Talking with the Enemy: Fictitious Polemical Dialogues against the Donatists in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum
In: Religious Polemics and Encounters in Late AntiquitySearch for other papers by Timo Nisula in
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Abstract
The rhetorical device of fictitious dialogue (sermocinatio) appears in various uses in Augustine’s sermons. The device consisted in introducing an imaginary interlocutor during the actual delivery of a sermon. Many kinds of such fictitious partners of dialogue could be used, depending on the purpose of the sermocinatio. Augustine also found the device suitable to promote his anti-Donatist agenda in his sermons, and the article analyses a selection of instances in which Augustine stages more or less extensive dialogues with generic and anonymous Donatist opponents. As to be expected, these dialogues are not construed to present a “fair” treatment of the preacher’s opponents, but rather to entertain his congregation by depicting the Donatist opponents as stubborn, stupid and prone to fall rather easily in the dialectic traps set by Augustine. However, the anti-Donatist sermocinationes show that Augustine was keen to address even difficult controversial issues of exegetical or doctrinal nature, in order to train his listeners in responding to and, perhaps, convincing the representatives of the opposing views. Sermocinationes provided Augustine with a convenient instrument such micro-debates, as the case of s. 357 demonstrates.