“Always Sweet”: Augustine the Preacher

It has been estimated that Augustine of Hippo Regius (354-430) preached somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 sermons, many of which were recorded by notarii, that is stenographers, and some of which he dictated for distribution. In his sermons Augustine was well aware that a preacher must not only teach (docere) but also delight (delectare) [David Dunn-Wilson, A Mirror for the Church: Preaching in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids/Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 2005), 93]. Augustine was well fitted for such a role because of his literary training. He appealed to intellectuals because of his vast knowledge of Roman history and classical literature. But it is noteworthy that he also had time for those who were not learned. He used words that they could understand and asked them sometimes in the middle of the sermon if he had “expounded the text too hastily” (Dunn-Wilson, A Mirror for the Church, 93).

He was often transparent in his preaching, apologizing when he felt he had not done justice to a text and promising to return to it later. And unlike classical speakers who rarely regarded brevity as a virtue, Augustine never forgot that the congregation had to stand during the preaching and so he would apologize if his sermon was too long (Dunn-Wilson, A Mirror for the Church, 93-94).

He was a master of similes:

  • “Hope” is like an egg;
  • The Scriptures are likened to “the hem of Christ’s garment”;
  • Human life is like a leaky ship;
  • And human beings are “frailer than glass.”

He drew his imagery from diverse sources: the law-court, the realm of the gladiator, farms, doctor’s surgeries, orchards, athletic contests (Dunn-Wilson, A Mirror for the Church, 94).

At the heart of his preaching, though, was the exegesis of Scripture, a task that he loved, for “the words of the Lord,” he said, “are always sweet” [Hom. 75.1, on 1 John 5:2 (cited Dunn-Wilson, A Mirror for the Church, 94)]. He knew much of the Scripture by heart, and quoted it from memory when he was preaching, which he usually did extempore. On his love for and respect for Scripture, see Sermon 162C.15: “Let us treat scripture like scripture, like God speaking.”

Patrick of Ireland

History has been enormously generous to Patrick of Ireland (c.390-c.460). Of the hundred or more saints whose memory was celebrated on a specific day by the mediaeval Roman Catholic Church, St. Patrick’s Day is one of the very few to survive in the modern calendar. The green of Ireland is remembered every year around the world on March 17 and Patrick is everywhere the symbol of Irishness. But, as others have noted, in so elevating Patrick to icon status, the true measure of the man has been obscured. In recent years there have been a number of excellent studies that have sought to illuminate the real Patrick and his world, such works as R.P.C. Hanson’s The Life and Writings of the Historical Saint Patrick (1983) and Máire B. de Paor’s Patrick: The Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland (1998). A more recent study of Patrick’s life is by Philip Freeman, professor of Classics at Washington University, St. Louis: St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). It is an extremely well-told account of the important Romano-British missionary. Freeman rightly assumes that the whole of what we can know about the historical Patrick must begin with his two undoubted writings: The Confession and his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. They reveal a passionate evangelist who willingly sacrificed his ardent desires to stay in Britain with family and friend to go to Ireland so as to take the gospel to the pagan Irish. Despite much opposition and threats on his life, his ministry was powerfully owned by God and the gospel proclaimed in much of the north of Ireland. In so doing Patrick laid the foundations for the Celtic Church, that bright light of early mediaeval Europe.

Freeman includes translations of Patrick’s two works in an epilogue (p.169-193). To someone used to a standard translation of these two works, like that of Ludwig Bieler, Freeman’s translation might seem somewhat loose and too colloquial. On the other hand, his translation does have the advantage of making Patrick and his world come alive.

Freeman knows that fourth- and fifth-century world well enough that he is able to effortlessly place Patrick’s thought and achievement in context. Rarely, in this blogger’s opinion, does his sketch of Patrick’s historical context need serious qualification. One such place, though, is his affirmation that Patrick was “likely baptized as an infant, a standard practice since the mid-third century” (p.13). Hendrick F. Stander, currently head of Greek at the Department of Ancient Languages at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and J.P. Louw, also one-time head of Greek at the University of Pretoria until his retirement, have convincingly shown that infant baptism was not at all common in the Ancient Church until the fifth century [Baptism in the Early Church (Rev. ed.; Carey Publications, 2005)].

Another statement that needs some qualification is the assertion that besides Patrick’s two authentic works “there are simply no other documents from ancient times that give us such a clear and heartfelt view of a person’s thoughts and feelings” (p.xviii). Freeman reiterates this view later on in the book: “in Patrick’s Confession, unlike in any other contemporary letter, we have a window into the soul of a person” (p.143). In the context of this last remark, Freeman does mention Augustine’s Confessions. But Freeman believes Augustine’s work to be “a carefully constructed spiritual biography that still leaves a reader wondering just what kind of man the author was beneath the ornate and exquisitely organized prose” (p.143). Of Augustine’s exquisite Latin there is no doubt, but if any ancient document is revelatory of the author, surely it is this work!

Nor is Augustine’s Confession in a class by itself. Yet another ancient Christian work that open up a window into the affections and thoughts of an author is Gregory of Nazianzus’ On his life (De vita sua). Though highly elaborate in its Greek poetic construction, this is a work that gives the reader rich insights into Gregory’s unforgettable character, with all of its foibles and flaws.

These are quibbles, though, in a well-executed work that will hopefully expose a new generation of readers to the joy of getting to know one of the most extraordinary mission-minded Christians of the Ancient Church, Patrick. Not without reason did William Carey (1761-1834), the so-called “father of the modern missionary movement,” see in Patrick an exemplar.