Reading Augustine is a new line of books offering personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religious scholars. The aim of the series is to make clear Augustine's importance to contemporary thought and to present Augustine not only or primarily as a pre-eminent Christian thinker but as a philosophical, spiritual, literary and intellectual icon of the West.Why did the ancients come to adopt monotheism and Christianity? On God, The Soul, E...

Augustine's vision at Ostia is one of the most influential accounts of mystical experience in the Western tradition, and a subject of persistent interest to Christians, philosophers and historians.This book explores Augustine's account of his experience as set down in the Confessions and considers his mysticism in relation to his classical Platonist philosophy. John Peter Kenney argues that while the Christian contemplative mysticism created by Augustine is in many ways fou...

Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher as well as theologian, bishop and saint. He aimed to practice philosophy not simply as an academic discipline but as a love for divine wisdom pervading everything in his life and work. To inquire into Augustine and philosophy is thus to get to the heart of his concerns as a Christian writer and uncover some of the reasons for his vast influence on Western thought. This volume, containing essays by leading Augustine scholars, includes a variety of inquir...

Platonism has played a central role in Christianity and is essential to a deep understanding of the Christian theological tradition. At times, Platonism has constituted an essential philosophical and theological resource, furnishing Christianity with an intellectual framework that has played a key role in its early development, and in subsequent periods of renewal. Alternatively, it has been considered a compromising influence, conflicting with the faith's revelatory foundations and distor...