Philip Reynolds: The Scholastic Augustine (12th-13th Centuries)

My paper is in two parts. In the first, preliminary part, I ask whether one might usefully construct the virtual Augustine of the medieval schools — Augustine as he was understood in that context — without regard for the original Augustine in his “objectivity,” insofar as that can be retrieved. My answer is negative.
In the second, main part, I delineate, with examples, a spectrum of scholastic receptions of Augustine, ranging from fully constructive uses of Augustinian texts (sententiae) without regard for their original context, to quasi-historical interpretations that envisage him as a real author in a remote setting with his own integrity. But even the latter are unlike modern historical interpretations.