I have mentioned in a prior post the tome by Serge Lancel, St Augustine (SCM Press, 2002--English translation).  As someone who desires to be a theologian, I have long been attracted to Augustine, and my dissertation and some of my writing has been in this area.  I determined a while back that I needed to work through Lancel's 590 page volume. . .

 A part of keeping up in certain scholarly areas (and one must choose!) is to work through the key seminal works in that field.  Lancel's work is just such a necessary piece of scholarship.  I am thankful I made the decision to work through the volume.  There have been many surrendipitous experiences.  For starters, Lancel wrote this volume at the end of his scholarly career (he has since died).  This kind of volume is one that probably only can (and only should) be written by someone who has read and taught and thought about something for many, many years.  This is no slight to younger scholars.  It is simply the fact that some works can only be written after many years of study and thought.  Also, Lancel was not a professor of theology, per se but was Professor of Latin Literature and Roman Civilization at the University of Grenoble.  He also had experience as an archaeologist.  Thus, Lancel had a number of skills which aided him in his work and which ultimately shaped the nature of this magisterial piece of work.  But perhaps most interesting to me, the tendency of many of us who gravitate to Augustine has been to center on key theological contributions or writings (e.g., the primacy of grace, the nature of the two cities, etc.).  But I have been struck by how Augustine spent year after year laboring as bishop, as a pastor, really.  He had a never-ending set of administrative duties (bless him), and was engaged in the daily struggle with personalities, vindictive behavior, betrayal by close friends, criminal activity, city and regional politics, interceding with a governing authority on behalf of someone, tyring to figure out how to assimilate "former" Donatists into the Christian community, etc.  In short, Augustine labored and pastored amidst the rather mundane and draining activities of leadership.  While it is right and proper to highlight and even celebrate his key theological insights and contributions, it has been illuminating to me to think about Augustine as local pastor and leader, bearing the daily duties of leadership.  I highly recommend Lancel's book.

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