Homilies on the Gospel of John; Homilies on the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies (NPNF I/VII)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text · 2 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~610,000 words · 2,919 passages
Cite this work
- APAAugustine. (n.d.). Homilies on the Gospel of John; Homilies on the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies (NPNF I/VII). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/homilies-on-the-gospel-of-john-homilies-on-the-first-epistle-of-john-soliloquies-npnf-i-vii
- MLAAugustine. "Homilies on the Gospel of John; Homilies on the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies (NPNF I/VII)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/homilies-on-the-gospel-of-john-homilies-on-the-first-epistle-of-john-soliloquies-npnf-i-vii.
- ChicagoAugustine. Homilies on the Gospel of John; Homilies on the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies (NPNF I/VII). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/homilies-on-the-gospel-of-john-homilies-on-the-first-epistle-of-john-soliloquies-npnf-i-vii.
What it is about
Three things in one volume of the series: the homilies on the Gospel of John, those on the First Epistle of John, and the Soliloquies.
Context and history
It is worth knowing that they sit together for no reason internal to Augustine, but because the nineteenth-century editors put them in the same volume. The homilies are preaching at Hippo; the Soliloquies are much earlier — around 386-387, just after his conversion — a dialogue between Augustine and Reason, written before he was a bishop and before almost everything usually associated with him.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
AuGUSTiN was an indefatigable preacher. He considered regular preaching an indispensable part of the duty of a bishop. To his homilies we owe most of his exegetical labors. The homilies were delivered extempore, taken down by scribes and slightly revised by Augustin. They retain their colloquial form, devotional tone, frequent repetitions, and want of literary finish. He would rather be deficient in rhetoric than not be understood by the people. He was cheered by the eager attention and acclamations of his hearers, but never fully satisfied with his performance. "My preaching," he says, "almost always displeases me. I eagerly long for something better, of which I often have an inward enjoyment in my thoughts before I can put them into audible words. Then when I find that my power of expression is not equal to my inner apprehension, I am grieved at the inability of my tongue to answer to my heart " {De Catech. Rudibus, ch. H. 3, in this Series, Vol. HI. 284). His chief merit as an interpreter is his profound theological insight, which makes his exegetical works permanently useful. Comp. the introductory essay in the sixth volume. This volume contains:
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