Augustinian Resemblances

Augustinian Resemblances is a project centred around the charism of scholarly friendship between its founders, Alberto Garzoni (Roman Catholic) and Dr. David Bennett (Anglican). The project aims to renew a sense of common purpose among different disciplines in theology (Patristics, systematics, ethics) through a shared interest in the reception of Augustine’s theology and authority. This reception within Catholicism, Anglicanism, Orthodoxy and beyond provides Christian confessions with a shared lingua franca, and a stable set of doctrinal and pastoral affinities (the ‘Augustinian resemblances’). The project will explore how this common language and these affinities can be employed to strengthen ecumenical dialogue and interrelationship, enrich and unify theological scholarship, and renew the Church’s life and society more broadly.

People Involved
Activities and Events

Events

 

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1. An Augustinian Resemblances Symposium
Location: Pusey House, Oxford
Date: Thursday, 4 December 2025

The Christological motif of the wounded healer or Christus medicus is a conceptual catalyst for reflection and prayer, in an epoch marked by political and social fragmentation and a desire for therapeutic transformation. For this Augustinian Resemblances symposium, we invite contributions which explore the therapeutic and aesthetic aspects of Augustine’s grand metaphor, as extant both in the Augustinian corpus and its later reception.

Papers of 20 minutes in length will examine the Augustinian motif of ‘medical Christology’ from a historical, systematic, or ethical angle, and encompass such topics and fields of enquiry as the doctrine of God, grace, love, sanctification, ecclesiology, political theology, technology, the ethics of environmental care, sexuality, gender, disability, mental health. The organisers will seek to select the papers of interested authors in a dedicated journal issue.

 

Please submit a paper title and short abstract of 200-300 words to david.bennett@theology.ox.ac.uk by Monday, November 24th. If you wish to attend, please register your attendance to the above email by the same date for catering purposes (lunch will be provided). 

2.  Reading Group
 
If you would like to join the Augustinian Resemblances reading group, please contact Alberto Garzoni. It is currently reading Augustine's homilies on 1 John.   
 
Lectures

 

There are no upcoming lectures at the moment. 

 

Please check back soon. 

 

Past Events and Lectures

Events

1. Lunches in Pusey House

Friday of 2nd Week, 26th January, 12-2pm

Friday of 7th Week, 1st March, 12-2pm

The two lunch meetings will provide a time for exchange and discussion. They will involve a short vignette to stimulate discussion and research ideas. They are designed for local Oxford researchers, but do let me know if you would like to attend from further afield. The first lunch will introduce the project’s vision.

2. Spring Symposium: Tranquillitas ordinis 

Friday of 8th Week, 8th March, Pusey House

The day symposium will take the theme of peace in the Augustinian tradition and its potential employment for the sake of intra-Christian dialogue before the project's more official launch at the Oxford Patristics Conference in August. It will centre on how eternal and civic peace interlock in Augustine's vision of the cities and today within the churches and society, and the Christological underpinning of peace.
If you are interested in attending or contributing a paper or learning more, please contact mehmet.ciftci@theology.ox.ac.uk or david.bennett@theology.ox.ac.uk.
3. Oxford Patristics Panel and Worship
 
The workshop will instantiate the goals and methodologies of Augustinian Resemblances. The workshop’s papers will explore the historical and exegetical premises of this complex operation. Through close readings of Augustinian texts, they will offer an immediate sense of how the pastoral configuration of Augustine’s production shaped the reception of his thought in later Christian theology. They will span several historical phases and branches of theology, ranging from early Modern political theology to contemporary systematics. This constructive effort will be substantiated by their interaction with some recent trends in Augustinian scholarship, such as the retrieval of and renovated attention to Augustine’s homiletical production, and the pastorally oriented nature of his theology (e.g. Burns 2022, Dupont 2014, Hunter and Yates 2022).
 

Names of Speakers and Paper Titles

  • Dr David Bennett – Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford

‘Come Down So That You May Ascend’: Augustine’s Christological Ascent as Subversion of Classical Views of Eudaimonia

  • Cody Brown – School of Divinity, University of St Andrews

    Burdensome Pleasures and the Ease of Christ: Augustine's Justifications for the Eschewal of Material Goods

     

  • Prof. Thomas Clemmons – School of Theology and Religious Studies, Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)

‘Hand to Hand’: Augustine’s Preaching on Works of Mercy

  • Alberto Garzoni – Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford

What Is ‘Augustinianism’ Anyway? Charting New Ground for Christian Scholarship

  • Revd Prof. Oskari Juurikkala – Faculty of Theology, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome, IT)

Augustine and Rationality in Nature: A Relational Word and a Contemporary Challenge

  • Dr Marie-Ange Rakotoniaina – Lecturer in Theology, Fordham University, New York

The Sabbath Rest and the Poetics of Time in Augustine's Enarrationes in Psalmos

  • Lauren Spohn – Lincoln College, University of Oxford

    Apologia pro Vita Sua: Newman and Augustine on the Conversive Self

     

  • Dr Audrey Southgate – Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Radical Augustinians: Augustinian Homiletics and Wycliffite Pedagogy

  • Abraham Wu – Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Augustine on Self-Deception and the Noetic Effects of Sin: Its Reception and Retrieval in Contemporary Theology

       Lectures

 

Augustinian Thomism: Exploring the Augustinian Elements in the Thomistic Theological Tradition

An event series by the Augustinian Resemblances Initiative

 

Event 1

Topic: Transforming Knowledge: The Synthesis of Aristotle and Augustine in Aquinas's Understanding of Faith

Speaker: Revd Prof. Oskari Juurikkala (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
Date and Time: Thursday, 27th February, 5:00–7:00 PM
Venue: Canterbury Institute (82/83 St Aldate’s)

 

Event 2

Topic: Augustine and the Creation of an Augustinian Tradition of Reflection on the Trinity

Speaker: Prof. Lewis Ayres (Durham University, Angelicum Thomistic Institute)
Date and Time: Tuesday, 21st January, 5:00–7:00 PM
Venue: Aula, Blackfriars Hall (St Giles)