Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal by Paul Kolbet (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 151 find oneself committed to the notion that no a posteriori arguments are “proofs,” no matter how much empirical evidence is behind them. In any case, what is particularly compelling about Spitzer’s book—as well as the book by Barr mentioned above—is that it shows that a fair sifting of the evidence offered by the new physics tells, at a bare minimum, more in favor of God’s existence than against it. This suggests at least that those who think that today’s natural science has disproven the existence of the God of theism need to think much more carefully about the implications of the intellectual developments that have replaced Newton with Einstein, Hubble, and others. New Proofs is yet another book to argue that the case for God’s existence provided by the study of nature is stronger today than it has been in a very long time. Indeed, if Spitzer is right, it is stronger today than it has ever been in human history. DOUGLAS KRIES Gonzaga University Spokane, Washington Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal. By PAUL KOLBET. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009. Pp. 342. $40.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-268-03321-7. In his well-written and deeply researched monograph Augustine and the Cure of Souls, Paul Kolbet “situates Augustine within the ancient philosophical tradition of using words to order emotions” (back cover) and to direct attention to higher things. He aims for a balanced presentation which would consider both Augustine’s reception of the classical psychagogic tradition and his transformation of this tradition into a distinctively Christian rhetoric (13). Possidius, Augustine’s first biographer, was convinced that those who heard the bishop preaching in the church gained more than those who merely read his writings (Vita 31). Many centuries later, James J. O’Donnell (Augustine: A New Biography [2005]) has added that, in his sermons, Augustine “inevitably reveals things he keeps out of his other books” (335). Kolbet agrees, and makes a case for studying the Christianization of the conventional curative rhetoric with the help of Augustine’s sermons. He justifies his special interest in homilies by contending that “the most abundant and direct evidence of the appropriation of the practices and strategies of classical rhetoric by late antique bishops is provided by their own sermons” (3). This could well be the case; hence the proper subtitle: Revising a Classical Ideal. Introducing his inquiry, Kolbet rightly observes that “late antique sermons are relatively little studied” (4). Kolbet mentions, among the reasons for this relative neglect, the difficulties in establishing the sermons’ authenticity as well as their BOOK REVIEWS 152 chronology, the often obscure exegetical procedures employed by preachers, and the popular character and fragmentary preservation of sermons in shorthand (45 ). Furthermore and in addition to the demand of more and better studies on the above-mentioned topics, “what is needed is a clarification of the theoryinforming the original composition of the sermons themselves” (6). So, Kolbet turns to the ways in which Christian bishops actually employed the cultural “presupposition pools,” includingthe rhetorical tradition of psychagogy or philosophical therapy, in their sermons to communicate the Christian message. “In time, the cura animarum became synonymous with Christian ministry itself” (10). Part 1 introduces the “classical ideal” (17) of the cure of souls with the help of the practice of philosophy. In late antiquity, much was accomplished through speeches. Orators employed their best skills in order to make people reflect about themselves, their happiness, and their souls’ apprehension of truth. Kolbet’s examination of ancient psychagogy in Plato, and its later refinements by Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, and Seneca, can be considered a study in its own right. It is almost too thorough for merely supplying a background for Augustine. However, it does the trick of educating the reader about the origin and the classical shape of psychagogy brilliantly. Part 2 begins the linking of Augustine to the ancient cultural ideal of psychagogy as well as the discussion of the eventual Christianization of this cultural ideal. Cicero sets the tone for Augustine by observing “how efficacious are the medicines applied by philosophy to the diseases of...