Full Description
Augustine's way of speaking about God has been frequently deplored. It has
been dismissed as too confident regarding the content of its assertions
and too narrowly confined. The reception of Augustine's work appears to
indicate that there was not a little truth to this view. Augustine's
affirmative statements on God's essence and activities constituted the
'initial capital' of Christian theology and spirituality.
In
contemporary religion, a tendency is in evidence to deny that too specific
an image of God can really contain absolute truth. Fully formulated
religious truths have to be placed in perspective, or must even be
deconstructed, especially if the suspicion arises that they inhibit
openness to authentic religious experiences of unity and harmony. Given
such an outlook on religion, it seems understandable that those who take
contemporary culture's renewed interest in religion seriously ignored
Augustine's work as an authoritative source for 'post-christian' discourse
about God.
The presupposition of this book is that, throughout his
life, Augustine maintained a balance between speaking about God and
remaining silent about him to a much greater extent than has often been
realized. On the one hand, as a priest and a bishop, he wished to prevent
misunderstandings concerning the nature of God's essence and activity. On
the other hand, as a young priest, he already showed his concern to drive
home to the faithful the idea that God was a mystery.
If Augustine
positioned himself at the cutting edge of speaking and remaining silent,
then his work is once more of importance for the future of the Christian
faith, because it recognizes that the tension between affirmative and
negative discourse about God has been characteristic of the Christian
tradition from time immemorial.
