Augustine Study Group

This Group will be studying the works of Augustine starting with "On The Holy Trinity". This is the link to the online copy of "On the Holy Trinity".

(Participation Required Group, You must participate or be removed)

As many of you will already know, Augustine is one of the most important figures within the Christian tradition after Jesus himself and the New Testament writers. His importance is of course not what it was throughout the Western middle ages. But the modern Christian experience cannot afford to ignore him. The Greek, Syrian and Coptic orthodox traditions often define themselves over against their Roman Catholic and Protestant counterparts based on their being like or not like Augustine on this or that issue. The contemporary divide between Catholics and Protestants in the West and discussions about how this divide can be worked through and in some cases overcome are often helped by returning to Augustine. The same may be said for divisions among other Christian churches as well.

In this group I would like to work through Augustine's On The Trinity. As a historian, I tend to approach a text by trying to understand what was happening in the world in which it was written and how the text is responding to that world. But this is a theological text, and in some sense exists outside of time. Thus, I am open to having the discussion of the text, taken in short pieces, go in either of these directions. I am open to having people reflect on the text and talk about how it relates to their spritual lives in any way the see it doing so.

Participants should download Augustine's On The Trinity from this website first, if they do not already have a copy. After that jump in and join us. We are moving slow enough that particpants who join late should be able to still join in comfortably enough and be able to catch up with the reading. But the De Trinitate is also a long work, so if we do not cut a brisk pace through it we will not finish it any time soon. Here is a schedule we might try, and which will be fine tuned as we move forward.

Week 1 (June 16-22) BOOK I (1-13)
Week 2 (June 23-29) BOOK I (14-31)
Week 3 (June 30-July 6) BOOK II (1-16)
Week 4 (July 7-July 13) BOOK II (17-35)
Week 5 (July 14-July 20) BOOK III (1-18)
Week 6 (July 21-July 27) BOOK III (19-27)
Week 7 (July 28-August 3) BOOK IV (1-19)
Week 8 BOOK IV (20-32)
Week 9 BOOK V (1-17)
Week 10 BOOK VI (1-12); BOOK VII (1-12)
Week 11 BOOK VIII (1-14)
Week 12 BOOK IX (1-18)
Week 13 BOOK X (1-19)
Week 14 BOOK XI (1-18)
Week 15 BOOK XII (1-25)
Week 16 BOOK XIII (1-26)
Week 17 BOOK XIV (1-26)
Week 18 BOOK XV (1-51)