Christ Meets Me Everywhere: Augustine's Early Figurative Exegesis. By MICHAEL CAMERON.

Abstract

This admirable and highly accessible work of scholarship tells how Augustine came to understand and expound the Christian Bible, and in particular how he understood the rightful place of the Old Testament within the Scriptures, ‘by learning how to read it figuratively’ (p. 7). In particular, it charts the developments by which Augustine’s figurative exegesis, influenced by his rereading of St Paul, interacted with his Christology, so that reading the Scriptures became a privileged place of encounter with Christ. The book covers the years from 386, when Augustine at Milan accepted Ambrose’s figurative approach to the Old Testament, to around 400, when the Bishop of Hippo could adeptly deploy figurative exegesis in his Confessions and Contra Faustum. After a brief introduction, Michael Cameron’s analysis is divided into three sections: Part I (chs. 1–4) covers the period to 391 and Augustine’s ordination to the priesthood; Part II (chs. 5–6) examines the writings composed from 391 to 396, the year in which he became bishop of Hippo; and Part III (chs. 7–8) the years from 396 to c.400.