La lingua letteraria agostiniana: un affondo sull’ ‘oralità didattica’ di alcuni sermoni (s. 288 e 293A; tract. in Ioh. I e XIV)

In his sermons, Augustine repeatedly illustrates the complex theological concept of the pre-existent Word of God, which becomes man in Christ, with the analogy of human language: just as the utterance precedes the thought, but the utterance only reveals the thought to the recipient, so the eternal Word of God precedes the incarnation. These passages are subject to a linguistic and stylistic analysis in order to show that Augustine's language in the orally conceived and delivered sermons is not dramatically different from the treatises, which are purely written products for a theologically cultured audience. She compares the homilies with Pompey's Commentum artis Donati on the one hand and with the treatise De trinitate on the other; the statistical analysis of lexicon and syntax also reveals no clear distinction between orality and writing. The explanation for this finding lies in the didactic aim of the sermons, which are addressed to a heterogeneous audience; as a result, Auerbach's seminal description of Augustine's style as sermo humilis turns out to be an apt characterization precisely because it is quite general.