Augustine of Hippo: The Retractations
Edición digital Logos
Overview
The major portion of St. Augustine’s literary output listed, accounted for, and criticized by the author himself—such is The Retractions, published in English translation for the first time. As the aged Augustine reread his extensive production, he sought to identify and to report to his widely scattered readership anything in his writings that had offended him or might offend others. In achieving this purpose, Augustine produced a book scarcely to be matched in world literature.
Happily, it was toward the end of his life that the busy Bishop of Hippo set to this review; thus, but few of his “books” fail here to receive his searching self-criticism. His letters and sermons are in general not dealt with; they were to be covered in further parts of the Retractations that Augustine did not live to achieve.
The extensive notes that the translator furnishes supply the background to Augustine’s own discussion of each one of his 93 books, and both analyze and synthesize the bishop’s large and wide-ranging production.
- Presents Augustine’s discussion and criticism of his own literary output
- Provides insight into Augustine’s thought and its development over his lifetime
- Includes extensive notes by the translator with background and analysis
Top Highlights
“‘For it is ours to believe and will, but His to give to those who believe and will, the power of doing good ‘through the Holy Spirit’ through whom ‘charity is poured forth in our hearts,’ ’24–25 is, indeed, true; but, by virtue of this rule, both are His, because He himself ‘prepares the will,’26 and ours, also, because we do only what we will.” (Page 99)
“In another place, I defined the sin of a brother unto death about which the Apostle John says: ‘I do not mean that one should ask as to that,’33 in the following words: ‘I think that the sin of a brother is unto death when anyone who has attained a knowledge of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, opposes the brotherhood and is aroused by the fires of envy against that very grace by which he was reconciled to God.’34 In truth, I did not affirm this, since I said that I thought this, but, nevertheless, I should have added, ‘if he ends this life in a perversity of mind as wicked as this,’ for surely, we must not despair of anyone, no matter how wicked he is, while he lives, and we should pray with confidence for him of whom we should not despair.” (Page 83)
“‘However, what he says, ‘We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal,’1 adequately shows that the Law can be fulfilled only by spiritual men, the kind that the grace of God transforms,’2–3 I certainly did not want this applied personally to the Apostle who was already spiritual, but to the man living ‘under the Law’ but not yet ‘under grace.’4 For prior to this time, in this way I understood these words which, at a later date, after I had read certain commentators on the Sacred Scriptures whose authority moved me,5 I reflected upon this more deeply and I saw that his own words can also be understood about the Apostle himself: ‘We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal.’” (Pages 96–97)
Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) was born in Thagaste, Numidia, in Northern Africa. He studied rhetoric in Carthage when he was 17. As an adult, Augustine abandoned the Christianity of his youth to pursue Manichaeism. Through his Manichaean connections, Augustine became professor of rhetoric at the imperial court of Milan. While in Milan, Augustine was heavily influenced by the bishop of Milan, Ambrose. This influence led Augustine to begin exploring Christianity, and eventually he reconverted. He was baptized in AD 387 and returned to Africa. There he was ordained and became and eventually became bishop of Hippo, an office he held until his death in AD 430. Throughout his ministerial career was a party to multiple controversies, including the Aryan and Pelagian controversies. He was a staunch defender and advocate of Nicene orthodoxy and is one of the church’s most influential pastor-theologians.