The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction

Commentary on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount

Retractions: Book I: Chapter 19

Sermons:

53. On the Beatitudes

54. How to 'Let Your Light Shine Before Men'

55. On Taming the Tongue

56. On the Lord's Prayer

60. On Almsgiving

61. On Almsgiving

72. On Almsgiving

94. The Slothful Servant

109. The Adversary

346. On Life's Pilgrimage

4 (Denis). Christ: Lamb and Lion*

5 (Denis). Life From Death*

6 (Denis). The Holy Eucharist*

7 (Denis). Sonship or Servitude*

8 (Denis). On Baptism*

13 (Denis). Christ: The Glory of Martyrs*

11 (Morin). On the Beatitudes**

Index.

* The sermons so marked and the numbers assigned them are taken from a collection published by Michael Denis in 1792.

** Taken from Dom Germain Morin's "Miscellanea Agostiniana".

Although the title work of this book is Augustine's close commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the book also includes the chapter concerning the commentary taken from Augustine's "Retractions", as well as seventeen of Augustine's sermons: ten of which took their themes from the Sermon on the Mount, and seven others that were included because they had not (at the time of writing) ever been translated into English.

Scriptural commentary is not generally regarded as Augustine's greatest strength as a theologian; held closely to the text and the order of presentation in the text, he could not address the deep questions which the text as a whole raised, but at which individual passages in their immediate context only hinted, and it was in addressing the deep questions that Augustine excelled.

Apart from their questions concerning their excellence, Augustine's method of commentary may seem quite surprising to those familiar with the more modern historical approach. Augustine's focus is on symbol-systems. Here, for example, is Augustine's commentary on the first part of Matthew 6:6:

"'But,' says He, 'when you pray, go into your bedrooms.' Now, what are these bedrooms but the very hearts that are signified also in the Psalm wherein it is said: 'The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for in your bedrooms.' He then continues: 'And closing the doors, pray in secret to you Father.' Our entering the rooms is not enough if the door be left open to the importunate, for external things rush brazenly in through this door, and lay hold on our innermost affections ... Therefore, the door must be closed;"

By way of contrast, Daniel J. Harrington, in the modern form, writing on the same passage from "Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Matthew", says:

"The Greek word tameion can refer to a 'storage room' or 'pantry', the innermost room in the house. In either case the idea is the room least likely to attract public notice. Perhaps such a room had no windows ... Matthew 6:1-18 functions as part of the attack against Jewish opponents of the Matthean community."

Of course, the two forms of commentary are not mutually exclusive - a reader may hold both, either, or neither to be good readings. Some of course, may hold to the Harrington's form exclusively, and reject Augustine's symbol systems as imaginary. Others may hold to the Augustine's form exclusively and reject Harrington's Matthean community as imaginary.

With regard to the sermons in the collection, Augustine himself always regarded his sermons as unsatisfactory, but he seems to be alone in that assessment. His sermons were admired and his style imitated for many centuries afterwards, a fact that has greatly complicated trying to determine which sermons Augustine wrote, and which were imitations of his style.

The editiorial material in the book includes the introduction, which provides a historical view of the works, both prior as regarding their composition, and later as to their reception and impact. Additionally, footnotes give exact references for Augustine's scriptural citations, translation issues, and references to other works of Augustine's or of others. Finally, the work has an index, which is, however, only fair.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction

Commentary on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount

Retractions: Book I: Chapter 19

Sermons:

53. On the Beatitudes

54. How to 'Let Your Light Shine Before Men'

55. On Taming the Tongue

56. On the Lord's Prayer

60. On Almsgiving

61. On Almsgiving

72. On Almsgiving

94. The Slothful Servant

109. The Adversary

346. On Life's Pilgrimage

4 (Denis). Christ: Lamb and Lion*

5 (Denis). Life From Death*

6 (Denis). The Holy Eucharist*

7 (Denis). Sonship or Servitude*

8 (Denis). On Baptism*

13 (Denis). Christ: The Glory of Martyrs*

11 (Morin). On the Beatitudes**

Index.

* The sermons so marked and the numbers assigned them are taken from a collection published by Michael Denis in 1792.

** Taken from Dom Germain Morin's "Miscellanea Agostiniana".

Although the title work of this book is Augustine's close commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the book also includes the chapter concerning the commentary taken from Augustine's "Retractions", as well as seventeen of Augustine's sermons: ten of which took their themes from the Sermon on the Mount, and seven others that were included because they had not (at the time of writing) ever been translated into English.

Scriptural commentary is not generally regarded as Augustine's greatest strength as a theologian; held closely to the text and the order of presentation in the text, he could not address the deep questions which the text as a whole raised, but at which individual passages in their immediate context only hinted, and it was in addressing the deep questions that Augustine excelled.

Apart from their questions concerning their excellence, Augustine's method of commentary may seem quite surprising to those familiar with the more modern historical approach. Augustine's focus is on symbol-systems. Here, for example, is Augustine's commentary on the first part of Matthew 6:6:

"'But,' says He, 'when you pray, go into your bedrooms.' Now, what are these bedrooms but the very hearts that are signified also in the Psalm wherein it is said: 'The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for in your bedrooms.' He then continues: 'And closing the doors, pray in secret to you Father.' Our entering the rooms is not enough if the door be left open to the importunate, for external things rush brazenly in through this door, and lay hold on our innermost affections ... Therefore, the door must be closed;"

By way of contrast, Daniel J. Harrington, in the modern form, writing on the same passage from "Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Matthew", says:

"The Greek word tameion can refer to a 'storage room' or 'pantry', the innermost room in the house. In either case the idea is the room least likely to attract public notice. Perhaps such a room had no windows ... Matthew 6:1-18 functions as part of the attack against Jewish opponents of the Matthean community."

Of course, the two forms of commentary are not mutually exclusive - a reader may hold both, either, or neither to be good readings. Some of course, may hold to the Harrington's form exclusively, and reject Augustine's symbol systems as imaginary. Others may hold to the Augustine's form exclusively and reject Harrington's Matthean community as imaginary.

With regard to the sermons in the collection, Augustine himself always regarded his sermons as unsatisfactory, but he seems to have been alone in that assessment. His sermons were admired and his style imitated for many centuries afterwards, a fact that has greatly complicated trying to determine which sermons Augustine wrote, and which were imitations of his style.

The editiorial material in the book includes the introduction, which provides a historical view of the works, both prior as regarding their composition, and later as to their reception and impact. Additionally, footnotes give exact references for Augustine's scriptural citations, translation issues, and references to other works of Augustine's or of others. Finally, the work has an index, which is, however, only fair.

This is a collection of four short works by Augustine. The translations are by John A. Mourant and William J. Collinge, except where noted. The preface and introductions are by William J. Collinge.

The table of contents is as follows:

Preface

Select Bibliography

Introduction to "On Nature and Grace"

Entry from "The Retractions" on "On Nature and Grace"

"On Nature and Grace"

Introduction to "On the Proceedings of Pelagius"

Entry from "The Retractions" on "On the Proceedings of Pelagius"

"On the Proceedings of Pelagius"

Introduction to "On the Predestination of the Saints" and "On the Gift of Perseverance"

Letters of Prosper and Hilary (translated by Wilfrid Parsons)

"On the Predestination of the Saints"

"On the Gift of Perseverance"

General Index

Index of Holy Scripture

The first work in this collection, "On Nature and Grace", was written in response to a book by Pelagius called "De Natura". It is a disputatious work, in which Augustine alternates between quotes from the book that he took issue with, and his own rebuttals to those quotes. The issues revolved around original sin, the Fall, and the meaning of grace. Pelagius advanced a position that grace was identical with human nature, which was had in the same degree by all men, and that Adam's sin had not fundamentally changed man's ability to live a sinless life through his own free will. Augustine's position was that the Fall had changed man, and that all men thereafter suffered a loss of grace, which left them unable to sin without a restoration of grace from God. I did not find this Augustine's best work on the subject. Augustine writes best when the structure of his writing is his own; when constrained, as he is here, by the structure of someone else's writing, he tends to be repetitive and cramped.

The second work, "On the Proceedings of Pelagius", was written in the wake of the synod of Diaspolis, which questioned Pelagius on questions concerning his orthodoxy and ruled that his beliefs did not contradict the faith of the Church. This decision vastly annoyed Augustine, who felt that the synod had not pressed Pelagius hard enough and had let him get away with giving half-answers to the questions it had posed him. In this work, Augustine undertook the politically delicate task of attacking the synod's ruling without attacking the synod's members. To this end, Augustine alternately explained the heresies behind Pelagius' half-answers and gave the synod excuses for having accepted them. The work's primary interest is in the careful delineation of exactly what about the Pelagian position was heretical. It is of less interest as a source for Augustine's own theology, which he explained better in his other works (I would recommend "Admonition and Grace" particularly).

The third and fourth works "On the Predestination of the Saints" and "On the Gift of Perseverance", are closely related. They were written not against Pelagius himself, nor any of his followers, but against a separate group that had objected to the strong positions that Augustine had adopted in the course of the Pelagian controversy. This group has since come to be known by the misleading label of the "semi-Pelagians". The particular point of disagreement was Augustine's views on predestination, which left grace as an entirely gratuitous gift of God, with no basis in human action. His opponents instead held that man's free will was the starting point for God's grace and that men could thereby choose to be saved of their own will. Augustine denied this on the basis of scripture, and addressed some practical objections they raised to the doctrine (in particular how asceticism and preaching could be carried on consistently with it). I found the works useful in understanding the basis for Augustine's theology, but I would not recommend that they be read in isolation. As with so many of Augustine's disputatious writings, they are focused on the points at hand and do not address the more subtle aspects of Augustine's theology and can lead to an over-simplified impression of it.

Insofar as the editorial materials are concerned, the introductions and summaries are quite useful, as are the plentiful notes.

This book contains a pair of unfinished works by Augustine on the Book of Genesis. The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction (Roland J. Teske)

Entries from "The Retractions" on the two works

"Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees"

"On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book"

General Index

Index of Holy Scripture

Augustine regarded the interpretation of Genesis as important to Christian belief, but also found it difficult. These works were his two first attempts at writing interpretations of it, but he thought them only partly successful and did not see fit to complete them. Neither work is to be confused with Augustine's "The Literal Meaning of Genesis", which is a later and much longer work on the same subject that he successfully completed (that work is available in two volumes from Paulist Press).

Augustine's special interest in Genesis had two roots: apologetic and theological. His apologetic interest was a response to frequent attacks on Genesis by non-Christians and what he felt were inept defenses of it by uneducated Christians. His theological interest sprang from the critical importance of the Fall to Augustine's theology.

The first work, "Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees", was primarily apologetic. It was written not long after Augustine left the Manichees to return to the Church, and was intended as a rebuttal to the Manichee attacks on Genesis. In this context, Augustine discussed Creation, Eden, and the Fall, but the work ended there - Augustine felt that he had not yet learned enough to complete the task he had undertaken successfully. The section on Creation was largely literal - reading it as a record of events that had occurred, but the section on Eden and the Fall was largely allegorical, reading it for the spiritual truth within the literal account. The chief interest I found in the work was that the description of the Eden and the Fall shows the strong influence on Augustine of classical virtue ethics, but none of the theology of Original Sin that is of such importance in his later writings.

The second work "On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book", was aporetic in character: in it, Augustine deepens the reader's understanding of the text by raising questions about it rather than by giving answers. This work was written not long after the previous one, and again Augustine found himself ultimately unequal to the task he had set. This work is even shorter than the previous one, and gets less far into Genesis, ending after the Creation days. I found the work pleasant to read; the aporetic style provides a sense of intimacy - that the author is sharing not only his answers with the reader, but also his questions, even if he doesn't have an answer to give.

The supporting material in the book is quite good - the only fault I would find is that the introduction generally refers to works by the abbreviations of their Latin names, which made me break from reading the text to his table of abbreviations (about 30 in all) far too often, a fault compounded by the fact that English translations for the titles in that table were not provided. Still, this is a pretty minor quibble.

As a final note, thanks are due to Teske and CUA Press for providing the first translation of these works into English.

The table of contents of this collection is as follows:

The Teacher (Introduction by Russell)

The Free Choice of the Will (Introduction by Russell)

Retractions, Book 1, Chapter 9, concerning "The Free Choice of the Will")

Grace and Free Will (Introduction by Russell)

General Index (Russell)

Index of Holy Scripture (Russell)

All of the works are translated by Robert P. Russell, who also wrote a short introduction to each, provided footnotes, and added the two indices. The introductions mostly serve to indicate when and for what purpose the work was written, generally based on Augustine's own comments in his "Retractions", and also the historical significance of the work. Augustine seldom needs an interpreter, and interpretive commentary is therefore brief. The abundant footnotes concern translation issues, scripture references, other references (both to other authors' and Augustine's own works), and occasionally points of interpretation.

The first work in the collection "The Teacher", which was written in the form of a dialogue between Augustine and his son Adeodatus, whose early death may have led to the dialogue's composition. The dialogue does have historical substance behind it, as it does reflect conversations that Augustine and his son actually had.

The subject of "The Teacher" is language, or more properly, signs. The structure of the argument begins with a discussion of words as signs, then moves to consider that words themselves can be the objects of signs, and that signs do not have to be words. Initially, the argument is that the purpose of signs is to teach, but by the end, the argument has moved to stress the active role of the listener in learning and (briefly) of God as the ultimate source of all knowledge. In character, the work is much more philosophical than scriptural.

The second work in the collection is "The Free Choice of the Will", which like "The Teacher" was written in the form of a dialogue. Also like "The Teacher" it is much more philosophical than scriptural in character. The purpose of the work is to defend man's free will with regard to good and evil against the Manichaean view of man as a passive battlefield for the cosmic war between good and evil. The work got him into some trouble as it was later used as a support by Pelagius in his argument for the sufficiency of free will against the necessity of grace. Russell takes pains to document this by footnoting exactly what passages Pelagius cited. Augustine himself devoted space to this subject in his "Retractions" (that chapter is included in this collection) defending that he was not denying grace in this work and that his general position on grace and free will was coherent.

The third work in the collection is "Grace and Free Will", which was written against Pelagius. It argues for the necessity of grace and denies the sufficiency of free will. The form of the work is heavily scriptural. Augustine seeks to demonstrate that the Pelagian position is incompatible with scripture, while at the same time taking pains to avoid erring in the opposite direction - that because grace is necessary, free will does not exist. While Augustine does present a positive account as to how grace and free will can be reconciled, I did not think he presented it nearly as clearly as he did in "Admonition and Grace" (as found in the collection "Fathers of the Church: St. Augustine : Christian Instruction, Admonition and Grace, The Christian Combat, Faith, Hope, and Charity"), a work that I admire enormously.

---

The collection as a whole is interesting in part because it showcases the variety of styles Augustine used in writing: dialogue vs. straight prose and philosophical vs. scriptural, and also because it shows Augustine as a defender of a complex position against oversimplifications in two different directions. Before I read Augustine, I admit that my eyes had glazed over at the thought of reading anything to do with "Manichaeanism" or "Pelagianism" - after all, why should I care about arguments against long-extinct sects? Well, the reason is that a good heresy never dies, it just changes its name and moves to a new address. Far from being a dusty exercise, I found Augustine's writings on these controversies to be very much of current interest and well worth anyone's time.

Trinitarian theology is a difficult subject. Scriptural references are few and their meaning is not obvious - indeed, they can easily be read as contradictory. In fact, there is no explicit description of the Trinity in the scriptures at all - the orthodox view of the Trinity (three persons in one God) is an inferential conclusion from scripture that took generations to piece together. Having arrived at that conclusion, the next problem was to understand exactly what it meant - a problem difficult enough that many argued that it was simply a mystery the answer to which we might know in the next life but not this.

This famously difficult problem is the subject of Augustine's "The Trinity". In addressing it, he has two motives. His first motive is to combat non-Trinitarian heresy by showing the scriptural support for the concept and by showing that it is not inherently contradictory. His second motive is to attempt to understand the Trinity more deeply, to satisfy the scriptural directive to "seek His face evermore".

"The Trinity" is a long book, the second longest work in the Augustinian corpus, and one that he worked on, intermittently, for sixteen years. He might not have finished it had not the unauthorized publication of the first twelve "books", led him to write the final three in order to avoid having the work available only in an incomplete form.

"The Trinity" begins with a consideration of the Scriptural references to the Trinity, with the aim of reconciling them and explaining them through the supposition of three equal persons in one God. Augustine is at particular pains to maintain the equality of the persons: that the Son is equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit equal to both. Of particular concern to Augustine are the references to the Son and Holy Spirit being sent, with the implication that the Father who sends must be superior to them. This presentation takes up the first eight books.

From there Augustine aims to develop some deeper understanding of the nature of the Trinity. His approach is to use the fact that the Man was created in the image of God. Given this, Augustine reasons, there should be some image of the Trinity in man. This leads to the consideration of a succession of trinities - the lover, beloved, and love; memory, understanding, and will; the objects of sense, the will to attend to them, and the sense impressions of them; etc. This presentation, which take up the next four books, is interesting, but often perplexing. It is easy for the reader to see that the trinities he names are not analogues of the divine Trinity, and it can be perplexing to attempt to understand how Augustine intends to bring this discussion of the trinities in man together.

It is in the last few books, written after the premature publication of the earlier books, that Augustine works to reverse the centrifugal tendencies of his discussion of the trinities in man and unify them into a whole. The trinities in man are held up not as exact analogues to that in God, but as a ladder, starting with the most carnal and rising towards the most spiritual; we do not find a single Trinity like that of God within ourselves, but we do find a series of them that we can ascend, and in ascending it we approach the divine Trinity and a deeper understanding of God.

This is a collection of nine short works by Augustine. The table of contents is presented below:

"The Good of Marriage", introduced and translated by Charles T. Wilcox

"Adulterous Marriages", introduced and translated by Charles T. Huegelmeyer

"Holy Virginity", introduced and translated by John McQuade

"Faith and Works", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"The Creed", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"Faith and the Creed", introduced and translated by Robert P. Russell

"The Care to be Taken for the Dead", introduced and translated by John A. Lacy

"In Answer to the Jews", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"The Divination of Demons", introduced and translated by Ruth Wentworth Brown

"The Good of Marriage" was one of Augustine's most influential works. He wrote it to define the purpose of marriage and to defend it as a good - not as good as holy virginity but a good nevertheless. To this end, he defined the purpose of marriage (what goods it brings to those in the married state), and from this what the duties of marriage must therefore be. It is a work at once strange and familiar. It is strange in the pains it takes to defend the idea that marriage is not actually sinful (a charge that few would even think to make today). It is familiar in that many of the most criticized aspects of the Catholic view of marriage, such as the denial of divorce and the sinfulness of non-procreative sex, are presented and defended in this work. It is a powerful presentation of these embattled points of doctrine and well worth reading.

"Adulterous Marriages" is a treatment of a variety of possible issues and complications surrounding adultery, particularly with regard to separation and remarriage. It was built on the same theological foundations as "The Good of Marriage", but was aimed less at expounding doctrine than answering possible objections to it and clarifying the finer points. It almost serves as a set of appendices to that prior and more foundational work.

"Holy Virginity" is a work that necessarily followed Augustine's works on marriage. Having defended the goodness of marriage, a defense of the superior goodness of virginity was required. The argument is rhetorical in form and scriptural in content. The main purpose is completed fairly quickly - Augustine draws on the lives of Mary, Jesus, the Apostles, and the teachings of Paul to establish that holy virginity is a good thing. Surprisingly, he then devotes considerable space to warning those practicing virginity not to be over-proud of their state and its superiority over marriage and to caution those practicing virginity to humility.

"Faith and Works" concerns what the title suggests it concerns. The launching point, however, is the narrower question of whether pagan converts should be educated in the requirements of a Christian life before or after baptism. This question leads Augustine into the question of how important the Christian life is to salvation: do works matter? Augustine's answer and the scripture used in addressing this point is the Catholic position. It relies on Peter, John, James, and Jude as counterweights to the "faith alone" reading of Paul, and in fascinating in showing how the question did not arise suddenly in the sixteenth century but in fact had very old roots (Augustine in fact regards it as old even in his own time, and as having been settled in the time of the Apostles).

"The Creed" is a short work, originally given as a sermon, explaining the meaning of the Creed to a lay audience. Augustine went slowly through the Creed, explaining each line's meaning in clear terms, and avoiding theological heavy lifting.

"Faith and the Creed" is a slightly longer work than its predecessor, and was aimed at a more sophisticated audience. It also works slowly through the Creed, but its main occupation is using it as a means of differentiating Catholic from Manichaean belief, naturally to the credit of the former.

"The Care to be Taken for the Dead" is a sensitive work for those dealing with the problem of the proper care for the dead and what - if any - consequences it has for the life to come. Augustine finds that the reason for respectful care for the dead lies not out of concern for the next life (where it has no effect), but out of concern for those still alive, that care of the dead is an opportunity for a final show of respect for the deceased. In doing so, Augustine gives comfort to those who cannot care for loved ones who have died, without making it seem as though those who can are foolish in doing so.

"In Answer to the Jews" aims to defend the Christian interpretations of messianic prophecy in the Old Testament against Jewish objections. There was a substantial Jewish population in North Africa where Augustine was bishop, and he sought to fortify local Christians with a defense of Christian belief about the Old Testament.

"The Divination of Demons" is a short piece intended to explain a question that seldom troubles Christians today: how could demons prophecy the future and if they could didn't it make them worthy of worship? Without claiming to have every heard a demon prophecy anything, Augustine argues that they could do so by merely natural means, and that this would not even necessarily make them better than men, much less worthy of worship.

The contents of this collection are as follows:

Preface - by Roy J. Deferrari

The Christian Life (not by Augustine - probably by the Pelagian Fastidius), introduction and translation by Mary Sarah Muldowney

Lying - introduction and translation by Mary Sarah Muldowney

Against Lying - introduction and translation by Harold B. Jaffee

Continence - introduction and translation by Mary Francis McDonald

Patience - introduction and translation by Luanne Meagher

The Excellence of Widowhood - introduction and translation by M. Clement Eagan

The Work of Monks - introduction and translation by Mary Francis McDonald

The Usefulness of Fasting - introduction and translation by Mary Sarah Muldowney

The Eight Questions of Dulcitius - introduction and translation by Mary Deferrari

-

"The Christian Life", the opening work in this collection is a curiosity because it is not by Augustine. At one time, the work was thought to have been Augustinian because of similarities in style.

"On Lying" is an ethical work addressing the question as to whether it was ever justifiable to lie. Augustine here argues strongly against the position, taking various scenarios which ostensibly would justify lying and for each suggesting alternative courses of action that would not require it. It is a more thoughtful than fully developed work, and Augustine was ambivalent about it afterwards. Hypothetical case arguments and scriptural justifications are considered and rejected. In general, Augustine argues strongly in favor of a heroic stand against evil and against feigned cooperation.

"Against Lying" was written in response the question as to whether it was a good idea to lie so as to be able to infiltrate and expose Priscillianists. The Priscillianists were a heretical group who approved of lying to conceal their identities. While feigning belief in the Church, they actually worked to subvert it. Augustine, in his response takes the same strong anti-lying position as he did in "On Lying", but this essay is much more focused. Augustine begins by arguing that following the Priscillianists in lying in order to catch them was really being perverted by them. He then moves on to attack the idea that lying is ever justified by Scripture, and concludes by considering a couple of the hypothetical cases that could be used to justify lying.

"Continence" was written, surprising as it may seem to a modern audience, not to defend continence but to defend the goodness of creation in general and marriage in particular. The opposing position was Manichaean dualism, which taught that everything good was in the soul and everything bad was in the body. As he so often had to do, Augustine had to attack one extreme while at the same time not seeming to endorse the other. The work is primarily scriptural in character.

"Patience" was likely originally written as a sermon. The point of the address is whether patience is a good that can be the product of a merely human will or whether it is a gift of God. If the former, then man is capable of good of his own will, a theologically inadmissible position. If the latter, then the patience of evil men (such as robbers waiting for a victim) would seem to be divinely sponsored. Augustine answers by splitting patience according to its object - that true patience is patience aligned with charity, and that false patience is not.

"The Excellence of Widowhood" is a long letter written to a widow asking Augustine's advice. In content it is fairly thin, but it was interesting to note that in it Augustine explicitly names a simple principal underlying much of his writing - precept first, then exhortation. The precept here (that widowhood is an honorable state) is a small one, and is treated at much more length than their worth would seem to warrant.

"The Work of Monks" was written pertaining to certain monks at a monastery who refused to perform manual labor, citing the scripture "Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them." This doesn't seem a very deep subject, but Augustine, as he so often does, creates interest from the most unpromising material. A particular point worth noting is Augustine's defense of the dignity inherent in all honest work and its worthiness of Christians. This attitude towards work represented a sharp break with classical ethics, which sought dignity in either philosophy, politics, art, or war. When Plato had described manual labor as degrading, he expressed the commonplace view of the slavery-based classical civilization.

"The Usefulness of Fasting" was originally a sermon. Its purpose is to define the purpose of fasting, that it was a disciplining of the body, not a rejection of the body (a distinction important with regard to Manichaean dualism. Fasting is said to be bring the body to unity and harmony with the soul, which is compared metaphorically with bringing all men to unity and harmony within the Church.

"Eight Questions of Dulcitius" was a cut-and-paste job in which Augustine collected passages from other works of his and organized them as a response to the questions referred to in the title. The questions themselves concern the fate of the unbaptized, another concerns the reason for prayers for the dead, and still others concern the significance of selected biblical passages.

This book offers a path into the riches of Augustine's ethics and politics. Burt situates Augustine's views in the larger context of Augustine's vision of the Triune God's work in history of creating a society of friends. A very helpful and enjoyable work.

St. Augustine is a fascinating architectural anamoly in the United States. I have become consumed with discovering all there is to know about the unique architecture, people and culture of this quaint city. Only last weekend, we spent 5 days, walking and touring much of the historic district, with this book in hand, I might add. If European and American history and architecture are a passion of yours, St. Augustine is the closest, most unique place to find it all. This book is a great place to begin.