Augustine and ModernityAugustine and Modernity is a fresh and challenging addition to current debates about the Augustinian origins of modern subjectivity and the Christian genesis of Western nihilism. It firmly rejects the dominant modern view that the modern Cartesian subject, as an archetype of Western nihilism, originates in Augustine's thought. Arguing that most contemporary interpretations misrepresent the complex philosophical relationship between Augustine and modern philosophy, particularly with regard to the work of Descartes, the book examines the much overlooked contribution of Stoicism to the genealogy of modernity, producing a scathing riposte to commonly-held versions of the 'continuity thesis'. Michael Hanby identifies the modern concept of will that emerges in Descartes' work as the product of a notion 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. Representing a new school of theology willing to engage critically with other disciplines and to challenge their authority, Augustine and Modernity offers 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. |
Contents
Thinking with and about Augustine | 1 |
1 A grim paternity? | 6 |
2 De Trinitate and the aesthetics of salvation | 27 |
3 Christology cosmology and the mechanics of grace | 72 |
4 The subtle triumph of Pelagianism | 106 |
Descartes and modern stoicism | 134 |
Modernity in Augustinian hindsight | 178 |
Notes | 181 |
| 277 | |
| 280 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action aesthetic Alliez already aporia Aquinas assertion Augustine's Augustinian Ayres Beauty and Revelation body Cartesian causal chapter Christ Christian Christology cogito conception Conf Confessiones constituted context cosmology creation creature crucial delight Descartes and Augustine desire difference dilectio distance distinction divine Divine Grace doctrine doxological economy entails essence eternity exemplum faith Father Faustus formal freedom function gift God’s grace Gratia Hankey hypostatic union Ibid idea Ignatius immanent incarnation incoherent infinite infinity insistence insofar intelligible intrinsic John Cassian John Milbank knowledge manifest means mediation Menn Menn's metaphysical modern moral psychology nature negation object ontological participation passions Pelagian Pelagius Philosophy Pickstock Plotinian Plotinus precisely principle question Radical Orthodoxy relation relationship res cogitans Rowan Williams sacramentum sapientia Scotus Semi-Pelagian sense simply soteriology soul Spirit stoic stoicism suggests temporal things thought tradition transcendence Trin trinitarian Trinity understanding unity University Press virtue volition voluntas Wetzel