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 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 Politics

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

Get Book

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.

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

Get Book

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.

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

Get Book

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.

Elshtain, Augustine, and Liberalism

Elshtain, Augustine, and Liberalism PDF Author: Wesley Dan Nishiyama
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 38

Get Book

Book Description


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

Get Book

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

Get Book

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.

The Quotable Augustine

The Quotable Augustine PDF Author: Saint Augustine (of Hippo)
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813228883
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book

Book Description
This book is ideal for those who wish to read some of the wisest and most wonderful sayings of Augustine. It will help all those who wish to pepper a speech, or a sermon, or an essay with the wisdom of Saint Augustine. The book is a valuable resource, too, for anyone who wants to find out "Did Augustine really say that?" and, if he did, in which of his voluminous writings it appeared. Drawn from the internationally acclaimed and successful series, the 'Fathers of the Church,' The Quotable Augustine presents a wide-ranging sample of the writings of a towering figure of the early church.

Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology

Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology PDF Author: William T. Cavanaugh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119133742
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 664

Get Book

Book Description
Offers a comprehensive survey and interpretation of contemporary Christian political theology in a newly revised and expanded edition This book presents the latest thinking on the topic of contemporary Christian political theology, with original and constructive essays that represent a range of opinions on various topics. With contributions from expert scholars in the field, it reflects a broad range of methodologies, ecclesial traditions, and geographic and social locations, and provides a sense of the diversity of political theologies. It also addresses the primary resources of the Christian tradition, which theologians draw on when constructing political theologies, and surveys some of the most important figures and movements in political theology. This revised and expanded edition provides the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to this lively and growing area of Christian theology. Organized into five sections, Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, Second Edition addresses the many changes that have occurred over the last 15 years within the field of political theology. It features new essays that address social developments and movements, such as Anglican Social Thought, John Milbank, Anabaptist Political Theologies, African Political Theologies, Postcolonialism, Political Economy, Technology and Virtuality, and Grass-roots Movements. The book also includes a new essay on the reception of Liberation Theology. Offers essays on topics such as the Trinity, atonement, and eschatology Features contributions from leading voices in the field of political theology Includes all-new entries covering fresh developments and movements like the urgency of climate change, virtuality and the digital age, the economic crisis of 2008, the discourse of religion and violence, and new modalities of war Addresses some important social movements from a theological point of view including postmodernism, grass-roots movements, and more Provides both Islamic and Jewish responses to political theology Written for academics and students of political theology, Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, 2nd Edition is an enlightening read that offers a wide range of authoritative essays from some of the most notable scholars in the field.

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

Get Book

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.