Creating Augustine: Interpreting
Augustine and Augustinianismin the later Middle
Ages
E. L. Saak
OUP £68
(978-0-19-964638-8)
Church Times Bookshop £61.20 (Use code
CT469 )
WHEN I read this book to review it, a dialogue
emerged with the book I was (and still am) writing. I finished
reading Creating Augustine just as I completed my
translation of Book 8 of the Confessions of St Augustine -
the climactic moment of the drama in the garden, the sing-song
children's chant, "Pick it up and read it, pick it up and read
it!"
So, as I revisited the story of Augustine (which,
despite his vast output, is still defined principally by the
Confessions), I also learned from this book how that story
was passed on down the generations, and who became the guardians of
that story.
We know how this sort of thing works from the example
of the gospel. There is the life of Jesus itself; then there is the
story as his first followers recorded it; and finally there are the
generations who take that story to heart and carry it on - in other
words, us. So, too, with Augustine. There is the life he lived;
then his own record of his encounter with God; and finally the
carrying forward of that story.
And in both cases there are battles between heretics
and orthodox. Who are the true heirs? Is it the Augustinian order
of hermits (OESA) or the Augustinian Canons (CRSA)? Saak traces the
development of the legend of Augustine, and draws the reader
expertly in by expanding the field of what we usually think of as
narrative. Instead of concentrating on the documents alone - the
records and writings - he introduces the reader to a field of
theological instruction most familiar from the stained glass of our
churches. He gives a comprehensive analysis of artistic
representations of the saint's life: in stained glass, fresco, tomb
decoration, and manuscript drawings.
Now comes the very big "but" - not a single
illustration of any kind is provided within the book itself. There
is a jacket illustration from the 15th century Historia
Augustini, and that's it. The interpretation of non-verbal
media is the heart of this book, interpreting the iconography of
Augustine's life as it came to be appropriated by the hermits and
canons who named themselves after him.
Saak excuses this absence on the grounds of cost and
convenience; but even a single representative picture for each
image-cycle would have helped. It is absurd to publish a book
centred on visual methods of disseminating the saint's story
without any illustrations. Footnotes with long complicated
references linking to Italian websites that have no English
translations are a poor substitute.
The editor should have picked up, even if Saak
doesn't know, that "phenomena" is a plural; and have spotted a case
of "there" for "their". But some may think that The New English
Bible with Apocrapha is divine inspiration, not poor
proof-reading.
The Revd Dr Cally Hammond is Dean of Gonville and
Caius College, Cambridge.
