Augustine on Preaching

Peter Brown wrote an excellent biography of Augustine named, Augustine of Hippo. Augustine was a bishop: an elder of the town of Hippo who was in charge of the local church and some priests in the surrounding area. He had some very wise insights about the Bible, preaching and training leaders.

The first quote is about Augustine's desire to immediately feed his flock from the bounty of the Word of God. The rest of the quotes are self-explanatory.

Augustine was certain of his basic role. It was not to stir up emotion: it was to distribute food. The Scriptural idea of 'breaking bread', of 'feeding the multitude', by expounding the Bible, an idea already rich with complex associations, is central to Augustine's view of himself as a preacher. (p. 249)

As he told Jerome, he could never be a 'disinterested' Biblical scholar: "If I do gain any stock of knowledge (in the Scriptures), I pay it out immediately to the people of God' (p. 249)

Nothing can be better, nothing more sweet for me than to gaze upon the Divine treasure without noise and hustle: this is what is sweet and good. To have to preach, to inveigh, to admonish, to edify, to feel responsible for every one of you--this is a great burden, a heavy weight upon me, a hard labour. (Augustine as quoted by Brown, pp. 252-253)

Augustine never faced the problem of replacing classical education throughout the Roman world. He merely wished to create for the devotees of true 'Wisdom' an oasis of literary culture, that was distinguished by being unselfconscious, unacademic, uncompetitve, and devoted to the understanding of the Bible alone. (p. 264)