Saint Augustine - Essential Exposition of the Psalms

My hope is that this anthology may serve several purposes. Certainly it offers the curious a manageable sampling of Augustines preached exegesis in general and of his massive Expositions of the Psalms in particular. But for a book like this the stakes are higher because the needs are deeper. Many anxiously search Scripture today, not to locate disembodied and timeless meanings, but to relearn from the ground up how to read in a way that is both theologically coherent and faithful to the texts own concerns. In a movement that crosses confessional borders many seekers today have apprenticed themselves to the early Christian readers of Scripture in order to learn not only what they learned but also how they learned it. Of course, we cant simply replicate the results of an earlier era; but that isnt the point. The best apprentices want to incarnate their masters attitudes and impersonate their practices; that is, they seek not merely to imitate but somehow to become their teachersin their own way. An anthology like this offers an opportunity to get inside a great spiritual-theological mind like Augustines so that we may learn how to see our issues through his eyes. Though great chasms of time and cultural change separate us from him, Augustines main concerns remain recognizable and relevant. We too ask of the texts, Whats going on here? We too wish to learn freshly how to read, how to understand, how to appropriate these texts as living words from God. After making the appropriate adjustments, each of us may learn to become what Augustine became as he searched out Scriptures mysteries with his people: reader and questioner, searcher and believer, finder and preacher. Beyond conducting a tour of Augustines fascinating ideas, I hope this book channels the restless spirit of holy inquiry that runs through his Expositions and conveys the deep enthrallment with Scripture that pervades its pages for our own reading, exegesis, and preaching.

I wish to thank two dear friends and acute readers, William Harmless, S. J., and Allan Fitzgerald, O.S.A., for their work of reviewing the volumes arrangement and offering critiques of the General Introduction. Their sage counsel and many solid suggestions have substantially improved the work presented here. This book was already in the publishers hands when the news hit like a bullet that Fr. Bill Harmless had died unexpectedly on 14 October 2014. The loss for the world of scholarship, and for many other worlds, is incalculable. For me Bill was a close companion, smiling critic, and wise mentor. His fingerprints are all over this volume, and those who know Bills ways will sense him. In God all things work together for good, as St. Paul said; but in the short term some of those things wreak havoc. Reluctantly we release Bill entirely to the God he loved, as he himself did every day. Requiescat in pace.

Thanks go to the people at New City Press for their patient willingness to await a volume that was long in preparation. This book also has been fortunate to have Boniface Ramsey as its editor; his practical wisdom and drive for clarity infused a quality that it would not otherwise have had. I am deeply grateful to my wife, Lorie Simmons, for dinner conversations and breaks for movies and warm encouragement all along the way.

Portland, Oregon

3 March 2015

Second Week of Lent