This paper attempts to compare the ecc1esio1ogies of the fourth century Bishop of Hippo and the controversial twentieth century theo1ogian. In doing so, a study is made of each writer independently in order to extract his conceptual models of the Church. Special significance is given to the names each attributed to the Church and the consequences of these names as they pass from an analogical to an ecc1esio1ogica1 sphere. A study is also made of the functions of office within the Church with respect to the fulfillment of specific ministries. Here the two divide, Augustine meets the Donatist challenge by condemning disunity, while urging contemporary Christians to true internal reform, reminding them of the necessity of grace available only through the Church to heal their natures. Special attention is given to two specific topics from Augustine: the use of force to compel at least outward conformity, and the belief in the inability of man to do any good outside the Body of Christ. Kung diverges in another way in different times. He emphasizes the communal nature of the Church as those called by God and, on earth, represented by the ministry of ecclesiological office, including Ecumenical Councils and the Papacy. The Church, according to Kung, is the Kingdom of God moving towards manifestation and must reflect its apocalyptic nature by its witness and proclamation of the Word. He finds fault with the teaching office of the Church for its adherence to verbal propositions and concludes advocating a non-propositional attachment to kerygma. The contrast between the writers is sharply emphasized by a comparison of their positions on certain points, including authority, the Papacy and finally the four marks or distinguishing characteristics of the Church. The attitudes towards the first two differ markedly on some points, but a consistency of approach towards the four marks of the Church, with the exception of the Apostolic characteristic, can be seen. Several conclusions are propounded but the essence of each lies in the attitude of each writer towards human nature. Augustine finds the same wholly depraved without grace, which is given through the Word and human collaboration. Kung finds a response to divine call sufficient and is less concerned with limits on freedom in the name of love of neighbor. The interplay between these two schools of thought has punctuated Church history in the same manner as it does human history.

This dissertation considers the development of an ethics stemming from the Augustinian revival of early modern England, and the subsequent effect of this ethics on the literary culture of the period. The Preface claims that religious and textual communities operate according to a “cultural mobility” that eludes conventional neo-historicist approaches to literary culture, and Paul Ricoeur’s aphorism, “the symbol gives rise to thought,” serves as a model for thinking through this mobility. Augustinian ethics is a cultural phenomenon in the period, because people are thinking about Augustine, giving new life to his works through their own expressions of thought. After exploring the ways in which the Augustinian revival was brought about during the early modern period in the Introduction, one such expression of thought, John Donne’s relationship with early modern print culture, is examined in Chapter One. Following the theoretical outline of Augustine’s Christianization of Ciceronian rhetoric in his De Doctrina Christiana, it is suggested that though Donne’s aversion to the print publication of his poetry may have begun as a result of his “gentlemanly disdain” of the press, it ultimately found its sustenance in the form of an Augustinian ethic. Chapter Two examines the possibility of a metaphorical acquisition of Augustinian hermeneutics in the metadrama of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This hermeneutics ultimately calls into question the epistemological framework of Theseus’s skeptical aesthetics, suggesting that a more inclusive aesthetics based on charity can elevate the stage to its proper dignity. The last chapter turns from the communal implications of Augustinian ethics to its subjective implications by examining Augustine’s inner light theology and the role it plays in John Milton’s late poetry. Instead of falling in line with criticism that sees the simultaneous publication of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes as a dialectical meditation on the virtues of pacifism and the evils of religious violence, this reading suggests that the late poetry asserts the ethical rights of those who attend to the inner light, whether they be peaceful or violent. / text