Augustine and the Limits of Politics

Augustine and the Limits of Politics PDF Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268161143
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
Now with a new foreword by Patrick J. Deneen. Jean Bethke Elshtain brings Augustine's thought into the contemporary political arena and presents an Augustine who created a complex moral map that offers space for loyalty, love, and care, as well as a chastened form of civic virtue. The result is a controversial book about one of the world's greatest and most complex thinkers whose thought continues to haunt all of Western political philosophy. What is our business "within this common mortal life?" Augustine asks and bids us to ask ourselves. What can Augustine possibly have to say about the conditions that characterize our contemporary society and appear to put democracy in crisis? Who is Augustine for us now and what do his words have to do with political theory? These are the underlying questions that animate Jean Bethke Elshtain's fascinating engagement with the thought and work of Augustine, the ancient thinker who gave no political theory per se and refused to offer up a positive utopia. In exploring the questions, Why Augustine, why now? Elshtain argues that Augustine's great works display a canny and scrupulous attunement to the here and now and the very real limits therein. She discusses other aspects of Augustine's thought as well, including his insistence that no human city can be modeled on the heavenly city, and further elaborates on Hannah Arendt's deep indebtedness to Augustine's understanding of evil. Elshtain also presents Augustine's arguments against the pridefulness of philosophy, thereby linking him to later currents in modern thought, including Wittgenstein and Freud.

Augustine and the Limits of Politics

Augustine and the Limits of Politics PDF Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268161143
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Get Book

Book Description
Now with a new foreword by Patrick J. Deneen. Jean Bethke Elshtain brings Augustine's thought into the contemporary political arena and presents an Augustine who created a complex moral map that offers space for loyalty, love, and care, as well as a chastened form of civic virtue. The result is a controversial book about one of the world's greatest and most complex thinkers whose thought continues to haunt all of Western political philosophy. What is our business "within this common mortal life?" Augustine asks and bids us to ask ourselves. What can Augustine possibly have to say about the conditions that characterize our contemporary society and appear to put democracy in crisis? Who is Augustine for us now and what do his words have to do with political theory? These are the underlying questions that animate Jean Bethke Elshtain's fascinating engagement with the thought and work of Augustine, the ancient thinker who gave no political theory per se and refused to offer up a positive utopia. In exploring the questions, Why Augustine, why now? Elshtain argues that Augustine's great works display a canny and scrupulous attunement to the here and now and the very real limits therein. She discusses other aspects of Augustine's thought as well, including his insistence that no human city can be modeled on the heavenly city, and further elaborates on Hannah Arendt's deep indebtedness to Augustine's understanding of evil. Elshtain also presents Augustine's arguments against the pridefulness of philosophy, thereby linking him to later currents in modern thought, including Wittgenstein and Freud.

Augustine and the Limits of Virtue

Augustine and the Limits of Virtue PDF Author: James Wetzel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521405416
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This sophisticated analysis of Augustine's thought on virtue and the will makes a notable contribution to Augustine studies, and casts light both on the subject of 'moral luck' and on the relationship between theology and philosophy generally.

Augustine and Politics

Augustine and Politics PDF Author: John Doody
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739110096
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
The essays in this volume take stock of recent scholarly developments and revisit old assumptions about the significance of Augustine of Hippo for political thought. They do so from many different perspectives, examining the anthropological and theological underpinnings of Augustine's thought, his critique of politics, his development of his own political thought, and some of the later manifestations or uses of his thought in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and today. This new vision is at once more bracing, more hopeful, and more diverse than earlier readings could have allowed.

Politics and the Order of Love

Politics and the Order of Love PDF Author: Eric Gregory
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226307514
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Augustine—for all of his influence on Western culture and politics—was hardly a liberal. Drawing from theology, feminist theory, and political philosophy, Eric Gregory offers here a liberal ethics of citizenship, one less susceptible to anti-liberal critics because it is informed by the Augustinian tradition. The result is a book that expands Augustinian imaginations for liberalism and liberal imaginations for Augustinianism. Gregory examines a broad range of Augustine’s texts and their reception in different disciplines and identifies two classical themes which have analogues in secular political theory: love—and related notions of care, solidarity, and sympathy—and sin—as well as related notions of cruelty, evil, and narrow self-interest. From an Augustinian point of view, Gregory argues, love and sin constrain each other in ways that yield a distinctive vision of the limits and possibilities of politics. In providing a constructive argument for Christian participation in liberal democratic societies, Gregory advances efforts to revive a political theology in which love’s relation to justice is prominent. Politics and the Order of Love will provoke new conversations for those interested in Christian ethics, moral psychology, and the role of religion in a liberal society.

Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World

Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World PDF Author: John von Heyking
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826263712
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Saint Augustine's political thought has usually been interpreted by modern readers as suggesting that politics is based on sin. In Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World, John von Heyking shows that Augustine actually considered political life a substantive good that fulfills a human longing for a kind of wholeness. Rather than showing Augustine as supporting the Christian church's domination of politics, von Heyking argues that he held a subtler view of the relationship between religion and politics, one that preserves the independence of political life. And while many see his politics as based on a natural-law ethic or on one in which authority is conferred by direct revelation, von Heyking shows how Augustine held to an understanding of political ethics that emphasizes practical wisdom and judgment in a mode that resembles Aristotle rather than Machiavelli.

Christian Body Politic

Christian Body Politic PDF Author: Christian Kim
Publisher: The Hermit Kingdom Press
ISBN: 9780972386449
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
"Do you want to find out CHRISTIAN ideas on POLITICS? This book is for you!" CHRISTIAN BODY POLITIC is a book that tackles difficult questions regarding the Christian perspective on the relationship between Church and State. Leading Christian thinkers and activists discuss such questions as: Did Jesus support the Death Penalty? What role should the Church play in government? What does the Bible teach about governing authority's legitimacy? Is democracy the only Bible-approved government? Professor Stephen Joel Garver has been teaching philosophy courses to students at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA, for a long time, and Prof. Garver shares insightful thoughts on the concept of Jesus as King. What does it mean for our modern society? Professor Cliff Bates, who is teaching political science at the University of Warsaw in POLAND, shares his insights on the concept of the State and Christian responses to it. Prof. Bates discusses the issue of the Holocaust as well. Rev. David Kim, who is a major leader with an evangelical student campus movement, shares his wisdom on the idea of the City of God. If Christians are citizens of the City of God in Heaven, how does that identity relate to Christians' life on earth. Is there a relationship? Does it matter? Rev. Lee Irons, who hosts a Christian think-tank, The Upper Register, gives an informative account of the the current evangelical-reformed discussion on the relationship between Church and State and offers some of his own ideas. The editor of the volume, Christian Kim, presents cogent arguments about Jesus Christ's attitudes about the Death Penalty.

Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine

Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine PDF Author: George E. Demacopoulos
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823274217
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Winner of the 2017 Alpha Sigma Nu Award The collapse of communism in eastern Europe has forced traditionally Eastern Orthodox countries to consider the relationship between Christianity and liberal democracy. Contributors examine the influence of Constantinianism in both the post-communist Orthodox world and in Western political theology. Constructive theological essays feature Catholic and Protestant theologians reflecting on the relationship between Christianity and democracy, as well as Orthodox theologians reflecting on their tradition’s relationship to liberal democracy. The essays explore prospects of a distinctively Christian politics in a post-communist, post-Constantinian age.

The Political Writings of St. Augustine

The Political Writings of St. Augustine PDF Author: Saint Augustine
Publisher: Gateway Editions
ISBN: 9780895267047
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Anyone with a better than cursory knowledge of politics knows that a people's deepest values - their religious values - are what determine whether a society will prosper or fail. And anyone with a more than cursory knowledge of history knows that there was once an entity called Christendom - a political society self-consciously in obeisance to a total Christian view of life. Here in one concise volume is St. Augustine's brilliant analysis of where faith and politics meet - casting a penetrating light on Roman civilization, the coming Middle Ages, ecclesiastical politics, and some of the most powerful ideas in the Western tradition, including Augustine's famous "just war theory" and his timeless ideas of how men should live in society. With the classic introduction by Henry Paolucci and an analysis by Dino Bigongiari.

A Commonwealth of Hope

A Commonwealth of Hope PDF Author: Michael Lamb
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691226334
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
A bold new interpretation of Augustine’s virtue of hope and its place in political life When it comes to politics, Augustine of Hippo is renowned as one of history’s great pessimists, with his sights set firmly on the heavenly city rather than the public square. Many have enlisted him to chasten political hopes, highlighting the realities of evil and encouraging citizens instead to cast their hopes on heaven. A Commonwealth of Hope challenges prevailing interpretations of Augustinian pessimism, offering a new vision of his political thought that can also help today’s citizens sustain hope in the face of despair. Amid rising inequality, injustice, and political division, many citizens wonder what to hope for in politics and whether it is possible to forge common hopes in a deeply polarized society. Michael Lamb takes up this challenge, offering the first in-depth analysis of Augustine’s virtue of hope and its profound implications for political life. He draws on a wide range of Augustine’s writings—including neglected sermons, letters, and treatises—and integrates insights from political theory, religious studies, theology, and philosophy. Lamb shows how diverse citizens, both religious and secular, can unite around common hopes for the commonwealth. Recovering this understudied virtue and situating Augustine within his political, rhetorical, and religious contexts, A Commonwealth of Hope reveals how Augustine’s virtue of hope can help us resist the politics of presumption and despair and confront the challenges of our time.

Augustine's Political Thought

Augustine's Political Thought PDF Author: Richard J. Dougherty
Publisher: Rochester Studies in Medieval
ISBN: 1580469248
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This important collection reveals that Augustine's political thought drew on and diverged from the classical tradition, contributing to the study of questions at the center of all Western political thought.