Augustin: Qui est Jésus Christ? by Fernand Arsenault (review)

BOOK REVl:EWs Augustin: Qui est Jesus Christ? Essai theologique et pastorai. By FERNAN!l ARSENAULT. Hier-Aujourd'hui, XVI. Paris-Tournai: Desclee; Montreal : Bellarmin, 1974. Pp. 184. There are many of us, I suppose, who are inclined to give only reluctant attention to Augustine's various expositions of Scripture, and then chiefly out of respect either for the text or for the interpreter. And it is true, of course, that both the Bible and Augusine are often more accessible by other paths. Yet we may find ourselves surprised on both counts when we actually attend to one of the works of Augustine the interpreter. This work by a French-Canadian professor and spiritual leader serves amply to renew our respect for Augustine's interpretative writings, for in manageable compass it surveys the major themes of the Fourth Gospel as Augustine read it-Word, illumination, revelation, incarnation, faith, Church-and in addition brings them into encounter with modern thought, doing it with a light touch, not forcing contemporary assumptions upon the past, not fearing to point up oppositions, yet suggesting even then that it is often the same fundamental problems that are being adressed. Thus it offers a useful and subtle invitation to the further study of Augustine's sermons on the Fourth Gospel. I could say more about the way many themes are treated-the emphasis placed upon interpersonal relationship in discussing illumination and revelation , for example, or the way in which incarnation is related to these other themes which suggest a more immediate access to God; but what most struck me in reading this work is what it points up concerning Augustine's understanding of the Christian consciousness and the time of the Church. The Fourth Gospel, with its promises concerning the future activity of the Paraclete, has always been a favorite source of prooftexts for those who want to stress the gifts of the Spirit-and who are accused, in return, of glorifying themselves, or their times, or the Church, at the expense of Christ himself. Augustine like other Fathers was often tempted to use the achievements of the Church within the space of a few centuries as proof of its divine authorization-yet he was also aware of the dangers of this kind of argumentation, and especially as the Pelagian controversy went on he became more careful to qualify his statements about what is possible in the era of the Church. Arsenault highlights Augustine's treatment of these promises concerning the Spirit at a number of points. He notes, for example (pp. 99-103), that no new doctrines· are to be taught by the Spirit, and no older doctrines are to be dropped away: Christ crucified remains the foundation of all later growth (Tractatus 98, 2 and 6), and the Spirit's "teaching" is essentially an increase in understanding which comes through car#as (Tr. 96.4). Or again, in the case of the promise that Christ's followers will do even greater BOOK REVIEWS 618 works (pp. 134-35) Augustine's emphasis is that these " greater works " consist quite simply of the faith through which sinners are made righteous, so that the preaching of Christ by believers accomplishes more than what Christ accomplished through his direct words and actions, though all of this is to be understood not as lack but as generosity on Christ's part (Tr. 7U-3). Augustine's hermeneutical procedure is worth analyzing. It may be, of course, that the Fourth Gospel itself contains all of these qualifications upon its promises. But one cannot help but notice Augustine's abundant use of passages from the Pauline epistles to reinforce the aspects of tentativeness and struggle in the Christian life and thus forestall a spirit of triumphalism. He is not functioning purely as a historical or literary commentator concerned with the text of the Fourth Gospel alone. His interpretation comes out of a situation of conflict-many conflicts!-in his own day, and it is executed by dealing with the New Testament as a whole, not supposing, however, that it is a perfectly homogeneous whole, but recognizing the diversity of voices with which it speaks and letting one part " correct " or at...