Authority, Augustine, and History in the Twenty-First Century
Prayer After Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition. By Jonathan D. Teubner. Pp. viii + 257. (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. isbn 978 0 19 876717 6. £65.The premiss of Jonathan Teubner’s study is that the ‘notio...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2020
|
| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 71, Issue: 2, Pages: 778-792 |
| Review of: | Prayer after Augustine (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018) (Bonner, Ali)
|
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint 354-430
/ Benedikt, Montecassino, Abt, Heiliger 480-547
/ Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus 480-524
/ Prayer
/ Authority
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KAD Church history 500-900; early Middle Ages |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Prayer After Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition. By Jonathan D. Teubner. Pp. viii + 257. (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. isbn 978 0 19 876717 6. £65.The premiss of Jonathan Teubner’s study is that the ‘notion of the “Augustinian tradition”, that is, the history of the reception of Augustine’s own thinking after him, needs to be rethought’ (p. 1). Teubner seeks to alter our sense of what tradition means and how it works by showing that Augustine’s influence can be located not only in verbal borrowings (what he calls ‘Augustinianism 1’) but also in general orientations and constellations of themes (what he calls ‘Augustinianism 2’). He notes that ‘this will require that we expand what we consider “reception” to be’ (p. 25). Borrowing such constellations of themes, for example, does not entail that an author shares specific doctrinal positions with Augustine; a text might show the influence of Augustine’s writings while also showing the influence of ‘Lerinian anti-Augustinians’. Using Augustine’s account of prayer as a case study, Teubner’s aim is to present ‘an historical study of the Augustinian tradition’ (p. 5). The success of his project depends, therefore, on whether his analysis can lay claim to being historical. To achieve his goal, in Part I Teubner offers an interpretation of Augustine’s ideas on prayer and in Part II an analysis of how this account of prayer was used by Boethius and Benedict of Nursia. He argues Boethius and Benedict were: ‘inheritors of Augustine’s theory and practice of prayer’ (p. 116), and what they say about prayer ‘will show hitherto unacknowledged lines of continuity in the Augustinian tradition’ (p. 13). If a reader is not convinced by Teubner’s interpretation of Augustine’s writings in Part I, they will struggle to see the validity of the analysis of the writings of Boethius and Benedict in Part II. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flaa076 |