Description
Book SynopsisIn Augustine’s Cyprian Matthew Gaumer retraces how Augustine of Hippo devised the ultimate strategy to suppress Donatist Christianity, an indigenous form of the religion in ancient North Africa. Spanning nearly forty years, Augustine’s entire clerical career was spent combating the Donatists and seeking the dominance of the Catholic Church in North Africa. Through a variety of approaches Augustine evolved a method to successfully outlaw and deconstruct the Donatist Church’s organisation. This hinged on concerted preaching, tract writing, integrating Roman imperial authorities, and critically: by denying the Donatists’ exclusive claim to Cyprian of Carthage. Re-appropriation of Cyprian’s authority required Augustine and his allies to re-write history and pose positions contrary to Cyprian’s. In the end, Cyprian was the Donatists’ no longer.
Trade Review"This is a compellingly interesting study, well executed and raising new questions for the Augustine-Cyprian relations." - Allen Brent, King’s College, London, in: Church History and Religious Culture 98:1 (2018), pp. 139-141.
Table of ContentsContents Preface List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Timelines Introduction Part 1 Augustine’s Early Years as a Church Leader and Initial Reactions to Donatist Christianity Augustine’s First Years of Ministry, the 390s The Need for an Auctoritas, Why Did Augustine Need Cyprian? The Election of Primian and Its Polemical Consequences, Mid 390s Part 2 The Maturation of the Anti-Donatist Campaign De Baptismo and the Controversy’s Escalation, 400–01 The Process of Appropriation Sustaining Appropriation Part 3 Augustine’s Cyprian in the Pelagian Controversy The Cyprian-Appropriation in the Anti-Pelagian Campaigns General Conclusions Bibliography Index
