Abstrakt
The study studies the question what was the African Arians' approach to the Bible. First, the historical background of Arianism in the West and Roman North Africa is sketched alongside a brief history of the Gothic translation of the Bible that played such a significant role in the evangelization of the Germanic peoples.
Second, the last years of Augustine's life, the period when the Arians reappeared in Africa, is reviewed, with a focus on Augustine's debate with the Arian bishop Maximinus. Third, the early years of the Vandal conquest of Africa are analyzed, while paying particular attention to the traces of Arian exegesis as documented in the sermons attributed to Quodvultdeus of Carthage.
Finally, the later stages of the relationship between the Nicene Catholics and their Arian rulers in North Africa from the 480s to the Byzantine reconquest of the 530s is treated. A handful of extant writings from this era allows us to discuss a few basic approaches to the Bible in the context of this latter stage of the Arian controversy.