Collection
Tractates on the Gospel of John
Delivered from the pulpit at Hippo over a span of years and taken down as he spoke, these homilies form the fullest patristic commentary on the Fourth Gospel. Augustine moves clause by clause through John, pausing over a punctuation mark in the prologue, the Baptist's confession of ignorance, the moaning of the dove, the water made wine at Cana — always with the double pressure of preaching *In principio erat Verbum* to a congregation that includes both the spiritually seasoned and those who cannot yet climb. The trinitarian doctrine is worked out in real time, interrupted by winter weather, a pagan festival across the sea in Carthage, and promises deferred from the previous Lord's day. Eternity and history are held in the same sentence, and the room in which they were first spoken is never far from the page.