In De immortalitate animae Augustine is not satisfied with completing his proof of the immortality of the soul – which had been left open in the second book of the Soliloquies –; he also answers some possible objections, demonstrating that the rational soul cannot cease to exist, it cannot die, nor can it change into an irrational body or soul. Furthermore, remaining faithful to the programmatic declaration of never wanting to stray from the authority of Christ (Acad. 3, 20, 43), he specifies the ontological status of the soul by affirming that it is, in itself, mutable and therefore not of a divine nature, as Varro had argued. Nor is it a substance foreign to the body, as the Platonists claimed, because the soul has an appetitus ad corpus and, if it questions itself, it easily discovers that it desires nothing else «except to do something, to know with intelligence or with the senses, or only to live, as far as this is in its power» (nisi agendi aliquid, aut sciendi, aut sentiendi, aut tantummodo vivendi in quantum sua illi potestas est).

Augustine’s commentary on Alypius’ curiositas at the gladiatorial show (6, 8, 13) recounts one of the most well-known stories in Augustine’s Confessiones. Despite the various interpretations or explications of the story in Augustinian scholarship, this paper argues that the story centres around Alypius’ curiositas as a function of Alypius’ preceding, morally deficient character. The author provides a fourfold, cumulative and philological case for this thesis. He develops this case by means of four evidences. First, Augustine uses the phraseology of animus forti temperantia (6, 7, 12), the virtuous character describing Alypius when he had overcome his love of the gladiatorial games. Second, Augustine distinguishes between “supreme” and “a surface level” virtue, the existence of which is best explained by its application in Augustine’s remark that Alypius had been audax rather than fortis. Third, Augustine uses the language of talis in reference to Alypius, a term describing sorts or kinds of things or persons; in this context, this is the language of character. Finally, Augustine’s use of adhuc implies that there is a type of character Alypius had been, the remedy of which was to acquire an animus forti temperantia. The author then argues that Augustine envisions that the healing of curiositas (as a vice) is from God, especially when a virtuous character – the means by which one is able to overcome curiositas – itself is articulated as a gift of God’s grace. The response to such healing, then, is gratitude. The author concludes that this paper contributes both to a more comprehensive interpretation of the Alypius narrative (6, 8, 13) as well as contemporary scholarship on Augustine’s relation to (psychotherapeutic) healing.

Augustine’s interpretation of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Lk 16 shows how much the parables of Jesus are open to a variety of interpretations and applications depending upon which part of the parable is emphasised. In Augustine’s writings the second part of the parable only is commented upon (the exception being ep. 157) to illustrate points about the afterlife and the fate of the soul. However, in his homilies we find him engaging with both sections of the parable (this life and the afterlife). We can note the dexterity with which Augustine handled diverse themes in the parable by selectively emphasising either the fate of the rich man in this life or the next or the fate of Lazarus in this life or the next. From these different perspectives Augustine could deal with questions of wealth and poverty either materially or spiritually. This research supports the notion that whatever Augustine had to say about almsgiving is to be understood within a soteriological context to urge his congregation to be rich in humility and poor in pride.

The sex aetates mundi constituted the defining framework for understanding biblical and salvation history in the Early Christian and Late Antique worlds. The origins of the idea that history can be divided into six epochs, each lasting roughly a thousand years, are commonly attributed to Augustine of Hippo. Although Augustine’s engagement with this notion significantly influenced its later popularity due to the prolific circulation of his works, he was by no means the sole progenitor of this concept. This bipartite study undertakes the first conspectus in English-speaking scholarship to date of the origins and evolution of the sex aetates mundi. Part I of this study traces the early origins of historiographical periodisation in writings from classical and biblical antiquity, taking account in particular of the role of numerology and notions of historical eras that are present in biblical texts. Expressions of the world ages in the writings of the Church Fathers are then traced in detail. Due consideration is afforded to attendant issues that influenced the six ages, including calendrical debates concerning the age of the world and the evolution of eschatological, apocalyptic, and millenarian thought. Overall, this article surveys the myriad intellectual and exegetical currents that converged in Early Christianity and Late Antiquity to create this sixfold historiographical and theological framework. The first instalment of this study lays the groundwork for understanding Augustine’s engagement with this motif in his writings, which is treated in Part II.

Caesarius of Arles in his role as bishop struggled to guide his growing Christian community amid the political and religious fragmentation of early sixth-century Gaul. This article examines the ways in which he shaped his pastoral pedagogy to address the ecclesiological challenges of the post-Roman world. In his own life, in retelling the lives of saints, and in publishing his sermons, Caesarius variously reconceptualized “example” in order to teach ordinary Christians how to live out their faith in a universal church – a stable, if idealized, community that brought comfort in uncertain times. His innovative pedagogy also reshaped the complex administration of the expanding Gallic church. Caesarius thus created a pedagogy of example to fit the needs of his post-Roman community.

This article intends to provide a further contribution to the attribution of the Greek Scholia on the Corpus Dionysiacum by examining the Latin version by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. In particular, some Latin manuscripts have recently been identified, which retain many of the critical signs used by Anastasius in order to mark the scholia dating back to Maximus the Confessor. The collation of these cruces not only allows us to identify the contribution of Maximus as a scholiast of the Corpus Dionysiacum, but also to ascertain further the work of John of Scythopolis and to point out a possible way to research the contribution of other commentators of Pseudo-Dionysius.

The aim of this paper is to reconsider a recent hypothesis of M. Simonetti on Hermas and the Jewish scriptures.

In Hippolytus, in Cant. II, 3 we find the Georgian term შჯულ-ი (šǯul-i) several times. G. Garitte rendered it in his Latin translation always as lex, causing quite a bit of obscurity in Hippolytus’ lines. The solution appears when we recognize that it can be traced both to the Greek νόμος and to διαϑήκη. If we take this into account, the text now flows harmoniously with other passages in the works of Hippolytus and with the literal tenor of the terms chosen by the Greek epitomist from the Interpretatio Cantici canticorum of Hippolytus.