At the Latimer Conference we were treated to a fine paper from Peter Sanlon, a student of Catherine Pickstock's from Cambridge University, on 'The Preaching of Augustine'. It was very stimulating. Sanlon's claim is that Augustine's sermons have been scandalously overlooked in academic study of his work.
One point he made I would like to share here. Augustine as a preacher shaped his preaching according to his theology of humanity. Which is to say, he was aware of what it took to persuade a person, to ask a person to look into their heart in response to the word of God. He quoted Michael Hanby:
It is no accident that charity assumes a paramount importance in the Augustinian tradition and discretion in teh pagan, nor that delight in the one case and assent or choice in the other are the corresponding terms in their respective philosophies of action. The terms denote divergent ontological contexts within which selfhood, action and virtue are construed.
Would that modern day preachers thought so comprehensively about those they were addressing!
No comments:
Post a Comment