The continuity of the Christian faith with classical philosophy is one of the common variables to Augustine’s three earliest dialogues. Augustine is particularly interested in the relation between faith and reason or, more precisely, the relation between Christian auctoritas and reason. This chapter contends that Augustine does not conceive of authority and reason as two diverse paths of ascent, but as distinct elements that comprise one integrated path of ascent. For Augustine, authority and reason are coordinate means of ascent to wisdom and happiness. The dialectal character of authority and reason operate in tandem to purify and enlighten the soul for the ascent to God. In the dialogues, it is the role of reason to offer an intellectus fidei, an intellectual account of the mysteries delivered by authority.

Chapter 1 locates Augustine’s earliest documentary adumbration of the resurrection in Soliloquia. It first contextualizes Augustine’s theology of the resurrection within the early Church by surveying the thoughts of other closely connected patristic theologians on the resurrection: Tertullian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, and Gregory of Nyssa. It then offers an approach to and an appreciation of the resurrection in Augustine’s earliest works, where he investigates the structure of the human person, identifies the essence of the happy life, and considers the status of the body. While Augustine’s mention of and allusions to the resurrection remain ambiguous, along with the tensions it generates with certain adopted Platonic and Neoplatonic doctrines, their significances remain. His later adjustments to and attenuations of his markedly philosophical notions of the soul’s immortality and the body’s dispensability evince his commitments to the Catholic faith in the resurrection and to the God of Jesus Christ.