Karla Pollmann: The Secular Reception of Augustine

A new tendency that has emerged in the second half of the 20th century and is still on-going is a form of reception that uses Augustine's rich and diverse body of thought as a quarry from which to adapt some of his ideas in a new context, without, however, taking over the metaphysical or theological dimensions which, of course, form an integral part of Augustine's thinking throughout. One could speak here tentatively of a secularisation of Augustine's legacy, that is, an activity of changing or transforming this legacy (or parts of it), so that it is no longer under the control or influence of religion or necessarily depends on the existence of a transcendent world and a (in Augustine's case Christian) God. Naturally, this is a phenomenon typical of recent decades in the Western world in general, where it can also be observed as operative in the spheres of art, education, morality, and society overall. In this contribution we will concentrate on examples pertaining to the reception of Augustine that demonstrate this pattern of reception in a world outside of church and Christianity, comprising political theory, literature, philosophy, psychotherapy, and semiotics.

Paul Blowers: Modern Recontextualizations of Maximus the Confessor

The renaissance in scholarly study of Maximus the Confessor that began in the 1940s and 50s (through the work of P. Sherwood, H. Urs von Balthasar, et al.), coupled with the growing culture of patristic "retrieval" in contemporary theology East and West, has nurtured a number of important theological recontextualizations of Maximus. Stimulated by the "neo-patristic synthesis" pioneered by Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, Dimitru Staniloae, and others, contemporary Orthodox theology has generated several recontextualized profiles of Maximus: as ecumenical christologian; as theological cosmologist (and ecologist); as Eucharistic ecclesiologian; etc. In the West, Hans Urs von Balthasar, who did much to reintroduce Maximus to contemporary Roman Catholic theology, developed his "theo-dramatic" paradigm of constructive theology very heavily (I will argue) on a Maximian foundation. More recently, Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenological interest in Dionysian apophaticism has had clear ramifications for reinterpretation of Maximus. Maximus has also become a crucial resource in contemporary virtue ethics, and in the work ecological theologians such as Celia Deane-Drummond, Christopher Southgate, and Willis Jenkins. He has even been engaged in the recent Evangelical retrieval of patristic sources. My paper will provide a comparative and critical analysis of this broad array of profiles.

Stephen Cooper: Ambrosiaster in Reformation Zürich: Heinrich Bullinger’s Use of ‘Ambrose’ in his Commentaries on Paul

The first complete set of Latin commentaries on the Pauline epistles (sans Hebrews), composed by an unknown Roman presbyter and issued anonymously in multiple recensions under the pontificate of Damasus (366–382), had the great fortune to be attributed to Ambrose by most of the manuscript tradition. Included in the first printed editions of Ambrose’s works, they were read and mined by both Protestant and Catholic theologians for polemical and pastoral purposes. One reformer who made extensive use of these commentaries on Paul, was Heinrich Bullinger, who succeeded Zwingli as Zürich's chief pastor in 1531. By 1537 Bullinger published a complete series of commentaries on Paul, which extensively quote—and laud—Ambrosiaster’s works on Paul alongside those of other patristic exegetes  as well as humanistic biblical scholars.  One of the major emphases in Ambrosiaster’s commentaries is a sharp historical focus on Paul’s opponents, the so-called pseudoapostoli; alongside this is the unknown exegete’s insistence upon the church having a viable system of penitence able to re-incorporate erring members. These threads of Ambrosiaster’s Paul-commentaries appear to have resonated with Bullinger, who devoted great effort toward achieving a working concord with other Protestant reformers (a successful effort with Geneva and an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at dialogue with Lutherans). In this paper I will begin the work of evaluating the impact of Ambrosiaster’s commentaries on Bullinger through an analysis of how the latter’s treatment of the pseudoapostles of Second Corinthians reflects the comments of Ambrosiaster.

D. L. Dusenbury: New Light on Time in Augustine, Confessions XI

I will make a very succinct report on the most important findings presented in my May 2014 monograph, The Space of Time: A Sensualist Interpretation of Time in Augustine, Confessions X to XII (Brill, Leiden), namely:
(α) several textual considerations that undermine a long-prevalent Platonic/ Plotinian interpretation of time as distentio animi in Confessions XI;
(β) several textual indications of strong New Academic/ Ciceronian and Epicurean/ Lucretian influences on A.'s practice of philosophical confessio in Confessions X to XII;
(γ) signs of the hitherto unrecognized importance of Aristoxenus' rhythm-theory, mediated to A. by Cicero (and likely also by Quintilian), for interpreting A.'s concept of time in Confessions XI; and
(δ) the upshot: Augustine's concept of time is not Neo-Platonic - as maintained for well over a century - but instead resembles the "sensualist" time-concept of Epicurus (as mediated to A. by Lucretius and Cicero), and is articulated in terms of the rhetorical rhythm-theory of Cicero (and likely Quintilian) that A. lectured on as a rhetor, and that dates back to Aristoxenus.
I wish to communicate to the conference that A.'s time-concept is not intellectivist, but sensualist. The "dilation" that constitutes time for A. is not a dilation of the mind but of the senses - as A. himself states in the last sentences of his time-investigation (variatur affectus sensusque distenditur, XI.31.41)

Catharina Bouwman: Mater Sapientia, a Wisdom Theology in the Works of Augustine

In the works of Augustine we find expressions of divine motherhood. He ascribed expressions of divine motherhood to divine personifications such as Wisdom, Christ,  celestial Jerusalem. These expressions points to a Wisdom Christology in which Jesus the man is the envoy of Wisdom.

Michael Bakker: Maximos' aporia of Christ's γνώμη, the stages of willing and the νοῦς as king of the soul

Maximos the Confessor presents us with a problem by both affirming and denying a γνώμη in Christ. A way out of this aporia is offered by two other elements from his writings: the stages of the willing process and the image of the soul as city.

I tend to associate the twelve (!) stages with the discursive reason (λόγος), which by cumbersome deliberation tries to decide on the right course of action. In contrast, Christ and the saints decide on a higher level: that of the intellect (νοῦς): “Through the medium of reason, they raised up to the level of intellect their power of sensation (αἴσθησις).” Christ and the saints thus do posses a γνώμη, but it is not shaped gnomically, but noetically.

QThal 49 illustrates the latter way of willing by presenting the νοῦς as king ruling the city of the soul, who has as his chief court officials λόγος, ἐπιθυμία and θυμός.

Applied to the Christ’s agony in Gethsemane this would mean that Christ received from his senses the natural desire not to die. He even formulates it is as an uttered request to the Father. Ascending from the rational level to the noetic level, however, He decides to keep his natural will fully aligned with His divine will. This decision is then passed on below to reason, which says “not as I will, but as You will” and further down to His body directing it to go to His disciples.

Jimmy Chan: The Restoration Word Group in De Civitate Dei, Books XI-XXII: A Study of an Important Backbone of Augustine's Theology of History

This project is a lexical-contextual-theological study of the second part of De civitate Dei, Books XI to XXII, focusing on how a ‘restoration' word group (comprising the ‘restore' lemma in Latin) develops through the text. It is show that this word group serves as an important backbone for Augustine's theology of history, by providing it with semantic support and relating with its various key elements. The occurrences of all the Latin lemma carrying the ‘restore' nuance in the text are identified (by using professional software of Augustinian studies and through effective communication with affiliated Augustinian scholars). Then, for each of the three main divisions within De civitate Dei, namely, Books XI to XIV, Books XV to XVIII and Books XVIX to XXII, key passages comprising the ‘restore' lemma are studied, in terms of how they play the lexical function within the given context of the text. The restoration word group is shown to provide a fresh reading of De civitate Dei and open up a new perspective of studying Augustine's theology of history which is so prominent in the work. Specifically, four restoration dimensions, namely, the restoration of the body and soul, the restoration of the predestined number of saints, the restoration of the virtues and morals, the restoration of faith and hope of the saints on earth, are identified. These restoration dimensions effectively expresses and connects the key elements of Augustine's theology of history, namely, universality out of divine providence, biblicality, Christocentrality and directionality (or linearity).