L’articolo intende approfondire la questione del Medioevo come luogo di narrazioni a partire dal romanzo di Louis De Wohl dedicato ad Agostino d’Ippona, _Una fiamma inestinguibile _ e dal tema della retorica. Il tema della retorica, come una delle dimensioni possibili in cui rappresentare la storia, dà vita sia a una peculiare narrazione _descrittiva_ del Medioevo, plurale e variegata, sia a una narrazione _creatrice_ della storia stessa, dal momento che la potenza della parola di Agostino viene colta nella sua capacità (...) di incidere e trasformare la storia stessa. Il contributo si conclude con l’analisi di alcuni tratti salienti di altri romanzi di ambientazione medievale di De Wohl, su Francesco d’Assisi e su Tommaso d’Aquino, per osservarne la peculiare rappresentazione di Medioevo che a tratti sembra andare oltre agli schemi storiografici degli anni in cui sono scritti. _The article intends to explore the question of the Middle Ages as a place of narrations starting from Louis De Wohl’s novel about Augustine of Hippo, _The Restless Flame_ and the theme of rhetoric. The subject of rhetoric, as one of the possible dimensions in which to represent history, gives rise both to a peculiar _descriptive_ narrative of the Middle Ages, plural and variegated, and to a narration that _creates_ history itself, since the power of Augustine’s word is captured in its ability to affect and transform history itself. The paper concludes with an analysis of some salient features of other medieval novels by De Wohl, on Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, in order to observe the peculiar representation of the Middle Ages that emerges, which at times seems to go beyond the historiographic schemes of the years in which they were written_. (shrink)

* With a Latin text and a facing-page translation of the Rule, Regulations for a Monastery, and Letter 211 The Rule of Augustine, very likely the oldest monastic rule with western origins, provides daily inspiration for more than 150 Christian communities. In giving an account of Augustine's distinctive contributions to the monastic spirituality of the late Roman world, and in particular of his achievement as a monastic legislator, Augustine of Hippo and his Monastic Rule fills a long-standing gap in (...) Augustinian studies. (shrink)

A biography of Augustine's thought life, as interpreted by the acclaimed church historian, the late Professor Henry Chadwick. Augustine's intellectual development is recounted with clarity and warmth, providing a characteristically rigorous yet sympathetic narrative of this central figure in the history of Christian thought.

This article presents a cross-contextual examination of St. Augustine's views concerning nonhuman animals. It aligns seemingly disparate conclusions of previous studies by considering both material and metaphorical nonhuman animals across Augustine's writings and by integrating the role he assigns to them into his broader metaphysical framework. While Augustine is found to assign instrumental value to all aspects of material creation, nonhuman animals are shown to carry a particularly complex significance due to their proximity to humans in his hierarchical account of (...) creation. (shrink)

Ostensible contradictions between Augustine's account of the two cities are resolved by his concealed claim to the privileged epistemic status of a Christian prophet. Faith and grace provide the mobility between this quasi-divine and the fallen human position. Such mobility is impossible in a pluralist and secular system of thought. This is why, having lost the creative Augustinian ambiguity, the liberal philosophy of history and norms of relationship between state and individual continue to veer between the logical end-points of anarchy (...) and complete indifference, or utmost individualism. ☆ I would like to thank John Dunn, Tessa and Ian Elliott, Chrysoula and Ioannis Evrigenis, Marketa Klicova, Russell Muirhead, Leslie Somos and Kathy Bacon, Richard Tuck, Richard Whatmore and the anonymous reviewers for their help and suggestions. Many thanks to the Leverhulme Trust for their generous support. (shrink)

In this 2nd part of the series on Tantra in this blog, we look at St. Augustine and the Postmoderns like Derrida and John Caputo to gradually frame a hermeneutics of Tantra.

In response to Meilaender’s critique of my earlier work, I argue that Rawlsian and Augustinian ‘liberalisms’ are closer in spirit than Meilaender allows. Rawlsians and Augustinians can agree that the concern to preserve temporal peace under modern pluralistic conditions affords a warrant for political arrangements that require allegiance to no particular all-encompassing world view. This agreement on a certain kind of political neutrality extends to constitutional essentials but does not prohibit appeals to particular comprehensive visions in political debate so long (...) as such appeals are consistent with maintaining the social peace that liberal institutions are designed to preserve. (shrink)

Arendt a écrit deux volumes dédiés à la pensée et la volonté qui sont réunis dans le texte La vie de l’esprit, mais en raison de sa mort inopportune, son travail consacré au jugement, et plus spécialement au jugement politique, n’a jamais été achevé. Cependant, nous disposons d’une quantité significative d’écrits sur ce thème, provenant de ses conférences sur la troisième Critique de Kant. Le jugement et la pensée sont essentiels pour empêcher ce qu’Arendt appelle «la banalité du mal». En (...) s’inspirant de saint Augustin et du travail d’Arendt sur Augustin, cet article entend démontrer qu’une autre forme de mal sérieux trouve sa racine dans ce qu’Augustin appelle la libido habendi et la libido dominandi, le désir ou la pulsion de dominer et posséder. Nous essaierons de montrer que la solution d’Arendt au problème de la banalité du mal peut aussi s’appliquer au désir et au plaisir très humains de causer ou d’infliger du mal. (shrink)

Since their introduction in Colombia in the '80s for Pablo Escobar’s extravagant zoo, hippos have become an ecological problem around the basin of the Magdalena River. This article proposes an ecosemiotic discourse analysis of different visions of nature enacted by stakeholders and public opinion around the management of hippos in Colombia. Concretely, we focus on three particular discourses and visions of nature: animalista, narco-cultural, and conservacionista. In this article, we present the relevant social and ecological context of Colombia, the visions (...) of nature theory and the impact of such visions on conservation measures regarding so-called invasive species; we describe and analyze the three visions of nature we center on, and present a computational analysis of discourse dynamics and controversies in Twitter between of such visions of nature; and we reflect on possible courses of action and recommendations about addressing the close interrelation of public discourses and ecosystem conservation by proposing an alternative view, based on the biosemiotic framework of semiocide, to the concept of invasive species. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo: "De Doctrina Christiana" and the Search for a Distinctly Christian RhetoricCalvin L. TroupThe Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo: "De Doctrina Christiana" and the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric by Ed. Richard Leo Enos and Roger Thompson Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008. Pp. 420. $44.95, paperback.Is De doctrina christiana (DDC), by Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, (...) a narrow appropriation of the rhetorical tradition to serve the limited purposes of sectarian religion? Or does DDC extend and expand the rhetorical tradition in a transitional historical moment? One is often led to different conclusions when reading about Augustine than when actually reading Augustine, even in translation. The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo: "De Doctrina Christiana" and the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric offers students of rhetoric an opportunity to do both: to read Augustine, in Latin and in English translation and to locate Augustine definitively within the scholarly tradition of rhetoric and philosophy. The volume offers formative essays by Charles Sears Baldwin and James J. Murphy, introduces basic arguments about how Augustine's rhetoric emerged amid the turbulence of the late Roman Empire through the work of Ernest Fortin and Michael Leff, and offers more recent engagements with DDC in essays by Gerard Watson, David W. Tracy, and John D. Schaeffer. However, what makes the volume indispensable for students of philosophy [End Page 86] and rhetoric is the reproduction of the complete work of Sister Theresa Sullivan on DDC, book IV (DDC IV)—the Latin text, her translation, her notes, and the front matter of her original version (Sullivan's English translation and notes were anthologized in both the first and second editions of The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present, edited by Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Hezberg).Every generation needs examples of good scholarship that does not take shortcuts. Sullivan's work captures the careful craft of close work with an ancient text. Thanks to Enos and Thompson et al., Sullivan's impressive scholarship anchors this fine volume. I first review Sullivan's contributions in the book, then comment briefly on the essays that contextualize her work within the broader sphere of rhetorical scholarship on DDC IV. Why is Sullivan's work indispensible? First, the Latin text set beside the translation is unique to English translations of DDC IV currently in print. The quality of Sullivan's translation is evident. The Latin text also reminds us to consider the text as it might sound to Latin/Roman ears and foregrounds the enigmatic process of translating an ancient, complex text. Second, the commentary elevates the significance of DDC for philosophy and rhetoric. Sullivan dispenses with a great deal of nonsense about DDC in a few simple lines. For example, she demonstrates Augustine's deep knowledge and reliance on a broad spectrum of the received philosophical tradition in rhetoric. The notes correlate Augustine with Cicero in ways obvious in the Latin but opaque in translation and similarly show how DDC IV incorporates rhetorical theory from Aristotle, the Ad Herrennium, Quintilian, and Plato (e.g., see notes on 130–35). Third, Sullivan's front matter presents impressive research on textual authenticity of the Latin text of DDC as well as translation and publication histories for DDC IV and the book as a whole. She fixes the date and occasion of the writing of DDC IV with precision. The sources and parallels from Greco-Roman rhetorical theory are unmatched in the literature. These features alone are worth the cost of The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo.The remainder of the volume presents a faithful account of a received rhetorical tradition: Augustine's DDC preserves the tradition of rhetoric and philosophy into and through the Middle Ages. Most of the essays correspond with Sullivan's work, featuring DDC IV, which could give the impression that the place to find Augustine's rhetoric is in DDC IV. However, Enos and Thompson et al. do not seem to fall into this trap. Rather, the book suggests that DDC IV is a door to fuller engagement with Augustine. Some indices within the rhetorical tradition do read Augustine and... (shrink)

A new study which engages with some of the most controversial questions in recent scholarship on Augustine of Hippo, the Origenist controversy and the development of Christology through the history of the ecumenical councils.