The Essential Augustine

The Essential Augustine Synopsis

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword to the Second Edition. I.

THE MAN AND HIS

WRITINGS: How Augustine Came to the Episcopacy (Sermon 355, 2); Augustine Chooses Eraclius as His Successor (Letter 213, 1, 5, & 6); Augustine on His Own Writings (Retractations Prol. I, 1-3). II.

FAITH AND REASON:

• Belief is Volitional Consent (On the Spirit and Letter 21, 54
• 34, 60)
• To Believe Is to Think with Assent (Predestination of the Saints 5)
• Believing and Understanding (On Free Choice II, 2, 4-6)
• Authority and Reason (Against the Academics III, 20, 43)
• Two Ways to Knowledge (On Order II, 9, 26-27)
• Reason and Authority in Manicheism (Value of Believing 1-4)
• The Relation of Authority to Reason (True Religion 24, 45 -- 25, 47)
• If I Am Deceived, I Am Alive (City of God XI, 26)
• I Know that I Am Alive (The Trinity XV, 12, 21-22)
• Knowledge and Wisdom (The Trinity XII, 14, 21 -- 15, 25)
• Error and Ignorance (Enchiridion 17). III

THREE LEVELS OF

REALITY: Creator, Human Soul, Body (Questions for Simplicianus I, 2, 18); Natures on Three Levels (Letter 18, 2); Soul, Ruled by God, Rules Its Body (On Music VI, 5, 12-13); Soul: Above the Sensible, Below God (True Religion 3. 3); God, Mutable Spirits, and Bodies (Nature of the Good 1-25); Divine, Psychic and Bodily Nature (City of God VIII, 5-6); Causality: Divine, Psychic and Bodily (City of God V, 9); Divine Ideas as Prototypes (Eighty-Three Different Questions 46, 1-2); God Set Spiritual Creation Above the Corporeal (Literal Commentary on Genesis VIII, 20, 39; 25, 46; 26, 48); Evil: the Privation of the Good (Enchiridion 10-12).

IV. MAN'S SOUL:

• Existence, Life, Sense and Reason (On Free Choice II, 3, 7-8, 10)
• Sensation as an Activity of the Soul (On Music VI, 5, 9-10)
• Memory, Understanding and Will (The Trinity X, 11, 17-18)
• The Wonders of Memory (Confessions X, 8-26)
• Three Levels of Vision (Literal Commentary on Genesis XII, 6, 15 -- 11, 22
• 30, 58 -- 31, 59). V

THE WORLD OF

BODIES:

• All Bodily Natures Are Good (City of God XII, 4)
• Invisible Seeds in the Elements (The Trinity III, 8, 13)
• The Elements Contain Seminal Reasons (Literal Commentary on Genesis IX, 17, 32)
• Measure, Number, and Weight (Literal Commentary on Genesis IV, 3, 7)
• Concerning Formless Matter (Confessions XII, 3. 3 -- 9, 9)
• Place, Time and the Physical World (City of God XI, 5-6)
• The Wonders of Nature (City of God XXI, 4-5)
• God Works Throughout Nature (The Trinty III, 5, 11 -- 6, 11)
• Man's Natural Endowments (City of God XXII, 24)
• The Physical World and the Christian (Enchiridion 9). VI

APPROACHING GOD THROUGH

UNDERSTANDING:

• Creation is a Great Book (Sermon, Mai 126, 6)
• The Journey of the Soul to God (On Free Choice II, 12, 33-34
• 15, 39-40
• 16, 41-42)
• The Soul's Ascent to God (Confessions VII, 10, 16 -- 17, 23)
• The Whole World Proclaims Its Maker (On Psalm 26, Serm. 2, 12)
• Ascending to the Supreme Truth (True Religion 29, 52 -- 31, 58)
• Plato's View of God (City of God VII, 4)
• How to Think About God (The Trinity V, 1, 2 -- 2, 3)
• The Problem of Speaking About God (The Trinity VII, 4, 7-9)
• God Is the Selfsame (On Psalm 121, 3, 5)
• A Divine Invocation (Soliloquies I, 2-6)
• Late Have I Loved Thee (Confessions X, 27, 38 -- 28, 39). VII

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS

LIFE: All Men Desire Happiness (On Psalm 32, Serm. 3, 15-16); Man's Greatest Good (Moral Behavior of the Catholic Church 3-8); Good Love and Bad Love (City of God XIV, 6-7); Moral Evil Stems from Bad Will (City of God XII, 6); Two Precepts of Love (City of God XIX, 14); On Diversities of Local Customs (Letter 54, 1-4); Doing Good to Body and Soul (Moral Behavior of the Catholic Church 27-28); The Evil of Telling a Lie (Enchiridion 18, 19, 22); Lying and Concealing the Truth (On Psalm 5, 7); Faith, Hope and Charity (Enchiridion 8); No Virtues Apart from God (City of God XIX, 25); Our Reward Is Not in This Life (On Psalm 48, Serm. 2).

VIII. DIMENSIONS OF GRACE: What the Grace of God Is (On Admonition and Grace 2, 3); Augustine Was Never a Pelagian (Retractations I, 9, 2-4); What True Grace Is (On the Grace of Christ 26, 27); The Work of Grace (City of God XXI, 15-16); How Freedom Is Restored by Grace (Enchiridion 30-32); God's Foreknowledge and Human Willing (City of God V, 10); Grace Before and After the Fall (Enchiridion 104-106); Grace and Good Works (On Psalm 31, Serm.

2, 6-8); Prevenient Grace (On Psalm 18, Serm. 2); Grace and Human Miseries (City of God XXII, 20-22); The Beatific Vision (On Psalm 36, Serm. 2, 8).

IX. THE TWO CITIES: Augustine's Analysis of the City of God (Letter to Firmus); How the Two Cities Differ (City of God XIV, 1); Two Loves Make Two Cities (Literal Commentary on Genesis XI, 15, 20); Two Cities Formed by Two Loves (City of God XIV, 28); The Unimportance of Externals (City of God XIX, 19); Relation of the Heavenly and Earthly Cities (City of God XIX, 17); Jerusalem and Babylon (On Psalm 64, 2); Summary of the Two Cities (City of God XVIII, 1); All Nations Are in the City of God (On Psalm 86, 5); The Church and the City of God (On Psalm 98, 4); The Foundation of the Holy City (On Psalm 121, 4); Religion and Human Destiny (True Religion 7, 13 -- 8, 14); The Meaning of a People (City of God XIX, 23-24); Peace: the Tranquility of Order (City of God XIX, 11-13); Two Kingdoms After the Resurrection (Enchiridion 111).

X. PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Belief and Historical Events (Eighty-Three Different Questions 48); The Universality of Providence (City of God V, 11); Meaning in History (True Religion 50, 98-99); Six Ages in Biblical History (On Psalm 92, 1); Symbolic Meaning of Jewish History (On Psalm 64, 1); Christ in History (Letter 137, 4, 15-16); The Two Cities in History (On Catechizing the Uninstructed 21, 37); What Is Time? (Confessions XI, 14, 17 -- 30, 40); Critique of Cyclicism (City of God XII, 13-15).

APENDIXES: I. Selected, Annotated Bibliography. II.

Alphabetical List of Augustine's Writings. III. Glossary of Terms.

INDEX.