Augustinus Afer

Owing to the initiative of Abdelaziz Boutetlika, President of Algeria, and of Joseph Deiss, head of the Swiss diplomatic corps, an international symposium was held in April of 2001 for the firsttime on Algerian soil to honour Augustine, a native son born in Thagaste (Souk Ahras) in the eastern part of the country. Africanite et universalite (Africanness and universality): these were the two principal axes around which the fifty or so papers delivered by participants representing sixteen different countries were ordered. The first axis sought to relocate Augustine in his temporal and cultural context, in an Africa deeply intluenced by its
libyco-numidian
heritage. Closely linked to the first, the second axis sought to underscore and engage certain aspects of the extraordinary legacy of Augustine’s thought and work through the ages. Two volumes of the
Paradosis
series draw tagether the symposium’s proceedings, along with texts and iconographic materials accompanying the exhibition Saint Augustin: africanite et universalite presented thus far in Algeria, Geneva, Fribourg, St. Gall, and several other European cities, among them Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Lublin, and St. Andrews