Agostino, "un buon compagno di viaggio"

The title of this contribution originates from an expression of Joseph Ratzinger, a devoted scholar of Augustine and ‘his impersonator in the faith’ - as he likes to define himself - to the point of feeling him spiritually close and familiar. Some homilies pronounced by Benedict XVI and examined here reveal the persistent contact with the word of Augustine, explicitly cited and/or even made part of his vocabulary. For the analysis of the Augustinian "rewrites" in the preaching of Ratzinger I referred to the studies of Marcello Marin, a scholar of the exegesis and rhetoric of Augustine, whom this volume wishes to tribute in occasion of his seventieth year birthday.