Despite the centrality of Christ's resurrection for the Christian faith in general and, it turns out, for Augustine's theology in particular, scholarly engagement with this theme in Augustine remains meagre. Such is the justification for Gerald O'Collins’ brief book on the topic. O'Collins divides his study into four main chapters. (The fifth is a brief conclusion.) Chapter 1 expounds what Augustine believed about Christ's resurrection, while chapter 2 describes how he defends its truth. Chapter 3 takes the theological data from chapter 1 and identifies where Augustine's theology needs to be edited and adapted for the twenty-first century. Chapter 4 does the same for Augustine's apologetics of the resurrection.
In chapter 1, O'Collins identifies seven key themes in Augustine's writing on Christ's resurrection. Most important are the role of Christ's resurrection as the sine qua non of Christian faith, the identity of Christ's resurrected body with his prior body, and the ways in which Christ's resurrection benefits Christians. O'Collins further emphasises the risen Christ's mediating and priestly role that is shared with the church within the totus Christus, the head and body of Christ. Despite his use of this corporal imagery, O'Collins says little about the substantial effects of the incarnation that undergird the restoration of human nature within Augustine's christology and soteriology.
Chapter 2 explores the rhetoric that surrounds these ideas. Rhetoric here does not mean the technical methods of classical rhetorical practice that one might find in Cicero or Quintilian but rather the more general notion of the apologetic proofs Augustine puts forward against denials of the resurrection. Creation itself forms the core of Augustine's rhetorical defence of the resurrection. The wonder of creation and the quotidian miracles of natural life – especially the union of the immaterial soul with the material body – point to God's ability to do what appears impossible to mere creatures. In addition, the historical success of Christianity and the heroic acts of the martyrs demonstrate the truth of the resurrection gospel for Augustine.
With chapter 3, O'Collins pursues ‘creative reception’ (p. 61) in an effort to bring Augustine's theology of the resurrection into the twenty-first century. Core to this chapter is the author's defence of Christ's resurrection against a wide range of modern sceptics, from Bahrdt and Venturini to Phillip Pullman, a humanist author of fiction/fantasy against whom O'Collins spills an inordinate amount of ink. While O'Collins doubles down on the centrality of the resurrection for Christian faith, he takes Augustine to task for making Jesus the primary agent of his own resurrection and thus ignoring the trinitarian implications of Paul's account of the event in Romans. O'Collins’ critique would benefit from more engagement with recent scholarship on Augustine's pro-Nicene theology, especially the doctrine of inseparable operations.
Finally, chapter 4 takes up the rhetorical techniques from Augustine that O'Collins believes should be adapted and deployed in contemporary theological debate. His most profitable appropriation is the argument from the miracle of creation. In order to believe in the resurrection, one must first believe in an omnipotently loving God actively engaged with creation. The rest of the chapter again engages modernist sceptics of the resurrection narrative.
Despite the effort he has put into proving the historical plausibility and theological significance of Christ's resurrection, O'Collins ends by quoting Wittgenstein as he affirms that ‘it is love that believes in the resurrection’ (p. 114). Further, O'Collins suggests, the resurrection attunes our spiritual senses to cultivate love of God and love of neighbour through a proper, awe-filled awareness of the Creator and the creation.
Some Augustine scholars will find this book lacking in its methodology. O'Collins only occasionally (and then briefly) places Augustine in his intellectual or cultural context. Most of the secondary literature on Augustine referenced by the author comes from a small selection of (quite good) edited volumes, handbooks and the like. The argument proceeds not with close readings of passages but with numbered theses supported with catenae of brief, unanalysed quotations.
Yet readers would be remiss to dismiss O'Collins’ work. Augustine on the Resurrection should be received as both a gift and an invitation. For some, O'Collins provides a foundation for more constructive reflection on the meaning of the resurrection in a world that knows all too much of death. For others, like myself, O'Collins invites deeper engagement with this topic in Augustine and other patristic authors.
