Umstrittene Vergangenheit

The struggle with the Donatists in North Africa dominated Augustine's term of office as bishop. In order to disprove their views, in his writings not only did he employ theological arguments, he also referred to events which occurred at the time of the origins of the schism. Augustine's aim was to use historical documents to prove that the Donatists had no right to claim that they represented the pure Church, free of traditores.

The Donatists reacted to this challenge by developing their own version of the history of the schism. This study draws on Augustine's anti-Donatist writings to analyse and assess the historical arguments and views of both groups.

Autorentext

Arne Hogrefe, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.

Zusammenfassung

"His [Hogrefe's] meritorious historical overview of this controversy and its historical argutmentation supplements existing Donatism studies and is a valuable contribution to the research of early christianity."
A. Dupont in: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 1/2010

"In der etwa 30 Jahre (~390-420 n.Chr.) währenden literarischen Auseinandersetzung Augustins mit den Donatisten entstanden zahlreiche Schriften [...]. Arne Hogrefe [...] untersucht diese Schriften auf ''historische Argumente'' [...] [und] [...] macht sich zur Aufgabe, ''Augustins rhetorischen Aufbau zu analysieren, den Argumentationsrahmen zu erfassen und zu erklären und so den Stellenwert, die Bedeutung und den Informationsgehalt der historischen Aussagen zu bestimmen.''(5)."
Dagmar Hofmann in: Gnomon Bd. 83, 2011