Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on translations and references
- Chronological table of Augustine's writings
- List of abbreviations and texts
- Introduction: Augustine's conversion to Christianity
- PART I THE WAY OF AUTHORITY AND ‘THE FALSITY OF PHOTINUS’
- PART II THE WAY OF REASON AND THE ASCENT OF THE SOUL
- Conclusion: Augustine the Porphyrian
- Appendix: true and false in Soliloquies II
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on translations and references
- Chronological table of Augustine's writings
- List of abbreviations and texts
- Introduction: Augustine's conversion to Christianity
- PART I THE WAY OF AUTHORITY AND ‘THE FALSITY OF PHOTINUS’
- PART II THE WAY OF REASON AND THE ASCENT OF THE SOUL
- Conclusion: Augustine the Porphyrian
- Appendix: true and false in Soliloquies II
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book examines what is typically characterized as Augustine's ‘intellectual conversion’: his discovery of the difference between Platonism and Christianity, as described in the second half of Confessions 7. My primary aim is to show that Confessions 7.9.13–7.21.27 is best understood as a description of Augustine's intellectual development from 386 to c. 395. I therefore offer a close reading not only of this central section of the Confessions but also of a number of important passages and themes in Augustine's early writings. This reading will, I hope, be of value for general readers and specialists alike. For general readers it may serve as an introduction to Augustine's early thought and to the development of his philosophical and theological ideas until the Confessions. Specialists will find in it a challenge to the prevailing assumption that the second half of Confessions 7 is an account of Augustine's insights and experiences during the summer of 386, prior to the time of his conversion in the Milanese garden. My book invites the reader to consider afresh the unjustly maligned problem of Augustine's conversion in 386: was it to Platonism or to Christianity? I must confess that I am not entirely sure how to answer that question. But I am convinced, as against the legions of modern scholars who have taken their cue from Pierre Courcelle's Recherches sur les Confessions de saint Augustin (1950), that the question itself is a legitimate one.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Augustine's Intellectual ConversionThe Journey from Platonism to Christianity, pp. vii - viiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009