Abstract:
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was a fourth- and fifth-century monk-bishop who left a great
imprint on the spiritual leaders of his day by overseeing the monastery at Hippo Regius and
also authoring a significant corpus of letters that were pastoral in nature. What is often
overlooked in the study of his pastoral ministry and, thus, the focus of this article, is Augustine’s
theological correspondence with 15 different women. Through surveying the themes and
issues in these letters, I have endeavoured to show that, though a monk, Augustine did care
for women in his pastoral ministry and his letters show that he discussed with women many
of the issues of his day (pastoral issues, church matters, monastic ideas, theology, and practical
theology) that he also discussed with his male correspondents. In short, Augustine believed
that these women were much like his mother Monica – capable of grasping biblical and
theological issues – and he valued them as an important part of the church. I conclude the
article by summarising Augustine’s approaches to and values for ministering to women.
Description:
Prof. Dr Smither is
participating in the research
project, ‘Ecodomy’, directed
by Prof. Dr Nelus Niemandt,
Department Science of
Religion and Missiology,
Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria.
