Saint Augustine: Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111
Overview
This is the fourth of five volumes of John W. Rettig’s translation of St. Augustine’s Tractates on the Gospel of John. In the Tractates, Augustine progressively comments on the Gospel text, using a plain yet compelling rhetorical style. With the keen insight that makes him one of the glories of the Latin church, he amplifies the orthodox doctrinal and moral lessons to be read therein.
Modern scholars generally concede that Tractates 55–111 fall within a distinct group thought to have been composed between AD 414 and 420. In them Augustine deftly employs the sacred text to defend the teachings of Nicene orthodoxy. Among the more noteworthy theological features upon which the reader can focus is a defense of the much controverted Filioque in Tractate 99. There is also an examination of the paradoxes inherent in the Incarnation: the entrance into history of an immanent and transcendent God the Word; how that union of that Word with human nature; how that union in the Person of Christ does not confound or diminish either Nature. No less significant is Augustine’s examination of predestination, the mystery of the elect, love of God as the fruit of contemplation, the Eucharist as the source of the martyr’s strength, the divine Nature, and a source of other topics that remain significant in the discussion of the development of dogma.
In these Tractates Augustine comments upon a discrete portion of the sacred text: the Last Supper and the priestly prayer of Jesus. The reader is left, in the end, in a state of watch with the Savior for his impending Passion, Death, and Resurrection, which will be discussed in the last volume of the Tractates.
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 sermons on the book of John
- Written in a classic style reflective of ancient orators
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“Oh, wondrous symbol!12 Oh, mighty mystery! Does she fear, then, to soil her feet by coming to him who washed the feet of his disciples? Certainly, she fears because she comes by way of the earth to him who is also on the earth, because he does not forsake his own who have been established here. Does he not himself say, ‘Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world’?13 Does he not say himself, ‘You shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending to the Son of Man’?14 If they ascend to him precisely because he is on high, how do they descend to him if he is not also here?” (Pages 14–15)
“From this it happens that even those who love the leisure of good pursuits and do not wish to suffer the vexations of toilsome activities, because they perceive that they are less suited for administering these things and doing them without blame, would prefer, if it were possible, that the holy Apostles and ancient preachers of truth be roused up against the abundance of iniquity, by which the ardor of love has grown cold.” (Page 17)
“But the many dwelling-places signify the varied values of merits in the one eternal life. For the sun’s glory is one thing, the moon’s glory another, and the stars’ glory another; for star differs from star in glory. So too is the resurrection of the dead.4 Like the stars, the saints are allotted different dwelling-places of different brightness; as in the sky, so in the kingdom. But because of the one denarius no one is separated from the kingdom; and so God will be all in all,5 so that, because God is love,6 it may come to pass through love that what each has may be common to all. For in this way each one himself also has, when he loves in another what he does not have himself. And so there will not be any envy of unequal brightness, because the unity of love will reign in all.” (Page 59)
- Title: Saint Augustine: Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111
- Author: Augustine of Hippo
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 90
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 1994
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 338
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. John › Sermons--Early works to 1800; Sermons, Latin › Translations into English--Early works to 1800
- ISBNs: 0813200784, 0813200792, 0813200881, 0813200903, 9780813200781, 9780813200798, 9780813200880, 9780813200903
- Resource ID: LLS:TRCTTSGSPLJHN55
- Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:02:58Z