Tag: Augustine

Nadya Williams’ Christians Reading Classics: A New Look at Ancient Literature

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I love old books, but sometimes the gulf between the culture in which a book was written and my own is so great that I fail to get the original intent of the author. Nadya Williams has a new book to address this very problem. Christians Reading Classics is an invaluable guide to bridging the cultural divide between the authors of some of the most time-tested classic works from the ancient world and us. It is divided into five parts, in rough chronological order.

Part I is Longing for Eternity, and it covers Homer’s The Iliad, Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, Pindar’s Odes, and the Histories of Herodotus and Thucydides. Each chapter is relatively short but packed with profound insights. For example, in her analysis of The Iliad, Williams writes,

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Quote of the Day: Speaking and Writing for the Future

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I think you have understood the title of this psalm now, holy brethen. If we were to attempt to explain the psalm itself now, there would be a risk that what you have heard might slip your memories. But tomorrow is Sunday, when we owe you a sermon, so let us put the rest off till then, so that you may be ready to listen to the text of the psalm with fresh enjoyment. We shall have dealt with the title, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

–The real Augustine

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Only Sith Lords Deal in Moral Relativism (Or: Does the Dark Side of the Force Exist?)

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I enjoy a lot of critiques of Star Wars, The Last Jedi not excluded. But I enjoyed the newest Star Wars. I think The Last Jedi might be the most philosophically respectable Star Wars movie to date. It replaces one very silly idea of the Force with a much more respectable idea. It’s a shift from a Manichean Star Wars to an Augustinian Star Wars, and that’s a very good thing.

In the past we’ve been subjected to weird talk about “balance.” It was often thought, from the reference in Episode I to the prophecy of one who would “bring balance to the Force,” that this balance is supposed to a good thing. But what was to be balanced with what? The interpretation to which many naturally leaped was expressed in a few episodes of The Clone Wars in which Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano visit a mysterious planet called Mortis. The theory expounded by the planet’s inhabitants is that the light and the dark sides of the force are metaphysical equals. Neither the light nor the dark side is more powerful or more real than the other. They fight on equal terms with equal power; it just so happens that one is more morally good than the other. Also, the good and the bad sides of the Force need to be balanced. This is essentially Manicheanism.

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The Golden Rule in the History of Philosophy

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Most people know the Golden Rule from Jesus/Yeshua: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12, ESV). Another remark from him is closely associated with the Golden Rule: “The second [greatest commandment] is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Mark 12:31, ESV). Many also know that Jesus didn’t just invent these phrases: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is in the Torah (Leviticus 19:18, ESV), and Rabbi Hillel had recently given a negative version of the Golden Rule–do not do to others what you want them to not do to you–as a summary of the Torah.

But Jesus and the Torah aren’t the only sources of the Golden Rule; they’re just the most authoritative ones! You can also find the Golden Rule in the moral philosophers Plato, Augustine, Confucius, Kant, and Mill.

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My Book Got Reviewed

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PICKWICK_TemplateFrom the blog Thinking Through Christianity and Scott Shiffer of Criswell College comes the first complete review of The Conversion and Therapy of Desire: Augustine’s Theology of Desire in the Cassiciacum Dialogues. [Disclosure: Scott’s a personal friend.] It’s a good summary of the book. And here are a few excerpts:

. . . the book is significant for scholars (but also for anyone else) interested in Augustine, the early church writings, and for those who desire to find happiness and fulfillment for life in the person of God.

Dr. Boone’s contribution to studies surrounding Augustine and his works is one of great value. This text requires scholars to rethink the way they view Augustine as both a theologian and philosopher. . . . More than this, on a practical level it teaches Christians today how to rightly desire God, allow God to change their sinful desires, and to rightly live in Christian community with other believers. This work is informative, practical, and thought provoking. The Conversion of Therapy and Desire is well worth the read; one will be blessed with the encouraging challenges and insights found on every page. . . . This text will influence other works surrounding Augustine and Christian virtue for years to come.

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Young Saint Augustine’s Christianity

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Another post on my recent book projects. Nerds Scholars have engaged in a lively debate for about 1.3 centuries about the nature of Augustine’s conversion to Christianity in 386 AD and the Christian character of his early writings. I have a recently published article in the area, overviewing the debate: “The Role of Platonism in Augustine’s 386 Conversion to Christianity.” Generalizing somewhat, here are the four main positions scholars have taken.

  1. In 386 Augustine was converted to Platonism, not to Christianity.
  2. In 386 Augustine was converted to Christianity, not Platonism.
  3. In 386 Augustine was converted both to Christianity and to Platonism–to both of them as well as he could understand.
  4. In 386 Augustine’s thought includes some Platonic insights, but he is loyal to Christian doctrine rather than to Platonist philosophy.
Conversion

Augustine surrenders to Christ.

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Augustine Myths

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AugustineAugustine is not a Christian Platonist! He doesn’t think sex is bad! The evil City of Man is not politics!

It’s a shame we know so little about Augustine, and that myths about him are so persistent. In light of that (and as another excuse for shamelessly advertising my book, The Conversion and Therapy of Desire: Augustine’s Theology of Desire in the Cassiciacum Dialogues), what follows is a brief correction of the aforementioned three persistent Augustine myths. First, a quick review of why Augustine matters . . . .

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A Post NOT about Trump or Hillary

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Some events are the hinges on which history turns: Moses at Sinai, the trial of Socrates, Caesar crossing the Rubicon, the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, the conversion of Augustine, Luther’s 95 Theses, the American Revolution, Darwin’s Origins of the Species, etc., etc. A word about one of those in particular: Augustine is the guy whose books charted the course of the next 1,000 years of western culture–and influenced all subsequent years of Christian church history (in the Catholic and Reformation traditions at least).

Another word about Augustine’s conversion: Endless books have been written about that conversion, and about his Confessions. But there are four primary sources on young Augustine’s Christianity written almost immediately after that conversion, and by Augustine himself: the Cassiciacum dialogues. Only three books that I can think of have been written in English and are devoted exclusively to the Cassiciacum dialogues. Catherine Conybeare’s The Irrational Augustine is one. It’s a good book. But it’s expensive, and it’s probably about 35% wrong. Augustine J. Curley’s Augustine’s Critique of Skepticism is another. It’s a good book. It’s affordable. It’s probably only 5% wrong, maybe even less. But it’s on only one of the four Cassiciacum dialogues. And it’s not on Kindle.

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My Book Cover

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PICKWICK_TemplateI heard from the publisher today and got a look at the book cover they’ve chosen for The Conversion and Therapy of Desire. I’m not sure where the flowery background idea came from, but I’m not complaining. (And it’s growing on me.) My idea would have been to find some old public domain painting of Augustine for the cover, but maybe the publisher figured–correctly–that a zillion Augustine books have already done that.

Super Tuesday is gone, and the sad Wednesday after it will be gone tomorrow.  But good books last for millennia. Maybe this isn’t that kind of book, but at least it’s a book about that kind of book–about four of them, to be precise.

Below is an advance copy of the back cover I got to look at and check for errors. I do not necessarily endorse these endorsements. Words popped into my head as I was reading Dr. Naugle’s remarks: “I’m not leading the way! I don’t have time to lead the way!”

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Saint Augustine’s Earliest Writings

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After announcing a little book on Augustine, introducing its (very important) topic of desire, and explaining my view of Augustine’s relation to Platonism, it’s time to say a few words on the contents of the book.

Why am I doing this? Here are some reasons. 1. This topic is, in its own nerdy way, kind of important. 2. Some of you might be interested in knowing a bit about a new little book on Saint Augustine. After all, he’s a grandfather to all of us who are Protestants, and all of us who are Catholics–although he’s more like the cranky old uncle to our Eastern Orthodox friends. 3. This is Ricochet, and you can talk about anything here, and this is something I like to talk about. 4. The history of philosophy (and sometimes theology) is my specialty, and since I’m competing with dozens of other Ricocheti for a finite readership, maybe I should occasionally be mindful of the principle of comparative advantage. 5. Quite honestly, I’m hoping that a few of you will consider buying the book if I keep talking about it.  (Update: You can do so on Amazon here!)

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On Desire

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shutterstock_298189988Let’s talk for a moment about life, the universe and everything. I don’t know any question about life, the universe, and everything to which the answer is definitely Forty-Two (see Douglas Adams), but I can tell you what some of the best questions are: Why aren’t we as happy as we want to be? How can we become happy?

So what about the answers? Well, these questions motivated millenia of philosophy, and a good bit of religion, too. A lot of interesting answers have been given, at least as far back as Buddha and as recently as C. S. Lewis. A lot of the big philosophers (Buddhists, Stoics, Epicureans, Platonists, Christians medievals, Descartes, Bacon, Lewis) have agreed on the problem: Our desires don’t fit the world. We desire more than this world has to offer. We desire what we can’t have — or what we can have but can’t keep — and we end up losing what we love, or fearing its loss.

There are two general strategies available to fix that problem: 1) We change what we want, so that we want what we can have; or 2) We change the world, so that we can have what we want.

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“I Yearn to Know God and the Soul”

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Augustine

Augustine

Deum et animam scire cupio: I yearn to know God and the soul.  So says the real Augustine in his 386 A. D. Soliloquies, one of four texts in his Cassiciacum Dialogues.  The other three are: Against the Academics, On the Happy Life, and On Order.  In Soliloquies Augustine also gives us this beautiful little prayer: Deus semper idem, noverim me, noverim te: O God, always the same, may I know myself, may I know thee.

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Knowledge and Faith Can Be the Same Thing

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F-K VennIt is commonly assumed that an item of knowledge and an article article of faith can never be the same thing. This assumption is mistaken. In this post, I will explain only one point: trust in authority can be a source of knowledge. That’s what faith is: trust. It’s still the first definition of “faith” in the dictionary. Also see the Latin fides and the Greek pistis.

So don’t believe the hype that categorically separates faith from knowledge. This separation ranges from the view William James attributes to a schoolboy (“Faith is when you believe something that you know ain’t true”) to Kant’s more sophisticated idea that “I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith” (in beliefs that might well be true).

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