Augustine and the Dialogue
Cambridge University Press, 3/8/2018
EAN 9781108422901, ISBN10: 110842290X
Hardcover, 260 pages, 23.5 x 17.4 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Contrary to the scholarly consensus, Augustine and the Dialogue argues that Augustine's dialogues, with their inconclusive debates and dramatic shifts in focus, betray a sophisticated pedagogical method which combines strategies for 'un-learning' and self-reflection with a willingness to proceed via provisional answers. By shifting the focus from doctrinal content to questions of method, Kenyon seeks to reframe scholarly discussions of Augustine's earliest surviving body of works. This approach shows the young Augustine not refuting so much as appropriating Academic skeptical practices. It also shows that the dialogues' few scriptural references, e.g. Wisdom 11:20's 'measure, number, weight', come at key structural points. This helps articulate the dialogues' larger project of cultivating virtue and their approach to philosophy as a form of purification. Augustine is shown to be at home with pluralistic approaches, and Kenyon holds up his methodology as an attractive model for thinking through problems of the liberal academy today.
Introduction
back to the drawing board
1. The pursuit of wisdom
Contra Academicos
2. From Plato to Augustine
3. The measure of happiness
De beata vita
4. God's classroom
De ordine and De Musica
5. An advanced course
Soliloquia + De immortalitate animae
6. Philosophy and kathartic virtue
De quantitate animae
7. Piety, pride and the problem of evil
De libero arbitrio
Conclusion
Augustine and the academy today.