Description

Augustine and Ethics examines the topic of ethics in the life and works of Augustine of Hippo. Adopting a global perspective on ethics as a field of philosophical and theological investigation, this volume includes reflections on virtue and vice, love and sin, and the political outcomes to which certain ethical stances tend to give rise. For Augustine himself, ethics was never merely theoretical. Ethical concerns are concrete; and ethical solutions should be practical. Accordingly, this volume gives Augustinian ethical arguments realization by connecting them to modern anxieties about ministry, health care, diet, and incarceration.

Divided into five sections, the essays collected here highlight the ongoing relevance of Augustine’s work even in settings quite distinct from his own era and context. The first section lays down the groundwork for Augustinian ethics by examining the foundations of his thoughts on morality, self-formation, domination, and abuse. The next three sections are oriented around the themes of love, sin, and politics. The final section makes clear the consequences of Augustinian ethical thinking today, with a view to how pastors preach, how physicians heal, how prisoners suffer, and even how we should approach the ethics of eating.

Table of Contents

Part I. The Foundations of Augustinian Ethics

Chapter 1. Augustine’s Early Ethics: A Reconsideration
Thomas Clemmons
Chapter 2. Thinking with Augustine: On Domination and Abuse
Vincent Lloyd
Chapter 3. Beauty, Morality, and the Promise of Happiness
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Chapter 4. The Heart of the Father in Augustine’s Moral Thought
Veronica Roberts Ogle
Chapter 5. In Conspectu Dei: Journey in the Land of the Augustinian Conscience
Ian Clausen
Chapter 6. Interiority, Community, and Self-Formation: Augustine and Monica at Ostia
Emily Stölken

Part II. The Ethics of Love

Chapter 7. The Weight of Love: On the Limits of Autonomy in Augustine’s Confessions
Paul Camacho

Chapter 8. ‘More Than Simply Bystanders:’ Augustine, Brené Brown, and the Role of Empathy in Accompanying Others
Colleen Campbell
Chapter 9. Augustine on the Privacy of Conscience and Love of God and Neighbor
Ronald Haflidson
Chapter 10. Love Between Desire and Will: An Investigation of Augustine’s Concept of Love Assisted by Computational Methods
Eva Elisabeth Houth Vrangbaek and Laigaard Nielbo

Part III. The Ethics of Sin

Chapter 11. Original Sin and Justice in Augustine of Hippo’s Anti-Pelagian Writings (412-415 CE)
Fabio Dalpra
Chapter 12. Pia Impudentia: The Paradox of Ethics and Invisibility in Augustine
Makiko Sato
Chapter 13. Augustine on Original Sin and the Origin of the Soul: Ethical Implications
Wendy Helleman

Part IV. The Politics of Ethics

Chapter 14. The Ethics of History: Augustine, Afro-Pessimism, and the 1619 Project
Toni Alimi
Chapter 15. Augustine, Pluralism, and Diversity
Fr. Hans Feichtinger
Chapter 16. The Image of God in the City of God
Matthew Puffer

Part V. Applied Augustinian Ethics

Chapter 17. “The Truth Belongs to Christ:” Moral Idealism and Pastoral Reality in Augustine’s Rejection of Lies
Sr. Margaret Atkins
Chapter 18. An Inarticulacy of Meaning: The Significance of Augustinian Restlessness for Modern Medicine
Daniel Kim
Chapter 19. Daring to Leave the Fallen World: Reflecting on Prison Abolition with Augustine
Rebecca Makas
Chapter 20. Eros, Eating, Attention: The Ethics of Incarnation in Augustine and Simone Weil
Rachel Matheson and Travis Kroeker

Product details

Published Nov 29 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 422
ISBN 9781666953398
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 236 x 158 mm
Series Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Sean Hannan

Anthology Editor

Kim Paffenroth

Contributor

Toni Alimi

Contributor

Margaret Atkins

Contributor

Paul A. Camacho

Contributor

Ian Clausen

Contributor

Thomas Clemmons

Contributor

Fábio Dalpra

Contributor

Ron Haflidson

Contributor

Sean Hannan

Contributor

Daniel T. Kim

Contributor

Vincent Lloyd

Contributor

Rebecca Makas

Contributor

Rachel Matheson

Contributor

Kim Paffenroth

Contributor

Matthew Puffer

Contributor

Makiko Sato

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