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1 - Augustine as Preacher and His Brethren in the Church

from Part I - Augustine’s Pastoral Task of Preaching Sermons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2025

By
Andrew Hofer
Edited by
Andrew Hofer, OP
Andrew Hofer, OP
Affiliation:
Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC
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Summary

While studies frequently concern preachers and their audiences, this chapter avoids the word “audience” and relies more upon the phrase that Augustine uses for the people who stand before him when he preaches: fratres mei (my brethren). The chapter first considers Augustine as preacher with a critical use of Possidius’s Life of Augustine. One of Augustine’s most devoted episcopal friends, Possidius knew him for nearly 40 years and heard him preach many times. The chapter then considers how Augustine understood the people before him. It treats how he spoke to them and how he allows us to glimpse something of who they are and how they think, with a focus on the descriptions of his people in ep. 29. Attending to this biography and letter can help us have a greater appreciation for the study of Augustine as a preacher and those with him when we focus on the extant sermon collection.

Keywords

AugustinepreacherpreachingbrethrenPossidiusLife of AugustineAmbroseAlypiuschurchintercommunicationLaetitiaep. 29

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Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons , pp. 25 - 43
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Boodts, Shari, and Dupont, Anthony. 2018. “Augustine of Hippo.” In Preaching in the Patristic Era: Sermons, Preachers, and Audiences in the Latin West, vol. 6 of A New History of the Sermon, edited by Dupont, Anthony, Boodts, Shari, Partoens, Gert, and Leemans, Johan, 177–197. Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chabi, Kolawole. 2018. “Saint Augustine as a Reforming Voice for the Catholic Church in Roman Africa: The Testimony of His Letter 29 to Alypius.” Augustinianum 58, no. 2: 469–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gassman, Mattias. 2022. “A Late Antique Preacher in Action: Augustine, Ep. 29.” Journal of Late Antiquity 15, no. 1: 130–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, Hildegund. 2012. “Preacher: Augustine and His Congregation.” In A Companion to Augustine, edited by Vessey, Mark, 297–309. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Possidius. 1988. The Life of Saint Augustine. Introduction and notes by Pellegrino, Michele. Translation of introduction and notes by Fellowes, Audrey. Translation of biography and notes by O’Connell, Matthew. The Augustinian Series, vol. 1. Villanova, PA: Augustinian Press.Google Scholar

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