Stanciu Conscientia, Capax Dei y Salvación en Agustín. ¿Qué hubiera dicho Agustín del «vacío explicativo» (‘explanatory gap’)?
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How to characterize the scriptural exegesis that Augustine of Hippo develops in the Sermons on Scripture? The interpretations of the pericope of the act of faith of the centurion (Matth. 8:5-13) allow, by comparison, to provide elements of answer to this question. Only two continuous commentaries of it are preserved in the works of Augustine: the Sermon 62 (Carthage, 399) and the Sermon Morin 6 (409). It is, however, the subject of some sixty mentions, covering all genres (letters, exegetical treatises, polemics) and almost all chronological and polemical contexts (Manicheism, Donatism, Pelagianism). With this pericope, Augustine reminds both the Manicheans that Scripture must be received with faith, and the Donatists that members of the Church come from the east and the west. The accents are very different in the two sermons: the clearly theological perspective in the Sermo Morin 6 is colored in the Sermo 62 of a discrete and complex rhetorical use which aims to prepare the exhortation not to go to the banquets of the idols that form the second part of this sermon. Augustine’s homiletic exegesis enters into full consonance with the double inscription of the sermon in its liturgical and historical contexts: the first involves developing the faith of the faithful to unify the Body of Christ and the second to lead them to put into practice the requirements of this faith in the concrete circumstances of their lives. The themes of homiletic exegesis then con- tribute to making the sermon one of the mediations of grace in the work in the liturgy.
11. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 254/255
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker Gimiendo con los salmos: el cultivo del cansancio del mundo en las Enarrationes in Psalmos de Agustín
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Augustine’s emphasis on groaning in Enarrationes in Psalmos reflects his eschatological frame for the earthly life. Augustine exhorts believers to cultivate a disposition of world-weariness appropriate to their status as pilgrims and exiles in this life, expressed by groans of suffering in earthly need and longing for heavenly fulfillment. This world-weary disposition has both an ethical and aesthetic character in that it con- tributes to the ordering of believers’ loves to a vision of heavenly beauty and enjoins an active response of solidarity with the suffering on earth.
12. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Kimberly F. Baker Basilio y Agustín: Predicando sobre el cuidado de los pobres
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In their preaching on care for the poor, Basil and Augustine call for a transformation of one’s relationships. While the Roman patronage system rested on relationships of privilege and dependency, Basil and Augustine cultivate a different type of relationship between the giver and receiver of charity, a relationship based not on status and need but on a shared life and identity. For Basil, that relationship is rooted in the common humanity of all people, regardless of economic or social status. Giving is natural in Basil’s worldview because humanity shares in a common human nature and thus holds all goods in common. Those who fail to share with others risk cutting themselves off from their human nature. Basil’s call to care for the poor is a call to recognize that to be human is to share in what is κοινός, held in common. And for Augustine, the relationship of giver and receiver is grounded in Christ. In loving others, Christians come to discover Christ not only present in them, by virtue of their baptism, but also present in those they serve, wherever there is human need, as promised in Matthew 25. Augustine draws the attention of Christians to those in need, including those outside the usual ties of kinship and citizenship, and even church membership, and teaches them to see in the poor, people of dignity, defined not by dependency but by Christ’s loving solidarity. In laying claim to a common bond between giver and receiver, Basil and Augustine offer a counter-cultural social vision in which giver and receiver are defined not by power or need, but by mutuality and love.
13. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Andrea Bizzozero Beati mundicordes (Mt 5, 8). Conciencia, conocimiento y Visio Dei en Agustín antes del 411
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This article examines the link between the purity of the heart, conscience, knowledge and uisio dei. In Mt. 5:8 the vision and knowledge of God derive from a particular situation of the human heart. The vision-heart pair invites one to reflect on the anthropological structure and the conditions of possibility of the process of knowledge. The main questions here would be: How can one know God? Which faculties does one need in order to know Him? Which are the roles of the mind, the heart and the will in this knowledge? Why Augustine uses Mt. 5:8 to speak about the knowledge of God? At the same time, the expression beati mundicordes invites one to reflect on the qualities of the human condition in order to see-know God. In other words: Which features must the heart have in order to see God? If, on the one hand, it is necessary to know the starting point of this knowledge, on the other hand, it is important to show why it is in human nature to want to see God. This article will analyze the occurrences of the quotation of Mt. 5:8 in Augustine’s works before 411 in order to understand the meaning of the expression beati mundicordes and the conditions of possibility of the uisio dei. This study will investigate the Mt. 5:8 references particularly in De fide et symbolo, De sermone domini in monte, Contra Adimantum, De diuersis quaestionibus octoginta tribus, Contra epistulam Manichaei, De agone, Contra Faustum, Contra Felicem, Sancta uirginitate, ep. 92, ep. 130 and Sermo 88.
14. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Carles Buenacasa ¿Por qué «suicidas» en lugar de «mártires»?: Agustín y la persecución de los donatistas
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Catholic and Donatist sources demonstrate the importance that Donatism attached to the veneration of martyrs, whose acts were read during the feasts dedicated to them. This cult was one of the uestigia ecclesiae that linked Catholicism and Donatism. Therefore, it was important for Catholics to prove that not all those who were said to have died in the name of Christ should be considered martyrs. Augustine’s literary activity displayed a plethora of arguments seeking to show Donatists that these dotes ecclesiae did not really benefit them: martyres non facit poena, sed causa (c. Cresc. 3, 47, 51). At the same time, he strove to invalidate the justification of martyrdom that Donatists used to take from the Book of the Maccabees (Razias’ episode). According to Augustine, the tombs of Donatist martyrs came to be considered special pilgrimage sites due to the miracles and apparitions that were said to take place there. Such pilgrimages were an important source of income for the Donatist Church, generated by accommodations, religious souvenirs, food, and clothing of the pilgrims. These incomes were vital for the survival of the Donatist Church, since, unlike the Catholic Church, it could not count on imperial patronage. If the Donatists were deprived of private patronage they would end up in serious financial trouble. This article aims to analyze the Catholic/Donatist debates around the concept of martyrdom as well as the economical background underlying the efforts made by Catholics to present Donatist martyrs as mere suicides.
15. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Gaetano Colantuono Quid faciunt hirci in grege Dei? Parenética, polémica e historia social en el s. 47 de Agustín
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The article deals with s. 47, stressing the lexical, linguistic, rhetoric, symbolic, argumentative aspects, related to three main topics: 1) The exegetical and controversial elements of the symbolic value of goats (hirci); (2) the analysis of the vocabulary and of the polemical antidonatist motives in the homily; (3) the legal influence (also at the lexical level) as part of the controversial christian homiletics in post-Theodosian age.
16. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Marianne Djuth La polémica sobre la conciencia moral en Agustín
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In this essay I explore the implications of Augustine’s notion of moral conscience in the polemical treatises written during the late 300’s and the early 400’s. During this period Augustine found himself locked in controversy with both the Manichaeans and the Donatists over the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. Against this background I examine Augustine’s understanding of conscience with reference to Faustus of Milevis and Petilian of Constantine. With respect to Faustus of Milevis, I situate Augustine’s understanding of conscience in the context of his adaptation of the notion of conscience found in Paul’s Pastoral Epistles to his repudiation of the Manichaeans in three key passages: 1Tim. 1:5, 1Tim. 4:1-3, and Tit. 1:15. In the case of Petilian of Constantine I investigate the meaning of conscience in relation to three major themes found in Petilian’s letters: the subjective disposition of conscience, the hiddenness of conscience, and the responsibility for the subjective disposition of conscience. Finally, I conclude the essay by reflecting more generally on the meaning and use of the notion of conscience in polemical disputes. Not only does Augustine develop a notion of conscience that addresses personal and ecclesial concerns, but he also characterizes conscience as both stable and malleable.
17. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Enrique A. Eguiarte Conscientia (…) itineribus (...) in sapientiam. Conscientia en las primeras obras de san Agustín (388-395)
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The article deals with the use of the term conscienta in S. Augustine’s early writings (388-395), namely the third book of De libero arbitrio, the first 32 enarrationes in Psalmos and De sermone Domini in monte, to trace the development of the idea of conscientia, and the shift from an anthropological concept of conscientia (coscientia mortalitatis/ conscientia itineribus) to a Theological and Moral dimension (conscientia bona/mala) in St. Augustine’s first works as a young Priest at Hippo, namely in De sermone Domini in monte, where the Moral aspects of conscientia are underlined.
18. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Susanna Elm Vendido al pecado por medio del origo. Agustín de Hipona y el comercio de esclavos en la Roma tardía
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Toward the end of his life, Augustine of Hippo wrote two letters (10* and 24*) to legal experts in which he reacted to recent attempts by slave-traders to sell 120 Roman North Africans «overseas» as slaves. Prompted by the fact that members of his clergy had offered them refuge in the episcopal compound at Hippo, Augustine sought to clarify the actual personal legal status of these men, women, and children. Were they slaves, coloni, or illegally captured free Roman citizens? What were their actual temporal, legal, personal conditions? Such concerns surrounding the condicio hominum temporalis, brought to light as a result of selling human beings, and their relevance and ramifications for Augustine’s thoughts and actions, especially with regard to the sin to which we are sold per originem of the First Man, are the focus of my remarks.
19. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Allan Fitzgerald Agustín, Conciencia y el Maestro Interior
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This article examines the relation of Augustine’s appreciation of the human heart to his understanding of conscience both from a theological and a spiritual point of view by a study of the 43 sermons preached in Hippo from December 406 to mid-summer 407, that is, the fifteen enarrationes on the Psalms of Ascent (en. Ps. 119-133), enarrationes on psalms 95 and 21 (sermon 2), the first sixteen tractates on the Gospel of John (Io. eu. tr.), and the ten homilies on the First Letter of John (ep. Io. tr.)
20. Augustinus: Volume > 64 > Issue: 252/253
Joseph L. Grabau Cristología y exégesis en el Tratado XV In Iohannis Euangelium de Agustín de Hipona
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Augustine of Hippo was active in the period leading up to conciliar definitions of Christology, yet he displays remarkably distinct preferences in his treatment of Christ. Rather than repurposing his work to discover antecedent traces of the Chalcedonian definition –or the pervading influence of Nicene faith–one must remain open to Augustine’s own Christological method. For, in fact, as much as he held to a firm belief in the objective work of Christ and its proper role in the divine plan for human salvation, Augustine maintains a certain approach to biblical exegesis that reinvents our notions of Christology to include, primarily, exegetical praxis. A valuable example of this practice appears in the early ‘anti-Donatist’ homilies on John, in particular in the 9th and 15th where Augustine reads Christ into the whole of Scripture, beginning with Gen. 2:24-5. In so doing, the bishop of Hippo builds upon essentially Pauline interpretative strategies, even in his reading of the Fourth Gospel. The present contribution aims to identify those Pauline elements, chiefly among them the role of Eph. 5:31-2 and Rom. 5:14, the latter of which presents Adam as ‘forma futuri’ – that is, a prophet of Christ. In his reading of John 2 on the Wedding at Cana (homily 9) and John 4 (homily 15), Augustine develops a hermeneutic of recognising Christological prophecy in the ‘old testament’, and in so doing he develops the Pauline sentiment of Rom. 5:14 in new directions, applying it liberally to the successive Hebrew patriarchs. This new turn in studies of Romans, chapter 5, under the Christological programme of Augustine during his early anti-Donatist engagement, offers new light on possible early Christian interpretations of the Bible – especially welcome after so many reflections on Rom. 5:12 and its influence for the later Pelagian controversy.