Augustine's interpretation is spiritual--his were not scholarly or
academic concerns--and John Leinenweber's translation is fresh and
accessible, capturing the clarity, brilliance, and inspired passion of
the original. John has said many things, stated Augustine, and almost
all of them concern love. The first six of the ten homilies were
delivered on the days of the Easter octave. This period proved too short
for Augustine to cover the whole of the letter, and he preached four
additional homilies later in the spring. In his Confessions, Augustine
spoke of his great longing as a youth to love and be loved--a topic that
appealed greatly to his listeners. During the course of delivering these
homilies, he was interrupted time and again by applause and shouts of
enthusiasm. The ten homilies are broken up into twenty-four short
chapters, for example: The Commandment of Love, Two Loves (of God and of
the World), Christ and Antichrists, Unanswered Prayer, God is Love, God
Has Loved Us First, Love Casts Out Fear. His are in large part moral
teachings, dealing with such topics as prayer, our enemies, fear of God,
the church, the world (so important in Saint John's writings). What does
one actually do to love God and others? What are the pitfalls of loving?
How can one learn to love more? Throughout the homilies, Augustine's
great desire to love and be loved and to live eternally with God are
eloquently expressed. Believing himself ignorant of Scripture, he had
initially considered himself ill-prepared for the priesthood.
Augustine's subsequent tireless studies unleashed a stream of biblical
commentaries that led him to be ranked with Thomas Aquinas as one of the
greatest teachers the Western Church has ever produced, and one of its
greatest Fathers. His towering intellect molded the thought of Western
Christianity, and his ideas dominated the thinking of the Western world
for a thousand years after his death. Augustine wrote profusely,
explaining and defending the faith. Called Doctor of Grace, his best
known works are his Confessions, one of the greatest spiritual classics
of all time, and City of God, an exposition of a Christian philosophy of
history.
