Christian Instruction; Admonition and Grace; The Christian Combat; Faith, Hope and Charity

Introduction

INTRODUCTION OHE SHORT work entitled The Christian Combat was written at Hippo during the first years of St. Augustine 's episcopate. In the Retractations, a critical, but incomplete, review of his writings, Augustine assigns this book to the third place among the works composed after he had become bishop. The earliest composition of this period, Various Question to Simplicianus, is a series of queries addressed by Bishop Simplicianus of Milan to Augustine, together with the latter's replies. Since Simplicianus is referred to in the Retractations as Ambrose's successor in the See of Milan/ it is evident that the subsequent work, The Christian Combat, must have been composed some time after April 4, 397, the date of St. Ambrose's death. The opinion which assigns the composition of this work to the year 396 is based largely upon a reference to the Donatist sect in Chapter 29. There Augustine points ironically to the internal schisms within the sect itself, yet he fails to make any mention of the two Donatist bishops, Pretextatus and Felicianus, who had been restored to full communion even after their formal condemnation by the Donatist council of Bagua. Since this event, which took place about the beginning of 397, would have given added force to Augustine's remarks, it is argued that, had the incident already occurred, he 1 Cf. 2.1. 309 310 SAINT AUGUSTINE would have made good use of it, hence, the conclusion that Augustine may have written the work, The Christian Combat, during the preceding year. Obviously, however, any such argument ex silentio is seriously weakened by the more positive and formal evidence furnished by the Retractations in favor of the year 397. The des;gnation of the Christian life as a 'combat' is familiar in early Christian literature, inspired in large part by the language of St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy.3 Augustine found it necessary to add the term 'Christian,' in order to distinguish the true soldiers of Christ from the self-styled 'agonistici':! of the Donatist sect. Referred to as CircumceIIions by the Catholics, these fanatics indulged in the cruellest excesses to propagate their schism. Augustine'S purpose in composing the present work is summed up in these few words from the Retractations: 'The book on the Christian combat, containing a rule of faith and precepts for right living, was written in a plain style for the brethren who were not proficient in the Latin language.'4 Among the 'brethren' unskilled in the Latin tongue were to be found not only many of the Roman population, but also, and more especially, those inhabitants of North Mrica who, while acquainted with the official language of Rome, still retained their ancient Punic tongue.5 Augustine himself testifies to the actual survival of this language in his day and occasionally makes use of its expressions and proverbs in the instruction of his flock. 2 Cf. 4.7. 3 Cf. St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 132.6. 4 Cf. 2.3. 5 Cf. "Sehr wahrscheinlich ist den ersten Lesern das Punische geHiufiger gewesen als das Lateinische." (0. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der Alt· kirchlichen Literatur. Vol. 4.491 (Freiburg 1924). THE CHRISTIAN COMBAT 311 The opuscule, The Christian Combat, cannot be fairly compared with the more profound and erudite works of the African Doctor. Its very simplicity, however, reveals the wonderful versatility of Augustine's genius, which can soar the lofty heights of speculation and yet impart its richness to the unlearned with equal ease and assurance. Further, the concise presentation of basic doctrines of faith and the complementary treatment of opposed heresies give the work a literary and historical value which has not escaped the attention of modern scholarship.6 The present translation has been made from the critical text of J. Zycha, in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 41 (Vienna 1900). So far as St. Augustine's text permitted, the rendering of Biblical quotations has been taken, for the Old Testament, from the Challoner revision of the Douay Bible, for the New, from the version published in this country in 1941 under the patronage of the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. 6 Cf. A. D'Alcs, "De agone Christiano,'" Gregoriallunl 11 (1930) 131-45. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Texts: J. P. Migne, PatTO/ogia Latina 40. 289-309 (Paris 1841). J. Zycha, Corpus Scriptorum Ecc/esiasticorum Latinorul1l 41 (T'ierl1la 1900) . Secondary Works: O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der...