Commentary on Galatians

by Augustine of Hippo, Eric Plumer

s/t: Introduction, Text, Translation & Notes
Now available in English for the first time, Augustine's Commentary on Galatians is his only complete, formal commentary on any book of the Bible and offers unique insights into his understanding of Paul and of his own task as a biblical interpreter. Yet it is one of his least known works today - and this despite its importance in the past for such major figures as Aquinas, Luther, Erasmus, and Newman. The present volume seeks to remedy this situation by providing not only an English translation with facing Latin text, but also a comprehensive introduction and copious notes. Since Galatians happens to be the only biblical book commented upon by all the ancient Latin commentators - including Jerome, Pelagius, Ambrosiaster, and Marius Victorinus, as well as Augustine - it provides a basis for comparing them and for identifying Augustine's special concerns and emphases. Augustine's Commentary also has crucial links to other works he wrote at the time, especially his monastic rule and De Doctrina Christiana. Augustine's emphasis on Galatians as a pastoral letter designed to preserve and strengthen Christian unity links the commentary to his monastic rule, while his method and sources link it to, and indeed pave the way for, the theory of biblical interpretation set forth in the De Doctrina Christiana.

313 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2003

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

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