The Mestizo Augustine: A Theologian Between Two Cultures

Price, shipment were good. And the book gave me new insights about Western church and myself.

Must read for any Latino/Hispanic in the Church, especially living in the U.S.

Augustine, the great church father, has been such a giant on the theological landscape for so many centuries, he has become a huge, lifeless statue for many. Justo González pumps life back into our view with a fresh and fascinating look at the humanity and the competing cultures at work within Augustine.Augustine was a mix of the African heritage and faith of his mother (Monica) and the Roman culture of his father (Patrick) that he learned in school. Thus, the mestizo Augustine. Mestizaje is a Spanish word meaning mixed breed that was (and can still be) pejorative. About a century ago in Mexico, however, the word began to be used to describe an advantage—the ability to take the best from two worlds and mold it into something stronger.We see this at work in the disagreements Augustine had with other Christian factions. On the one hand, he affirmed the Roman view that authority was conferred by the office one held whereas the Donatists took the African perspective that it resided in one’s virtue and character. But when dealing with the Pelagians, he reversed course and took the African viewpoint. God’s authority was found in his own person of love and grace not in his role as Judge which, according to the Pelagians, he was bound by the Law to administer with justice or be labeled capricous. Augustine was flexible and creative as required.The bishop of Hippo, however, wasn’t very self-conscious about how these two cultures were at work in and around him. He didn’t seem to understand that more than theology motivated the Donatists. They resisted oppressive Roman rule (and so sometimes a Roman-dominated church) by affirming their own North African identity. The conflict was social, cultural and economic—expressed in theological differences.Nonetheless, the overall strengths of Augustine’s mixed background offer a positive model for us now as it has throughout history. The Hebrew-Gentile mestizaje of the New Testament era, the Greco-Roman mestizaje of the early church, the Latin-German mestizaje of the Middle Ages and more all point to the value (even with its inherent tensions) of weaving together multiple cultures as a pathway to creativity, vitality and mission.

This is a fascinating and timely book. Although the basic narrative of Augustine's life that Gonzalez offers here will be very familiar to those who have read the saint's works, Gonzalez's mestizo framework -- two intermeshed cultures, in Augustine's case African and Roman -- offers a new and fresh spin.In the latter parts of the book, Gonzalez depicts Augustine as a bridge between the Roman Empire and the middle ages. He writes these striking words: "[The] mestizo vision was one of the factors that allowed Augustine to serve as a bridge between the Greco-Roman past that was waning and the new regime that was dawning -- a regime of disorder, obscurantism and violence -- from which eventually, as a new incarnation of the earthly city, Western civilization would develop." (166)If as Gonzalez argues, Augustine's mestizo identity prepared him to point the way into a new era, then perhaps we should pay close attention to this narration of the great saint's life because Augustine's age bears a striking resemblance to our own, in which the American empire is on the wane and we teeter on the brink of an age of disorder, obscurantism, and violence.

Augustine's City of God and Confessions have made a significant impact on my life. When people ask me for the most formative books outside the Bible, it is easy to name the top two: Confessions and Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.I've read several books about Augustine. I can say that all of them have been quite good, with a few of exceptional quality. Those by Jean Bethke Elshtain and Garry Wills would top my list. Those two are now joined by Justo Gonzalez.Gonzalez teases out the implications of Augustine being a person of two cultures: African and Greco-Roman. The Spanish word, mestizaje, means that one is a "mixed breed." No easy thing being one and it carried far-reaching implications for how Augustine viewed himself and how he conducted his ministry.Gonzalez covers the typical terrain with the Donatist controversy, etc. but in a way no one else has before.Highly recommended.