Charity and the Limits of Unity

Abstract Chapter 2 discusses many of the texts that have occupied scholars who attempt to come to terms with Augustine’s legacy as an ecclesial “strongman.” Focusing mainly on sermons in the 400s, the chapter looks at Augustine’s efforts to unify the church in his debates with Donatists, efforts that famously drew out his endorsement of coercion. Drawing on the recently discovered Erfurt sermons, the chapter probes the connections between Augustine’s understanding of the Pauline correctio cum caritate and the unifying function of almsgiving. Chapter 2 also contends that Augustine’s efforts of inclusion meet their limits in his encounters with “pagans,” which are used to frame his ecclesiologically attuned theology of caritas. This chapter qualifies some recent theological accounts that have sought to exonerate Augustine from Arendt’s critique of him as being other-worldly and agrees with Arendt’s critics that Augustine should not be seen as so simply rejecting “the world,” but when seen through Augustine’s view of almsgiving, the exoneration is a rather ambivalent one.