By now it should be evident that patristic study is most significant for the discovery of the inseparability of theology, exegesis of scripture and spirituality, an integration by no means apparent in the modern world. This is borne out by turning to Augustine and focussing on the theologian as exegete. With Augustine, the quantity of material, both primary and secondary, is formidable: here is just a selective dip into a vast textual deposit. His work provides a fitting climax to this study, and, together with the earlier excursion into the work of Ephrem, allows me the satisfaction of having put the Greek tradition in context between both East and West.

Augustine fascinates, not least by reason of his lifelong intellectual development. It is not really possible to speak of‘his theology’ as if it were a single coherent entity. He was always on an intellectual and spiritual journey, and the later stages of the journey made him see the earlier stages in different perspective. He was capable of changing his mind, of arguing one thing in one context, another in another. So one witnesses a mind at work, a mind increasingly formed by the reading of scripture, especially the Psalms and the Pauline Epistles. Christiaan Beker has argued that in considering Paul's theology, one has to take account of both contingency and coherence, as his thought develops and responds to new situations; much the same can be said of Augustine, and the same kind of questions arise about where the coherence is to be located.