Augustine: Confessions (review)

488 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 32:3 JULY 199 4 Graeci [Berlin, 1879: 144-56]) while distinguishing in Refutatio, Book I (the Philosophoumena ) between the bulk of doxographic sources arranged by succession (most of Ref. 1. l--R6; compare Aetius 1.3), a different Neopythagorean source 0-2-4: Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus), and finally a Proto-Skeptic source (IA4: Metrodorus and Xenophanes): see his Table on p. 43- The matter is, however, far from settled. At least the chapters 1.24-26 (the Brahmans, Druids, and Hesiod) may well derive from a Hellenistic textbook or anthology. Mansfeld himself attests to the limits of our knowledge when (on 6 f.) he distinguishes no less than six caesurae: 1.1 # 2-4//6-9 H 11-15 # 16ff 18ff. Chapters 5 and 6 (57-133), devoted to the Middle Platonist division of substance attributed by Hippolytus to Aristotle (Ref. 7.15ff.), is in my opinion the most original part of the book. However, here too many questions are left unanswered (for example, the sources of Basilides' Nonexisting God and of his Heap; cf. 13 xf.). Mansfeld ignores my suggestion ~ that the plagiarist Hippolytus with his cut-andpaste method may have copied Greek philosophy even from Gnostic treatises. But the presence of x Cor. 2:9 in "Pythagoras" (Ref. 6.94.4), and the role of Empedocles' Neikos as the Gnostic "evil Demiurge of this world" (7.29.t5, 7.31.3) speak in favor of a Gnostic source for Hippolytus. The book as a whole lacks unity, completeness and conciseness. There are too many digressions and minutiae. A general conclusion is missing, and a subject index is badly needed. As a result, the book makes for difficult reading. One major disagreement with the author. On p. 56 (and again on 319) he writes: "In Refi X, where.., the summarized doctrines of the Gnostics are taken either from Hippolytus' Syntagma, or from the original Gnostic sources, or from both but not from what is in books IV-IX..." Such a statement cannot withstand criticism:' as a rule, in his Epitome (Book lO), Hippolytus is copying from his Grund~t (Books 5-9), as is confirmed by the presence of the same mistake twice (5.12.~ and l o. 1o. 1-2). These remarks do not detract from the author's remarkable and important piece of Quellenforschung on Hippolytus. M. MARCOVICH University of Illinois at Urbana James J. O'Donnell, editor. Augustine: Confessions. 3 Vols. New York and Oxford: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1992. Vol. 1: pp. lxxiii + 205. Cloth, $85.oo. Vol. 2: pp. 484 . Cloth, $1 xS.oo. Vol. 3: PP- 481. Cloth, $1 lo.oo. This truly monumental work of scholarship will serve as a valuable resource on one of the great texts in the history of Western thought for many different types of scholars: his- ' See my Studies in Graeco-RomanReligions and Gnosticism,Studies in Greek and Roman Religion , 4 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988), !zo--33. 9See Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium, ed. M. Marcovich, Patristische Texte und Studien, e5 (Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1986), 33-35. BOOK REVIEWS 489 torians of philosophy, classicists, patristics specialists, and historians of theology. To whet the appetite of such varied creatures requires diverse skills in numerous disciplines and broad learning, which O'DonneU possesses in abundance, but he offers more besides : an exceptionally clear, eloquent manner of writing, a livelyimagination, and a conceptual boldness that seeks out connections and analogues where none were thought to exist. (See, e.g., his stimulating comparison of Augustine's experiential spirituality with that of his historical contemporaries, the founders of Zen Buddhism, in l :li n. 1o2.) A short review cannot convey adequately the riches contained in these three large volumes. Volume x contains a substantial introduction and the Latin text of the Confessions (without apparatus criticusor English translation). Comments on the text are inappropriate in the present context, but it should be noted that O'Donnell presents a revision of the excellent editions of M. Skutella (Teubner, 1.934) and L. Verheijen (Corpus Christianorum , 1981), with special attention to improved punctuation; considerable detailed discussion of the text appears in the...