Augustine's Sermones ad Populum and the Relationship Between Identity/ies and Spirituality in North African Christianity (original) (raw)

This is an unformatted, pre-publication. All citations from this paper should be made from its published version. In contributing to the debate on changes of the Christian world in late antiquity, some scholars have claimed that the boundaries between religious groups were blurred with shifting, in that, for instance, the identity of Christians in the society was not characterised by clear indications of religious belief, observance, and practice. After a significant contribution to the discussion of the Christian identity, more recent and detailed surveys have shown that the difference between Christians and pagans can be seen as part of a discursive binary. While the North African evidence allows us to consider the question of what it means to be a Christian, it is interesting to note that there is a comprehensive framework for the understanding of human behaviour and thought: the spiritual training in the Greco-Roman tradition. What did Augustine think of this training? This question has received frequent attention in Augustinian scholarship, particularly in Pierre Hadot’s work, where he illustrates a complex set of modes of the ‘spiritual exercises’ and defines it as a ‘metamorphosis of our personality’. It has been regarded by some scholars as the purely intellectual training of the intelligence or mind. Primary attention should be given to it. All the same, the simplistic approach merits careful deliberation. Hadot emphasises the need to investigate the wider diversity of exercises and the purgation of the soul within the very context of involving all facets of human thought and behaviour. Although the training in question varied according to the circumstances of Greco-Roman thought, a modification appeared in late antiquity, more specifically, from the mid-fourth century in more detail than before. A crucial stage of the development seems to be prepared by Augustine. It seems to be legitimate to revisit the subject in his works. The intention of this paper is, therefore, to focus on the evidence for the multiplicity of Christian and/or pagan identities in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum, thereby coming to some understanding of the horizons on which he made use of the aspect and goal in speaking about spiritual training. I shall first examine how he explained his idea of the Christian code of behaviour to his congregation; then I shall ask what Augustine understood by the spiritual training. Finally, I shall consider the principal feature of spiritual training from the viewpoint of its significance and limit for the constructive guidance necessary to form the Christian identity that Augustine hoped for.