The Theology of Augustine by Matthew Levering (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Theology of Augustine by Matthew Levering Michel Rene Barnes Matthew Levering The Theology of Augustine Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013 Pp. 204. $24.99. What is this book? The subtitle of the book is An Introductory Guide to His Most Important Works, which suggests that the scope of the work is limited to Augustine’s “most important” writings. Levering makes it clear immediately in the Introduction that he treats only seven of Augustine’s writings: On Christian Doctrine, Confessions, Answer to Faustus, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, City of God, On the Trinity, and On the Predestination of the Saints (here listed chronologically, not the order in which they are treated). However, Levering is also clear that he intends the book as an introduction to the theology of Augustine for “students and educated readers who desire an introduction to Augustine” (xiii). The harmony between these two stated intentions is that Levering aims to accomplish the latter through the means of the former, and in this he succeeds. Levering’s book does not in scope replace, for example, Eugene TeSelle’s Augustine the Theologian (2002), but it does provide an insightful synthetic account of Augustine’s theology that is well-grounded in texts and contexts, and which does not sacrifice the individual and the specific for the sake of the general and the grand—all in a lucid style and manageable length. TeSelle’s book represents the culmination of a “generation” in the scholarly understanding of Augustine’s theology; Levering’s book represents the first mature fruits of the present “generation” of scholarly understanding. Levering accomplishes what is extremely rare in a scholarly work—to be intellectually both “timely” and “mature.” The seven works Levering chooses to treat are meant to represent the major controversies that occupied Augustine’s thought: Manichaeism, Donatism, Pelagianism, Paganism, and—there is no single “-ism” for this—inadequate theologies of the incarnation and the Trinity. Some of the seven works function to illustrate the different genres of Augustine’s writings (e.g., Confessions, Answer to Faustus, Homilies, City of God). All of the works were chosen to help make clear what Levering understands to be the root method and logic of Augustine’s theology: an articulated understanding of Scripture. The sequence in which the works are [End Page 596] treated is largely in service to this thesis. In order to enable the reader to recognize and follow the method and logic of Augustine’s theology, the book begins where it must, On Christian Doctrine (followed by Answer to Faustus and the Homilies). Anyone who has read any of Levering’s books on Thomas will not be surprised by his take on Augustine, but anyone who has read other synthetic accounts of Augustine’s theology will find much that is surprising. I was once wisely told that the most commonly used portal into an academic monograph is a book’s index: What does this book have to say about what I’m already interested in? What does this book have to say about what books on Augustine always talk about? Plotinus? There is no entry for Plotinus in the index. Porphyry? There is no entry for Porphyry in the index. Is Levering ignorant of the role of Neoplatonism in Augustine’s thought (and Augustinian scholarship), or has he ignored or suppressed this important influence? Or was he, like many scholars, simply lazy or muddled about what goes into an Index? Levering is certainly not ignorant, lazy, or muddled about any topic in modern Augustine scholarship, as the footnotes demonstrate. Some indication of what a reader might expect on the significance of Plotinus and Porphyry for Augustine can be found under the index heading of “Platonism.” However, the fact is that Porphyry’s name appears sixteen times between pages 122 and 125 alone, yet not in the index. What Levering is up to in this book is hardly telegraphed in the table of contents but is wonderfully displayed—like the intervals between notes—by the omissions in the index. Levering is not trying to ignore important topics that Augustine scholars have cherished; he is trying to change what we think is important...