Saturday, December 4, 2021

Robert Eno on Augustine and the Referent of "Rock" in Matthew 16:18

The following is taken from Robert Eno, "Doctrinal Authority in Saint Augustine," Augustinian Studies 12 (1981): 166-67:

 

At the end of his life, Augustine admitted uncertainty as to how the "Tu es Petrus" should be interpreted. Sometimes, he had said that Peter was the rock; more often he had commented that Christ was the rock and the Church was built on him whom Peter confessed. [115] The reader, he concluded in the Retractations, was free to choose. More often, for Augustine, the strength and firmness of Christ the rock were to be emphasized as the Church's one foundation. "The rock was Christ." "I shall build my Church on myself, the Son of the living God. I shall build you upon myself, not myself on you ... " "That Peter may be built up on the rock, not the rock on Peter." "Peter is named from the rock, not the rock from Peter, just as the Christian takes his name from Christ, not vice versa." [116]

 

Notes for the Above

 

115. Retract. 1.21.1 (CSEL 3612.98). Christ is the rock: Tr.in ev. Joann. 124.5 (CCL 36.684-5); Sermo 270.2 (pL 38.1239).

 

116. "The rock is Christ.": En.in ps.60.3 (CCL 39.767); Church built by Christ on himself: Sermo 76.1 (PL 38.479; see also: sermo 244.1 (PL 38.1148); En.in ps.102.9 (CCL 40.1459-60); en.in ps.103, sermo 2.5 (CCL 40.1493); "Peter is named from the rock": Sermo 270.2 and Tr.in ev.Joann. 124.5. See note 115 above