CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Földy, Krisztina Lilla |
|---|---|
| Title | AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO ON BIBLICAL APOCALYPTICISM |
| Summary | This thesis deals with how Augustine of Hippo struggled with the idea of the end of the world towards the end of his life and how he communicated what he had learnt about it. Scholars agree that Augustine took an agnostic position on apocalypticism stressing a spiritual interpretation, even if he accepted the biblical apocalyptic prophecy as revealing future events. This thesis was motivated by the tension behind this statement in modern scholarship. My thesis shows that Augustine expected the factual end of the world, preceded by a three-and-a-half-year-long reign of the Antichrist, however, he always emphasized that the time of the end cannot be known by humans. Augustine adopted a twofold strategy in interpreting prophetic passages about the end of times. First, he searched for the contemporary significance of the prophetic predictions, while at the same time he interpreted the future events on the basis of contemporary experience. Augustine interpreted apocalyptic biblical verses in a cautious way, always emphasizing the limits of human intellect and opening new and alternative ways in his interpretation. After reviewing expectations about the end of the world at the turn of the fourth and fifth century, I analyze the debate between Augustine and Hesychius of Salona as preserved in their correspondance between 418 and 420. The unreflected stance of the bishop of Salona motivated Augustine to elaborate his own interpretation of the apocalyptic biblical passages. He further elaborated his eschatology when he faced the task to formulate his own views about the Last Days in Book 20 of De Ciuitate Dei in 425/427. Comparing the interpretations about the end of the world in the sources of this period, one can see how much Augustine struggled with the obscure and ambiguous passages in order to hammer out a scriptually correct and theologically acceptable solution. The bishop of Hippo, however, never got tired of discovering new aspects of bible passages, not least because of his emphasis on the human limits in understanding the Scriptures. When Augustine composed his texts he kept to his specific aim and with the targeted audience in his mind he chose the rhetorical devices appropriately. He synthesized late antique rhetorical culture and the hermeneutics of apocalyptic biblical passages. I think the long-lasting authority of Augustine’s teaching about the end of the world owes to this synthesis and his sophisticated use of rhetorical devices. |
| Supervisor | György Geréby |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/foldy_krisztina-lilla.pdf |
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