The British systematic theologian Colin Gunton argued that Augustine
bequeathed to the West a theological tradition with serious
deficiencies. According to Gunton, Augustine's particular construal of
the doctrine of God led to fundamental errors and problems in grasping
the relationship between creation and redemption, and in rightfully
construing a truly Christian ontology. In Colin Gunton and the Failure
of Augustine, Bradley G. Green's close reading of Augustine challenges
Gunton's understanding. Gunton argued that Augustine's supposed emphasis
of the one over the many severed any meaningful link between creation
and redemption, contra the theological insights of Irenaeus, and
furthermore that because of Augustine's supposed emphasis on the
timeless essence of God at the expense of the three real persons, he
failed to forge a truly Christian ontology, effectively losing the
insights of the Cappadocian Fathers). For all of Gunton's many insights,
Green argues that on the contrary, Augustine did not sever the link
between creation and redemption, but rather affirmed that the created
order is a means of genuine knowledge of God, that the created order is
indeed the only means by which redemption is accomplished, that the
cross of Christ is the only means by which we can see God, and that the
created order is fundamentally oriented toward a telos - redemption.
Concerning ontology, Augustine's teaching on the imago Dei, and the
prominent role that relationship plays in Augustine's doctrines of man
and God, provides the kind of relational Christian ontology that Gunton
sought. In short, Green argues, Augustine could have provided Gunton key
theological resources in countering the modernity he so rightfully
challenged.
