St. Augustine
(354 - 430 CE)
Timothy H. Wilson
Embedded Files
Saint Augustine (1645)Philippe de ChampaigneLos Angeles County Museum of Art
Aside from Jesus and St. Paul, St. Augustine is the most important figure in the first one thousand years of the history of the Christian Church. St. Jerome said of Augustine that he "established anew the ancient Faith." Indeed, the Christian faith that was practiced throughout the Middle Ages is largely a result of the Platonic stamp that Augustine put on the scriptures. It was not until St. Thomas Aquinas was to re-frame Christian thinking within an Aristotelian understanding of existence in the 13th century that Augustine's dominance of Christian thinking was rivaled.
As a result of his theological, philosophical and literary preeminence, there are four works by St. Augustine on my list of 101 Greatest Books of the Western Canon:
On the Freedom of the Will (387-95)
Confessions (397-400)
On the Trinity (415)
On Christian Doctrine (426)
In addition, the following works are included in my list of 1001 Great Books of the Western Canon:
Enchiridion (420)
City of God (426)
Publications on Augustine
Publications on Augustine
Referential Bodies and Signs: Problems with the Nietzschean-Derridean Interpretation of Augustine
An interpretation of Augustine's philosophy in relation to Nietzsche’s and Derrida's critiques of medieval thought generally; published in VoegelinView (December 2022)The essay attempts to refute the Nietzschean claim that Augustine, and medieval-Christian thought generally, is founded on a denial of the body, as well as the Derridean claim that Augustine is logocentric, eschewing any mediation of full presence. The essay explores the Augustinian conception of being as hierarchical, analogical, and referential. In this way, Augustine’s notions of existence involve an affirmation of the entirety of being, not a denial of it. This conception applies to the Augustinian notion of the nature of the sign as well. If we read Augustine on his own terms, we see the possibility of affirming beings as a whole and recognizing the beauty in all things.
Course Materials
Course Materials
St. Augustine and the Christian-Medieval Conception of the Self in the Confessions
Lecture notes from a course on the "Prose Fiction and the Invention of the Self" in Western literature (Winter 2017), including lectures on:
The Historical and Ecclesiastical Context of the Confessions
The Structure of the Confessions
Pears and the Problem of Evil: On Book II of the Confessions
Athens and Jerusalem: Reason and Revelation in Augustine
Reading and Conversion: On Book VIII of the Confessions
Memory and Time: On Book X of the Confessions
Reflections on the Great Books
Reflections on the Great Books
Works on the List of the 101 Greatest Books
Works on the List of the 101 Greatest Books
On the Freedom of the Will (387-95)
Confessions (397-400)
On the Trinity (415)
On Christian Doctrine (426)
Works on the List of the 1001 Great Books
Works on the List of the 1001 Great Books
Enchiridion (420)
City of God (426)
External Links
External Links
The Triumph of Saint Augustine, by Claudio Coello (1664)
Complete Works of Saint Augustine (in English) from Augustinus.it
"Medieval Philosophy" (Paul V Spade) at the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“St. Augustine” (C Tornau) at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Augustine's Political and Social Philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse