Description
Western theology and philosophy without Augustine is almost inconceivable. He turned Pauline eschatology into a psychology of redemption and bequeathed to the Christianity of his day its profoundest sense of the adventure of soul. His offerings to philosophy included a staggeringly important but highly problematic conception of will, a new kind of introspection, and a sense of providential order that seemed paradoxically to demand a secular politics.
Augustine: A Guide for the Perplexed takes up the major concerns of Augustine’s complex and evolving thought and accords them a form that allows readers to think with Augustine as well as about him. Aimed at readers whose prior acquaintance with Augustine may be minimal or nonexistent, this book follows a guiding thread or two through the labyrinth of his polemical, exegetical, dogmatic and speculative writings. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of thinkers.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Life Confessed
1. Death and the Delineation of Soul
2. Sin and the Invention of Will
3. Sex and the Infancy of Desire
4. Politics and the Mystery of Others
Conclusion: Fundamental Desire
Author(s)
James Wetzel,
James Wetzel is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, USA and holder of the Augustinian Endowed Chair in the Thought of Saint Augustine.
Reviews
“Writing for the “perplexed”, whether they be philosopher or theologian, secular or religious, Wetzel makes Augustine our guide by helping us see how his passion for God is compatible with, indeed requires, knowing how to go on when you don’t know where you are. Not only does Wetzel help us understand Augustine, but he helps us understand our inability to understand ourselves. Only someone who has learned from Augustine how to live without protection could have written such a beautiful book.” – Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School, USA
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"Aimed at readers whose prior acquaintance with Augustine may be minimal or nonexistent, this book follows a guiding thread or two through the labyrinth of his polemical, exegetical, dogmatic and speculative writings. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of thinkers." Zentrum Fur Augustinusforschung in Wurzburg, April 2010.
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‘Wetzel successfully guides the perplexed and educates the ignorant’ Methodist Recorder, August 19th 2010
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