Reception of John’s Gospel in North Africa (c. 325-533). Augustine of Hippo’s In Iohannis euangelium tractatus and Contemporary North African Sermons

This project seeks to recontextualize an early 5th-century work of Augustine of Hippo, In Iohannis euangelium tractatus (AD 405-420s), by examining African patristic Latin sermons on the Gospel of John. Our team investigates how these 124 ‘tractates’ of Augustine contributed to continuous North African tradition of preaching on John between ca. 325-533. We promote use of evidence from his other sermones, tractates, and enarrationes – as well as many other Latin sermons attributed to Augustine’s contemporaries in the region. What citations from John are most distinctive in these texts? What assertion of religious-social identities do these sermons display (based on John)? What conclusions may be drawn from a comparison of Augustine’s tractates on John and the other data sets? Our method is to assess chosen sources for their direct citation from Latin biblical MSS, use of identifying vocabulary and development of Johannine  heological reflections. We apply this research method primarily to Augustine’s 124 tractates; but also to other sermons of Augustine– as well as work of other recognized African authors; and, finally, to a number of pseudo-epigraphical or anonymous sermons, believed to reflect a North African origin. Our choice of Latin sermons as a genre aims to gauge rhetorical use of John’s gospel, in the religious group formation of a shared African milieu. This approach offers promising insights for the major sources to be considered and authors compared.