Visioning Augustine by John C. Cavadini

Abstract

Reviewed by: Visioning Augustine by John C. Cavadini Paul Allen Visioning Augustine by John C. Cavadini (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2019), xxvi + 322 pp. This volume of twelve essays by a leading American Catholic theologian brings together a number of analyses of key Augustinian themes from research conducted during the past thirty years. These chapters have already appeared in learned journals before their re-edition here. This collection of essays is occasioned by requests from the author’s colleagues and students, as he states in the preface. The publication of these articles in a single volume constitutes an important milestone in the evolution of contemporary Augustinian studies. The strength of Cavadini’s approach is his mingling of insights from textual, historical interpretation astride his adoption of a systematic theological perspective. There is also the slightly contrarian (and therefore welcome) impulse to take seriously the views that Augustine actually held, as opposed to the views that are still inaccurately ascribed to him. The overall impression of this multivalent portrait of Augustine is refreshing and somewhat bracing as well. Nevertheless, Cavadini steers clear of claims that move too far beyond the texts he is working carefully to unveil. As such, his approach is a sober corrective to an overly hermeneutical approach that would over-emphasize his philosophical novelty (e.g.: an existentialist avant le lettre) at the expense of his theological specificity. This collection is also a properly academic work, not a general treatment. As such, this book corrects some recent popularizations of Augustine that glossed over the more demanding claims Augustine makes on his readers. As standalone essays, the book’s chapters deal with key themes that preoccupied Augustine, namely the Trinity, sex and the body, the Eucharist, creation, salvation, and the relationship between philosophy and theology. In line with the guild of historical theology, Cavadini shows an interest in the structure of Augustine’s arguments. Such a focus yields insights, such as the comparison between De Trinitate and De civitate Dei. Usually cited for their vast differences in form and argument, Cavadini shows that these two major works actually converge on the nature and value of an apologetic approach while neither ever cedes the category of the revelatory to that of the neo-Platonic as Augustine’s intellectual plumbline. [End Page 1399] Some surprises emerge nonetheless, such as the idea that mercy is a hermeneutical key for Augustine. This is mentioned in the foreword to the book by Mark Therrien, a former student of Cavadini’s, and the author delivers on this claim at several junctures. Some of the best surprises are the asides and pointers to richer insights that appear in the footnotes. Somewhat missing is an attention to Augustine’s extensive biblical commentaries, although of course that is determined by the focus on the great contested themes in the magna opera: De civitate Dei, Confessiones, and De Trinitate. However, there is some analysis of Augustine’s sermons in chapter 5, an effort to probe to what extent Augustine simplifies his portrait of God there, in comparison with his treatment of God in De Triniate. The answer, it turns out, is that he does not simplify: both works share the structure of faith seeking understanding. One feature of Cavadini’s articles is the subtle way he engages in dialectical reasoning when it comes to Augustine’s critics. Yet, he foregoes explicitly dialectical engagements in favor of a straightforward engagement with the primary texts. The exceptions to this tendency are few but very telling. One is Cavadini’s adroit acknowledgement of Rowan Williams’s view of the imago Dei as the proper analogy for the Trinitarian relations in God. For Cavadini, the ecclesial location of a converted, faithful person is a corrective to Williams’s “over-spiritualized” interpretation of self-transcendence. According to Williams, the assent to true justice and charity is sufficient to identify the faith of the individuals who will make up the totus Christus in the fulfillment of time. But, in Cavadini’s way of construing it, “true worship” suggests a visible, ecclesial locus for each Christian. Herein lies the anthropological analogate for the Trinitarian life of God. Another dialectical moment comes with a brief mention of...