This is a collection of eighteen essays and an introductory tribute (pp. 3–14) by Élisabeth Paoli to Anne-Marie La Bonnardière (1906–98), of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, remembered by so many of us for her unflagging devotion to Augustine's biblical study and exegesis. All the papers are in French, although at least one has been translated from the German, and the book will add to the reputation of France as being the European county most devoted to Augustine.

It is a characteristic of the contributors to this collection that they have not only read Augustine, which one takes for granted, but have sought to enter his mind and to understand the mentality which conditions his exegesis and the circumstances of his life which formed it. Augustine knew the Greek Bible but preached and wrote in Africa, the home of the Old Latin version. However, as Pierre-Maurice Bogaert points out in his essay ‘Les Bibles d'Augustin’, Augustine came to receive baptism in Milan, helped by the sermons of St Ambrose. He could use Donatist bible texts, or those of the churches where he preached, or the text in use at Hippo: he could make use of Jerome's translation from the Hebrew (for a detailed analysis of the dispute with Jerome see Jeannine Siat, ‘Pierre et Paul dans l’Épître aux Galates: la controverse Jérôme–Augustin' (pp. 259–73). In a learned study ‘Le Fondement de l'herméneutique augustinienne (pp. 37–57), Isabelle Bochet makes clear the essence of Augustine's hermeneutic: ‘C'est la relation au Verbe divin qui est le véritable fondement: son appel et la réponse de l'homme … En ce sens, il parait possible de voir dans la doctrine du Verbe l’équivalent d'une “herméneutique universelle”’ (pp. 56–7). Bochet's judgement is borne out by Yves Meesen: ‘Anéantissement et resplendissement. Une lecture augustinienne de l'hymne aux Philippiens [2: 6–11]’ (pp. 245–57). Here Augustine, following Paul, emphasises repeatedly that it was the Word's self-emptying on man's behalf and his submission to the death of the cross which restored fallen humanity: ‘Il est important de considérer ce mouvement d'anéantissement sous l'angle du propter nos’ (p. 254). Overwhelmingly, in their different ways, the contributors emphasise that for Augustine the Old Testament was not simply prophecy but actually expresses the New. So Michael Fiedrowicz sees the Psalms as understood by Augustine as the voice of Christ in our name (p. 145) and as the voice of the whole Christ (p. 148), while Jaime García understands Enarratio in Ps. 76 [77] as ‘la démarche d'Augustin pour arriver à la contemplation de la Sagesse de Dieu’ (p. 153). Virtually all the contributors agree on the Christocentricity of Augustine's biblical exegesis: the Old Testament does not simply prophesy the New, it expresses the New, which can be used in its exegesis. Michael Fiedrowicz sees the Psalms as the voice of Christ; Véronique Fabre agrees with this judgement, but discusses the question: what is the theological signification of the prophetic character of the Psalms? by means of a study of Psalms i, ii, iv and xviii, which leads her to the conclusion that they predict Christ and also the Church in the great mystery of their union after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. There is double prophecy in the Psalms: the forecast of what is to come and the unveiling of what is now present in the eyes of God. ‘Les Prophéties psalmiques, déjà accomplies, restent encore prophéties pour nous’ (p. 175).

Because of Augustine's conversion to Catholic Christianity at Milan, a comparison of his subsequent exegetical method with that of St Ambrose was desirable. This is supplied by Gérard Nouray, ‘Formes d'exégese pastorale dans Ambroise et Augustin: deux lectures de la rivalité entre Jacob et Ésaü’ (pp. 83–104). Agnès Bastit provides a long study of the exegesis of the Beatitudes from Clement of Alexandria to Augustine (pp. 179–213). Luigi Alici, following Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, examines Augustine's discussion of the human part in the ontology of comprehension (pp. 59–79). François Heim compares the Gospel parables with Neoplatonic images in the first four books of the Confessions (pp. 277–84). Henri Perrin offers reflexions on the regio dissimilitudinis of Confessions vii, 10, 16, both for Augustine and also for the present day (pp. 285–94).

Augustine's Tractates on the Fourth Gospel and on the Johannine Epistles are commonly reckoned among his greatest exegetical achievements and are respectively discussed by Marie-Anne Vannier (pp. 215–22) and Daniel Dideberg (pp. 223–31). Vannier's conclusion seems particularly apt: ‘Il est vrai que l’Évangile et la Première Épître de Jean sont pour lui un véritable creuset où il mÛrit les grandes intuitions de sa pensée'; but beside this must be set the sombre teaching of Augustine's predestinarian theology, which consigns the overwhelming majority of the human race to perdition because of its seminal participation in Adam's sin when he ate the forbidden fruit. This is discussed by Bruno Delaroche in an examination of the De peccatorum meritis et remissione, ‘Mémoire et méthode exégétiques à la première écoute des thèses “pélagiennes”’ (pp. 235–43), which emphasises the influence of St Paul on Augustine's theology, and by Gérard Rémy, ‘Deux Versions du récit de la tentation et de la chute originelle: De Genesi ad litteram xi et De civitate dei xiv’ (pp. 105–38). Many – most – theologians today will agree with his final judgement: ‘[Augustine] était trop sÛr de sa juste cause pour changer sa clef de lecture. Il léguait pour des siècles un héritage qui, dans le contexte actuel, est voué à une réinterprétation critique. Sa doctrine garde sa valeur de référence, si elle perd celle de modèle normatif.’

The final section of the collection is concerned with Augustine's influence as a biblical exegete on after ages. Pierre Raffin, bishop of Metz, writes on the Regula Augustini, which he holds, like most scholars today, to be the so-called Praeceptum (pp. 297–312). Paul-Irénée Fransen writes on the Augustinian Florilegium of Florus of Lyon, of which he is preparing an edition for the Corpus Christianorum, and provides information about the manuscript tradition of the compilation, of which seventy-six codices survive (the number from the twelfth century being misprinted as 388 not 38) (pp. 313–24).

This collection is to be warmly welcomed by Augustinian scholars and students of biblical exegesis.