Augustine and Modernity

by Hanby,Michael

• ISBN13: 9780415284691
• ISBN10: 0415284694
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-05-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Augustine and Modernityis a fresh and challenging addition to current debates on the 'continuity theory' Michael Hanby reveals the modern concept of will that emerges in Descartes' work as the product of a conception of self more proper to Stoic theories of immanence than to Augustine's own rigorous understandings of the Trinity, creation, self and will. Though Augustine's encounter with Stoicism ultimately resulted in much of his teaching being transferred to Descartes and other modern thinkers in an adulterated form, Hanby draws critical attention to Augustine's own disillusionment with Stoicism and his interrogation of Stoic philosophy in the name of Christ and the Trinity. Representative of a new school of theology willing to engage critically with other disciplines and to challenge their authority,Augustine andModernityoffers a comprehensive new interpretation of De Trinitate and of Augustinian concepts of will and soul. Revealing how much of what is now thought of as'Augustinian' in fact has its genealogy in Stoic asceticism, it interprets the modern nihilistic Cartesian subject not as a logical consequence of a true Christian Trinitarian theology, but rather of its perversion and abandonment.

Author Biography

Michael Hanby is Arthur J. Ennis Fellow in Core Humanities at Villanova University. He has a special interest in Augustine and his influence on modern philosophy

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction: Thinking with and about Augustine	1	(5)
A grim paternity?	6	(21)
The alleged sins of the father	6	(2)
The grand architect and the builders	8	(5)
The West that never was: the theological critique	13	(5)
Love in the time of avarice: the postmodern critique	18	(9)
De Trinitate and the aesthetics of salvation	27	(45)
The aesthetics of salvation	27	(20)
Delight and the beauty of God	47	(8)
The Body of Christ and the eros of faith	55	(17)
Christology, cosmology and the mechanics of grace	72	(34)
On the intelligibility of the Pelagian controversy	72	(2)
Pelagianism: a problem of trinitarian theology?	74	(8)
Creation and the mechanics of grace	82	(8)
Augustine's dexological self	90	(16)
The subtle triumph of Pelagianism	106	(28)
On winning the battle and losing the war	106	(3)
Duelling cosmologies	109	(8)
Pelagianizing Augustine	117	(17)
An Augustinian parody: Descartes and modern stoicism	134	(44)
An overlooked chapter in the story of modern origins	134	(10)
Why Augustine is not a Cartesian	144	(17)
Why Descartes is not Augustinian	161	(17)
Postscript: Modernity in Augustinian hindsight	178	(3)
Notes	181	(96)
Primary sources and translations	277	(3)
Index	280