I began this review by saying that these two books are meant to contribute to an ‘Augustinian renaissance’ in contemporary theology, one in which theologians retrieve elements of Augustine’s thought for contemporary questions. Both books offer a great deal of material for this kind of inquiry—one may pause on the topics of any of their chapters and launch a sustained research program on how what Augustine has to say on the matter may shed some light. Nevertheless, one might also ask how this Augustinian renaissance should proceed in order to convince those most ardent critics of Augustine, since this is also one of their putative goals. Breyfogle and Clausen seem to do so through demonstration—by presenting Augustine as beautifully as one perceives his theology to be. Thus, the reader is offered many metaphors and thematic presentations meant to convey the beauty of an Augustinian standpoint. This reviewer, however, doubts that this is the best way forward to reclaim Augustine. Critics may be impressed by the aesthetics of the presentations, but they will still wonder if Augustine has an adequate answer to the problem of evil or to the relationship between order and hierarchy, for instance. These are matters still left in the air by the end of both books. At worst, they run the risk of convincing only the already convinced. What is necessary is to complement the beauty of such presentations with precise definitions, clear arguments and rigorous historical work. Of course, this is much more of a methodological objection than an objection to the content of their books, the value of which I believe will be validated through greater precision. If we really want to follow Augustine’s insights on love for moral agency, for example, we do well to identify the instances in which love obtains (rather than mere desire), how a ‘self’ differs from an essence, the relationship of love to the will, and how loves can be morally evaluated. Breyfogle and Clausen have given us the beauty; subsequent books in this promising series will do well to provide the rest.

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书评：Wayne Grudem，《基督教伦理：圣经道德推理导论》

我在评论开始时说，这两本书旨在促进当代神学的“奥古斯丁复兴”，其中神学家为当代问题检索奥古斯丁思想的元素。这两本书都为这种探究提供了大量材料——人们可以暂停任何章节的主题，并启动一项持续的研究计划，以了解奥古斯丁对此事的看法可能会带来一些启示。尽管如此，人们可能还会问，为了说服那些最热心的奥古斯丁批评家，奥古斯丁的复兴应该如何进行，因为这也是他们假定的目标之一。Breyfogle 和 Clausen 似乎是通过示范来做到这一点的——通过将奥古斯丁的神学表现得像人们认为的那样优美。因此，向读者提供了许多隐喻和主题陈述，旨在传达奥古斯丁观点的美感。然而，这位评论家怀疑这是收回奥古斯丁的最佳方式。评论家们可能对这些演讲的美学印象深刻，但他们仍然想知道奥古斯丁是否对邪恶问题或秩序与等级之间的关系有足够的答案。这些问题在两本书的结尾仍然悬而未决。最坏的情况是，他们冒着只说服已经相信的人的风险。有必要用精确的定义、清晰的论点和严谨的历史工作来补充这种展示的美感。当然，这更多是一种方法论上的反对，而不是对他们书籍内容的反对，我相信其价值将通过更高的精度得到验证。例如，如果我们真的想遵循奥古斯丁对道德能动性的爱的见解，我们可以很好地确定爱获得的实例（而不仅仅是欲望），“自我”如何不同于本质，爱与爱的关系意志，以及如何在道德上评价爱。Breyfogle 和 Clausen 给了我们美丽；这个有前途的系列中的后续书籍将很好地提供其余部分。