On God, the soul, evil and the rise of Christianity / John Peter Kenney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kenney, John Peter, author.

Series:

Reading Augustine.

Reading Augustine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430--Criticism and interpretation.

Augustine.

Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430--Written works.

Church history--4th century.

Church history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 132 pages)..

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

Summary:

"Reading Augustine is a new line of books offering personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religious scholars. The aim of the series is to make clear Augustine's importance to contemporary thought and to present Augustine not only or primarily as a pre-eminent Christian thinker but as a philosophical, spiritual, literary and intellectual icon of the West. Why did the ancients come to adopt monotheism and Christianity? On God, The Soul, Evil and the Rise of Christianity introduces possible answers to that question by looking closely at the development of the thought of Augustine of Hippo, whose complex spiritual trajectory included Gnosticism, academic skepticism, pagan Platonism, and orthodox Christianity. What was so compelling about Christianity and how did Augustine become convinced that his soul could enter into communion with a transcendent God? The apparently sudden shift of ancient culture to monotheism and Christianity was momentous, defining the subsequent nature of Western religion and thought. John Peter Kenney shows us that Augustine offers an unusually clear vantage point to understand the essential ideas that drove that transition."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction: Reading Augustine

1. Christian Enlightenment : Varieties of Christianity ; Pagan Monotheism ; Immaterial Truth

2. God : Soliloquies ; Eternal Wisdom ; Contemplation and the God of Augustine

3. The Soul : Confessional Introspection ; The Cursive Self ; Transcendence of the Soul

4. Evil : Contemporary Theodicy ; Confessing Evil ; 'Scattered Traces of His Being'

5. The Rise of Christianity: Deification ; Beatitude ; Contemplative Christianity

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-129) and index.

ISBN:

9781501314001

1501314009

9781501314018

1501314017

9781501314025

1501314025

OCLC:

1059413814