Augustine's Theology of Preaching

4. Interiority, Temporality, and Scripture

4 Interiority, Temporality, and Scripture Augustine’s preaching reveals a particular concern for both interiority and temporality, and that this is due to his using Scripture to change listeners. This chapter aims to offer preliminary definitions of interiority and temporality, our two hermeneutical keys. These terms are constructive theological developments of the concepts “passion” and “order,” which structured the opening chapter. Our hope is that the definitions capture the essence of the assumptions Augustine brought to his preaching, and that they can then operate as tools to help us better explicate what he believed himself to be doing as a preacher. Such a methodology was commended by Hadot when he argued that we ought to “give increased attention to the existential attitudes underlying the dogmatic edifices we encounter.”1 Our definitions were formulated through an inductive reading of the Sermones against the background of other major works by Augustine, especially De Doctrina Christiana. This chapter will include an example of how our main themes interact in one of Augustine’s sermons, and will also compare our interpretation to that of three significant modern interpreters of Augustine. In this way, we approach and defend the value of our interpretation from the perspectives of Augustine’s wider corpus, his Sermones and modern doctrinal commentators. Interiority That Augustine was concerned with interiority needs little defense; some even attribute the very conception of interiority to his theological method.2 Cary may be guilty of exaggerating the significance of Neo-Platonism for Augustine. If the role of Neo-Platonism in Augustine’s theological method and formation 1. Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995),104. 2. Phillip Cary, Augustine’s Invention of the Inner Self: The Legacy of a Christian Platonist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 71 is overstated, then a number of problems ensue. The continuity of Christian convictions and doctrines between the early and late Augustine is disrupted;3 the beauty and distinctiveness of Christianity for Augustine (as opposed to pagan philosophies such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Manichaeism and NeoPlatonism ) is minimized. This obscures the fact that: In the Christian assertion that God has acted in a decisive and unique way in Jesus Christ at a given point in history, Augustine sees Christianity as declaring a truth which Platonic philosophy can never understand.4 However, the risk of attributing an excessive role to Neo-Platonism ought not to be taken as refusing any importance whatsoever to the school of thought Augustine encountered in Plotinus and Porphyry. Augustine’s study of Platonic texts sealed his rejection of Manichaeism.5 Neo-Platonism did not give Augustine answers that he could hold to unreservedly all his life, but it did shape his mental outlook, give him insights to develop, and sensitize him to matters which remained of import within his Christian outlook. This meant that NeoPlatonism drew Augustine away from the Manichean view of evil, but in due course, Augustine could not remain satisfied with the Neo-Platonic conception of evil as a defective image of reality.6 Neo-Platonism bequeathed Augustine a philosophical framework for ascent, progress and self-improvement. However, as this was developed theologically with Christian doctrine, “Augustine’s interest in the theme of personal progress is largely replaced by a concern with the way in which men and women deal with situations in which they do not in any sense ‘progress’.”7 In line with the formative role we attribute to Scripture, Stock observes that this shift of interest described in Augustine was “strenuously promoted by the Psalms, prophetic books of the Bible, and letters of St. Paul.”8 All of this leads us to conclude that Neo-Platonism should be granted a role in developing Augustine’s interest in interiority, but discerning the role of interiority in his preaching will not ultimately depend upon a detailed study of 3. Harrison, Rethinking Augustine’s Early Theology, an Argument for Continuity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) 4. Daniel Williams, “The Significance of St. Augustine Today,” in A Companion to the Study of St. Augustine, ed. Roy Battenhouse (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 3–14, 9. 5. conf. 8.2 (CCL 27, 113). 6. Mark Edwards, “Neo-Platonism,” in Augustine through the Ages, ed. Allan Fitzgerald (Grand Rapids: Eerdmaans, 1999), 590. 7. Brian Stock, Augustine’s Inner Dialogue, 12. 8. Ibid. 72 | Augustine’s Theology of Preaching Neo-Platonism. In order to situate our definition of interiority, we will consider...