Resources by or about Augustine

Readings include Augustine's On Christian Teaching, Calvin's Institutes IV.3 on church officers, Chapter 18 of the Second Helvetic Confession, and Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor. The bibliography traces the Reformed tradition's theology of ordained ministry from patristic foundations through the Reformation and into the Puritan period, with attention to the character, calling, and responsibilities of the pastor as teacher and shepherd.

Primary texts include three of Augustine's anti-Donatist writings and Calvin's Institutes IV.1-2 and IV.9 on the nature of the true church. The bibliography examines the classical Protestant marks of the church, the relationship between the church's unity and its purity, and the theological and historical debates about schism, discipline, and catholicity that have shaped Reformed ecclesiology.

Readings include Augustine's City of God (Books 20-22), Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics III/2 and IV/3 on resurrection and hope, Jürgen Moltmann's The Coming of God, and N.T. Wright's The Resurrection of the Son of God. The bibliography examines Christian eschatology from Augustine through the twentieth century, with attention to resurrection, the kingdom of God, and the church's witness in light of the coming reign of Christ.

Readings include Augustine's Confessions (Books III, IV, and VII), Calvin's Institutes I.16-18 on providence and evil, Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics III/3 §50 on das Nichtige (Nothingness), Austin Farrer's Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited, and John Hick's Evil and the God of Love. The bibliography approaches the problem of evil through the primary texts of the tradition, asking how Christian faith speaks to suffering, natural evil, and the hiddenness of God.

The seminar reads Augustine's City of God, Part II (Books 11-22), alongside Peter Brown's Augustine of Hippo as the indispensable biographical companion. Seminars have found it most useful to read Brown first to establish the framework. The bibliography makes a sustained case for reading Augustine as a theologian whose engagement with history, politics, and the two cities is perennially relevant.

Primary readings engage Augustine's Four Anti-Pelagian Writings and Calvin on the Trinity (Institutes I.13) and the two natures of the Mediator (II.14). H.E.W. Turner's The Pattern of Christian Truth and C. FitzSimons Allison's The Cruelty of Heresy provide historical and constructive accounts; Leith's essay on the confession as normative theology grounds the discussion in Presbyterian practice.

Seminar readings open with Augustine's Confessions, then move to Calvin on the knowledge of God and human nature (Institutes I.1-5, 15) and Edwards' Religious Affections as a study of what it means to be genuinely human before God. Barth's massive treatment of the creature in CD III/2 provides the major systematic counterpart, with Calvin's Sermons on Job as an alternate.

Seminar readings center on Augustine's City of God (Books 20-22), Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Heaven Is a World of Love," William Temple on the conditions of eternal life, and Karl Barth's sections on the Holy Spirit and Christian hope from the Church Dogmatics. Supplementary readings include works by Jüngel, Rahner, Baillie, and Leith's chapter in Basic Christian Doctrine.