| Summary: | <p>There is a very striking self-portrait of Picasso, which I was fortunate enough to see recently, in the Philadelphia Art Institute. It has an air of both physical and inner strength: in one hand the muscular artist is holding his palette, but in the other the brush is absent and the intense gaze of his eyes seem to be focused not on a painting, but within or beyond. Apparently, in preparatory drawings the brush was there, but Picasso removed it in the final version, as if to encourage the viewer to follow the staring eyes: inward and beyond rather than simply to the surface of the painted canvas.</p> <br/> <p>I’d like to hold this image in mind in order to think about preaching in North Africa in Late Antiquity. What I have to say would probably apply to any preacher, but it is inspired geniuses – like Picasso, and like Augustine – who seem to be gifted with the ability to address us so that we focus not on their work but on what lies within and beyond it: in other words they have the ability to mediate what, in a theological context, we would call (for want of a better expression) spiritual reality. At least, that’s my excuse for remaining with Augustine, despite the best efforts of the organisers of the colloquium at which this paper was first presented, to encourage participants to look to other African preachers! In this paper I’ll take my examples from the extensive series of homilies he composed on the whole of the Psalter, the Enarrationes in Psalmos. Apart from the first 30 or so (which are short commentaries) they were delivered as sermons in various North African locations, throughout the course of Augustine’s ministry, and frequently during Augustine’s visits to Carthage, so at least in that sense they are indicative of North African preaching.</p>
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