On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith

Abstract

Reviewed by: On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith Scott Dermer James K. A. Smith On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019 Pp. xiv + 240. $24.99. Bridging the centuries-long gap between Augustine and ourselves is no easy task. On the one hand, there is the danger of presentism: allowing our contemporary concerns to drive our reading of the ancient bishop. On the other hand, there is the danger of ahistoricism: thinking that Augustine’s ideas can be effortlessly extracted from their contexts and transported to our own. In this book, Smith avoids both dangers and provides a reflection on Augustine’s life and thought that is compelling both in its historical sensitivity and contemporary relevance. Smith came to an appreciation of Augustine as a doctoral student studying existentialist philosophy at Villanova University in the 1990s. As he was tracing Augustine’s reception in figures like Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, Fr. Robert Dodaro urged him to examine not only the bishop’s treatises but also his sermons and letters. Since then Smith’s scholarship in philosophical theology [End Page 475] has been marked by a clear dependence on Augustine, especially the Augustinian notion of ordered love. This, however, is his first book-length project on the bishop of Hippo. Smith finds Augustine deeply relevant to contemporary life. In the introduction, he describes the book as an invitation “to move forward by looking back, to make progress by considering ancient wisdom” (xiii). Augustine’s relevance lies precisely in what Smith calls his “refugee spirituality”: “We are migrants, strangers, resident aliens en route to a patria, a homeland we’ve never been to” (51). For Smith, Augustine’s “refugee spirituality” features prominently in the Confessions, where he tells the story of his heart’s journey toward rest in God. Yet the story told in the Confessions, according to Smith, is really the story of every human heart. Indeed, Smith contends, Augustine wrote his story so that others might find themselves in it: “What the Confessions ask of a reader is not, ‘What do you think of Augustine?’ but rather, ‘Who do you think you are?’” (161). The wisdom of Augustine, for Smith, is that he saw himself and us as refugees whose desire for home is fulfilled only in the eternal God. The book is divided into two sections. In the first (Chapters 1–3), Smith describes the “refugee spirituality” of Augustine and how it resonates with contemporary life. In the second section (Chapters 4–13), Smith focuses on the fundamental problem of human life: namely, the disordered attempt to find rest in things that cannot give it. He analyzes how the human heart seeks rest in created goods (e.g., freedom, ambition, sex, friendship, enlightenment, and justice) but finds rest only in the eternal God who becomes incarnate in Christ. Seasoned students of Augustine will not find anything especially new in regard to Augustine’s thought on these themes; they will, however, be intrigued by the unique way in which Smith explicates these themes. Smith uses examples from Augustine’s own story, depictions of Augustine in art, and numerous references to modern philosophy and contemporary literature and film. Readers will also be delighted by Smith’s ability to translate Augustine’s thought in accessible prose. For example, in describing Augustine’s teleological understanding of human life, he states that “conversion is not an arrival at our final destination; it’s the acquisition of a compass” (50). Or, in summarizing the difference between Augustine’s Christianity and Platonism, Smith says, “Platonism offered a ladder to (re)connect God and humanity; in Christianity, God climbs down” (155). Smith’s rendering of Augustine’s thought with such straightforward, vivid language makes this book a great resource for lay people, clergy, and students of all levels who are looking for a guide to Augustine’s thought. Throughout the work, Smith never loses sight of Augustine the pastor. His references to Augustine’s sermons and Rule remind the reader of Augustine’s responsibility to guide the Christian community in their journey to...