Augustinus--Leben und Werk: Eine bibliographische Einfuhrung, and: Augustinus begegnen (review)

Two helpful works treating Augustine's life and works have recently appeared in German. The first comes from Wilhelm Geerlings, Professor of Alte Kirchengeschichte und Patrologie within the Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät at Ruhr Universität in Bochum. After many years and illuminating works on the thought of St. Augustine, he has put together an excellent collection of secondary works dealing with each of Augustine's texts. Geerlings opens this volume with a systematische Werkübersicht, a synopsis of Augustine's life, and then thirteen bibliographies, each treating a different area of Augustine's writings: the autobiographical (36-39), philosophical and anti-pagan (40-67), anti-Manichean (68-81), anti-Donatist (82-98), anti-Pelagian (99-122), anti-Arian (123-26), scriptural and hermeneutical (127-68), philosophy of religion and dogmatic works (169-84), pastoral writings (185-207), sermons (208), letters (209), dubia (210-11), and lost works (212). Each of these bibliographies also contains a short introduction by Geerlings as well as a list of critical editions and modern translations of each work in question. As is expected, most of the literature recorded here is continental in scope and, as such, will serve English-speaking scholars well in providing them with perhaps otherwise unknown studies and articles.

Hans Christian Schmidbauer is professor of dogmatic theology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. His Encountering Augustine is divided into three sections and is a useful introduction to the life and thought of Augustine. The first section takes up the spätantike Geisteswelt (18-60) and reads as an overview of all of Augustine's interlocutors: the world of fourth century Platonism, Manichaeism, the deities of Rome, Arianism, Pelagianism, the Donatists, and the Circumcellions. The picture of Augustine which emerges is one of a caring and yet stern Bishop who watches over his flock with loving intelligence. As with most German works, Schmidbauer is meticulous in providing pertinent social and geographical information, which helps us better understand the world of late antiquity in which the Bishop of Hippo lived and served.

The second section serves as a biography of Augustine's life (61-123). Schmidbauer sticks mainly to major scenes of the Confessions and, as such, his examination of these events falls within the more traditional accounts. However, this is a reliable recalling, as he puts it, of a life which still stands as a witness to Standhaftigkeit und Seelengröße. The final section surveys the major themes which filled Augustine's pages (126-72). Synopses of Augustine's insights into the Trinity, his understanding of history, grace, and time are all accordingly provided.

Given their quality, not to mention the reasonable prices and relative ease of obtaining such non-English books these days, both of these works come highly recommended to students of Augustine at all levels. Geerlings' collection, which covers so much secondary literature, will prove helpful for those doing scholarly work; Schmidbauer's work, on the other hand, reads as an excellent introduction to the life and thought of Augustine.