Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction: Why don't Christians do dialogue?
- PART I CLASSICAL MODELS
- PART II EMPIRE MODELS
- PART III CHRISTIANITY AND THE THEOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE
- 6 Can we talk? Augustine and the possibility of dialogue
- 7 ‘Let's (not) talk about it’: Augustine and the control of epistolary dialogue
- PART IV CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL IMPERATIVE
- PART V JUDAISM AND THE LIMITS OF DIALOGUE
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - ‘Let's (not) talk about it’: Augustine and the control of epistolary dialogue
from PART III - CHRISTIANITY AND THE THEOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction: Why don't Christians do dialogue?
- PART I CLASSICAL MODELS
- PART II EMPIRE MODELS
- PART III CHRISTIANITY AND THE THEOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE
- 6 Can we talk? Augustine and the possibility of dialogue
- 7 ‘Let's (not) talk about it’: Augustine and the control of epistolary dialogue
- PART IV CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL IMPERATIVE
- PART V JUDAISM AND THE LIMITS OF DIALOGUE
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
DIALOGUE AND THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY
The growing domination that Augustine of Hippo exerted over all areas of religious debate in North Africa during the early fifth century CE was a key part of Caecilianist success against its rivals. By actively seeking out opportunities for public dialogue with Donatist, Manichaean and Arian opponents then insisting upon the presence of stenographers before organising the distribution and reading out of these transcripts, Augustine effectively seized control of how these debates were presented to the wider Christian community in North Africa. For Augustine this strategy of controlled engagement would be particularly successful in forcing progress on the African church's most long-standing and seemingly intractable dispute: the Donatist controversy. A century of schism had resulted in the development of two quite distinct rival textual communities. Both Donatists and Caecilianists had their own exhaustive archive of legal documents, treatises, council records, sermons and letters which not only proved the rectitude of their respective positions in the controversy but also provided the foundation of the institutional identities which they had established for themselves. Augustine would totally reject this separatist status quo. The Donatist dossiers would be subjected to rigorous forensic scrutiny by the bishop of Hippo. By challenging the veracity and in some instances the ownership of key disputed texts, Augustine sought to undermine any notion of a legitimate Donatist community.
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- Information
- The End of Dialogue in Antiquity , pp. 135 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009