On Ethics, Politics and Psychology in the Twenty-First Century: With an interview with Bishop Austin Redivivus orchestrated by Anna Rist

Description

The Reading Augustine series presents concise, personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religious scholars. John Rist takes the reader through Augustine’s ethics, the arguments he made and how he arrived at them, and shows how this moral philosophy remains vital for us today. Rist identifies Augustine’s challenge to all ideas of moral autonomy, concentrating especially on his understanding of humility as an honest appraisal of our moral state. He looks at thinkers who accept parts of Augustine’s evaluation of the human condition but lapse into bleakness and pessimism since for them God has disappeared. In the concluding parts of the book, Rist suggests how a developed version of Augustine’s original vision can be applied to the complexities of modern life while also laying out, on the other hand, what our moral universe would look like without Augustine’s contribution to it. Cover Contents Acknowledgement List of Abbreviations Introduction: What’s a One-Time Bishop of Hippo Got to Do with the Third Millennium? 1 The Foundations of Augustine’s Moral Empiricism: Truth, Love and Sin 2 ‘Scientific’ Philosophy and First-Person Confession 3 Against Autonomy: ‘Ought’ and ‘Can’ 4 The State: Persecution, War, Justice – and Regret 5 Against Political Panaceas 6 Utilitarians and Kantians: A Parallel Journey to Triviality? 7 Rights-Theory 8 The Inevitable Irrelevance of Most Contemporary Theology 9 Austin’s ‘Brag’: Conventional Relativism, Nihilism or the Catholic Tradition? Transcript of a Radio Interview with Bishop Austin Redivivus: 1 April 2016 Further Reading Index