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Essential Sermons
The Works of St. Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century initiated by the late Fr. John Rotelle, OSA has made available to the English-speaking world an unprecedented number of Augustine s works formerly available only in Latin. There has been an explosion in Augustinian scholarship throughout the last five decades. Until recently, the secondary literature tended to focus on Augustine s major the Confessions, The Trinity, Teaching Christianity, and the City of God, the works commonly available in modern language translation. Now a plethora of lesser known works including his sermons and letters has provided new insight into this complex and talented theologian. The eleven volumes of Augustine s popular sermons (Sermones ad populum) including the recently discovered Dolbeau sermons expertly translated by Fr. Edmund Hill (1910-1997) in clear, contemporary English showcase Augustine the brilliant speaker and engaging preacher of the Word and have proven an indispensable resource for contemporary scholarship. Peter Brown and other leading Augustine scholars have turned to the sermons as an indispensable source to nuance and reappraise their earlier positions. Hill s translation and extensive notes have received many accolades by scholars but professors have clamored for a one volume anthology in paperback form that would be affordable to students and that could be used as required texts in teaching undergraduates, graduate students and seminarians. Fr. Doyle has undertaken that task and has carefully chosen an anthology that is representative of the bishop s finest preaching on a wide range of subjects including God, Christ, sin, grace, conversion, martyrdom, sacraments, marriage, wealth, poverty, Christmas, Easter and living the Christian life. Students and preachers alike will discover Augustine s masterful interpretation of the Word of God and creative skills in engaging the people of God by using the finest rhetorical skills available to his time based on the principles taught by Cicero. To engage Christians the preacher must first capture their attention (delectare) in order to teach (docere) fundamental saving truths to persuade (flectere) them to live a life of discipleship and put into practice such high ideals. Essential Sermons will include mostly whole sermons with a brief introduction but in some cases powerful excerpts from lengthy homilies that would have been impossible to incorporate in a one volume work. Fr. Doyle has written a concise Introduction to Augustine s preaching and has included a table of themes for easy and convenient consultation.
440 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Augustine of Hippo
3,250 books2,135 followersEarly church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical
Confessions
in 397 and the voluminous
City of God
from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2016
I might have set something of a record with this book- longest time to read or something. I should hasten to add that this wasn't necessarily because the quality of the book was bad, but that my own tendency to be distracted. That and an Augustinian sermon can be a rather dense thing, so I found that I couldn't read too many sermons back to back to back. Like Edward Gibbon, there were times that I had to put this book down for a bit because the rhetoric is that good....and dense.
What this volume represents is the abridged version of the complete Works of Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century. The section dealing with sermons in this work is, according to the preface eleven volumes. Given that Augustine probably preached upwards of 4000 sermons in his forty year career (some estimates suggest as high as 8000), what we do have, even in those eleven volumes, constitutes only a part of Augustine's output. This volume includes seventy-six sermons or parts of sermons in this volume. The avowed intent is to make Augustine's sermons available to university courses and interested scholars, both professional and amateur, who don't particularly need the full eleven volumes.
The sermon cover the gamut of sermon subjects and give a good sense of the breadth of the Augustinian corpus of sermons- sermons on feast days, fast days, saints days, simple exegesis, numerological sermons and on to the astonishing variety of patristic preaching in general and Augustine's preaching in particular. Like any collection, one can get lost in the variation and not every approach is easy to appreciate for a modern reader, even someone who understands the patristic approach to exegesis. Patristic preaching is notable for the degree to which it sticks to the Biblical texts, but it can be distracting because the heavy use of non-literal methods such as allegory or typology or even numerology can make it look like Augustine is just twisting the text right out of context. That is sometimes even true, but, if one suspends one's historical-critical sensibilities sometimes, one can find considerable insight into the spiritual life hiding in these non-literal methods which can bring real nuances to understanding what the Biblical writers are talking about. Augustine would have no problem reading the Bible in any number of different ways, but we moderns tend to be rather univocal in our insistence of historical literalism.
I'd say, if you are reasonably versed in Augustinian or patristic authors, this is a good book to pick up, but take your time working through it because it will take time. I know I will probably keep coming back to sermons here, but one at a time, because I know, despite spending almost a year and a half reading it, I still don't think I really understand many of the sermons in the way I'd like to. Caution does need to given about the density of the writing. Augustine was a highly trained rhetorician at a time when rhetoric was an entertainment. That means even a translation is going to be more florid that we moderns are comfortable with. That is our loss, mind you, but still it is an appropriate warning to end with.
What this volume represents is the abridged version of the complete Works of Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century. The section dealing with sermons in this work is, according to the preface eleven volumes. Given that Augustine probably preached upwards of 4000 sermons in his forty year career (some estimates suggest as high as 8000), what we do have, even in those eleven volumes, constitutes only a part of Augustine's output. This volume includes seventy-six sermons or parts of sermons in this volume. The avowed intent is to make Augustine's sermons available to university courses and interested scholars, both professional and amateur, who don't particularly need the full eleven volumes.
The sermon cover the gamut of sermon subjects and give a good sense of the breadth of the Augustinian corpus of sermons- sermons on feast days, fast days, saints days, simple exegesis, numerological sermons and on to the astonishing variety of patristic preaching in general and Augustine's preaching in particular. Like any collection, one can get lost in the variation and not every approach is easy to appreciate for a modern reader, even someone who understands the patristic approach to exegesis. Patristic preaching is notable for the degree to which it sticks to the Biblical texts, but it can be distracting because the heavy use of non-literal methods such as allegory or typology or even numerology can make it look like Augustine is just twisting the text right out of context. That is sometimes even true, but, if one suspends one's historical-critical sensibilities sometimes, one can find considerable insight into the spiritual life hiding in these non-literal methods which can bring real nuances to understanding what the Biblical writers are talking about. Augustine would have no problem reading the Bible in any number of different ways, but we moderns tend to be rather univocal in our insistence of historical literalism.
I'd say, if you are reasonably versed in Augustinian or patristic authors, this is a good book to pick up, but take your time working through it because it will take time. I know I will probably keep coming back to sermons here, but one at a time, because I know, despite spending almost a year and a half reading it, I still don't think I really understand many of the sermons in the way I'd like to. Caution does need to given about the density of the writing. Augustine was a highly trained rhetorician at a time when rhetoric was an entertainment. That means even a translation is going to be more florid that we moderns are comfortable with. That is our loss, mind you, but still it is an appropriate warning to end with.
January 2, 2020
Edmund Hill, the wonderfully creative translator who did a number of volumes in New City Press's The Works of St. Augustine series really took a chance on this one. The sermons are largely presented in a much more informal tone than usual such that they feel spoken rather than composed. It's a great collection, and a really terrific way to introduce yourself to Augustine without having to read a long work beginning to end. My students and I enjoyed it a lot.
September 5, 2024
I loved reading these sermons. Got so much out of them. Augustine's Christmas sermons are amazing and it was nice, too, to see another side of the theologian, more pastoral, more focused on everyday struggles of the faithful.
There are a number of very strange editing choices, though. The intro to each sermon almost exclusively focuses on scholar debates about dates which do not seem like they matter to normal people. I haven't seen the Latin but some of the translations seem off to me and some outright goofy. When talking about etymology, Augustine didn't say what the word meant in English and it's just confusing to put it that way. Also the English sentence structures are very strange in this translation. Worth reading anyway, but if anyone is thinking about working on a new, more readable edition, they should go for it.
There are a number of very strange editing choices, though. The intro to each sermon almost exclusively focuses on scholar debates about dates which do not seem like they matter to normal people. I haven't seen the Latin but some of the translations seem off to me and some outright goofy. When talking about etymology, Augustine didn't say what the word meant in English and it's just confusing to put it that way. Also the English sentence structures are very strange in this translation. Worth reading anyway, but if anyone is thinking about working on a new, more readable edition, they should go for it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews