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Document Details : Title: De gestis Pelagii Subtitle: Reassessing Augustine's Reponse to the Synod of Diospolis (415) Author(s): PIERCE, Alexander H. Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 74 Issue: 1 Date: 2024 Pages: 179-206 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.74.1.3293309 Abstract : This article aims to help readers to appreciate some of the reasons for Augustine’s course of action in responding to the outcome of the 415 Synod of Diospolis in his treatise De gestis Pelagii (late 416/early 417). I argue that in De gestis Pelagii Augustine is not only truthful from his own perspective as Andrew Chronister argues, but also provides a reliable source for understanding the state of affairs of the so-called Pelagian controversy in the year or so following the Synod of Diospolis. I argue for this conclusion by contending for (1) the reliability of Augustine’s narration of events preceding and surrounding the synod, (2) the fittingness of Augustine’s actions in light of conciliar conventions of his time, and (3) the soundness of two primary instances of Augustine’s use of forensic rhetoric in theological disputation. The upshot of this study is therefore to add further insight into certain contextual factors and precipitating conditions underlying the rhetoric of De gestis Pelagii. While I find much common ground with the work of those placing a renewed focus upon Augustine’s use of rhetoric in his controversial writings, a subsidiary concern of my efforts here is to commend a more circumspect role for the significance we attribute to Augustine’s rhetorical training in the analysis of his theological writings. |
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