Saint Augustine: Tractates on the Gospel of John 11–27
Overview
Of the 124 tractates that St. Augustine delivered to his congregation at Hippo Regius, the first fifty-four form a distinct group. They differ in length and character from the remaining tractates, contain many chronological references, and consist of bitter attacks on the Donatists and other heresies. The remaining tractates (55–124) are brief and contain no chronological references to prior tractates. Scholars maintain that the latter were dictated for later reading to the people rather than extemporaneously delivered.
This volume contains tractates 11–27. In 11–16 Augustine continues the attack, begun in tractates 1-10, on the heresies of Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism. Beginning with the seventeenth tractate, however, he focuses greater attention on Arianism, a Trinitarian heresy whose major tenet was that divine being was uncreated, unbegotten, and unique and that Christ was not true God but a creature who had a beginning. Augustine also attacks lesser Christological heresies: the Apollinarists, who assert that Christ did not assume the complete human nature but only the body, and Photinus of Sirmium, who held that Christ did not except for his miraculous birth and acquired a plenitude of grace through moral perfection.
In these tractates Augustine combines scriptural exegesis, the refutation of false teachings, and theological reflections with the spiritual and moral instruction of his congregation. “Look for separation in the Father and Son, you do not find it; even if you have soared high, then you do not find it; if you have touched something beyond your intellect, then you do not find it. For if you busy yourself in these things which the erring mind makes for itself, you speak with your own images, not with the Word of God; your images deceive you. Transcend the body and savor the mind. Transcend the mind also and savor God.”
For The Fathers of the Church series in its entirety, see Fathers of the Church Series (127 vols.).
Key Features
- Uses rhetorical technique to communicate clear refutations of heresy
- Written in a style reflective of ancient orators and focuses on passages in the book of John
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“‘Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.’ A great commendation of grace! No one comes unless drawn!” (Page 260)
“The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But he is still speaking obscurely to the woman and entering little by little into her heart.” (Page 85)
“O mystery of true faith!49 O sign of unity! O bond of love!” (Page 271)
“For we, too, today receive visible food; but the sacrament is one thing, the efficacy of the sacrament another.34 How many receive from the altar and die, and by receiving die? For this reason the Apostle says, ‘He eats and drinks judgment to himself.’35 For the morsel of the Lord was not poison to Judas. And yet he received it; and when he received it, the enemy entered into him,36 not because he received an evil thing but because an evil man received a good thing evilly.37 See to it, therefore, brothers; eat the heavenly bread spiritually. Carry innocence to the altar. Even if there are daily sins, at least let them not be mortal.” (Pages 268–269)
“What, O brothers? Do we think that the Lord wanted, as it were, to taunt this teacher of the Jews? The Lord knew what he was doing; he wanted him to be born of the Spirit. No one is born of the Spirit unless he be humble, because humility itself causes us to be born of the Spirit, because the Lord is near to those crushed in heart.18 That man was puffed up by his position as a teacher; and he seemed to himself to be of some importance because he was a scholar of the Jews. The Lord puts down his pride that he may be able to be born of the Spirit; he taunts him as one unlearned, not because the Lord wants to seem superior.” (Pages 33–34)
- Title: Saint Augustine: Tractates on the Gospel of John 11–27
- Author: Augustine of Hippo
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 79
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 1988
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 320
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. John › Sermons--Early works to 1800; Sermons, English › Translations from Latin--Early works to 1800; Sermons, Latin › Translations into English--Early works to 1800
- ISBNs: 0813200784, 0813210283, 0813200792, 0813213606, 9780813200781, 9780813210285, 9780813200798, 9780813213606
- Resource ID: LLS:TRCTTSGSPLJHN11
- Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:02:55Z