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Document Details :

Title: What does it Mean to be Catholic?
Subtitle: Augustine's Appropriation of Pauline Logic against the Donatists
Author(s): GLOWASKY, Michael
Journal: Augustiniana
Volume: 70    Issue: 1   Date: 2020   
Pages: 33-47
DOI: 10.2143/AUG.70.1.3287748

Abstract :
This essay examines Augustine’s four extant sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, which the Church Father preached to candidates for baptism around 410-412. During this period, Augustine was engaged in a number of projects directed against the Donatists, not least of which included his participation at the conference of Carthage in spring 411. Given his preoccupation with the Donatists at this time, it is not surprising that anti-Donatist themes can be found in a number of his sermons from this period as well, though the Donatists themselves are rarely mentioned explicitly. While his Lenten sermons on the Lord’s Prayer are not normally considered to be anti-Donatist in character, I argue that they are, in fact, framed by a subtle anti-Donatist polemic. Specifically, I maintain that Augustine draws on the logic he finds at work in Rom. 10:13-14 in order to make the claim that the Caecilianists alone fully embody Paul’s vision of catholicity.

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