"Jansenism is little known today outside of the realm of early modern intellectual historians, and yet the controversy it generated had a profound effect on Catholicism, particularly in France, and even on the discussions of predestination that tore apart the world of the Reformed Protestants in the seventeenth century. It is therefore a delight to see a major section of Jansen's key text, Augustinus, made available in English in a fine scholarly edition. This work will not only help deepen our understanding of post-Tridentine Catholicism but also contribute to our grasp of how Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings were interpreted and deployed in the intellectual ferment of post-Reformation Europe"
~Carl R. Trueman, Grove City College
"Augustine’s late writings on grace and predestination have disturbed many. Even among the Reformers who notoriously embraced them, Luther preferred to change the subject, and Calvin encased them in a static tomb. The Catholic Cornelius Jansen, almost alone in the early modern period, grasped the dynamic beauty and theologically rich character of Augustine’s daring reflections. Though some of his ideas proved seminally influential to the movement that would bear his name—Jansenism--ensnaring the attentions of Saint-Cyran and Pascal among many – Jansen’s great work, the Augustinus, quickly fell into obscurity and has remained mostly inaccessible to this day. Guido Stucco’s wonderful edition of one of the key sections on predestination from Jansen’s masterwork, lucidly translated and framed by a scintillating introduction, thus marks a ground-breaking contribution to contemporary thinking, not only about early modern predestinarianism, but, through Jansen’s reading, to the understanding of Augustine himself. This is a deeply important and welcome volume"
~Ephraim Radner, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
"Due to the painstaking labor of the Italian scholar Guido Stucco, we now have access to a substantial and pivotal selection of Jansen’s Augustinus in English. Stucco’s work consists in three parts. This highly readable volume adds to Stucco’s impressive list of translations that bring some of the most interesting, influential, and controversial early modern voices into English. "
~Catholic Historical Review
"The Augustinus itself is a massive three-volume text of over thirteen hundred pages in Latin. Stucco has chosen to translate a section on predestination from the third volume. This is a good selection to provide historical-theological background to the controversy over Jansenism as it developed subsequently in France because it deals with the questions of grace and predestination in Augustine’s response to the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians.... He also effectively describes both the theological concepts that are relevant to the controversy as well as some of the political influences that may have influenced the ultimate outcome—or rather, non-outcome.... [t]his translation makes a welcome contribution to scholarship on Jansenism in English."
~French History