Tolle, Lege, Tolle, Lege

The article explores how the divine command “Tolle lege” in Confessiones 8.12, coupled integrally with Augustine’s response, resolves multiple dilemmas or problems central to the narrative of the work, in philosophical, psychological and theological modes. An initial contention is that the question of the soul’s ability to move itself is more fundamental to the crisis of Book 8 than is the dividedness of the post-lapsarian will, and that the climactic moment in 8.12 brings the surprising, urgently needed solution. A second claim is that too little attention has been paid to the apparent redundancy of the divine command: Augustine has “taken and read” before. Here, too, extraordinary supernatural therapy is provided in the cooperative nexus of God’s call and Augustine’s response. Key to the analysis of these two textual features is the monumental import, morally and metaphysically, of the human act of obedience to God, on its own terms and in contradistinction with other kinds of moral action. Finally, the claim is advanced, abundantly justified by the text yet far under-appreciated, that the divine command is actually, and intentionally, iterative, bespeaking the boundless gratuitousness of God’s mercy and a pedagogy of literary-spiritual growth in Christ

Key (lock) · Narrative · Nexus (standard) · Obedience · Redundancy (engineering) · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Religious, Philosophical, and Educational Studies