The Conversion and Therapy of Desire

2017-08-31 Religion

Author : Mark J Boone
Release : 2017-08-31
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 403/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis The Conversion and Therapy of Desire by : Mark J Boone

Download or read book The Conversion and Therapy of Desire written by Mark J Boone. This book was released on 2017-08-31. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first fruits of the literary career of St Augustine, the great theologian and Christian philosopher par excellence, are the dialogues he wrote at Cassiciacum in Italy following his famous conversion in Milan in AD 386. These four little books, largely neglected by scholars, take up the ancient philosophical project of identifying the principles and practices that heal human desires in order to attain happiness, renewing this philosophical endeavour with insights from Christian theology. Augustine's later books, such as the Confessions, would continue this project of healing desire, as would the writings of others including Boethius, Anselm, and Aquinas. Mark J. Boone's The Conversion and Therapy of Desire investigates the roots of thisproject at Cassiciacum, where Augustine is developing a Christian theology of desire, informed by Neoplatonism but transformed by Christian teaching and practices.

The Conversion and Therapy of Desire in Augustine's Cassiciacum Dialogues

2010

Author : Mark J. Boone
Release : 2010
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis The Conversion and Therapy of Desire in Augustine's Cassiciacum Dialogues by : Mark J. Boone

Download or read book The Conversion and Therapy of Desire in Augustine's Cassiciacum Dialogues written by Mark J. Boone. This book was released on 2010. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosophical schools of late antiquity commonly diagnosed human unhappiness as rooted in some fundamental disorder in our desires, and offered various therapies or prescriptions for the healing of desire. Among these only the neo-Platonic treatment for desire requires redirecting desire towards an immaterial world. Although Augustine agrees with the neo-Platonists on the need to redirect our desires to an immaterial world, he does not adopt their therapy for desire. Instead he adopts a thoroughly Christian approach to the healing of desire. The conversion of desire results from the Trinitarian God's gracious actions taken to heal our desires. Augustine does not recommend fleeing from the influence of the body, as neo-Platonism encourages, but fleeing to Christ, immersing ourselves in the life of the Church, and practicing the theological virtues. In this dissertation I examine Augustine's Cassiciacum dialogues. In Contra academicos (Against the academics), Augustine argues that we must vigorously desire wisdom in order to attain it; that we must have hope in the possibility of attaining wisdom; and that our desire for wisdom must be bound in faith to Christ. In De beata vita (On the happy life), Augustine argues that the Trinitarian God is the only perennially satisfying object of desire and shows that the pursuit of God is the activity of a prayerful community of believers who are practicing faith, hope, and charity. In De ordine (On order), Augustine recommends that the reordering of our desires be pursued through a liberal arts education and through Christian morals. In Soliloquia (Soliloquies), Augustine says that we ought to love God and the soul. He also reminds us to submit to Christ's authority and practice faith, hope, and love. After discussing these things, I discuss in a concluding chapter the harmony of love for God and love for human beings, pointing to passages in the dialogues that suggest this harmony.

Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine

2020-01-14 Philosophy

Author : Mark J. Boone
Release : 2020-01-14
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 994/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine by : Mark J. Boone

Download or read book Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine written by Mark J. Boone. This book was released on 2020-01-14. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine, Mark Boone explains the theology of desire developed in a cross-section of Augustine’s On the True Religion, On the Nature of Good, On Free Choice of the Will, On the Teacher, On the Usefulness of Believing, On the Good of Marriage, Enchiridion, and Confessions. Throughout his writings and in many ways, Augustine develops a Platonically informed, yet distinctively Christian, account of desire. Human desire should respond to the goodness inherent in things, loving the greatest good above all and great goods more than lesser goods. Above all, we should love God and souls. Sin, an inappropriate desire for lesser goods, is healed by the redemption of Christ.

Soliloquies

2020-10-27 Philosophy

Author : Saint Augustine
Release : 2020-10-27
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 772/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Soliloquies by : Saint Augustine

Download or read book Soliloquies written by Saint Augustine. This book was released on 2020-10-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

On Order

2020-10-27 Philosophy

Author : Saint Augustine
Release : 2020-10-27
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 533/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis On Order by : Saint Augustine

Download or read book On Order written by Saint Augustine. This book was released on 2020-10-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh, new translation of Augustine's third 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. 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.

Popular eBooks

The Conversion and Therapy of Desire

The Conversion and Therapy of Desire in Augustine's Cassiciacum Dialogues

Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine

Soliloquies

On Order

You may also like...