Is there Theology in this Book? The Theology of Augustine's Confessions, Paul Rigby, Cambridge University Press, 2015 (ISBN 978-1107094925), xv + 340 pp., hb £67 Augustine's Confessions: Philosophy in Autobiography, William E. Mann (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2014 (ISBN 978-0199577552), xi +223 pp., hb £36 The Space of Time: A Sensualist Interpretation of Time in Augustine, Confessions X to XII, David van Dusen, Brill, 2014 (ISBN 978-9004266865), xv + 358 pp., hb €149 Confessions: Books 1–8, Augustine of Hippo, trans. Carolyn J.-B. Hammond, Harvard University Press, 2014 (ISBN 978-0674996854), lxv + 413 pp., hb 26 Confessions: Books 9–13, Augustine of Hippo, trans. Carolyn J.-B. Hammond, Harvard University Press, 2016, (ISBN 978-0674996939), xlii + 446 pp., hb 26 Confessions, Augustine of Hippo, trans. Sarah Ruden, The Modern Library, 2017 (ISBN 978-0812996562), xli + 484 pp., 28
This review essay discusses three recent books on, and two new translations of, Augustine's Confessions. Long appreciated for its stylistic beauty and existential profundity, the Confessions has recently become a resource for creative philosophical reflection in both the analytic and continenta...
| Published in: | Reviews in religion and theology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2017
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| In: |
Reviews in religion and theology
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| Further subjects: | B
Theological Interpretation
B Book review B Continental Philosophy B Latin translation B Confessions B Augustine of Hippo B analytic philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This review essay discusses three recent books on, and two new translations of, Augustine's Confessions. Long appreciated for its stylistic beauty and existential profundity, the Confessions has recently become a resource for creative philosophical reflection in both the analytic and continental traditions. However, there has not been a recent theological treatment of the Confessions, a curious lacuna considering Augustine's importance for the history of Christian doctrine. This review probes three recent works – Paul Rigby's The Theology of Augustine's Confessions, Gareth Matthews' edited collection Augustine's Confessions: Philosophy in Autobiography, and David van Dusen's The Space of Time: A Sensualist Interpretation of Time in Augustine, Confessions X to XII – for how they in turn attempt to address, avoid, and reject the theological subject matter within the text. In each of them, a reader can discern an effort to translate Augustine's language into a contemporary idiom that strays from traditional doctrinal locution. Two new English translations by Carolyn J.-B. Hammond and Sarah Ruden demonstrate that conveying the theology within the Confessions is a challenge even at the granular level of textual translation. This review concludes by considering how this theological lacuna might be filled, considering the complexity of Augustine's language, argument, and self-presentation that has made this text more than simply another work of theology. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9418 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Reviews in religion and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/rirt.13036 |