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Title: Fathers of the Church: Saint Augustine: Commentary on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount With Seventeen Related Sermons by St. Augustine, St Augustine, Dennis J. Kavanagh ISBN: 0-8132-0011-3 Publisher: Catholic Univ of Amer Pr Pub. Date: June, 1951 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95

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Summary: Interesting for style as well as content
Comment: The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction

Commentary on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount

Retractions: Book I: Chapter 19

Sermons:

53. On the Beatitudes

54. How to 'Let Your Light Shine Before Men'

55. On Taming the Tongue

56. On the Lord's Prayer

60. On Almsgiving

61. On Almsgiving

72. On Almsgiving

94. The Slothful Servant

109. The Adversary

346. On Life's Pilgrimage

4 (Denis). Christ: Lamb and Lion*

5 (Denis). Life From Death*

6 (Denis). The Holy Eucharist*

7 (Denis). Sonship or Servitude*

8 (Denis). On Baptism*

13 (Denis). Christ: The Glory of Martyrs*

11 (Morin). On the Beatitudes**

Index.

* The sermons so marked and the numbers assigned them are taken from a collection published by Michael Denis in 1792.

** Taken from Dom Germain Morin's "Miscellanea Agostiniana".

Although the title work of this book is Augustine's close commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the book also includes the chapter concerning the commentary taken from Augustine's "Retractions", as well as seventeen of Augustine's sermons: ten of which took their themes from the Sermon on the Mount, and seven others that were included because they had not (at the time of writing) ever been translated into English.

Scriptural commentary is not generally regarded as Augustine's greatest strength as a theologian; held closely to the text and the order of presentation in the text, he could not address the deep questions which the text as a whole raised, but at which individual passages in their immediate context only hinted, and it was in addressing the deep questions that Augustine excelled.

Apart from their questions concerning their excellence, Augustine's method of commentary may seem quite surprising to those familiar with the more modern historical approach. Augustine's focus is on symbol-systems. Here, for example, is Augustine's commentary on the first part of Matthew 6:6:

"'But,' says He, 'when you pray, go into your bedrooms.' Now, what are these bedrooms but the very hearts that are signified also in the Psalm wherein it is said: 'The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for in your bedrooms.' He then continues: 'And closing the doors, pray in secret to you Father.' Our entering the rooms is not enough if the door be left open to the importunate, for external things rush brazenly in through this door, and lay hold on our innermost affections ... Therefore, the door must be closed;"

By way of contrast, Daniel J. Harrington, in the modern form, writing on the same passage from "Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Matthew", says:

"The Greek word tameion can refer to a 'storage room' or 'pantry', the innermost room in the house. In either case the idea is the room least likely to attract public notice. Perhaps such a room had no windows ... Matthew 6:1-18 functions as part of the attack against Jewish opponents of the Matthean community."

Of course, the two forms of commentary are not mutually exclusive - a reader may hold both, either, or neither to be good readings. Some of course, may hold to the Harrington's form exclusively, and reject Augustine's symbol systems as imaginary. Others may hold to the Augustine's form exclusively and reject Harrington's Matthean community as imaginary.

With regard to the sermons in the collection, Augustine himself always regarded his sermons as unsatisfactory, but he seems to have been alone in that assessment. His sermons were admired and his style imitated for many centuries afterwards, a fact that has greatly complicated trying to determine which sermons Augustine wrote, and which were imitations of his style.

The editiorial material in the book includes the introduction, which provides a historical view of the works, both prior as regarding their composition, and later as to their reception and impact. Additionally, footnotes give exact references for Augustine's scriptural citations, translation issues, and references to other works of Augustine's or of others. Finally, the work has an index, which is, however, only fair.