Towards the end of his life Augustine wrote a work he called the Retractationes of his writings: not ‘Retractions’, though in the course of the work he did, on occasion, retract some statements he had made and now thought ill-advised or mistaken; rather, ‘Reconsiderations’ in the light of new knowledge and, more important, new perspectives of thought. Let the reader's anxieties be allayed: I shall not ‘reconsider’ the original edition of this book, nor shall I offer, as did Augustine, itemised revisions of views I expressed. Rather, I avail myself of the opportunity afforded by a new edition, twenty years after completion of the work on the first, to indicate major shifts of emphasis.

The most important landmark for Augustinian studies has undoubtedly been the discovery by Johannes Divjak of thirty hitherto unknown letters forming part of the Augustinian corpus. Twenty-seven of them are from Augustine's pen; with one exception they all belong to the last fifteen years of Augustine's life. Several give a vivid insight into Augustine's practical concerns as a bishop: his worries about the activities of slave-traders, anxieties about clergymen who fall short of expectations, about threats to rights of asylum, and so forth – practical matters, for the most part. If the doctrinal content of these letters is insufficient to add anything of substance to what we have long known, they do nevertheless illustrate afresh the seriousness of Augustine's pastoral charity, shading imperceptibly into concern about the order and stability of his society. At the end of Chapter 4 I touched on the roots of this.