The general aim of this monograph, published in the series ‘Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology’, is to encourage theologians to think again about the notion of ‘Augustinian tradition’. Teubner's thesis is that insufficient account has been taken hitherto of a more implicit use of Augustine's thought (which he terms ‘Augustinianism 2’). Despite the generality of the title Teubner examines his thesis through the specific appropriation of Augustine's reflections on prayer by two sixth-century Italians: the philosopher Boethius and the monk Benedict.

The book is clearly and tightly structured and neatly framed by ‘A Theological Prelude’ and ‘An Ethical Postlude’. Its two parts are linked by an interesting and refreshingly readable ‘Historical Interlude’. Teubner's method throughout is one of close textual analysis with an eye on social context. In chapters 1-3 of the first part, he traces the development of Augustine's reflections on prayer and its place in his thought from Soliloquia, De moribus and De magistro through to De Trinitate to discover the importance of the virtue and gift of patience in the life of a Christian, as Augustine understands it. In chapter 4, Teubner brings the findings of the first three chapters to bear on an analysis of the christological passages of De Trinitate 4 and 13, which he reads in the context of Augustine's letter on prayer (Letter 130). He concludes that we move from scientia (faith-based knowledge) to sapientia (wisdom) by putting on Christ, including putting on his desires through praying the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. It is in this way, Teubner insightfully observes, that Augustine develops an implicitly trinitarian account of prayer as the love of the Son for the Father. Whether or not one agrees with Teubner's assessment of the timing, or even the fact, of the developing nature of Augustine's understanding of prayer, there is no doubt that he captures the essence of prayer for Augustine, namely, interior, silent conversation that is holistic, horizontal, communal and christological.

In the second part, Teubner uses his findings to examine the reception of the Augustinian tradition of prayer by Boethius and Benedict. He makes his argument in two stages. He first draws out their overt, well-established and undisputed reliance upon Augustine, pointing to their direct literary borrowings – a level of tradition he terms Augustinianism 1. He then builds on the findings of Augustinianism 1 to gage a more subtle, though unmistakable, Augustinian influence in the nature and nexus of themes – a level of tradition he terms Augustinianism 2. So with regard to Boethius, Teubner first clarifies the exact nature and extent of Augustine's influence in some of the theological tractates Opuscula sacra by finding that prayer is the method the philosopher Boethius recommends as a practice of inquiring into theological questions and more specifically prayer as a desire for understanding that lies beyond our reach. He applies this finding to Boethius’ discussion of prayer in book 5 of the non-Christian work The Consolation of Philosophy. In this work, which, like Augustine's early reflections on prayer, has a dialogical structure, we discern Augustine's influence not in the language of prayer but in the understanding that it is prayer that can ultimately heal the breach between human knowledge and divine wisdom and in the meantime keeps us grounded in this world through desiring with a hopeful patience.

With regard to Benedict, Teubner, in a very readable and interesting chapter, compares passages of the Rule with passages in Augustine, as he examines the scholarly consensus that Benedict's Augustinianism 1 is found in the horizontal or fraternal relations of the brothers, as opposed to Cassian's vertical relations between the brothers and the abbot. In his second chapter on Benedict, Teubner turns his attention to the theological framework of the Rule, and what emerges through textual comparison is the discovery that the Benedictine Rule is essentially an Augustinian reformation of the Rule of the Master, with repercussions for understanding what Benedict's stipulation that ‘prayer should be short and pure’ might mean in the context of this fresh interpretation of the framework of the Rule as Augustinian.

Although it is not always an easy read, the author has drawn out some interesting insights on the meaning of the Augustinian tradition which impacts more generally on what we mean by tradition, something he takes up with the contemporary moral theologians Alasdair Macintyre and Jeffrey Stout in his ‘Ethical Postlude’. This book is therefore worthy of inclusion in a series on changing paradigms.