If you are dreading death, love the resurrection. [1]
Augustine’s preaching does not merely make frequent reference to death and resurrection: it is saturated with a thorough-going emphasis upon the end of mortal life. A case study upon this theme of death and resurrection permits us to examine how Augustine appealed to interiority and temporality when applying Scripture to this important concern. It is our intention in this chapter to expose the methods Augustine used in a way which demonstrates empathy for his approach. Just as we have selected the topic of death and resurrection because it is so prevalent in his preaching, so the aspects of that preaching which we will consider aim to be representative of Augustine’s practices. Our intention is that the form of exploration be shaped by the content. In that sense, our study will be appropriately inductive.
Jesus’ Death
The death of Jesus was the means by which God overcame death. Augustine was concerned to proclaim the full reality of what happened on the cross: “God died, that he might make compensation in a certain kind of divine exchange, that humanity might not see death. So Christ is God, but he did not die in the aspect by which he was God.”[2] Not shying away from the bold claim that God died on the cross, Augustine is careful to explain in what sense this ought to be understood. In the incarnation, “he put on what he was not, he did not lose what he was.”[3] The humanity which he assumed enabled God to experience death through the person of Jesus. Augustine was clearly determined to preach that God died, and when he did so, he wished to explain in what sense the immortal God could die. Augustine agonized over the conundrum: how could he who cannot suffer or die be killed?[4]
Defense of orthodoxy, however, was only part of the preacher’s interest; Augustine desired to present the death of Jesus in such a way that the implications for listeners were made clear. The crucial point he highlighted, then, was that the death of Jesus was the means of killing death itself, saying, “The immortal one put on mortality, that he might die for us, and by his death kill our death.”[5]
With the aim of persuasion and exhortation, Augustine followed such presentations of the death of Jesus with invitations to confession: “First confess, that you may prepare a dwelling place for him whom you are calling upon.”[6] Such language echoes that of Confessiones: “I will always confess to him . . . who lives in us.”[7] In this way, we see that Augustine’s preaching of the death of Jesus aimed to provoke a reaction in a manner which complements the responsive nature of Confessiones.
Consistent with our study, it is Scripture which shapes the way Augustine presents Christ’s death. The death of Christ is situated in the temporal narrative of Scripture; two examples of this may be considered. First, the figure of Elisha is said to enact prophetically Jesus’ overcoming of death.[8] Augustine suggests that the way Elisha conformed his body to the shape of the dead boy’s form was a prophecy of Jesus conforming himself to mortals through the incarnation. Second, he preached about Moses’ rod which was turned into a snake, arguing that the snake represents mortality, since in Eden it was the snake who offered death to Eve.[9]
By ascribing to the snake these various significations, Augustine establishes his proclamation of Jesus’s death within the temporal narrative of scripture: “He was robed in mortality, which he also fixed to the cross.”[10] Thus, the putting on of mortality is not simply a philosophical notion or an atemporal concept; the scriptural setting gives it a temporal signification. Similar links are made elsewhere when Augustine notes that as a woman seduced Adam into death, so a woman proclaimed Jesus’ resurrection.[11] The Scriptures performed a greater role in Augustine’s preaching than merely illustrating truth; he could quote Luke 16:31 and John 5:46 to show that failure to believe in Jesus’ resurrection was the result of not believing the Scriptures.[12]
Augustine preached that God sovereignly planned the death of Jesus.[13] The interior intentions and desires of Judas were sinful, while the intentions of God were praiseworthy. Judas was a murderer; God a liberator. As he focused on interior desires to exonerate the morality of God, Augustine presented the death of Jesus in a temporal setting in order to impact the interiority. As he argues at the end of one sermon on the death of Jesus, “For neither, as some think, is the old man the body, and the new man the soul. Rather the body is the exterior man, the soul the interior. This old and new pertain to the interior.”[14]
In Jesus, Augustine saw the relationship between interiority and temporality manifested. He preached that as Jesus suffered he had the Holy Spirit to “renew the interior.”[15] This inner renewal enabled Jesus to see his sufferings with all the meaning that the wider temporal narrative of scripture invested in them: “Observing with the interior eyes of faith, [he saw] how great a price of temporal things he would be paying for future life.”[16] In Augustine’s preaching, the death of Jesus is proclaimed in a manner aimed towards changing listeners’ interiors. Augustine sought to achieve this by presenting Jesus at the center of a temporal narrative: the narrative of Scripture.
Death
Augustine affirmed in his preaching such doctrinal claims as death being the just punishment for sin.[17] Though such theological interpretations were assumed in his preaching, the two main ways in which Augustine preached on the topic of death were on the imminence of death and the example of martyrdom. These two approaches account for the vast majority of Augustine’s mentions of death and mortality in the Sermones. Temporality and interiority guided his handling of these themes as he sought to use Scripture to change listeners. Each of these two aspects of Augustine’s preaching on death will be considered.
Imminence of Death
Throughout Augustine’s preaching, he pays due regard to the temporal movement of God’s plans. This aspect of his hermeneutic is particularly marked by his treatment of death. The fulfilled predictions recorded in Scripture are presented as evidences that God will bring to pass the final part of his plans: “All which has been predicted of the church, we see fulfilled. Is it only the day of judgement which will not come?”[18]
The illustration of a legal judge is used to emphasize the significance of God’s warning of the future judgment. A human judge simply hands down a sentence; God warns of his future condemnation so that the prediction may be heeded and the judgment avoided.[19] Augustine used other illustrations to show that God did indeed want people to live and escape condemnation. On one occasion, he acted out a scene in which he played the role of a doctor visiting an elderly patient. He invites listeners to imagine themselves as a son of the patient. Playing the part of the doctor, Augustine warns the child that his father will die if he falls asleep. He then pictures the son constantly nagging at his father to keep him awake. The father may find it troubling, but the son persists since he desires that his father live. Augustine argues that in the same way, the Lord is urging listeners to not go to sleep, because he wa...
