The Go-Between: Augustine on Deacons by Bart J. Koet

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Go-Between: Augustine on Deacons by Bart J. Koet Stanisław Adamiak The Go-Between: Augustine on Deacons Bart J. Koet Leiden and Boston: E.J. Brill, 2019. Pp. 169. ISBN 978-90-04-36077-8 Writing in the preface, Bart J. Koet states that his book caters to "different audiences: Augustine enthusiasts on the one hand, and people interested in leadership in society, and especially in the (Early) Church on the other." The research rationale behind his approach is sound. If we want to find information about aspects of the life of the church in the fourth and fifth centuries, digging into the vast corpus of Augustine's writings is one of the most promising strategies. The richness of this corpus is such that it certainly justifies approaching it from a specific angle, even as narrow as one specific grade of the church office. Unfortunately, in Koet's case, the result seems rather negative. He asked the right questions, but the sources did not answer them. The role of the deacons was never an object of serious reflection for Augustine, probably because he took it for granted. The fact that he was almost certainly never a deacon himself may have played a role in his treatment of the matter (or lack thereof). Koet's original research is presented in chapters five, six and seven of the book. These chapters analyze various aspects of the deacons in Augustine's writings. The first one is their role as messengers and letter-bearers. Koet is right in stressing the importance played not only by the letters but also by the messengers, who could convey content that could not be entrusted to paper. It is also true that deacons acted as letter-bearers; the evidence for this is abundant both in Augustine's letters and other material. However, there are two problems with giving such prominence to this function of the deacons. First, there is the nature of the evidence. Since a significant part of it consists of letters, their bearers naturally come to light. Yet, the letters themselves are a very particular kind of source: they only occasionally tell us about the life of the church in the city of their writer. The letters of Gregory the Great provide us with a very fine example of this. They tell us a significant amount about various churches in Italy and beyond, but hardly anything about Rome. The pope did not have to resort to writing when governing the church in his city. Similarly, the letters of Augustine tend to deal with extraordinary situations outside Hippo. Fortunately for us, he travelled extensively and sometimes had to write to his clerics [End Page 545] to deal with situations that happened in Hippo during his absence. The deacons often were used to bearing the bishop's letters. However, this could not be their principal function. It would be absurd to ordain someone to function mainly as a postman. If bearing letters appears as the most visible role of the deacons in the Augustinian corpus, this shows, sadly, that the corpus does not provide the necessary information about what their role entailed in the life of the church. There is also a second objection to Koet's reasoning. Although the deacons were often the bearers of Augustine's letters, so too were the acolytes, sub-deacons, presbyters, even a bishop, and of course also the laymen, as Koet rightly points out (82–83). If so, is this letter-bearing role so characteristic of the deacons? In the sixth chapter, "The Deacon as Evangelist and Preacher," Koet tries to define the deacons' liturgical role. Unsurprisingly, he is forced to state that "Augustine took the liturgical role of the deacon for granted, as we rarely hear anything about it" (98). This observation is true, and this causes the rest of the chapter to be disappointing. Koet provides us with what little evidence he was able to find. He then goes on to describe the role of the deacons in the instruction of the catechumens during the process of Christian initiation. The De catechizandis rudibus, written by Augustine at the request of the deacon Deogratias...