by Michel René Barnes (Author)
This book draws together a collection of thirteen published and unpublished articles which together constitute a new reading of the character and development of Latin Trinitarian theology in the fourth and fifth centuries. The focus of the essays is on Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), but Augustine is treated here as an inheritor of earlier Latin tradition. Many of the figures of that tradition here receive a new interpretation--particularly Marius Victorinus. Augustine himself is explored from many angles; at every turn the developments in his theology are shown to be a response to the anti-Nicene theologies of the period. The beginning of the book discusses the manner in which modern "systematic" theology has engaged Augustine only through a simplified version of late-nineteenth-century categories. In conclusion, the broader question of how far modern theology can actually engage Patristic theology is explored at length.
Author Biography
Michel René Barnes was for many years Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University. He is also Director of the Augustine Agency and Research Library in Milwaukee. Among his many publications, he is the author of The Power of God: Dunamis in Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian Theology (2001, 2016), and coeditor of A Man of the Church: Honoring the Theology, Life, and Witness of Ralph del Colle (2012).