Augustine's Cyprian: Authority in Roman North Africa. The Appeal to Cyprian in the Donatist and Pelagian Controversies. A Study of the Legitimacy of the Use of Authority in Two Controversies in the Life of Augustine.

Metaquestion: Central in this research proposal is the reception of Cyprian in Augustine and the Donatists in the Donatist Controversy and in Augustine and in a lesser degree by the Pelagians in the Pelagian Controversy. All parties in both controversies refer positively to Cyprian and consider him as a iudex, vested with auctoritas to be consulted in doctrinal matters. The basic question of this research is: if/where/how is the Cyprian profile respectively in both #camps# different and/or similar and if/where/how Augustine#s Cyprian profile is identical or different in both controversies? Which elements play a role in these similarities in/or differences and can we observe an evolution in Augustine? Whatdoes a comparative analysis teach us about the concepts of auctoritas, novitas and traditio in Augustine and his opponents. Within this meta-research question of the reception of Cyprian, attention will be given to four clusters of more specific thematic investigation questions. 1. Ecclesiology: Does Augustine#s notion of corpus permixtum appeal to Cyprian#s ecclesiology? If so, how does he reconcile this with Cyprian#s plea for re-baptizing lapsi (cf. Contreras, 1987) while Augustine rejects this practice and doctrine? Does Augustine#s ecclesiology sufficiently take into account that the #old# African Christian Cyprianic tradition emphasizes the separation of the Church from the world, a tradition enhanced by the Donatists in their ecclesial model of the Church as a stronghold of purity and sanctity in a sinful word, an institute sine ruga et macula? (Augustine will unjustly [Wermelinger, 1975] rebuke also the Pelagians for maintaining this interpretation.) The question of Augustine#s ecclesiological appeal to Cyprian is otherwise put linked with the question whether and how the Donatists based their church model on Cyprian: is this the same ecclesiology as Cyprian? How does the Donatist Church model (stressing their purity, and because of this reason their genuine potestas, to administer sacraments) compare to Augustine#s (stressing that the two main characteristics of the true Church are unity and universality and pleading for tolerance for sinners; cf. Ratzinger, 1954; Congar, 1963; Markus, 1983; Frend, 1985)? How do the ecclesiological usagesof Cyprian by Augustine and the Donatists relate to Cyprian#s own doctrine of the Church? Is this auctoritas multi-interpretable? If not, whichparty remains closest to Cyprian? What is the role of Augustine in the Donatist Controversy and in the development of ecclesiology in the Pelagian Controversy? How is all this related to Pelagius# vision of the Church (cf. Thier, 1999; Lamberigts, 2003)? 2. Political-societal: In what degree did a different vision of society # the Donatists kept a sharp distinction between saeculum and church while Augustine believed in a collaboration between church and state # play a decisive role in the final #defeat# of the Donatists, politically and ideologically (cf. 411 synod)? Is it possible to find theological arguments in Cyprian in favor of such a division (Donatists) or cooperation (Augustine) between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities? In what degree did Augustine#s vision of church-state relations, as he developed in the Pelagian Controversy, influence his reaction against the Pelagians, whose condemnation was the result of interplay between church and state, in which Augustine c.s. never shunned using the Imperial court in his debate with the Pelagians (Lamberigts, 2004)? 3. Relation of North Africa and Rome. a. Church politics: In what degree did Church politics (the Donatist preference for a local church community versusd by the Emperor) play a role in the Donatist Controversy? How does the Bishop of Rome function as an authority in both controversies for both parties? How should it be explainedthat Augustine in his most important anti-Donatist writings does not refer to cathedra Petri (cf. Perler, 1990), while he unreservedly appeals to Pope Innocent to condemn the Pelagians (cf. Carefoote, 1993)? And howcan this appeal be reconciled by the fact that Augustine and the African episcopate at the same time put aside (as Cyprian in his days and as the Donatists did) the authority of the Bishop of Rome (Zosimus) when this does not subscribe to the #Augustinian# standpoint (cf. Lamberigts, 1992)? How do Cyprian, the Donatists, Augustine and the Pelagians evaluate the auctoritas of the Roman bishop? b. Theological: Previous research made clear that some ideas of Augustine are rejected by Julian of Aeclanum because they belong, according to him, to the tradition of African theology and were not universally spread in (Western) Christianity (cf. Lamberigts 2003; bvb. e.g. the idea of peccatum originale [Bonner, 1967] and concupiscentia [Yates, 2001]). To what degree is Julian#s critique of the #Punic# Augustine with #African ideas# rhetorical and polemical? Or is it possible to establish by an in depth comparison between Augustine#s thinking, Donatism (with Cyprian as central point of comparison), and Pelagianism that Augustine is clearly an #African theologian#, that there existed an #African theology# with its own specific accents? 4. Theological interaction between the Donatist and Pelagian Controversies: To what degree did the Donatist Controversy influence Augustine#s thinking on the relation between theology, ecclesiology and politics? And, vice versa, in what degree were the theological topics for which Cyprian is appealed to in the Pelagian Controversy, already substantially present in the Donatist Controversy, both in Augustine and the Donatists? Is this, content-wise, theologically the same Cyprian? Or is the Cyprianic interpretation different on the two sides andin the two controversies? How does Cyprian himself deal with the fall, (infant) baptism, grace (creative and redemptive), Christ as unique mediator (cf. Lam Quy, 2005), prayer and how are this topics together with Cyprian mentioned in both controversies?

Keywords:Doratist and Pelagian Controversies

Disciplines:Theology and religious studies

Project type:PhD project