Wendy Helleman: Augustine's "Sarah" as Wisdom Figure (DCD 15-16)

Augustine's allegorical presentation of Sarah, Abraham's wife, is based solidly on the Pauline exegesis of the account of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4. 21-31. Use of the allegorical approach of Philo of Alexandria in the preaching and writing of Ambrose (as in his De Abrahamo II) would have given the immediate inspiration for Augustine's approach. He made grateful use of such allegories to answer critique of the Old Testament by Manichaeans like Faustus. In that connection, it is noteworthy that Sarah is assigned a pivotal role at a strategic point in the discussion of the growth and progress of Augustine's two cities, De Civitate Dei 15.2-3. Is Augustine familiar with the precedent of earlier Christian Fathers (Clement of Alexandria, Origen) in their use of Philo's allegory of Sarah in his De Congressu Eruditionis Gratia, as a figure of wisdom (or virtue), with her servant Hagar representing preparatory studies, the liberal arts (enkuklia paideia)? Augustine's early work on the liberal arts, with wisdom as the final stage of the soul in ascent from corporeal to incorporeal reality (per corporalia ad incorporalia), shows that such a theme in allegorizing use of Sarah was familiar to Augustine, in general, if not specifically as an approach borrowed from Philo. The present study examines the presentation of Sarah in the relevant passages of the De Civitate Dei, to determine whether there are traces to indicate a more specific familiarity with the Philonic allegory.