Joseph Grabau: Jn 1:17 and Gal 4:4-5 in Augustine of Hippo’s anti-Donatist polemics and preaching: Johannine and Pauline perspectives on grace

As Doctor of Grace, Augustine makes broad appeal in various contexts togratia,where Pauline texts ongratiafigure prominently. His later appeal against Pelagianism, however, arose from his earliest commentaries on Romans and Galatians (394/395), and in part the treatiseSimpl. (396/398). There, Augustine explains salvation history in four parts:ante legem,sub lege,sub gratia,in pace. In subsequent anti-Donatist works,c. litt. Pet.(400),c. ep. Parm.(400), andbapt.(400/401), where the Pauline corpus again figured prominently,Augustine continued to refine his teachings on the law and grace. Io. eu. tr.1-16 (407), however,display a subsequent attempt to bring together these concerns in a new, anti-Donatist synthesis, which bridges the Pauline and Johannine.This paper will explore how Augustine makes use of Jn 1:17 and Gal 4:4-5 on law and grace at the boundaries between polemical argumentation and catechetical preaching, in particular in the anti-Donatist period leading up to 411. With Io. eu. tr.3.2 as a reference point, I aim to address how Augustine draws upon the Johannine antithesis of “grace and truth through Jesus Christ” and “the law given through Moses”, in conjunction with the Pauline language of sub legeand related gratiaterminology(cf. Rom 6:14). How does Augustine combine the biblical authors in order to establish a doctrinal and exegetical context for his polemical agenda in the anti-Donatist works cited above? Questions of genre, audience, and rhetorical form will enter the discussion where appropriate, with emphasis on exegetical and polemical intent in anti-Donatist contexts.