The influence of the works of Seneca on Augustine, although often undervalued by scholars, appears decisive in the development of the concept of will in the first book of De libero arbitrio. In this paper, we analyze how the concept of bona uoluntas in the writings of Seneca may have influenced the Augustinian conception of the same concept.

The article deals with the foundations of Augustine’s Theology of History, as can be read in Book V of The City of God. A distinction among the pagan belief in destiny and Christian faith is made. The text which is analyzed is considered as the source of Augustine’s Theology of History, in Books XV-XVIII of the City of God, and also of his doctrine about Predestination. The article also deals with the relationship within the process of salvation, between divine grace and human deeds.

The article discusses St. Augustine’s idea about holiness, and how this idea develops itself through the years. The article focuses on St. Augutine’s Works written before the Confessions, namely mor., an. quant., Gen. adu. Man., uera rel., s. dom. m., c. Adim., exp.prop. Rom., doctr. chr. The article discusses that there is no discontinuity between the Works written before the Confessions and the Works written after.

The article briefly discusses what the Collegia Iuuenum were in Northern Africa, and which were their main characteristics. It also presents the relation­ship of the pagan Collegia Iuuenum with two Augustinian texts, namely ep. 185 and Contra Gaudentium, to search in them hints of the last pagan human sacrifices in North Africa.

The article deals with the topic of Christ’s Passion as it is presented in those enarrationes in Psalmos that form the «Core’s Cycle», that is those psalms which are attributed to Core. The article discusses the exegetical explanation that St. Augustine gives of Core’s name, and how this interpretation is linked to Christ’s Passion, underlining the spiritual and ecclesial aspects. It also deals with the linking of these enarrationes with Get’s name and the actual trials as a way of purification for the faithful and also as a mean of self-knowledge.

During the Pelagian controversy, the precise relation between grace and free will was an important issue. Augustine emphasized the priority of grace over human beings’ free will after the Fall. Pelagians such as Julian of Aeclanum were of the opinion that such view annihilated human beings’ free will. Throughout history, time and again, scholars belonging to different schools and denomina­tions have discussed this issue at length. In this article, we concentrate on Augustine’s view on love as grace during his debate with Julian. We argue that one should broaden the scope of this question and pay attention to the role of divine love as an important and decisive factor with regard to the proper activity of grace in the redemption and liberation of human beings. Thinking the relation between human beings and God in terms of love is a help in order to overcome the unfruitful grace-freewill antinomy. In fact, such approach does justice to both the Scriptural sources of Augustine’s position and the bishop’s spiritual view on the topic under consideration.

Augustine worked as an educator for most of his life, initially –in the world– as a teacher, ultimately –in the Church– as a preacher. Although he wrote no systematic work on education, it is possible to deduce his views on the subject from what he says about it in a number of important works (De magistro, De doctrina christiana, and De catechizandis rudibus). He thinks education consists of the activity of an external teacher, a human, who enthusiastically points us in the direction of the activity of an interior teacher, God. To a large extent, Augustine bases this theory on careful observation and creative reasoning. One instance of this is provided in Confessiones, where Augustine, as bishop of Hippo, looks back on the years of his youth, and thus on his experience of learning and teaching. The current article not only investigates and clarifies how Augustine developed his views on education, and explains what these views were, but also shows how he applied them to his own work. Contrary to what has long been assumed, Augustine went about this in a methodical way, both in his written and in his spoken work. This is demonstrated on the basis of a book, intended to be read (De consensu euangelistarum 1), and of a sermon (Sermo 273), intended to be heard. His methodical approach, which is evident from a clear structure and a lucid argument, reveals the practical application of Augustine’s vision. As theory served as a model for practice, thus practice confirmed the theory.

The article deals with the Spiritual Discernment in St. Augustine, taking as point of departure Book V of the Confessions. Allusion to other works of St. Augustine are made, to discuss the main characteristics of the Spiritual Discernment according to St. Augustine.

Although in St. Augustine’s time there was no ecological consciousness like the one we have today and the relationship with the environment was conditioned by other elements, the Augustinian thought about creation is extremely rich, and it helps us to discover different essential elements that can guide the ecological reflection in the present. The article presents some essential lines of the Augustinian ecological thought, such as the Augustinian thought about creation, the Trinity, the importance of Sacred Scripture, the doctrine of uti et frui, the universal destiny of the created things, the order, the Providence of God, the Trinity’s traces in all creatures as is presented in the text of Wis 11, 21, and it also stresses the linking of Protology with Eschatology in Augustine’s ecological thought.

The article discusses, from a study of Sermon 71 and other important texts of St. Augustine, that the human soul is the image and temple of the Trinity. On the other hand, the article focuses on the place that the Bishop of Hippo attri­butes to the Trinity in the life of the Christian as an individual, and within the Ecclesial reality. The article also discusses that the unity of Persons within the Trinity, according to St. Augustine is a model for constructing the unity among the Beleivers as members of the Church. The article shows the relationship that according to St. Augustine, exists between the Christian and each of the Persons of the Trinity.

The article presents some guidelines to read St. Augustine’s Works, and also the transmission of his thought through the Ages, since it is still a source of Theological and Ecclesiologial Research. The article focuses on four aspects: The Intercultural Context we have now a days, the Intercultural Context of the Late Antiquity; the hints left by the same St. Augustine to read his Work, and the main Ideas that conform his legacy.

The article offers a synopsis of the ecclesiological vision of Pope Francis, underlining the centrality of Charity that is what should guide the Evangelization of the Church within a secularized context. The role of the «missionary disciples» in this task, which is a work of mercy, is also pointed out. Later the article presents the illumination of the Augustinian doctrine to the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, particularly concerning the preaching, as a service of charity, where the pastor gives voice to the message of God. The article also stresses S. Augusti­ne’s doctrine of the Interior Master in relationship with preaching.

The fracturing of language at Babel (Gn 11.1-9) is one of the defining events which, for Augustine, gives language its current fallen characteristics and limitations. But does the fallen state of language necessarily imply that language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine? And if so, is language used in vain to invoke God? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the role of language in Augustine’s Ostia ascent narrative (conf. 9, 24). According to a first line of interpretation, language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine in the ‘Ostia ascent’. According to a second line of interpretation, though fractured, language does not create a chiasm but rather a bridge between the human and the divine. By identifying and intertextually analyzing three facets of the function of language in conf. 9, 24, namely the grammatical, the ontological, and the modal, this paper aims at substantiating the second line of interpretation. Part one explores Augustine’s use of the expression per uerbum (Jn 1.1-15) to analyze the grammar of human and divine language. Part two analyzes the ontological function of language as a mechanism of mediation by showing that the ascent in conf. 9, 24 is similar to the structure of manifestation evident in the transition from forma dei to forma serui (Phil 2.6-7) in Augustine’s s. 264. Finally, part three shows that for Augustine, the conversion from the schola superbiae of rhetoric pride to the humility of the schola pectoris implicitly requires the mode of language as a precondition for ascent in conf. 9, 24. As such, this paper concludes, the three facets of language, namely the ontological, grammatical and modal, function in conf. 9, 24 to unite, mediate and transform the human experience of the divine.

The article presents, in its first part, a response to some scholars who criticize the eschatological conception of St. Augustine, as is the position of H. Arendt, M. Nussbaum, and G. Wehr who accuses St. Augustine of having neutralized the eschaton, to later present the purely theological character of the Augustinian concept of hope. It also describes the anthropological foundation of the actio-contemplatio, in which Augustine’s idea of hope has its roots.

The article is an Augustinian commentary of the encyclical Laudato Si’ of Pope Francis, to stress those points in which the Pontiff’s thought could have been illuminated with the ideas of Saint Augustine. The article discusses some of the ecological clues that St. Augustine develops in his own Works, trying to demonstrate that the thought of Saint Augustine is present in the absence in Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.

The article offers an overview of the main bibliography on the subject of Saint Augustine and Ecology. After an overview, the article focuses on the work of Scott Dunham, Trinity and Creation in Augustine. An Ecological Analysis (2008) and subsequently the collective work edited by John Doody, Kim Paffenroth and Mark Smillie, Augustine and the Environment (2015).

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.

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.

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.