son takes his Father’s property (ousia) and departs for a distant country, squandering it in “dissolute living” and ending up with nothing—and nothingness. How could Augustine resist reading this as a parable of human existence itself? Being (ousia) is gifted to us by our Creator, but we take the gift as if there were no Giver, and we set off to “live” according to our best lights. The result? You, a good Jewish boy, wake up one morning and realize that even the pigs are eating better than you are,