Reading Augustine in the Reformation: The Flexibility of Intellectual Authority in Europe, 1500-1620

by Arnoud S. Q. Visser

Overview

In sixteenth-century Europe, Augustine was received as one of the most prominent religious and philosophical authorities, yet the various parties appropriated his thought in different, often contrasting ways. Augustine was claimed as a thoroughly Lutheran, Catholic, or Calvinist thinker, and even hailed as the ideal Erasmian pastor. These wildly contrasting receptions raise crucial questions about the significance of Augustine's thought in the Reformation period. They also show the complex relationship between religious change and the new intellectual culture of Renaissance humanism.

Drawing on a variety of printed and manuscript sources, Arnoud Visser breaks new ground in three ways. He systematically grounds Augustine's theological reception in the history of reading and the material culture of books and manuscripts. He does not confine his examination to particular confessional parties or specific geographic boundaries, but offers a cross-confessional account of Augustine's appropriation in early modern Europe. Finally, he provides crucial insight into the nature of intellectual authority in the early modern period.

Central in this study are the production, circulation and consumption of Augustine's works. Visser examines the impact of the new art of print, the rise of humanist scholarship, and the emerging confessional divisions on Augustine's reception. He shows how editors navigated a wealth of patristic information by using search tools and anthologies, and explains how individual readers used their copies and how they applied their knowledge in public debates. Reading Augustine in the Reformation argues that emerging confessional pressures did not restrict intellectual life, as has often been claimed, but promoted exciting new areas and modes of scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199765935
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/11/2011
Series:	Oxford Studies in Historical Theology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Arnoud Visser received his doctorate at Leiden University, was a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, and is presently a lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
List of Figures
Introduction

Part 1: Production
Chapter 1. The Arrival of the Printing Press
Chapter 2. Humanist Scholarship and Editorial Guidance
Chapter 3. Augustine after Trent

Part 2: Circulation
Chapter 4. How to Find the Right Argument: Bibliographies and Indexes
Chapter 5. Customizing Authority: Anthologies and Epitomes

Part 3: Consumption
Chapter 6. How Readers Read Their Augustines
Chapter 7. Patristics and Public Debate

Epilogue
Appendix: Opera omnia editions of Augustine 1500-1620
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"How unusual for a monograph on the publishing history of a Church Father to challenge core ideas in intellectual history. Combining scrupulous study of early printed editions with a commanding grasp on modern theories of cultural formation, reception and reading, Arnoud Visser's engaging study of the works of Augustine gives us a convincing and sometimes unexpected story of the way in which Augustine's Opera omnia helped shape early modern attitudes and ideas."—- Lisa Jardine, CBE, Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London

"Arnoud Visser's learned and lively book illuminates both the book culture of Renaissance Europe and the uses of authority in the great debates of the Reformation. Covering a vast field with great precision, Visser traces the ways in which Augustine's works were listed and collected, edited and anthologized, indexed and annotated, cited and censored. Reading Augustine in the Reformation is a treasure-house of information and a model for further studies."—Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Princeton University

"Augustine of Hippo is the most influential theologian that Western or Latin Christianity has produced and, in sixteenth-century terms, he was the posthumous champion of Reformation and Counter-Reformation alike. If anyone thinks that this was just a debate among scholars, let them listen to Arnoud Visser as he recalls a sermon by the Catholic Simon Vigor which quoted Augustine to urge the assassination of the Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny. With admirable clarity and adroit deployment of absorbing detail, Visser takes us on a voyage round Augustine, touring throughout Europe and across confessional divides."
— Diarmaid N.J. MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford

"Visser's monograph is a model both of how to deal imaginatively with a very broad subject in the light of the best modern scholarship, and of how to generate novel and convincing arguments which will guide further research in the field."—Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"[A] brief 139 pages that belie their extensive and innovative scholarship...This is an invaluable study of how the Church Father was read in Reformation Europe."—The Catholis Historical Review

"Visser offers a nuanced and critical discussion...a careful and thought provoking study."—The Journal of Theological Studies

From the Publisher