Williams, Michael Stuart
(2012)
Augustine as a Reader of His
Christian Contemporaries.
In:
A Companion to Augustine.
Blackwell Publishing, pp. 227-239.
ISBN 9781405159463
Abstract
Augustine was not a great reader of his Christian contemporaries. That is to say, he seems
not to have expended every energy (as might be expected of a modern scholar) in keeping
up with the very latest to have been written on every topic on which he pronounced, or in
which he could claim an interest. Part of the reason for this must be his relatively late
conversion to Christianity. For as O’Donnell has pointed out, Augustine the professor of
rhetoric – as he was by the time he reached his thirties – was inevitably better acquainted
with the ancient Greek and Latin classics than he was with the far less sophisticated writings
associated with Christianity (O’Donnell 2005a: 125). Indeed, his elliptical path to
Christianity meant that the new convert was most familiar with the Christian Scriptures
on account of their use by the Manicheans; and the contemporaries with whom he met to
discuss ideas in Milan were more often Neoplatonists than Christians. Thus it seems clear
that Augustine, unfamiliar with even the fundamental texts of his new religion, will have
scarcely ventured into the writings of contemporary Christians.
| Item Type: |
Book Section
|
| Additional Information: |
Postprint version of article. The definitive version of this article is available in A Companion to Augustine Vessey, M. Blackwell Oxford pp 227-239 (2011). |
| Keywords: |
Augustine; Christian Scriptures; Christianity; Hippo; On the Trinity; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Ancient Classics |
| Item ID: |
5910 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Michael Williams
|
| Date Deposited: |
25 Feb 2015 12:11 |
| Publisher: |
Blackwell Publishing |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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