On Augustine. By Rowan Williams

Abstract

It is a rare pleasure to observe in a single volume someone reflecting deeply about the person who has influenced him or her profoundly. Very often scholarly engagements with ideas and thinkers assume the vantage point of an outsider, either aspiring towards objectivity or standing within other traditions of thought to critique those being studied. When self-reflection within a tradition does happen, it often takes the form of advocacy—one thinks of the Thomist defending Aquinas against the barbs of nouvelle théologie. Only rarely does one get to see the fruitful dialogue that arises when a disciple engages intellectually with his or her master and through that conversation discovers new insights and pursues previously unforeseen consequences. On Augustine by Rowan Williams is precisely such a book. It is not a particularly new insight to observe how deeply Augustinian Williams is. For example, in an interview in 2010, John Milbank observed that Pope Benedict and the then Archbishop Williams share a theology rooted in Augustine’s thought. Nevertheless, much more has been made of the influence of Russian Orthodoxy or even (in an all too typically English manner) his Welsh background on his theology. In reality, however, Williams’s thought has been most profoundly shaped by his long study of and reflections on Augustine. Indeed, in some quarters Williams is best known for his insightful essays on Augustine, all of which are included in On Augustine.