Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Zizek, and many other continental psychoanalysts have paid homage to the bishop of Hippo for his insight into the human psyche. Indeed, even Sigmund Freud’s triad psyche of the superego, ego, and id is owed directly to Augustine’s tripartite man: memory (superego), intellect (ego), and will (id). More recently David Brooks has … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, XIII: Finale, The “Image of the Trinity”
City of God
Augustine’s City of God, XII: Understanding the “Saeculum”
Another one of Augustine’s great themes that rides through the City of God is the concept of the saeculum.[i] It has been brought to attention of late by scholars like R.A. Markus and historians like Peter Brown, James Wetzel, and Peter Leithart. What is the saeculum, and why is it important to Augustine’s understanding of … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, XII: Understanding the “Saeculum”
Augustine’s City of God, XI: Understanding the Libido Dominandi
The libido domanandi is a Latin term that can be roughly translated as “lust for domination.” The lust for domination is, for Augustine, the driving impulse of fallen man and his society (the city of man). The twentieth century philosopher Eric Voegelin surmised that the libido dominandi was man’s “will to power” to borrow a phrase … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, XI: Understanding the Libido Dominandi
Augustine’s City of God, X: Understanding Augustine’s “Dialectic”
Augustine is sometimes seen as the father of dialectical philosophy and theology in the Christian tradition. While there is already an inkling of dialectical thought throughout the Bible, and the New Testament letters—especially Paul—it is Augustine’s City of God that begins the most robust effort at understanding this so-called dialectic of light and darkness, sin … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, X: Understanding Augustine’s “Dialectic”
Augustine’s City of God, IX: Understanding Augustine’s Hermeneutic
Part of Augustine’s ecclesiological hermeneutic which is developed more fully in the City of God is already a well-established hermeneutic in the early church: The Christological, Ecclesiological, and Spiritual reading of Scripture. However, Augustine provides the first arguable systematic account of this ecclesiological-allegorical hermeneutical lens especially from within the confines of covenant theology. While there … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, IX: Understanding Augustine’s Hermeneutic
Augustine’s City of God, VIII: The City of God
Where the city of man is founded on the love of self to the point of contempt of God, the city of God is found on the love of God—and by extension, others—to the point of contempt of self.[i] The city of God is also about enlargement; for it is the truly universal city spread … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, VIII: The City of God
Augustine’s City of God, VII: The City of Man
The second half of City of God (Books XI through XXII) deal with the origins and ends of the two cities. Here Augustine shifts from his cultural criticism to a more exegetical, historical, and political focus. Augustine begins to develop his allegorical hermeneutic of the church in these chapters, reflects on human history as contained … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, VII: The City of Man
Augustine’s City of God, VI: The Fall of Man
The City of God represents the fullest maturation of Augustine’s thoughts concerning Original Sin and the Fall of Man. Sin and the Fall are concepts so disparate now in the state of contemporary Christianity largely due to ignorance of tradition, confessions, doctrines, and patristic sources. Augustine’s reading of the Fall is not necessarily unique, St. … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, VI: The Fall of Man
Augustine’s City of God, V: Appraisal and Critique of Philosophy (Part II)
Augustine’s foremost interlocutor in the final books of Part I of City of God is the Neoplatonist (and in Augustine’s mind, neo-sophist) Porphyry. Porphyry was already dead by the time Augustine wrote City of God, but Porphyry was one of the last intellectual critics of Christianity in the world of Late Antiquity. Christian tradition held … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, V: Appraisal and Critique of Philosophy (Part II)
Augustine’s City of God, IV: Appraisal and Critique of Philosophy (Part I)
Augustine not only deals with cultural criticism in examining the history of Rome and Roman culture, he also engages in intellectual criticism as well—taking up a critique of Roman religion and Hellenic philosophy (namely Platonism and Stoicism, the two great intellectual influences over him). Augustine is well known for having been influenced by Platonism (specifically … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, IV: Appraisal and Critique of Philosophy (Part I)
