Reviewed by: Answer to the Pelagians: The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, I/23 Augustine J. Curley Augustine: Answer to the Pelagians. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, I/23. Introduction, translation and notes by Roland J. Teske, S.J. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997. Pp. 632. $39.00. Augustine wrote these anti-Pelagian works (De peccatorum meritis et remissione et de baptismo parvulorum, De spiritu et littera, De natura et gratia, De perfectionae justitiae hominis, De gestis Pelagii, De gratia Christi et peccato originali, and De nature animae et ejus origine) between 412 and 420 or 421. They are for the most part concerned with the questions of grace and original sin, and related topics such as free will and the origin of the soul. Pelagius was a British monk who at one time heard quoted from Augustine’s Confessions, “Give what you command, and command what you will.” He took issue with this sentiment, and wrote the works on grace and free will to which—along with works of his followers—Augustine responds with the works in this volume. At first, Augustine wants to believe that Pelagius has been misunderstood, that he could not really hold the opinions that are ascribed to him, and so Augustine refrains from naming him in the early works. Eventually, though, Augustine [End Page 692] realizes that Pelagius does indeed hold what he is said to hold, and so he begins a more forthright attack on his teachings. The table of contents includes a fairly detailed breakdown of the parts of each work. Teske’s introductions do a fine job of situating the works historically and doctrinally, and offer a good summary of each work, analyzing the argument in each case, thus allowing for a more fruitful reading of the text. At the beginning of each work, the relevant section of the Retractationes is quoted. The translation is smooth, and Teske explains in his footnotes where he has disagreed with the reading given in the various Latin critical editions. There are two indexes, one to Scriptural citations, and the other by subject. One of the delights of reading early Christian literature is to watch dogma developing. The question of the redemption of unbaptized infants is a simple one for Augustine—they cannot be redeemed, as he points out more than once, lest Christ have died in vain. And Augustine’s emphasis on the necessity of the Cross contrasts with his early works, written during the early years of his conversion, in which the Incarnation seems to be necessary only for those not intellectually gifted enough and for whom teaching is insufficient. In these works we see a truly great mind grappling with the issues of the day, trying to remain faithful to Scripture and tradition, but at the same time using reason and judgement to come to a more complete understanding of an issue. Whenever we read Augustine, we have to read him in the context of his times and the context of the discussion that brought the text into being. Almost all of Augustine’s writings are occasional pieces, and he himself is constantly pointing out to those who would quote him in their own favor that they have to consider the context of his remarks. The final work, by one Vincent Victor, is not strictly speaking anti-Pelagian, although traditionally classified among the anti-Pelagian works. It concerns the question of the origin of the soul and the transmission of sin. It is a question Augustine never settles, and he thinks it presumptuous of Vincent Victor—who could not see how the learned Augustine, a bishop of the Church, could profess ignorance on this point—to so boldly state that he knows the answer. In response to Victor’s work attacking him, Augustine does not merely appeal to Scripture and tradition, but asks Victor to perform an experiment to help answer the question. Many of Augustine’s themes are present in these works, and appear in the form that they took at that time. In The Grace and Christ and Original Sin, Augustine speaks of the good of marriage...