Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1 PDF Author: Jason David BeDuhn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207424
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Get Book

Book Description
Augustine of Hippo is history's best-known Christian convert. The very concept of conversio owes its dissemination to Augustine's Confessions, and yet, as Jason BeDuhn notes, conversion in Augustine is not the sudden, dramatic, and complete transformation of self we likely remember it to be. Rather, in the Confessions Augustine depicts conversion as a lifelong process, a series of self-discoveries and self-departures. The tale of Augustine is one of conversion, apostasy, and conversion again. In this first volume of Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, BeDuhn reconstructs Augustine's decade-long adherence to Manichaeism, apostasy from it, and subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity. Based on his own testimony and contemporaneous sources from and about Manichaeism, the book situates many features of Augustine's young adulthood within his commitment to the sect, while pointing out ways he failed to understand or put into practice key parts of the Manichaean system. It explores Augustine's dissatisfaction with the practice-oriented faith promoted by the Manichaean leader Faustus and the circumstances of heightened intolerance, anti-Manichaean legislation, and pressures for social conformity surrounding his apostasy. Seeking a historically circumscribed account of Augustine's subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity, BeDuhn challenges entrenched conceptions of conversion derived in part from Augustine's later idealized account of his own spiritual development. He closely examines Augustine's evolving self-presentation in the year before and following his baptism and argues that the new identity to which he committed himself bore few of the hallmarks of the orthodoxy with which he is historically identified. Both a historical study of the specific case of Augustine and a theoretical reconsideration of the conditions under which conversion occurs, this book explores the role religion has in providing the materials and tools through which self-formation and reformation occurs.

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1 PDF Author: Jason David BeDuhn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207424
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Get Book

Book Description
Augustine of Hippo is history's best-known Christian convert. The very concept of conversio owes its dissemination to Augustine's Confessions, and yet, as Jason BeDuhn notes, conversion in Augustine is not the sudden, dramatic, and complete transformation of self we likely remember it to be. Rather, in the Confessions Augustine depicts conversion as a lifelong process, a series of self-discoveries and self-departures. The tale of Augustine is one of conversion, apostasy, and conversion again. In this first volume of Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, BeDuhn reconstructs Augustine's decade-long adherence to Manichaeism, apostasy from it, and subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity. Based on his own testimony and contemporaneous sources from and about Manichaeism, the book situates many features of Augustine's young adulthood within his commitment to the sect, while pointing out ways he failed to understand or put into practice key parts of the Manichaean system. It explores Augustine's dissatisfaction with the practice-oriented faith promoted by the Manichaean leader Faustus and the circumstances of heightened intolerance, anti-Manichaean legislation, and pressures for social conformity surrounding his apostasy. Seeking a historically circumscribed account of Augustine's subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity, BeDuhn challenges entrenched conceptions of conversion derived in part from Augustine's later idealized account of his own spiritual development. He closely examines Augustine's evolving self-presentation in the year before and following his baptism and argues that the new identity to which he committed himself bore few of the hallmarks of the orthodoxy with which he is historically identified. Both a historical study of the specific case of Augustine and a theoretical reconsideration of the conditions under which conversion occurs, this book explores the role religion has in providing the materials and tools through which self-formation and reformation occurs.

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 2

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 2 PDF Author: Jason David BeDuhn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207858
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 553

Get Book

Book Description
By 388 C.E., Augustine had broken with the Manichaeism of his early adulthood and wholeheartedly embraced Nicene Christianity as the tradition with which he would identify and within which he would find meaning. Yet conversion rarely, if ever, represents a clean and total break from the past. As Augustine defined and became a "Catholic" self, he also intently engaged with Manichaeism as a rival religious system. This second volume of Jason David BeDuhn's detailed reconsideration of Augustine's life and letters explores the significance of the fact that these two processes unfolded together. BeDuhn identifies the Manichaean subtext to be found in nearly every work written by Augustine between 388 and 401 and demonstrates Augustine's concern with refuting his former beliefs without alienating the Manichaeans he wished to win over. To achieve these ends, Augustine modified and developed his received Nicene Christian faith, strengthening it where it was vulnerable to Manichaean critique and taking it in new directions where he found room within an orthodox frame of reference to accommodate Manichaean perspectives and concerns. Against this background, BeDuhn is able to shed new light on the complex circumstances and purposes of Augustine's most famous work, The Confessions, as well as his distinctive reading of Paul and his revolutionary concept of grace. Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 2 demonstrates the close interplay between Augustine's efforts to work out his own "Catholic" persona and the theological positions associated with his name, between the sometimes dramatic twists and turns of his own personal life and his theoretical thinking.

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 2

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 2 PDF Author: Jason BeDuhn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 081224494X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 553

Get Book

Book Description
A volume in the Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series.

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1

Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Volume 1 PDF Author: Jason BeDuhn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812242102
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Get Book

Book Description
Jason David BeDuhn reconstructs Augustine's decade-long adherence to Manichaeism, apostasy from it, and subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity.

Mani and Augustine

Mani and Augustine PDF Author: Johannes van Oort
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004417591
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 630

Get Book

Book Description
Mani and Augustine: collected essays on Mani, Manichaeism and Augustine gathers in one volume contributions on Manichaean scholarship made by the internationally renowned scholar Johannes van Oort. The first part of the book focuses on the Babylonian prophet Mani (216-277) who styled himself an ‘apostle of Jesus Christ’, on Jewish elements in Manichaeism and on ‘human semen eucharist’, eschatology and imagery of Christ as ‘God’s Right Hand’. The second part of the book concentrates on the question to what extent the former ‘auditor’ Augustine became acquainted with Mani’s gnostic world religion and his canonical writings, and explores to what extent Manichaeism had a lasting impact on the most influential church father of the West.

Augustine and Manichaean Christianity

Augustine and Manichaean Christianity PDF Author: Johannes van Oort
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004255060
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book

Book Description
Based on several newly discovered texts, Augustine and Manichaean Christianity provides groundbreaking discussions of the relationship between the most influential church father of the West and the religion of his formative years. Augustine’s connection with Manichaean Christians was not only intense, but also enduring. This book unearths the essential background of writings such as Augustine’s Confessiones, De ordine and De vera religione, and discloses many a hidden Manichaean source of his powerful concepts of memory and the vision of God. Contributions by, among others, Iain Gardner, Therese Fuhrer, Jason BeDuhn, Majella Franzmann, Josef Lössl, Annemaré Kotzé and Nils Arne Pedersen.

On Time, Change, History, and Conversion

On Time, Change, History, and Conversion PDF Author: Sean Hannan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501356488
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book

Book Description
Sean Hannan offers a new interpretation of Augustine of Hippo's approach to temporality by contrasting it with contemporary accounts of time drawn from philosophy, political theology, and popular science. Hannan argues that, rather than offering us a deceptively simple roadmap forward, Augustine asks us to face up to the question of time itself before we take on tasks like transforming ourselves and our world. Augustine discovered that the disorientation we feel in the face of change is a symptom of a deeper problem: namely, that we cannot truly comprehend time, even while it conditions every facet of our lives. This book puts Augustine into creative conversation with contemporary thinkers, from Pierre Hadot and Giorgio Agamben to Steven Pinker and Stephen Hawking, on questions such as the definition of time, the metaphysics of transformation, and the shape of history. The goal is to learn what Augustine can teach us about the nature of temporality and the possibility of change in this temporal world of ours.

The Catechumenate in Late Antique Africa (4th -6th centuries)

The Catechumenate in Late Antique Africa (4th -6th centuries) PDF Author: Matthieu Pignot
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900443190X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Get Book

Book Description
In The Catechumenate in Late Antique Africa, Matthieu Pignot offers the first historical study of the progressive integration of converts into Christianity as catechumens in late antique African sources, from Augustine of Hippo to 6th-century letters.

Augustine and the Catechumenate

Augustine and the Catechumenate PDF Author: William Harmless
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0814663397
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 504

Get Book

Book Description
As one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history, St. Augustine (354–430) had a flair for teaching and meditated deeply on the mysteries of the human heart. This study examines a little-known side of his career: his work as a teacher of candidates for baptism. ln the revised edition of this seminal book, both the text and notes have been revised to better reflect the state of contemporary scholarship on Augustine, liturgical studies, and the catechumenate, both ancient and modern. This edition also includes new findings from some of the recently discovered sermons of Augustine and incorporates new perspectives from recent research on early Christian biblical interpretation, debates on the Trinity, the evolution of the liturgy, and much more. This reconstruction of Augustine’s catechumenate provides fresh perspectives on the day-to-day life of the early church and on the vibrancy and eloquence of Augustine the preacher and teacher.

The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 56)

The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 56) PDF Author: Saint Augustine
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813211565
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Get Book

Book Description
No description available