Augustine, Michael P. Foley (ed.), Against the Academics: St. Augustine’s Cassiciacum Dialogues, Volume 1

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-221
Author(s):  
Zachary Thomas Settle ◽  

Author(s):  
Saint Augustine

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. This book is the fourth work in this tetralogy. Augustine coined the term “soliloquy” to describe this new form of dialogue. The book, 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. The volume also includes On the Immortality of the Soul, which consists of notes for the unfinished portion of the work.


Augustinus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-192
Author(s):  
John Peter Kenney ◽  

While ontological discourse is unfashionable in contemporary theology, it was prominent in the works of Augustine of Hippo. This article will concentrate on Augustine’s attribution of «esse» and related terms to God in his early works. Contrasting readings of Augustine’s ontological discourse will be reviewed, especially those of Émile Zum Brunn and Jean-Luc Marion. Texts under consideration will be drawn from Cassiciacum dialogues, the anti-Manichaean treatises, and Confessions. The article will conclude by clarifying the larger implications of Augustine’s commitment to ontological theology in the context of his account of contemplation.


Author(s):  
Saint Augustine

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. This book 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.


Moreana ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (Number 207) (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Foley

Because the distinction between mendacium dicere and mentiri is taken from a pre-Christian text on grammar, Utopia's opening margin note about a “theological difference” between uttering a falsehood and lying has long been seen as ironic or an instance of playful misdirection. Without denying these conclusions, this essay argues that the distinction is theological insofar as it reflects the theology of St. Augustine, especially as presented in his early “Cassiciacum” dialogues. Utopia's first and arguably most important margin note is even more ironic than previously thought.


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