Augustine's Commentary on Galatians
October 5, 2006
Oxford University Press have just released the paperback edition of Augustine's Commentary on Galatians in a fresh translation and lengthy (very lengthy!) introduction by University of Scranton professor, Eric Plumer (hardback edition appeared in 2003).
What caught my eye (amidst some tantalizing comments on justification) was Plumer's 'apology' for Augustine's personal interpretation of the second half of Romans 7. "As we pause to reflect on the image of Paul that is emerging from Augustine's Commentary," he writes, "we are struck by how different it is from the one we normally associate with Augustine [one that Plumer agrees with], particularly since the publication of Krister Stendahl's seminal essay, 'The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West.' Plumer goes to allude to the work of Paula Fredriksen who argued that from the Confessions onwards Augustine misread Romans 7 as Paul speaking of his own experience as a Christian, and 'that the image of Paul as a soul in anguish that Augustine thought he saw was really a projection of himself' -- something which caught the imagination of Luther. (pp. 80-81). The rest, as they say, is history.
One more argument, then, for ad fontes, rather than blogospheric theology!
What caught my eye (amidst some tantalizing comments on justification) was Plumer's 'apology' for Augustine's personal interpretation of the second half of Romans 7. "As we pause to reflect on the image of Paul that is emerging from Augustine's Commentary," he writes, "we are struck by how different it is from the one we normally associate with Augustine [one that Plumer agrees with], particularly since the publication of Krister Stendahl's seminal essay, 'The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West.' Plumer goes to allude to the work of Paula Fredriksen who argued that from the Confessions onwards Augustine misread Romans 7 as Paul speaking of his own experience as a Christian, and 'that the image of Paul as a soul in anguish that Augustine thought he saw was really a projection of himself' -- something which caught the imagination of Luther. (pp. 80-81). The rest, as they say, is history.
One more argument, then, for ad fontes, rather than blogospheric theology!
