Building upon previous research into Augustine's theology of desire for The Conversion and Therapy of Desire (Wipf and Stock, 2016), Mark Boone undertakes to present a consideration of Augustine's theology of desire in his Enarrationes in Psalmos that shows its integration with his systematic theology and importance in his pastoral preaching. Boone does this by examining enarrationes on specific psalms, while attempting in the process to provide an examination of the Enarrationes as a whole. Boone groups his analysis of the Enarrationes into four chapters, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion that provides insights into the application of Boone's analysis to modern preaching. These chapters cover the relationship of desire to christology, ecclesiology, happiness (and well-being), and eschatology. While this work generally remains at a fairly theological level, historians of Christianity may be particularly interested in those points at which Boone notes the role of ongoing theological debates in Augustine's preaching. In particular, Chapter Two, about ecclesiology and desire, gives some attention to the Donatist controversy, as might be expected from the centrality of that controversy to Augustine's understanding of ecclesiology. Boone at times also notes the influence on Augustine's preaching of the relatively recent Diocletianic persecution and the persecution of Catholic Christians by the Circumcellions, a violent Donatist group. Boone's discussion of desire in the Enarrationes will, accordingly, be primarily of interest to historical theologians and those interested in the history of preaching.
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