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In the massive literature on the idea of the self, the Augustinian influence has often played a central role. The volume Augustine Our Contemporary, starting from the compelling first essay by David W. Tracy, addresses this influence from the Middle Ages to modernity and from a rich variety of perspectives, including theology, philosophy, history, and literary studies. The collected essays in this volume all engage Augustine and the Augustinian legacy on notions of selfhood, interiority, and personal identity. Written by prominent scholars, the essays demonstrate a connecting thread: Augustine is a thinker who has proven his contemporaneity in Western thought time and time again. He has been "the contemporary" of thinkers ranging from Eriugena to Luther to Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida. His influence has been dominant in certain eras, and in others he has left traces and fragments that, when stitched together, create a unique impression of the “presentness” of Christian selfhood. As a whole, Augustine Our Contemporary sheds relevant new light on the continuity of the Western Christian tradition. This volume will interest academics and students of philosophy, political theory, and religion, as well as scholars of postmodernism and Augustine. Contributors: Susan E. Schreiner, David W. Tracy, Bernard McGinn, Vincent Carraud, Willemien Otten, Adriaan T. Peperzak, David C. Steinmetz, Jean-Luc Marion, W. Clark Gilpin, William Schweiker, Franklin I. Gamwell, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Fred Lawrence, and Françoise Meltzer.
"Readily engaging an impressive range of Western thought, from the more obvious connections with classic philosophers and Augustine’s contemporaries to twentieth- century philosophy, it is perhaps no small surprise that the “self” appears as an overarching theme.... Such essays invite the reader to find fresh approaches to seemingly outdated concepts and emphasize the utility of engaging with the past in contemplating the present." —Religious Studies Review
Susan E. Schreiner is professor of theology and the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the College.
Introduction: Susan E. Schreiner, Augustine Our Contemporary
1. David W. Tracy, Augustine Our Contemporary: The Overdetermined, Incomprehensible Self
2. Bernard McGinn, Semper agens/Semper quietus: Notes on the History of an Augustinian Theme
3. Vincent Carraud, Pondus meum amor meus, or Contradictory Self-Love
4. Willemien Otten, The Open Self: Augustine and the Early Medieval Ethics of Order
5. Adriaan T. Peperzak, Teachers Without and Within
6. David C. Steinmetz, Luther and Augustine on Romans 9
7. Jean-Luc Marion, St. Augustine, or the Impossibility of Any Ego Cogito
8. W. Clark Gilpin, The Augustinian Strain of Piety: Theology and Autobiography in American History
9. William Schweiker, The Saint and the Humanities
10. Franklin I. Gamwell, The Sources of Temptation
11. Jean Bethke Elshtain, Augustine and Political Theology
12. Fred Lawrence, Cor ad cor loquitur: Augustine’s Influence on Heidegger and Lonergan
13. Françoise Meltzer, Ruins and Time
Notes on Contributors