Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY Series Editor David C. Steinmetz, Duke University Editorial Board Irena Backus, Université de Genève Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST IN READING AUGUSTINE IN THE HIGH-MEDIEVAL THOUGHT REFORMATION An Essay on Christological Development The Flexibility of Intellectual Authority in Europe, Kevin Madigan 1500–1620 Arnoud S. Q. Visser GOD’S IRISHMEN Theological Debates in Cromwellian Ireland SHAPERS OF ENGLISH CALVINISM, 1660–1714 Crawford Gribben Variety, Persistence, and Transformation Dewey D. Wallace, Jr. REFORMING SAINTS Saint’s Lives and Their Authors in Germany, THE BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION OF 1470–1530 WILLIAM OF ALTON David J. Collins Timothy Bellamah, OP GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS ON THE MIRACLES AND THE PROTESTANT TRINITY AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IMAGINATION In Your Light We Shall See Light The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation Christopher A. Beeley Germany Philip M. Soergel THE JUDAIZING CALVIN Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms THE REFORMATION OF SUFFERING G. Sujin Pak Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany THE DEATH OF SCRIPTURE AND Ronald K. Rittgers THE RISE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES Michael C. Legaspi CHRIST MEETS ME EVERYWHERE Augustine’s Early Figurative Exegesis THE FILIOQUE Michael Cameron History of a Doctrinal Controversy A. Edward Siecienski MYSTERY UNVEILED The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England ARE YOU ALONE WISE? Paul C. H. Lim Debates about Certainty in the Early Modern Church Susan E. Schreiner GOING DUTCH IN THE MODERN AGE Abraham Kuyper’s Struggle for a Free Church in the EMPIRE OF SOULS Netherlands Robert Bellarmine and the Christian Commonwealth John Halsey Wood Jr. Stefania Tutino CALVIN’S COMPANY OF PASTORS MARTIN BUCER’S DOCTRINE OF Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, JUSTIFICATION 1536–1609 Reformation Theology and Early Modern Irenicism Scott M. Manetsch Brian Lugioyo THE SOTERIOLOGY OF JAMES USSHER CHRISTIAN GRACE AND PAGAN VIRTUE The Act and Object of Saving Faith The Theological Foundation of Ambrose’s Ethics Richard Snoddy J. Warren Smith HARTFORD PURITANISM KARLSTADT AND THE ORIGINS OF THE Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Their EUCHARISTIC CONTROVERSY Terrifying God A Study in the Circulation of Ideas Baird Tipson Amy Nelson Burnett Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons z ADAM PLOYD 1 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ployd, Adam. Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church : a reading of the anti-Donatist sermons / Adam Ployd. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978–0–19–021204–9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. 2. Sermons—History and criticism. 3. Trinity. 4. Donatists—Controversial literature. 5. Church—History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title. BR65.A9P57 2015 273'.4—dc23 2014036628 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Contents Preface and Acknowledgments  vii Abbreviations  xi Introduction  1 Trinitarian and Pro-Nicene 3 The Church and the Donatists 11 Chapter Outline 16 1. To Know and to Love 18 Introduction 18 Knowledge, Love, and the Purpose of Preaching 20 The Moral Epistemology of De Trinitate 1 23 The Moral Epistemology of Our Sermon Series 29 The Primary Disposition of Humility 42 Conclusion 55 2. The Body of Christ 56 Introduction 56 The Grammar of Unity 58 From Grammar to Revelation 74 Fleshing Out the Body of Christ 83 Conclusion 98 3. The Love of the Holy Spirit 100 Introduction 100 Prolegomena on Love 102 vi Contents Love as the Source of Unity 107 The Spirit of Love 122 Conclusion 141 4. The Unity of Baptism 144 Introduction 144 The Spirit of Baptism 147 The Power of Christ 154 The Unity of the Dove 169 Conclusion 184 Conclusion: Appreciating Augustine’s Trinitarian Ecclesiology 186 Bibliography 197 Name and Subject Index 211 Augustine Citation Index 217 Biblical Citation Index 223 Preface and Acknowledgments I don’t lIke the church. After all, the church is made of people, and people (myself included) can be really awful. Of course, I may just be anti-social. During my first few years teaching seminary students, I have come to recognize a much more pervasive dislike and distrust of the church, especially among my fellow United Methodists. Would-be clergy express deep frustration with byzantine bureaucracy, a dated Discipline, interminable ordination checklists, impractical vows of itinerancy, and a host of other obstacles to “real” ministry. Many of these concerns are legit- imate and need to be heeded. But all too quickly, loving critique becomes self-righteous condemnation of anything that smells of “institution.” I used to insist that this book was purely historical, an argument about the intersection of Trinity and church in Augustine’s anti-Donatist ser- mons. And it is that. It is a work for the academic guild, for other Augustine scholars, and for any who are interested in the development of these theo- logical topics in late antiquity. But it would be dishonest of me to pretend that my interest is merely historical or only academic. The fact is, I find something deeply compelling about Augustine’s vision of church unity, even if I am not planning to swim the Tiber anytime soon. What stirs me is his faith that the church—this broken, imperfect, sinful, all-too-human institution—is somehow also a vehicle for God’s redemption of the world. And this “high” ecclesiology does not depend on us getting everything right, on doing the newest and most revolutionary forms of ministry. It depends on the gracious work of God, uniting us to Christ’s body through the indwelling of the Spirit who is the very love of God. So, yes, I often don’t like the church. But I am learning how to love it, to trust that, through the painful work of community, God is transforming my heart and mind, training me to see and love the world in a new way through the cultivation of humility, patience, and charity. And when I hear my fellow United Methodists express dissatisfaction with the institution, viii Preface and Acknowledgments I pray that their calls for change might not come at the expense of trust- ing that the church—whether it be a specific denominational entity or the universal body of believers—is itself a vehicle for God’s work in our lives. There is still something to be said for bearing one another’s burdens so that we might fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). Certainly, institutions need to adapt and change to address new missional contexts and social realities. And there are times when the sins of the institution can no longer be patiently ignored or endured. But cynicism must never be mistaken for prophecy, and the most “radical” ministry can never replace the grace that God offers us in the painful life of community. Christ’s body was broken on the cross; the brokenness of the church that is Christ’s body presents no obstacle to God’s redemptive work, unless we refuse to be united to the brokenness that even God did not shun. This book began, not as a dissertation, but as a seminar paper. In the fall of 2005, during my final year of seminary, Lewis Ayres allowed me to take his doctoral seminar on Augustine. Though I was utterly out of my depth at the time, the experience set the course of my life for the next decade. In that seminar I discovered Augustine’s sixth Tractate on the Gospel of John. That sermon is a feast of scriptural interpretation, compelling rhetoric, and theological vision. The feast’s main course is a dove—first the dove of the Spirit at Christ’s baptism, then the singular dove of Song of Songs 6:8, and finally the dove of peace who returns to Noah’s ark. Augustine unites these doves into one powerful vision of the church—imperfect, yes, but loving one another with the very love that is God. I suspected that Augustine’s juxtaposition of trinitarian and ecclesiological arguments in that sermon was not an accident, and that suspicion led me not only to a mediocre (if late) term paper, but also to the study of Latin, to my first conference paper, to admission into Emory’s doctoral program, to my first published article, and to a dissertation. Now I come to the monograph, a revision of the dissertation, and a work that bears little resemblance to that initial twenty-page essay. Then again, I bear little resemblance to that young seminarian. Augustine might have something to say about that. Lewis Ayres demands the lion’s share of my gratitude. (By “demands,” of course, I mean “requests nicely with the aid of a Matilda II tank.”) Not only did he introduce me to Augustine and encourage me to pursue doc- toral work, but as my dissertation advisor he offered constructive criticism on drafts and thoughtful advice on the academic life in general. I owe his entire family—Medi, Anna, Thomas, Iain, and Lucy—for their hospi- tality in Durham, England. When Lewis left Atlanta for the land of Bede, Preface and Acknowledgments ix Anthony Briggman stepped in to handle much of the day-to-day work of advising. Anthony was more than a placeholder, however, and his careful reading and intellectual generosity remain invaluable. I am also appreciative of the support and guidance of other Emory faculty, especially Philip Reynolds and Ian McFarland, and the commiseration of my Emory colleagues, par- ticularly Parker Diggory, Jessica Smith, Kelly Murphy, Joshua Ralston, Ryan Woods, Brian Gronewoller, S. A. Alexander, Thomas Humphreys, and Mark DelCogliano. Since coming to Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic support from my faculty colleagues and my students. It is an honor to teach alongside and be challenged by such gifted people. I have also benefited from the community of scholars at the Louisville Institute, particularly my fellows in the Vocation of the Theological Educator post-doctoral cohort. Given the topic of this book, I would be remiss not to mention my gratitude for the support of my church family, first the Virginia and now the West Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, who continue to nurture me as I pursue full ordination as a Deacon. It is a rare ecclesial community that so values the work of the scholar, and I am humbled and honored by their charge to help bridge the modern gap between faith and understanding. Earlier versions of some chapters have been published as journal articles. Part of Chapter 2 appeared as “Pro-Nicene Prosopology and the Church in Augustine’s Preaching on John 3:13,” Scottish Journal of Theology 67, no. 3 (2014): 253–264. Parts of Chapter 4 appeared as “The Unity of the Dove: The Sixth Homily on the Gospel of John and Augustine’s Trinitarian Solution to the Donatist Schism,” Augustinian Studies 42, no. 1 (2011): 57–77, and “The Power of Baptism: Augustine’s Pro-Nicene Response to the Donatists,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 22, no. 4 (2014): 519–540. I am grateful to these journals for permission to reuse parts of those articles. Finally, I offer my most heartfelt appreciation to my family for all of their support. I dedicate this book to my wife, Diane Kenaston, whose patient love I can only describe as a gift of divine grace.