The first four works written by St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion to Christianity are the "Cassiciacum dialogues", which have influenced prominent thinkers from Boethius to Bernard Lonergan. In this second, brief dialogue, expertly translated by Michael Foley, Augustine and his mother, brother, son, and friends celebrate his thirty-second birthday by having a "feast of words" on the nature of happiness. They conclude that the truly happy life consists of "having God" through faith, hope, and charity.

_A fresh, new translation of Augustine’s inaugural work as a Christian convert_ The first four works written by St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion to Christianity have influenced prominent thinkers from Boethius to Bernard Lonergan. Usually called the Cassiciacum dialogues, these four works are a “literary triumph,” combining Ciceronian and neo-Platonic philosophy, Roman comedy and Vergilian poetry, and early Christian theology. They are also, arguably, Augustine’s most charming works, exhibiting his whimsical levity and ironic wryness. (...) In this first dialogue, Augustine and his interlocutors have retreated to a quiet country villa north of Milan to explore the history and teachings of Academic Skepticism. Augustine is both sympathetic to and critical of the Skeptics, eventually hypothesizing that they could not possibly have believed everything they taught. The dialogue serves as a fitting launch point for a knowledge of God and the soul, the overall subject of the Cassiciacum tetralogy. Michael Foley’s clear, precise and playful translations are accompanied by his brief, illuminating commentaries. (shrink)

_A fresh, new translation of Augustine’s third work as a Christian convert__ "The 'Cassiciacum dialogues'... are of a high literary and intellectual quality, combining Ciceronian and neo-Platonic philosophy, Roman comedy and Vergilian poetry, and early Christian theology. They are also, arguably, Augustine’s most charming works, exhibiting his whimsical levity and ironic wryness."—_Credo__ The first four works written by St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion to Christianity are dialogues that have influenced prominent thinkers from Boethius to (...) Bernard Lonergan. Usually called the “Cassiciacum dialogues,” these four works are of a high literary and intellectual quality, combining Ciceronian and neo-Platonic philosophy, Roman comedy and Vergilian poetry, and early Christian theology. They are also, arguably, Augustine’s most charming works, exhibiting his whimsical levity and ironic wryness. _On Order_ is the third work in this tetralogy, and it is Augustine’s only work explicitly devoted to theodicy, the reconciliation of Almighty God’s goodness with evil’s existence. In this dialogue, Augustine argues that a certain kind of self-knowledge is the key to unlocking the answers to theodicy’s vexing questions, and he devotes the latter half of the dialogue to an excursus on the liberal arts as disciplines that will help strengthen the mind to know itself and God. (shrink)

_A fresh, new translation of Augustine’s fourth work as a Christian convert_ The first four works written by St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion to Christianity are dialogues that have influenced prominent thinkers from Boethius to Bernard Lonergan. Usually called the Cassiciacum dialogues, these four works are of a high literary and intellectual quality, combining Ciceronian and neo-Platonic philosophy, Roman comedy and Vergilian poetry, and early Christian theology. They are also, arguably, Augustine’s most charming works, (...) exhibiting his whimsical levity and ironic wryness. _Soliloquies_ is the fourth work in this tetralogy. Augustine coined the term “soliloquy” to describe this new form of dialogue. _Soliloquies__,_ a conversation between Augustine and his reason, fuses the dialogue genre and Roman theater, opening with a search for intellectual and moral self-knowledge before converging on the nature of truth and the question of the soul’s immortality. Foley’s volume also includes _On the Immortality of the Soul__,_ which consists of notes for the unfinished portion of the work. (shrink)

_A fresh, new translation of Augustine’s inaugural work as a Christian convert_ The first four works written by St. Augustine of Hippo after his conversion to Christianity are dialogues that have influenced prominent thinkers from Boethius to Bernard Lonergan. Usually called the Cassiciacum dialogues, these four works are a “literary triumph,” combining Ciceronian and neo-Platonic philosophy, Roman comedy and Vergilian poetry, and early Christian theology. They are also, arguably, Augustine’s most charming works, exhibiting his whimsical levity (...) and ironic wryness. In this second, brief dialogue, Augustine and his mother, brother, son, and friends celebrate his thirty-second birthday by having a “feast of words” on the nature of happiness that includes a bittersweet metaphorical birthday cake. Using a process of reasoning that is philosophical as well as theological, Augustine and the group conclude that the truly happy life consists of “having God” through faith, hope, and charity. Michael Foley’s clear, precise and playful translations are accompanied by his brief, illuminating commentaries. (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 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)

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.

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)

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.